By Dr. Patricia Carrington

In my book, "Multiply the Power of EFT," I have described some new ways in which you can deal with pain by using EFT.

Today, I will talk about what I call "giving loving attention” to your pain by doing EFT, and how this can work to alleviate the pain and sometimes to effect actual healing of its underlying cause.

This method works because pain (or any kind of severe physical discomfort) is

Multiply the Power of EFT: 52 New Ways to Use EFT that Most People Don't Know About

an undeniable call to ACTION. The pain behaves much like a screaming baby does in that it is insisting that we pay attention to it whether we want to a not. If we try to overlook it, it will usually just "yell" much louder for the attention it needs and wants.

When confronted by a screaming baby, we all know it doesn’t help to hit the child or scream back at it. So, if we can't identify the cause of the child’s distress right away, or are not able to immediately remove that cause, we will intuitively seek to comfort that baby by giving it loving attention.

Surprisingly, this often works, and the infant’s screams may fade away as it realizes that its call for help has been heard, and that someone whom the child trusts is there trying to give assistance.

This same comforting, loving behavior that one might instinctively give a baby in great distress can be applied to any physical distress of our own that may be "screaming" for our attention.

Suppose, for example, that you are suffering from a severe abdominal pain, and that nothing you have done has helped it and so you decide to use EFT in the manner I have just described – by providing comforting attention to the painful area.

To do this, you might formulate an EFT statement that would go like this:

"Even though my stomach (or whatever area it is) is screaming for my attention, I choose to let it know that I love it, pain or no pain.”

Babies, stomachs, and any part of the body or mind wants to know that it is loved "no matter what", loved with no strings attached and no demands being made on it to “feel better” just so we will feel better. Once it has our loving, totally accepting attention, instead of our annoyance or anxious insistence that it go away (i.e. that it “shut up!") the pain will often calm down remarkably, contented at having received your unconditional acceptance.

When confronted with pain or acute physical distress of some other sort, an excellent and very kind way to handle it is to say, while tapping, something like:

“Even though I have this pain, I choose to give it my loving attention.”

Or, “Even though I have this pain, I choose to hear its cry and give it love."

Or, “Even though I have this pain, I choose to recognize its cries for comfort and give that comfort with all my heart."

The ways in which you can frame your EFT statements of comfort and attention are endless. The point is to understand the principle behind these statements. You are to keep tapping on the EFT spots by first doing one round of the negative phrase (“I have this pain” or “This pain…this pain…” etc.) and then do one round of the positive phrase, (e.g. “I choose to hear its cry and let it know I am here, with comfort and healing."

I suggest that you try using EFT this way the next time you or someone you know is in pain. It may be one of the best possible ways that you can assist in your own or their healing.

Dr. Patricia Carrington, EFT Master