I enjoy watching extreme sports on any screen. I like to watch driven people push themselves to do what, by most people’s standards, is crazy stuff, like kayaking over huge waterfalls, skiing down the steepest mountains, rowing across oceans, and rock climbing on vertical rock walls.  I know they are on those screens because they have tried a million times to perfect those actions. And I know they have failed a million times, too.  And somehow they persisted.  I admire them.

So today on my bicycle ride with 6 of my women biking buddies, I was the last rider – all 40 miles. Riding up that last long hill I was tapping in my mind, “I am uncomfortable. I don’t want to be here. Why am I so slow today? When will this hill end? I can’t wait to get home!” I was not feeling persistent like one of those extreme athletes. I was not admiring myself.

After a few rounds of mental tapping I stopped judging my weak performance and I gave myself credit for showing up. I knew that I might be pushed beyond my comfort zone today and I was. But, I reasoned to myself, “I can’t get stronger if I don’t get out and ride! At least I’m not walking up this hill!”

Growing in a positive direction is made easier with EFT. I love that I can address my truth — “I’m uncomfortable!” — and then, as I tap, my truth changes — “Well, I showed up! I know I’m getting stronger because this is uncomfortable. Discomfort can be good.” Tapping often brings out the positive thoughts automatically as we focus on the negative ones. I may not like my truth at the moment but I can rest assured that it will soon be changing with some EFT. And soon I will feel comfortable again, even while pedaling up that last long hill.

I’m often asked how often one should tap. My vague answer has been, “As much as you are willing.” But it helps to be more specific and I’m becoming a convert of suggesting daily tapping. I tap most days with my clients and therefore “borrow benefits.” But it’s not the same as focusing on my own issues. I have also tapped “as needed.” There are two problems with this approach. One, I sometimes forgot to tap when I needed to (yes, even EFT practitioners can forget to tap!) and, second, I have gone days without tapping.

I’ve been inspired by my clients who tap daily. “Margaret” taps every morning at her dressing table. She keeps a notebook handy and writes down an issue and gives it a SUDs rating: How much is it bothering her between 0 and 10, 10 being the most bothersome? Then she taps 10-12 rounds and makes a note of her new SUDs. She returns to the topic until her SUDs is a zero. This may take several days. She reports that when she taps her issue to a zero she feels a deep acknowledgment in her heart that she REALLY is OK.

“Joan” also taps daily. She spends half an hour of her lunch hour tapping. She is determined to clear deep issues and digs as deep as possible.

Some clients have made it a habit to tap while driving. Some tap while still in bed to prepare for the day. Some add it to their spiritual practice, tapping before meditation or tapping in their affirmations.

I have incorporated tapping into my shower time. If I don’t have a pressing issue to tap about, I tap to raise my emotional state. For instance, I start with my feeling state at the moment—let’s say contentment—and tap as I think of things that make me feel even better, like feeling excited when thinking of future events or time with my children.

To end, here is a remake of that famous ditty about beans, beans, the magical fruit:

Tap, tap, the magical tool,
The more you tap the more you heal
the more you heal the better you feel
so let’s tap daily – that’s ideal.

Whatever your goals are in life, there are almost always some fears and blocks that slow down your achieving of that goal. If you are lucky, they don’t stop you, they just slow you down. However, many of us are stopped in our tracks and we don’t know why. We keep saying we want x, y, and z but we don’t quite accomplish those goals.

In my Inside Out Weight Release Program, we are on the hunt for anything that keeps us from successfully changing our eating behaviors that lead to weight release. There are hundreds of possibilities!

Here are a few:

• Fear that you really can’t stop eating so much of your favorite high calorie foods.
• Fear that if you did eat less of them, you’d suffer.
• Feeling undeserving of a healthy body and the improved life that it would bring.
• Fear of what your family/friends would think if you were successful.
• Fear of feeling self-conscious if you eat differently than others.
• Fear that you would expect too much of yourself if you were successful.

I admit it doesn’t feel good to uncover fears, a feeling of undeserving, etc. But this is the first step to attaining your goals. It is time to celebrate when you uncover one of those pesky beliefs/feelings that keep you stuck!

And once uncovered, we have EFT to unblock our blocks. By tapping and focusing on that very fear (“I’m afraid I’ll feel deprived without my favorite comfort foods”), it will shift (with enough tapping) to, “I’m ready to release this fear of deprivation and find a better way of coping when I need comfort. Deprivation is a mindset which I don’t want or need anymore.”

So instead of groaning when you uncover a block, rejoice! With EFT, you start with the truth—“Even though I’m afraid of failing again…” Tap, tap, tap. In time, your truth changes to willingness to try again.

(And if you DON’T experience this positive shift, you may be uncovering a complex issue. That’s what I’m here for!)

Emotional Freedom Techniques is well known for its ability to heal suffering. Physical pain, uncomfortable feelings, and negative thoughts tend to diminish or disappear with tapping.

Another use of EFT is actualizing your potential or, in other words, changing your beliefs about yourself. Some very important beliefs you must have to release excess weight are:

• I am capable of changing my behaviors so that I release my excess weight.
• I am patient while I change my behaviors.
• I make mistakes while changing my behaviors and that’s OK.
• Mistakes are an opportunity to learn what works and what doesn’t work for me.
• I persist as I learn what works and what doesn’t work for me.

Any time a person eats differently to lose weight, there is a required mental change. Will power, motivation, and determination are necessary to make eating behavior changes (or any intentional change, for that matter).

With most eating behavior changes, these crucial mental states fade – slowly or quickly – and the dieter returns to the old ways of eating which results in gaining back the lost pounds. The dieter returns to their former identity, the “eat-what-I-want-when-I-want-to” identity. Of course, now they also feel discouraged and helpless to ever reach a healthy body size. This becomes part of their identity, too.

The challenge of the Inside Out 8-Week Weight Release Program is to change your identity so that you fully embrace and prefer your new eating behaviors. Eight weeks of daily tapping, visualizing, focus and intention are geared to reach this goal. We intend to change your self-image to desire healthy eating, every day, and to adopt the eating behaviors that actualizes this goal.

There are a few spaces left for the Inside Out 8-Week Weight Release Program. Contact Ann soon! We start next weekend- January 9 (teleclass) and January 10 (in-person).