Letting Go With EFT and EMDR

If you study or practice any self-help or healing techniques of any kind, you may notice a common focus on "letting go." Letting go, sometimes called releasing, is a simple enough idea, but not always easy to put into practice. For it means letting go of everything that causes you stress, pain or illness. No small order when it's put like that!

There are many systems and techniques that put an emphasis on letting go. We might say that the majority of "alternative" modalities -which usually means treatments that do not depend on drugs or surgery- place a strong value on releasing or letting go. For the moment, however, I want to focus on two that have become increasingly popular lately, for good reasons --EFT and EMDR.

EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique, is a system of self-healing based on gently tapping various places on your own body. These spots are not random, but associated with traditional acupuncture points of Chinese medicine. While acupuncture involves needles and acupressure and reflexology involve pressing on various points (which correspond to different organs and energy systems in the body), EFT is simpler and gentler. For this reason, it is one of the easiest techniques to apply on oneself.

EFT has gotten excellent results for relieving stress, achieving goals and releasing unwanted emotional states. While acupuncture, acupressure and reflexology are often used to treat physical symptoms, EFT has so far mostly been used for emotional issues. As we are finding out, however, there is an intimate connection between emotional and physical health, so, not unexpectedly, people have also relieved many physiological symptoms with the practice of EFT.

EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (it's easier to do than to say!) is another modality that is easy to practice on your own. It involves moving the eyes back and forth. Just a minor cautionary note here. I would advise anyone interested to do a little research into the basic techniques before trying either EMDR or EFT. This is meant to be an introductory article that will hopefully inspire people to look into these systems. It is definitely not meant to be a "how to" guide. Fortunately, you don't have to look far to find easy to understand instructions for either system. I just want to make clear that, even with simple to use systems, you have to learn the basics to correctly implement them.

EMDR has been especially effective in treating people with post-traumatic stress syndrome. This is very interesting, because this condition is intimately connected to memory. The theory is that these eye movements actually stimulate certain parts of the brain in a beneficial way. It does not remove memories (as some extreme treatments such as electroshock treatment can), but often reduces the pain or discomfort associated with them.

EFT and EMDR are increasingly combined, which is one reason I'm writing about them together. For example, you can use certain EMDR-inspired eye exercises as a "warm up" before doing your EFT tapping. Both of these systems are simple, easy to learn, and highly effective. They are also both gentle and do not have any known negative side effects. Almost anyone could benefit from trying one or both of these systems, and some people can have truly life-changing results from them.

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