Using EFT with “The Secret”
 Part 3 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".
Tapping In Gratitude for Positive Intentions
Today I will be talking about another way in which we can change our essential vibrational level, not just in words, but with deep conviction.
It is an EFT exercise I call "Tapping in Positive Intentions".
Everyone realizes a number of times each day that something they definitely intended to do, they haven't gotten around to doing. You may find that some new habit that you hoped to establish is not being put into place. Or that you have failed to respond to a phone call that you needed to answer, and so on and on.
No matter how much you appreciate the small acts of service that you perform for yourself each day (the subject of last week’s article in this series) there will always be things you fail to do which you would have liked to do. The fact is, however, that you will never be able to fulfill all your intentions on any given day. It is simply not possible, given human imperfections and the fact that we do not (to put it mildly!) have unlimited time to get done what we feel we should have gotten done. It's fine to have intentions, it helps to structure our lives, but it is unproductive to allow our energy level to be affected when we do not fulfill them.
Here is what I suggest you do when you are down on yourself because you have not done all those things which you intended to do today.
Every time that you fail to realize your good intentions, you will create an EFT statement such as the following, and then “tap it in”. Do this by repeating this statement three times while tapping on the karate chop spot (or rubbing the sore spot, whichever point you use in your variation of EFT), and then repeat the statement again at each tapping point, for one round of EFT. Sometimes you may want to do more than one round, that’s fine too. There is no "even though" part to this statement for you will be using EFT just for the purpose of tapping in the positive.
The exercise will consist of thanking yourself for every unfilled intention of yours by tapping in your gratitude for that intention with using EFT. This may seem strange at first because ordinarily we don’t even notice our own positive intentions, just our actions, and we certainly don’t express appreciation for them.
In order to do this exercise, you will create an EFT statement that goes something like this: "I thank myself (or “thank you (insert your name) for having had the intention to start that exercise program today.”
Or,
"Thank you (your name) for having had the intention to work on that project today.”
Or,
"Thank you (your name) for having had the intention to get back to (person) with an e-mail explaining the situation."
Or give thanks to yourself for having thought of whatever you genuinely wanted to do that you have not done.
These expressions of gratitude refer to things that you had sincerely intended to but did not do for one reason or another, and therefore the list can be very large. There are many intentions that each of us have every day which are not fulfilled, and for which we can thank ourselves using this method.
You may be surprised at how this lifts a burden from you. For once you will feel acknowledged for actually having had the idea of making that call, or the intention of performing that act, The fact that you didn't actually do it is not relevant in this context, and it is immensely relieving to have someone (yourself in this case) notice that you did genuinely want to do such and such.
How often have you heard someone say to another person (in self-defense), "But I did intend to do that! I thought about it." This person was trying to indicate that there is a positive value in intending to do something, even if you don’t do it. In fact, thoughts being the powerful things that they are there is real value in intentions, for correctly used they can pave the way for our most positive future acts.
However, you must not tell another person your good intentions and expect that, except in unusual cases, they will give you much credit for them, because we are not trained to do this in our society You can however learn to give yourself that credit, and when you do, you won't have to ask for recognition of your good intentions from anyone else. Once again you are changing your own relationship to yourself by giving yourself loving recognition.
One of the interesting effects of doing this is that when you genuinely recognize and thank yourself for your own good intentions, you are less likely to resist doing the act in question the later on or the following day. Focusing on your intention often fixes the idea of doing a certain act in your mind in an easy, supportive way. You know that you are loved and appreciated by yourself for actually having taken the trouble to formulate the thought of doing it, the intention to do it. You have recognized that it is a genuine accomplishment to have considered that thing worthy of doing - even if you didn’t put your idea into action yet. Like all other acts of appreciation, this is very apt to result in changed behavior.
But please make sure of one thing. You should not be doing this exercise in order to manipulate your own behavior, or trying to sneak in self-control. You are simply appreciating something that has hitherto gone unnoticed – the fact that you really do have good ideas which you would like to put into practice, and that ideas and intentions count.
The old saying that “The road to hell is paved with good intentions" is actually much misunderstood. What this saying obviously refers to are insincere intentions, the kind that are mouthed glibly but not felt. Instead, in this EFT exercise you will not be acknowledging yourself for empty promises to yourself that you might have made, perhaps in order to gain somebody else's approval, but will be thanking yourself for things that you thought were worth doing and that you wanted to do, but just somehow didn’t.
It goes without saying that if you find yourself strongly resisting doing the thing that you think you intend to do, you will need to ask yourself some important questions, such as “Is this really my own intention or is it someone else’s for me?” or, “Do I really want to do this?” Such questions as these can unearth what Gary Craig refers to as “tail enders”, your inner objections and conflicts about the situation. If this happens, you will want to tap on these tail enders first.
Since unfulfilled intentions form a large part of our lives, they give you a wonderful opportunity to do EFT many times a day in loving appreciation of the fact that you actually thought of these good things and would genuinely like to do them. In my experience, it is much more likely that I will do these neglected things within the next day or so after having acknowledged the validity of my own positive intentions. This is an important way to create a new and different vibrational level within yourself and thereby send out very different signals to the Universe.
In my next article in this series I will discuss how we can use EFT when we have made an actual mistake, or have done something we would much rather not have done. The tapping in” method is equally effective 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.
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