Better Than A Pill: Emotional Freedom Technique
BY JAYNE WESLER
Better Than A Pill: Emotional Freedom Technique
Modern society is plagued by stress and anxiety. Dealing with life’s challenges has become ever more complicated, and more people are being diagnosed with anxiety and placed on psychotropic medication than ever before. Your feet are running as you hit the ground in the morning, maybe even before you are fully awake. Driven by fear and anxiety, your stress and cortisol levels are high, you don’t sleep well, and you develop fears and physical symptoms.
Sound familiar? We are all asked to do so much every day, and it can become overwhelming in a society in which you lack connection and community.
What can you do to protect your mental, emotional, and physical health? Get a prescription for Xanax, Klonopin, Valium, or Buspiron? You could do that, and deal with any potential side effects, including drowsiness, memory problems, confusion, vision problems, dizziness, headaches, or nausea. Not to mention the cost.
Before rushing to the psychiatrist, however, I suggest you try a different intervention. It won’t cost you a penny. You won’t have to go to the doctor for a prescription. You can do it anywhere, anytime, and it is completely within your control.
What is this amazing solution? It’s called Emotional Freedom Technique, EFT or Tapping, for short. Initially met with skepticism, Tapping has earned its place amongst evidence-based interventions for a long list of maladies, including the reduction of anxiety and stress. It has also been effective in the reduction of depression, pain, fear, specific phobias, posttraumatic stress disorder, and weight loss. If you’d like to read the science yourself, go to pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov and review “The effect of emotional freedom techniques on stress biochemistry: a randomized controlled trial<” by Dawson Church, Garret Young, and Audrey J Brooks. The Abstract lists similar articles demonstrating EFT’s efficacy.
A 2019 study “adds to the evidence base for EFT as an effective mental health intervention…It also suggests that EFT simultaneously improves a broad range of health markers across multiple physiological systems.” The study, dubbed “Clinical EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Improves Multiple Physiological Markers of Health,” was performed by Donna Bach, ND, Gary Groesbeck, BCIA, Peta Stapleton, PhD, Rebecca Sims, MCP, Katharina Blickheuser, PhD, and Dawson Church, PhD.
The Bach et al findings indicate that EFT has far-reaching health consequences. EFT decreased cortisol levels, which in turn had “a wide spectrum of positive health effects, including increased muscle mass, increased bone density, improved skin elasticity, enhancement of cognitive function especially learning and attention, and enhanced cell signaling.”
The study also showed a 74% reduction in food cravings and improved Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which could lead to “possible improvements in cardiovascular health and ANS (autonomic nervous system) function.”
EFT also improved resting heart rate and blood pressure in a clinically and statistically significant manner. The study touts the potential reduction in medical services and reduction of the financial cost and human suffering if EFT were used by hospital patients.
Isn’t it about time you availed yourself of this free, incredibly effective tool? It takes less than ten minutes to do. Watch my video and learn how. You’ll be glad you tried it.