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Combining Modern Meditation with EFT

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Combining Modern Meditation with EFT Page 2

Because meditation can supply a highly structured and effective form of enforced rest each day -- one that is easier for the average person to observe than are vague therapeutic prescriptions to "take it easy and get more rest" –– it has great value for many people.  I find that “meditative rest” gives a more solid basis to my EFT work with clients.  After commencing meditation, these people tend to become steadier emotionally and better able to handle any difficult problems that may arise during their EFT sessions.  They are also more apt to bring up core problems to deal with during EFT, ones they might have felt unprepared to tackle before.

Meditation Reduces Anxiety Markedly

Although we frequently see EFT reduce anxiety dramatically, I find that it is only the person who consistently uses EFT every day to target their anxieties who, in the long run, becomes less prone to unreasonable fears in general ( i.e. who overcomes generalized anxiety).  Unfortunately not too many people have the persistence needed to chip away at overwhelming anxiety using a targeted technique such as EFT, and it is very valuable to help such people get a running start on their anxiety-reduction by using a global technique such as meditation to reduce their overall level of anxiety.  Since meditation does not target a specific problem the way EFT does, it allows the entire body, mind and spirit to find a peaceful space to be in so that EFT can do its work.

If a client’s anxiety level is too high to sustain the gains we have made with EFT for a long enough time to allow them to “take hold”, I usually teach that person Clinically Standardized Meditation (CSM) and we often see the benefits of doing this within the first week.  At that point, the regular practice of meditation can turn the tide in my EFT work with that person.  It can change the client who is too distressed to know which issue to tackle first, into a calmer and more focused person.  When that happens, I then have someone “to work with” in our therapy sessions instead of having to rescue my client repeatedly from a state of deep anxiety.  Regular meditation can therefore be a great help in sustaining the benefits of EFT.

For Physical Illness

Another area where I find the use of meditation combined with EFT to be extremely valuable is for stress-related illness.  Gary Craig has taught us a great deal about the possibilities of using EFT in this area and the advantages of adding meditation to the therapeutic “mix” for this purpose are impressive.

Research shows that many stress-related illnesses respond extremely well to meditation.  These range from bronchial asthma to high blood pressure, to heart conditions, to high cholesterol, and many of the addictions, to name but a few.  Treating a physical condition with EFT and meditation (a winning combination in my estimation), the person gets help from two different directions at once; EFT targets the core issues that need to be dealt with, and meditation lends both physiological balance and spiritual support to this process.

Sleep Problems Many Need the Combination of Both Techniques

Sleep problems have been shown by research and clinical reports to be so responsive to meditation that if I have to decide whether to use meditation or EFT to start with for this condition, I usually choose meditation as the first line of attack because of its remarkable physiological relaxing effect.  Research has shown that meditation has an excellent ability to counteract insomnia and my clinical experience strongly confirms this.  However, eventually I tend to use both methods combined for this purpose.  Meditation gives the person a quieter and deeper sleep, often quite soon after they learn it, and EFT can then target specific bouts of wakefulness and deal with the deeper problems in the person’s life that may be causing the insomnia in the first place.  Again, a winning combination.

Meditation’s Energy Increase Can Assist EFT

For many people, meditation results in a surge of deeply nourishing energy which, if they meditate daily, becomes part of their life from that point on.  This results in a lessened need for daytime naps, increased physical stamina, increased productivity, the dissolving of writers or artists’ block, and sometimes the release of unsuspected creative potential.  I find that as we work on specific blocks to creativity using EFT, adding meditation to the client’s life can be extremely useful to open up their creativity in general.  It can assist targeted EFT sessions by working continuously night and day to dissolve the underlying block.  Again, the two methods can work synergistically to achieve remarkable results.

Lessening of Self-Blame

A little-known effect of meditation is the lessening of inappropriate self blame often reported by meditators.  This can result in an impressive change from self castigating to self accepting and self nourishing behavior.  While we can tackle the specifics of a client’s self image problems with EFT, the addition of meditation –– a time when the person is in close communion with a deeper part of themselves that is totally nonjudgmental – can assist profoundly.  I often watch with wonder as a person becomes less self critical after they take up meditation and often develops a simultaneous increase in tolerance for the human frailties of others.  This makes it easier for them to tackle more sensitive issues with EFT because self-blame is no longer getting in the way of their doing so.  Meditation can therefore be of great assistance to EFT when a tendency toward self blame is excessive–– one technique complements the other.

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