Diets don’t work for long, if at all. An Australian weight loss program focussed on relieving stress emotions rather than on food resulted in participants continuing to lose weight over months after the program finished . That sounds like a world first!
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT tapping) is a self-help healing aid for feeling better, emotionally, mentally, and physically. To reduce food cravings, EFT requires no willpower other than to choose to tap on acupuncture points on your body in specific ways that are explored in a course.
A global award for EFT research
Dr. Peta Stapleton, assistant professor at Bond University, Australia, who conducted two of the EFT weight loss studies, received the Global Weight Management Congress Industry Professional Award of Excellence in 2015.
The 2012-14 study she headed involved 89 obese adults, whose food cravings and anxiety symptoms decreased during the 8-week tapping program, and participants maintained improvement throughout the following year. (eclipsing results from the more commonly used stress management method Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). The program was expanded to 12 weeks.
Being overweight and emotional overeating are two of many problems that scientific studies on EFT have successfully addressed. EFT has moved in its past two decades from being a fringe therapy to widespread professional acceptance as an “evidence-based” practice.
How do you do EFT tapping?
Millions of people around the world have adopted tapping as an immediate stress release aid, for both present difficulties, also for those past unresolved difficulties that often fuel what’s happening now. Surprisingly, we may be totally unaware of the connections.
When you enlist EFT to work for you, you fingertap on key acupressure points to release various stresses while you focus briefly on aspects of your emotions and attitudes about your own life.
EFT’s easiest application for weight loss results could be through a well-designed EFT program, covering the many aspects of weight loss, and avoiding the ‘I-can’t-do-this-alone’ blues.
(As an EFT Practitioner and Master Trainer, I am happy to support individuals undertaking such a weight loss program. A starting point can be the surprisingly effective Eliminating Cravings tapping process, which takes a minute or two to do, and may be repeated as often as you like.)
What’s the secret for long-term weight loss?
Writing in the ‘Clinical EFT Handbook, Vol. 2’, Dr. Stapleton says, ‘It may be that comprehensive psychological treatment in conjunction with physical and dietary approaches is necessary, essential, and (is) the key to successful weight loss and maintenance, particularly for those individuals who find the self-control behaviours difficult to maintain.
’Everyday stress is often what causes an individual to try to treat his or her anxiety with food. It is well known that EFT can help people manage stress.
‘The application of EFT for weight issues is far reaching and often complex.’
In Dr. Stapleton’s program, EFT can:
- reduce immediate food cravings
- target and eliminate negative or distorted body images
- neutralise issues from the past that have led to overeating
- target future situations that might trigger a relapse
Whether a person’s problem is just a few pounds of extra weight , it may well have started from being teased or bullied as a chubby child. Lifelong personal and social effects from such apparently minor experiences can seriously hold someone back from fulfilling his or her potential. Tapping is an easy way to identify and neutralise such a problem.
Common emotions triggering eating too much, or eating too much junk food, are feelings of:
- deprivation
- abandonment
- loss/grief/sadness
- loneliness/emptiness
- anxiety/stress
- guilt, fear, anger, shame
- feeling not good enough
Obesity is an even more serious problem, as it is a leading cause of death as well as of many diseases. Obesity in children and adults is increasing in the Western world.
Learning to tap away a buildup of your stress emotions, showing up as extra weight, may actually save your health and your life —
‘How can I learn EFT tapping?”
FREE GIFT . You can start by signing up for the free gift accompanying Annie’s free monthly EFT newsletter opt-in below: ‘Start Learning EFT Tapping Right Away!’ (mini-ebook)
Then you might:
- purchase Annie’s book ‘Tapping Your Troubles Away with EFT’ on Amazon
- treat yourself to a private EFT/Matrix-Reimprinting-with-EFT session with Annie, online anywhere or in person in Adelaide, South Australia
- sign up for some serious life improvement with a Freedom Breakthrough Package
- attend a weekend EFT Certificate training course with Annie in Adelaide, South Australia.