Health issues
Tapping can be extremely effective in dealing with pain, various illnesses, or other physical problems such as weight issues, or cravings. EFT is not a substitute for medical care, rather it complements it so well because it can help alleviate the stressors that bring on and exacerbate all kinds of health-related concerns.
If you have a medical condition, maybe you have sore and inflamed joints, maybe you have skin erruptions, maybe you have an addiction problem, maybe you have something else that I didn't name. Whatever it is that you have, that is your medical condition; a doctor would diagnose it and give it a name. He or she would suggest a treatment that would hopefully bring that issue under control. That is the medical part of a medical condition, and that is a part that needs to be addressed by a qualified medical professional. But let me ask you this, does your condition, your symptom, the way that it shows up, does it stand a chance of worsening under stress? Let's make something up: let's pretend that the way your condition shows up is that your body grows extra body parts. And let's say that when those body parts are growing it's really itchy and sore. Of course this is a very rare condition, because you probably haven't met anyone with that condition yet. But you have it and you are extremely uncomfortable, and you don't know what's wrong all you know is that you are really itchy and sore in your face. So you go see a doctor. It happens to be your unlucky day and the doctor that you see is not compassionate, and does not like to admit that he or she is stumped. Your doctor says well I don't see anything wrong, are you sure you're not just trying to get time off work? Just take two aspirins and go home. So you leave, but how do you feel? Are you enraged? Do you feel belittled? Do you feel scared because you know that there really is something wrong? The day passes you go to bed you may or may not be able to sleep because of the pain and itchiness and because the visit with the doctor keeps playing around in your head. A few weeks later at that itchy and sore place you notice an ugly bump. You go back to your doctor hoping for a better result this time. But again your doctor does not know what it is, and suggests to use hot compresses to try to drain it. The doctors manner is brusque and uncaring, and she or he does not listen to your descriptions of what it's been like, and why you don't think this is just a typical lump. You leave feeling angry and powerless once again. Eventually that bump turns into a second nose. Your face is still very painful and itchy, and now you are completely embarrassed to go out in public. You may remember times when you were in high school and people teased you for some thing or other of your looks, and any issues that you may have already had about body image are exacerbated. you go back to your doctor, and this time your doctor can't dismiss you. After all you now have two noses. Your doctor still does not know what it is so you are sent to a specialist. You may have to wait several months for that appointment because specialists are busy. Finally you get in and a specialist gives your condition a name and gives you a prognosis. You are told that with this condition your body will just keep on growing extra appendages, your face will have several noses, your hands will each grow several extra fingers and your feet will grow extra toes. In the end you won't be able to walk or use your hands anymore. Breathing will become increasingly difficult. While you were sitting there reeling with shock, your appointment slot is over and you are sent away. Now so far, the only actual medical condition, has been pain itchiness and an extra nose. that took one sentence to describe. But if you were asked to describe everything else, all the feelings all the shame, all the fear, all the pain, all the frustration etc etc, you could probably fill a book with it.. |
All this causes our bodies to create huge amounts of stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, and the stress hormones in turn aggravate our symptoms. So there is a circle happening here where your medical condition is creating a lot of stress, and in turn that stress is worsening your medical condition.
Now let's go back to those doctor appointments: I could ask the imaginary client of mine if she came to any conclusions as a result. And some answers could be: Doctors are jerks, or doctors don't care, or doctors are lazy, or any of a myriad of such generalizations. And asking about emotions that go along with those conclusions, we might have disempowerment, anger, abandonment and many more. However, after tapping about these beliefs, the client may come to a new way of seeing things. For example, that particular doctor was having a hard day, or "I was so distressed that I could not think of the right questions to ask". I might ask my client to brainstorm about how she would like to give herself a better chance for the next medical appointment. She could decide to do a few tapping rounds before going so that she is in a balanced emotional space, and better able to represent herself. She may also decide to bring a friend with her in case she does feel distressed. You can see that the second situation set the client up for better results. But now let's take this one step farther: Since my imaginary client left the doctor feeling frustrated and disempowered I might ask if she could remember any other time in her life when she may have had a similar emotion. Well what if when she was a child, whenever her sister got sick her sister got a lot of love and attention, but for some reason several times when she got sick, her father accused her of faking it so that she could get that kind of positive attention. I would likely see in her body language and hear in her voice when she was telling me about this that she still had the same emotions that she had had all those years ago. And so in this type of situation, even though we may not be thinking about those events all the time, we nevertheless are carrying those emotions, sometimes for decades, in our bodies. When we are carrying this type of emotion, we often make life choices based around false conclusions we made. For example, she may have deduced that her father didn't love her, therefore she was not lovable, therefore nobody else would love her, and therefore whenever she was in relationships she put herself in a situation where she was trying to buy other persons love. And so we see here that there is a big kettle of fish, a huge tangle, with various amounts of trauma. Believe it or not, these are all the types of things that are somehow entangled with the autoimmune illness. EFT helps unravel these types of stressors and this is why tapping is so effective in dealing with medical conditions. While we all know that stress makes our symptoms worse, it is also true that feelings of love compassion, kindness, caring, and human touch and companionship, actually do the reverse. They help symptoms retreat, and allow the body to heal. I have seen it over and over again in myself, and in my clients as well. Sometimes a change can happen extremely quickly, or it may also take longer, but in my experience when people start to feel better about themselves and their lives, the symptoms abate. |