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Performance

Financial

EFT for handling the emotions about a financial crisis

Important Note: This article was written prior to 2010 and is now outdated. Please use my newest advancement, Optimal EFT. It is more efficient, more powerful and clearly explained in my free e-book, The Unseen Therapist™.  Best wishes, Gary

Note: This article assumes you have a working knowledge of EFT. Newcomers can still learn from it but are advised to peruse our Free Gold Standard (Official) EFT Tutorial™ for a more complete understanding.

Hi Everyone,

Sometimes we get hit with financial problems that are not of our own making. Maybe our company has to lay us off or our country is having hard times. Or maybe our home is hit with a natural disaster. Whatever the reason, it is our response to the calamity that determines how we come out of it. Composure, of course, will sail our ship through the problem much better than panic. Suzanne Lerner shares her insights on this problem and gives us some helpful tapping hints.

Hugs, Gary


By Suzanne ib Lerner, PhD

Hi Gary,

I was working with a client recently around her general anxiety about her country's economic situation, and thought that other readers might find this tapping script helpful.  The truth is, high anxiety is not only stressful on our bodies but also interferes with our ability to think and problem solve clearly.  It is basically a very ineffective strategy for dealing with most crises.  In challenging times, we want to maximize our ability to tune in and make helpful decisions from a calm and centered space.

As Donna Eden, one of the foremost teachers of Energy Medicine describes, when we are in high distress, feeling that we are in a situation of life or death, our "emergency stress response" kicks in.  Our blood drains from our frontal cortex, where higher creative problem solving occurs, and is instead shunted to our limbic system and our limbs, so that we can make clear, immediate decisions, based on life or death scenarios, and prepare to either fight or flee.  This was a very successful strategy for our ancestors, because if a saber-toothed tiger crossed our trail, we didn't want to scratch our heads and ponder "Should I stay or should I go now."   We needed to bypass our subtle decision making capabilities, and take immediate, decisive action.

However, our emergency stress response has not had the time to evolve to our new circumstances, in this modern, multiple stress world.  Therefore many of us are on chronic "adrenal overload."  Most of the true dangers we face in our modern, fast paced culture, are not "life or death" even if they may seem to be in the moment.  Most of our crises require that we engage in an "emergency peace response," being able to subtly tune in to "which way the wind is blowing." 

We do this by quieting ourselves, tuning in, so that we can respond creatively and intuitively rather than in a knee jerk, agitated way.  We need the capacity to respond with calmness and clarity.  The complex, multiple layered crises we face, call for problem solving with wisdom and compassion rather than with anxiety and fear.  So EFT is a crucial tool, to help calm our fear reactions, and return to a place of centeredness and clarity.  This becomes clear in the following work with my client with "Sherrie."

Sherrie is just beginning to get a promising entrepreneurial enterprise off the ground.  We have creatively used EFT to work through her various issues of Fear of Failure as well as the some of the more subtle Fears of Success.  She has been taking a series of inspired actions to move herself forward to the success she deserves.  But when she called for our session this week, she was close to tears.  "The economy is going belly up!  It's so unfair!  All my work's been for nothing.  I can never succeed now!"

"Would you like to tap on some of this?' I gently asked.  "YES!!!!!" she replied, "but I don't think it can help, this is a disaster!"

"Okay" I responded calmly, "What's your level of intensity on a scale of 0 to 10?"  (I pretty much could have guessed, but I wanted her to witness the change, as her level of intensity dropped.) "TEN!"

Even though this is a disaster, and NOTHING CAN HELP…

EB: I can't believe this!

SE: this is a disaster

UE: the economy is going belly up

UN: I can't believe this!

CH: It's just not fair!

CB: There's nothing I can do

UA: I'm really scared

TH: I'm really scared!

I asked about her level of intensity and what she was aware of.  She reported it had come down to an 8 out of 10.  She started having memories of the images she had seen of the US Depression.  Even though she had not lived through those times, she remembered seeing frightening photos of people jumping out of buildings.  She also remembered how "tight" her parents had always been, never able to enjoy the money they earned, due to having grown up in the Depression, and how hard she had struggled to develop healthier attitudes.

EB: It's just not fair!

SE:  All this work for nothing!

UE: I keep seeing those horrible pictures

UN: people jumping out of buildings

CH: people locked out of their banks

CB: I was mad I had to live through it 2nd hand

UA: After all that, I have to go through it myself

TH: this is CRAZY!

She gave a sigh and laughed saying how good it felt to be saying all these crazy fears in her head.  I asked her how she'd LIKE to be responding to this current situation, like if she had a wise loving mother, or a wisdom guide, who could help guide her to safer shores.

She responded with an immediate shift in her voice.  "I would want her to say that I'm going to be okay, that things are not as bad as they seem.  That things are happening for a reason, and I need to do what I can to calm myself, use the tools that I know so well, deep breathing, meditation, journaling, EFT."  "I know this sounds corny, but I would want her to say to me, 'It's always darkest, just before the Dawn.'  I would want her to say to me, 'No matter what happens, you'll always be supported."  We then tapped on these phrases:

Even though the economy seems like a disaster at the moment, and I can't completely control the situation, I choose to control the things I can, I choose to breathe and come back to calmness.

Even though I'm really freaked out and I know things are not as bad as they seem, and that I can take creative steps, moment by moment.

Even though a part of me is REALLY terrified, I choose to remember that it's always darkest, just before the Dawn.

Even though a part of me is really scared, a deeper part of me knows that I'll always be supported.

EB: A part of me is REALLY TERRIFIED

SE:  But that's okay, because I have the tools to deal with this

UE: No wonder I'm frightened

UN: It's natural to be frightened

CH: I really need to comfort myself

CB: I don't want to feel this frightened

UA: I choose to love and accept myself, even the "fraidy parts"  (her phrase from previous sessions)

TH: I choose to know that I can deal with this, even if it won't always be easy, I choose to trust that I can survive.

Her level of intensity was now down to a 3 out of 10.  We then did some tapping rounds about her anger and frustration, with all the work she had done, that now she feared it had all been for nothing.  The focus was on moving from all or nothing thoughts, "It's a disaster and there's NOTHING I can do, to more BOTH/AND statements, such as:

Even though the Economy seems to be close to a meltdown, I choose to remember the Serenity prayer, (a theme we had used before) I choose to have serenity for the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

There was an audible sigh.  "What a difference!  THANK YOU!"  While there seems a bit more work to be done, she reported a renewed sense of resilience and possibility.  She also reported feeling much calmer, and expressed great gratitude.

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."   --Winston Churchill

Blessings,

Suzanne ib Lerner, PhD

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