By Diana Bustos

Hi Gary!

I wanted to share an exciting story with you that occurred at a "Tapping Circle" I held recently. At this "Tapping Circle," privacy is very important as many people do not feel comfortable disclosing personal and emotionally sensitive information. Therefore, I always emphasize to the participants that they do not have to share the story or memory with anyone (including myself, even though I lead the tapping)because, as you have continually pointed out, what matters is that THEY are tuned in to the issue.

At this particular circle, we were focusing on guilt, so I had all attendees conjure a specific memory of guilt that they wanted to work through. After everyone had come up with an event that created a feeling of guilt, I wrote down their emotional intensity levels as well as made note of where it was manifesting in their bodies, taking a level of intensity rating so I had starting reference points.

I began with some general tapping about guilt including what I believe might be some common beliefs one could have that would create resistance in releasing guilt. These rounds included set-ups such as:

Even though I deserve to hold on to this guilt because I have to keep punishing myself so I refuse to let go of this guilt...

Even though this guilt is serving me because I have to learn my lesson by punishing myself...

These types of rounds were enough for most people to release their particular guilt and get to a zero.

However when I checked in with Rachel (not her real name), she wasn't really budging. In fact, her intensity had shot up and her physical symptoms had also worsened. She felt a burning sensation in her face which became a 15 on a scale of 0 to 10 after the second round. A pain and burning sensation also manifested in her pelvic area. Because we had worked together previously and I reminded everyone as well, she knew that the worsening of symptoms was actually a good thing so she was eager to keep tapping.

At this point I decided to do some parts work and asked her to give the feeling in her pelvic area a color, shape, size, and texture- basically create a visual of the guilt. By thinking of its attributes, the emotion becomes even more real as it gains dimension with the assignment of characteristics.

Rachel described her guilt sensation looking red, raw, burning, ready to explode, fragile and kidney-shaped. I used this information in my following set of tapping rounds. The other participants were either tapping surrogately for her or had chosen a second guilt event to work through. These set-ups included:

Even though I have this red, raw, and burning guilt in my pelvic area that is not ready to be released...

Even though this guilt sitting in my pelvic area is kidney-shaped, very fragile, and is ready to explode, it has to stay with me because it is keeping me safe; however, I am still willing to love and accept myself.

After these rounds her intensity was very high. It was very obvious looking at her face that she was quite uncomfortable. However, after another round she started feeling less intensity though the remaining pain and the burning started moving around in her pelvic area. The burning in her face started dissipating as well.

Once we got down to a level of intensity of 5, it wouldn't move anymore. At this point I asked her what would happen if she released the guilt. Without thinking twice she said, "I will make the same mistake again." Again, I had no idea what she was referring to but used this information to create the next set-up.

Even though it is not safe for me to release the remainder of this guilt because I know I will make the same mistake again and I couldn't handle that...

This tapping brought the intensity down to a 3 but again it was stuck here. I then realized that I could bypass the resistance by reframing the situation. She was clearly not okay with completely letting go of the guilt because it was protecting her. Therefore, when I changed the word releasing to transforming the guilt, it finally became safe enough to create the shift, and ultimately zeroed out the guilt.

She explained to me how all this time the guilt had been her friend in protecting her from making the same mistake twice, so why would she want to get rid of it when it was so good to her. Therefore, transforming the guilt was acceptable because she wasn't eliminating it, but simply modifying it.

Even though I will allow myself to release a good part of the guilt, I am not okay with letting it all go...

Even though it is not safe to release all of the guilt, I can be open to transforming the remaining guilt to a healthy amount of caution.

After this round she was completely calm, relaxed, had no pain or burning, and had a huge grin on her face. She excused herself to go to the restroom and when she came back, she was smirking. She pulled me aside and asked me if I remembered how the sensations kept moving around in her pelvic area. She then told me what she discovered when she went to the restroom. For the first time in almost two years, Rachel began menstruating.

Though I know the power in EFT, I was still left dumbfounded. This is especially impressive when I think about how until this day, I still have no idea what the guilt was concerning.

Thank you Gary for allowing me to fulfill what I believe to be my mission, helping others. Before EFT, I had no idea how to do so and felt so empty inside. EFT has created such a great purpose in my life. So again, thank you!

Diana Bustos