Examples of the use of EFT
Anchoring is a well-known principal of NLP.
Anchoring is often seen being used to set up an anchor to a positive emotion, we have all experienced anchoring to an emotion, when something randomly happens, for example a song comes on the radio, that triggers a memory and we feel bad – or good. This was an anchor. Our brain has hundreds of anchors set up, some more subtle than others, that can lead to negative situations constantly repeating themselves.
As an example – someone experiences a financially difficult time in their life, every other letter they received through the post is a demand for something and suddenly before they know it there is a sickening panicky feeling every time they go to open the post. They have a new anchor that when they see a pile of post they start to panic (it would be perfectly conceivable that this state could be induced by opening one single letter if the contents were distressing enough). This problem could potentially stay with them for their entire lives if it were left unresolved, potentially leading to many important things being missed in the post because they are triggered to be afraid of it by an old anchor. The irony is that there is no way the post would ever hurt them and that the fight or flight panic induced is completely over the top reaction, this does not stop similar things happening to almost each and every one of us on a very regular basis.
When information is received into the limbic system there are a couple of options.
It has the ability to invoke the fight or flight response immediately, without consultation, for instance, if we stop breathing (drowning/strangled) there will be immediate kicking and struggling action in order to reinstate breath!!
For example, if we had a milder fear of flying, (not one so severe as to need heavy sedation before boarding) if we were in a situation such as about to board an aeroplane, there could be many emotions rattling around.
If someone enjoys flying, they will associate lots of positive emotions with the whole experience.
If someone is utterly terrified of flying they possibly might to need to be drugged up to some degree to get through it.
However a milder fear of flying will mean:
There might be positive emotions such as:-
It is likely that having been on a plane before there might be some excitement looking forwards to the end destination (holiday, seeing loved ones, sights etc.), there have possibly been some pleasurable in flight experiences, like the beauty of seeing a city from great heights. The knowledge that flying is one of the safest forms of transport, friends who absolutely love flying and talking excitedly about it.
Or negative emotions such as:-
The fear of the sound of the engines revving, the feeling of take-off, in flight clunking of rudders, wings wobbling, turbulence, being strapped in, the feeling of claustrophobia, lack of control, historic news reports of crashing, YouTube clips of crashes, the shear heights that planes fly at, bad experiences on previous flights.
Most likely the prefrontal cortex will be thinking and reasoning through everything and there will be turmoil of emotions, and that is likely to continue throughout the flight until safely landed the other end.
The fear is very real, sweating, rapid pulse, stomach churning, lack of control general panic, and to some extent realistic as there is potential for death – although anything we do once we get out of bed holds a potential for death to some degree……
So we might be fine, board the plane, look around, the door closes – claustrophobia panic, – limbic system pulls memories of previous claustrophobic incidents, maybe being locked in a cupboard when we were young, or strapped in an MRI machine unable to move, but the pre frontal cortex tells us we are OK so we relax.
Incidentally, there are times when we have had experiences whereby we should probably have had time for the prefrontal cortex to have worked out a reasonable explanation of what is going on, but it hasn’t had a chance because it has been pipped to the post by the amygdala generating a fight or flight response in response to a situation. I am trying to say that we don’t get a conscious choice to react calmly, instead ‘instinct’ chooses flight or fight, probably as a reaction to feeling trapped, whether it be physically or mentally, in a situation. This reaction to the situation then becomes a ‘scratched’ record and will replay anytime the same situation arises.
Engines start, loud unfamiliar noise – we panic, convince ourselves it’s OK,
Engines rev and we take off – massive panic, convince ourselves it’s fine, my mate John says its fine he loves this bit,
In flight bumping, wing wobbling, turbulence – again panic mode is tripped with unfamiliar noises and sensations, a memory from a previous flight with the panic of a 1000ft turbulence drop flashes up – it’s a close call to a full blown panic attack this time but again we convince ourselves it’s OK – I have read flying is the safest form of transport, I’m fine, deep breath and relax as best I can.
The dropping feeling as plane descends, hearing rudders, ailerons etc. moving and banging, engines slowing, different sensations, maybe constant panicking, memories of a previous bad descent triggering similar panic feelings, constant reminding, I’m fine
The whole experience is very stressful with constant referral by the limbic system to the pre fontal cortex, going over the database of previous experience, flipping in and out of memories and the present disturbing sensations.
Of course there are many varying levels of people in this situation from those who have no fear at all and thoroughly enjoy the whole experience, to those who would rather not be on the plane but are happy to get to the destination, to those who would quite happily not be on the plane but want to be with their family enough to endure it, those who force themselves, those who are terrified, those who need sedation etc. etc.. Each has different references and interpretations of events which lead to the way they feel right now.
Extreme exposure therapy might suggest at this point that the best course of action might be to try a flight simulator, sit in the cockpit with the pilot, or even do a parachute jump
CBT might suggest you look at the practical aspects of what is happening to trigger the fears, what are the clunking noises, reconsider the thought process of feeling trapped, what is turbulence and how is the plane built to cope with it.
With EFT one of the most important principals are the ASPECTS of the issue, so, we could tap on:
Even though I am afraid of flying I deeply love and accept myself etc.
This might well help in the short term to calm someone down, but I would not expect a particularly spectacular or long lasting result with this approach.
We would need to go through each aspect of the fear and work it all through slowly and carefully to achieve a strong and long lasting effect.
Even though the sound of the engines revving up makes me feel ……….. in my ……………. I deeply love and accept myself.
Even though the clunking makes me feel ……….. in my ……………. I deeply love and accept myself.
Even though the descent makes me feel ……….. in my ……………. I deeply love and accept myself.
Even though the landing makes me feel ……….. in my ……………. I deeply love and accept myself.