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Other Ways to Use EFT

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How to Use EFT to Change Negative Attitudes

By Dr. Patricia Carrington

EFT is a powerful instrument.  It can even be used to effect a radical change in the way you approach life.

However, as we all know, it is not easy to change the way we react to certain aspects of life, because to us our attitudes seem to be carved in stone; unchangeable.  I have found, however, that we can alter even fundamental views by using Personal Resource States in EFT.  I have written extensively about the power of these inner resources that we all have within our memory banks, in my EFT Choices Manual, but I cannot emphasize strongly enough how important they are if we want to effect a basic change in our life.

The concept of Resource States comes from NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming).  It refers to a memory of our own or someone else's successful handling of a difficult situation.  Basically it is a reminder that we possess a great many powerful coping strategies of which we are often unaware.

Most of us do not realize all of the personal resources we actually have within us.  One reason is that we may have experienced a particular Resource State only momentarily, perhaps only once during our whole lifetime.  However, if we have a memory of even one moment of outstanding competence, love, safety, satisfaction, or whatever the desired state may be (even if it that state occurred in a more or less trivial context) this can be extremely valuable in helping us make fundamental changes in ourselves.

What is important for our purposes here is that Resource States can be used to create highly effective EFT statements.  There are two kinds of personal Resource States that you can use in this way:

1.    Resource States derived from your own experience.  This means that you have experienced this desired state at least once in your life, firsthand.

2.    Resource states derived from observing others.  This means that you have watched another person (in person, or in the media) cope effectively with the situation you are addressing, and that this observation is alive in your memory.

In changing deeply held attitudes, the kind of resource state that I find to be particularly effective is Type 1 that is derived from your own experience.

You will need to do a little detective work to change an attitude that you have held for a long time, but it?s well worth the effort. Here?s an example of using a Resource State to change an attitude that may be deeply entrenched:

Let?s imagine that you are someone who cannot see how anyone can cope with financial challenges without being alarmed when things are not going exactly the way they want. If you asked yourself a question designed to elicit a personal resource state for this condition, it might be ?How do I cope with situations in my life that have nothing to do with finances?  Can I think of some situations (of any kind) that I have handled pretty well?"

Most people can think of at least some areas of their lives that they handle pretty well and they generally respond by recalling some situation where they were at least reasonably capable.

At this point, another question you might ask yourself could be: "Can I think of anything that's happened to me in the last three months that was troublesome -- something having nothing to do with finances -- which I coped with pretty well??

Most people can come up with some example of having coped well with at least one situation that was difficult for them.  If you don't think of one right away, you can help matters along by asking yourself, "Can I think of any little thing that I handled to my satisfaction this whole year??  For example, when the toaster-oven went on the blink and you were able to fix it easily, or some other similar incident.

Few of us are unable to think of at least one small thing that they coped with well in the past year, and one example is all you need.

Now ask yourself how well you coped.  Did the situation turn out okay? Is this ability to handle things satisfactorily something you would like to experience at other times in your life?

Let?s invent an example.  Suppose you were presently alarmed by some financial reverses you were experiencing, yet you remember that you coped well with the flooding in your house when the main water pipe burst.  In this case you might formulate an EFT statement such as, "Even though I fear facing financial disaster, I choose to be as resourceful as I was when the water pipe burst."

When tapping on this Resource State, you would be using your own positive experience of coping well with the broken water pipe as a representation of the way in which, ideally, you would like to be able to cope with your financial problems.  Doing this would enable you to transfer those behaviors and attitudes that worked for you in one area of your life, to another area where they are not yet instilled.

To summarize, Resource States can be remarkably helpful in changing attitudes because they are so real and compelling.  They make use of an experience that has actually happened to you, one that is familiar and therefore cannot be denied.  What you are doing here is transferring a positive attitude and capability in one area of your life to another area where it is presently lacking.  You are thereby expanding your coping ability and applying it areas where it was previously absent.

I suggest you try this highly effective strategy whenever you think that what you are feeling, thinking, or acting is ?impossible to change?.  You may well find, to your surprise, that profound change is easy and natural if you approach it this way.     

EFT Master, Dr. Patricia Carrington