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My first introduction to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) used acrophobia as the target. It was a great option given the high prevalence of height phobias. According to Wikipedia, acrophobia is an extreme or irrational fear of heights. Because we were in southern Florida, an amazingly flat area, it wasn’t possible to truck us off to some mountainous area and we only had five minutes to spend on the technique. Instead, the leader had us all stand up on some very rickety folding chairs. I’m not particularly acrophobic, but I am afraid of public embarrassment and falling down would surely trigger embarrassment. Many people in the audience did report a dramatic change in their height phobia with only a few minutes of tapping.
In my training I learned about many techniques for addressing phobias including exposure, desensitization, flooding, and medications. It is usually very difficult, if not impossible, to talk someone out of their phobias. Exposure, desensitization, and flooding really do work. What most people don’t like about these techniques is that they take a fair amount of time and agony in order to see the results. The benefit of EFT is that the relief is rapid and relatively painless.
When using EFT to address acrophobia you can focus on the thoughts, feelings, or behaviors and make a huge impact. Many people report heart pounding, breath sucking, stomach clenching, and sweat drenching reactions to their phobias. Tapping on the EFT meridians while focused on any of these reactions will yield a dramatic decrease in discomfort. This tapping can be effective while in the terrifying situation, imagining the situation, or looking at a picture that triggers thoughts of the situation.
You can also tap on the automatic thoughts that occur while experiencing or visualizing the situation. These may be thoughts such as “I’m going to die”, “I’m going to fall”, or even “This fear is irrational.” No thought is too trivial or too ridiculous to tap on. Remember – phobias are generally irrational.
Some people develop a fear of heights in response to a situation in which something bad happened to them or they hear about something that happened to someone. This could be a childhood prank in which someone acted like they were going to push you off of a bridge or a news report of someone falling off of a roof. If these events remain stored in your energy system for any length of time, a phobia can develop. Perhaps my favorite EFT technique involves continuous tapping while having a conversation with someone about the things that have happened in the past.
Does the thought of skiing on a tall mountain make you shudder? Does looking over the side of a tall staircase take your breath away? There is no more need to suffer. Claim your emotional freedom and learn EFT.
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Source by Leanna Manuel