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Other Ways to Use EFT
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► Use EFT to Change Negative Attitudes
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
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