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Deepak Chopra, MD
"EFT offers great healing benefits."
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques®) Where emotional relief brings physical health
Self help method often works where nothing else will No Drugs Involved ~ High Success Rate
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EFT makes good progress with panic, agoraphobia and feeling like a failure
Note: This article assumes you have a working knowledge of EFT. Newcomers can still learn from it but are advised to get our Free EFT Get Started Package or our Affordable DVDs for a more complete understanding. For more, read our EFT Info and Disclaimer Document.
Hi Everyone,
As you will see in this article by Zoe Zimmerman, a long list of childhood issues can ruin an adulthood! But when EFT is properly applied to the adult these problems improve. We don't always get "one minute wonders", of course, but progress can be very steady.
Hugs, Gary
Hi Gary,
I’ve found that negative family patterns from childhood powerfully influence how we, as adults, interact at work, with spouses, with friends, and with our children. EFT can be very effective in resolving family of origin issues.
Because family roles are “assigned” unconsciously very early in people’s lives, they really become our identity in many ways, contributing to what Gary has called the writing on our walls. For this reason, we can’t see ourselves being any other way. We may be afraid to let go of the roles and move into other, freer ways of living and relating.
I worked with “Susan,” on her fears of going outside, of being in positions of responsibility, panic attacks, and feelings of incompetence and failure in her relationship with her husband. Susan’s father was an alcoholic with three children. He was emotionally volatile and verbally and physically abusive to his youngest child - Susan - and to his wife. The oldest child, a boy, was the one who did everything right. He excelled in school and sports and was his father’s favorite. He worked hard at keeping it that way. He never cried or showed weakness of any kind. Susan, on the other hand, felt all the family tension and anxiety in her body.
Her mother, because she was afraid of her husband, was not able to protect herself or her child from her husband’s unpredictable violence. Her father used to tell Susan that she would never amount to anything because she was so weak and incompetent. He also told her that no man would ever want her.
As an adult, Susan became increasingly unable to be effective in the world and was afraid of people in authority, including her husband. She tried to work in the healthcare field, where she was responsible for people, but whenever someone had a big emotion - sadness, fear, anger - she would forget what she knew, become dizzy, numb, panicky, and feel completely incompetent. She felt, at the same time, completely responsible for knowing what to do to help people and completely unable to do so. Finally, it became almost impossible for her to leave the house.
We worked on a number of specific incidents having to do with her father and some having to do with her mother and sister. Here are some excerpts from more general, family dynamics sessions.
Even though I felt, and feel, like a failure when I heard, and hear, my father saying I can’t do anything right, I deeply and completely accept and love myself anyway—myself as a child and myself now.
Even though I believed I was weak and couldn’t do anything right when my father said that to me, I realize that what he wanted me to do was not right for me; some part of me knew that and refused. Some part of me knew what was right for me, and I did that instead.
Tapping on points: I believed I was weak; I believed I was wrong; I believed I couldn’t do anything right. I realize now that I was never weak. I realize now that he tried to make me do what wasn’t right for me. Some part of me knew it, even back then. Some part of me knew what was right for me and I was following that. I was always strong in being me.
Even though I was given the role of the weak and incompetent one, and this became my identity in the family, I realize now that this is not actually who I am personally and I give myself permission to give up the role and to be who I really am.
Tapping on points: I’ve had the role of the weak and incompetent one, and, in some ways, I’ve carried it to this day. I’ve thought that’s actually who I am. I know now that it’s a role that was given to me unconsciously. I forgive my family for giving it to me and for holding me to it. I forgive myself for taking it on and living it to this day. I give myself permission to let it go and I choose to be free to once again live who I really am.
Even though I’m afraid to give up this role - because, without it, who am I? - I deeply and completely love and accept myself and give myself permission to give it up.
Even though I was so scared and felt it was my fault when my father yelled or hit me, I realize now that it was never about me at all, and that he knew all along that it was not about me.
Tapping on points: He knew it was not about me; he knew I was fine. He knew it was his own problem. He knew that he was unhappy and angry and frustrated and took it out on me; he knew what he was doing and the evidence was his apologies afterward. He knew it was about him and not about me. I know this now. I forgive him now, so that I can go on with my life free and separate from his unhappiness.
The patterns she learned with her father in order to survive were still present today with her husband. Although her husband is not like her father, when he showed “negative” emotions - anger or being upset - she reacted with fear and with feeling wrong and like a failure.
Even though I learned as a child that my only survival was to disappear away from my father and away from myself, and there’s still a part of me that’s living from that time and place, I’m committed to staying right here now with what I feel and think and know.
Even though I feel unsafe when my husband is angry, and it brings back the danger of living with my father, I completely accept myself and I completely accept my husband.
Tapping on points: When my husband is angry (specific incident), it has more to do with him than with me. I choose to stay committed to myself and to the relationship with my husband. I choose to see the distinction between my father and my husband. I realize that my father was dangerous and my husband is not, and I give myself permission to let my father-fear go.
Over time, Susan’s panic attacks have decreased, and she is able to go outside and run errands. She has also been able to teach a church class without getting dizzy, numb and panicky. She was able to attend a training that she had put off because she was too afraid to go. And she now sees that when her husband is critical of her, it often has more to do with his fears and does not mean that she is incompetent or that she is a failure, and she is able to stand up for herself.
Zoe Zimmerman
