Using EFT with “The Secret”
 Part 2 of a 7 part series in which EFT Master Pat Carrington delves into the complexities of the Law of Attraction as depicted by the DVD and book "The Secret".
Appreciating Yourself with Loving Kindness
The "secret" of using EFT to implement “The Secret” (the Law of Attraction) is to create a positive vibrational level within yourself that is radically different from the one that you are accustomed to. It is the frequency of the signal that you send out to the Universe that is said to attract to you events and people of like frequency. This signal is not superficial, not words alone, nor is it just conscious intentions.
Ask yourself - what is the primary type of signal I am sending to myself all day long? This is what you will be radiating outwards.
The answer to this question may surprise you because you will discover, if you observe carefully, that most signals you give to yourself are of a corrective in nature:
"Don't lean too far to the left or you will fall down." Or, "Don't move too fast or you’ll spill the coffee."
Our survival depends on this type of negative feedback. Objective reality-based correction like this doesn’t adversely affect our vibrational level because we usually correct our errant behavior almost instantaneously. We might compare the process to the way a jet plane manages to stay on course when in flight. The planes are actually off course approximately 95% of the time, but their radar system corrects them constantly through its calculated negative feedback. This feedback is essential for the correct operation of the flight system as well as all living systems.
However, there is another kind of negative feedback that is not natural but learned, and which is almost exclusively human as far as we know, although animals closely identified with human beings may learn to display somewhat similar behavior. This involves the use of negative judgments about our own behavior. All day long we are telling ourselves that we have not done this correctly, not done something we should have done, not properly planned for something that’s going to happen, aren’t executing a present task properly, and so on and on. Our past, present and future actions are under our constant scrutiny and the resulting negative judgments are so automatic that we don’t even notice them.
This continuous stream of negative self-observations is at work on us in a manner that puts a damper on all that we do. It often effectively holds back our natural exuberance at being alive, in the name of "improvement", “efficiency”, “excellence”, or some other misapplied value.
This doesn’t mean we should do away with self evaluation. Not at all. It is important in our value oriented world, but what fails to occur here is a balancing of our own negative observations with our positive ones. We tend to have a lack of positive feedback in our daily lives, because we are actually not noticing most of the things that we do correctly.
You can, however, effectively alter this situation by using a simple EFT exercise that I call simply Giving Loving Appreciation To Yourself. It involves a kind of self-awareness that results in a new form of self acknowledgment. If you’d like to try it, here’s how to go about it:
Set aside 20 minutes, preferably each day, but at least occasionally, to notice everything that you do for yourself – EVERYTHING - during this short time period, then thank yourself for it.. Every little effort that you make to meet your needs or the needs of others around you, is to be noticed and appreciated. You are to thank yourself by doing EFT for everything that you do to serve yourself or others physically, mentally, or emotionally during this time.
Here’s how a session of self appreciation of this sort would go if, for example, you were doing it first thing in the morning.
Suppose that, after arising in the morning, you engaged in a ritual of brushing your teeth - not unlikely I would think. You will probably have performed this simple ritual tens of thousands of times before in your life and I’m sure that you don’t ordinarily identify it as an “accomplishment”, unless of course you have suffered from a handicap and have noticed how extremely complex this and most of the other simple acts that we take for granted, actually are.
The fact is that brushing your teeth takes both skill and effort. It takes directed intention, and requires making decisions on a small but constant scale. You need to decide, for example, how much toothpaste to feed onto the brush at one time, how often to replenish the supply of toothpaste, which spots on your teeth to target with your brush -many acts make up the process of tooth-brushing and you actually expend considerable effort daily, both mental and physical, on this task.
When you finish your tooth-brushing operation then do one round of EFT in the following manner:
Tap first on the karate chop spot, or the sore spot (whichever you use as your psychological reversal point for EFT) while repeating out loud, three times, the phrase, "I thank myself for brushing my teeth… I thank myself for brushing my teeth… I thank myself for brushing my teeth…”.
Or, you can use your own name instead of thanking yourself formally. When I do this exercise (I love it) I will often say, “Thank you, Pat, for brushing your (or “my”) teeth…” instead of “I thank myself…”. It always feels comforting to hear my own name used in such a kindly, aware fashion. And by doing this I am thanking myself for something that is usually a totally thankless task.
You will repeat this thanks at each of the EFT tapping points, and do one full round of EFT, "I thank myself for brushing my teeth", “Thank you, Pat, for brushing my teeth”, "I thank myself for brushing my teeth” etc.,at each point.
For the rest of the exercise you repeat this procedure after every single task that you perform for yourself or others during your allotted 20 minutes
“Thank you, Pat, for cooking this egg.”
"I thank myself for putting breakfast on the table.”
“Thank you, Pat, for making that phone call…” etc.
You will discover that every single thing you do in preparation for the day takes effort and thought, and this will probably be the first time ever that you have been thanked for doing it.
During this 20 minutes, the more that each act you perform is classified by you as insignificant, the more important it is to appreciate the fact that you've accomplished it. In other words, the smaller the act the better! Those very small things that you continually do for yourself are the unsung heroes of your life. They are finally being appreciated, and because you tap on them, these statements are “going in” on a very deep level.
The impression you take away from this exercise is that “someone” (yourself) is at last recognizing how faithful you are in fulfilling your needs. I can’t emphasize strongly enough how immensely comforting this can be and how “understood” you can feel when you do this exercise. It’s as though you had the most attentive, caring and aware parent at your side, watching with loving eyes each thing you do, and smiling with genuine appreciation at all that you do to simply manage to live.
Please realize, however, that I am not suggesting that you praise yourself only for your successes. You will not be saying, in effect, “Good Girl!” or “Good Boy!” to yourself - just giving simple thanks. That’s all. Rewarding yourself with praise is a different exercise which can be valuable in itself, but it is not the one that I'm talking about here. I am suggesting something far more fundamental - that you recognize, at last, everything you actually do for yourself just in order to remain alive. This recognition is a major gift.
To sum up these instructions - the total EFT exercise consists of doing (at least) one round of EFT for every act of service you perform for yourself or another during a stated 20 minute period. Even if you make a mistake while preparing your breakfast, for example - suppose you dropped a glass so that it shattered on the kitchen floor - then thank yourself for the simple act of picking up the broken pieces, placing them in the trash can, cleaning up the floor, and making certain that all splinters of glass have been eliminated from the area so that they endanger no one.
The same procedure applies to your acts of service to others. If for example you were caring for a small child during this 20 minute period, you would thank yourself for every act that you performed for that child, each tiny act that would ordinarily go entirely unrecognized and unappreciated. How many care-takers ever experience this kind of appreciation? This in itself could transform your day.
There is actually no limit to the type of acts that you can recognize and express this kind of gratitude for:
"Thank you, (your name) for checking the e-mail. (This phrase would be repeated at each tapping spot)
“Thank you, (your name) for deleting that email.”
“Thank you, (your name) for answering the phone and talking to that person.”
And so on, and on, and on…
If you tap repeatedly in recognition of the humblest services that you perform for yourself and others, you may well find that you feel an entirely new kind of love from yourself. It is totally without strings attached, deeply appreciative, and can change your entire vibrational frequency. You will be radiating this loving appreciation out into the Universe. Can you imagine what the repercussions of this powerful act could be, in addition to its immediate benefit?
In the next article in this series, I will be writing about how you can “tap in” the positive when you fail to perform certain acts that you would like to do, that is, when you experience unfulfilled intentions. The method works equally well for this purpose.
Part 1: The Starting Point
Part 2: Appreciating Yourself with Loving Kindness
Part 3: Tapping In Gratitude for Positive Intentions
Part 4: Handling Your Mistakes with Compassion
Part 5: Using the "Future Thanks" Method to Create What You Want
Part 6: Accessing Your Goals With the "Why" Question
Part 7: How to Handle Multiple Aspects of a Major Goal
Copyright © 2007 Pat Carrington.
You can learn the basics of EFT by downloading the free EFT Manual from the EFT website. If you wish to save time and dive right in then explore the affordable EFT DVD Library.
|
articles 
