By Carol Look, EFT Master
Brenda attended my recent "EFT for Anxiety Relief"
class at the National Guild of Hypnotists convention. As
part of the agenda, I asked for volunteers for an in-class
demonstration for food cravings and underlying feelings.
Brenda was one of four volunteers.
She chose the bag of M&M's from my pile of props, and
rated her cravings for them as an "8" on the 0-10 point
scale. Our first round of tapping was "Even though I
have these cravings, and I really love the way my favorite
food tastes, I deeply and completely accept myself."
Each person's 0-10 craving ratings decreased. One woman
said her craving had gone down significantly and she was
now thinking of the good times she had with her father.
Brenda echoed this thought and reported feeling profound
grief. She had lost her father when she was 8 years old
and her mother couldn't handle her grief and crying so she
gave Brenda food to shut her up.
All four volunteers associated their eating of junk
foods with losses they had experienced.
"Even though I feel deep grief, and want to eat to
cover it up, I deeply and completely accept myself."
"Even though I feel these deep losses, and I want
to stuff myself with food, I deeply and completely accept
myself anyway."
"Even though I feel abandoned because they left me,
I deeply and completely accept my feelings."
The volunteers continued to unravel layers of sadness
around the losses they had experienced. Brenda said that
her craving for the M&M's were going down dramatically,
but her feelings of sadness were surfacing strongly. She
told the class she had lost two children, a fiance and her
favorite pet. She also reported having strong physical
feelings of grief in her chest; "a bowling ball in my
chest."
"Even though I use the sweets to feel better,
because I love how they make me feel, I choose to feel
safe and comfortable without them."
"Even though I can't get satisfied, I love myself
anyway."
"Even though sweets are the only thing that make me
feel better, I deeply and completely accept myself."
Brenda told the class that the "bowling ball feeling"
in her chest, a heartache, was decreasing in intensity and
moving down towards her solar plexus.
"Even though I have suffered so many losses, I
choose to feel accepting of myself and of them."
"Even though I just want to be acknowledged for all
my losses and how hard it's been, I deeply and completely
love and accept my feelings."
Brenda said this one really "hit" her hard. She
realized that all she had wanted was to be acknowledged
for all the pain that she had been through. She told the
class that everyone sees her as such a strong person and
that they assume things come easily to her.
We tapped several more rounds on grief and being
acknowledged.
We also tapped for Brenda's belief that whenever she
gets close to someone, "they drop dead."
"Even though I don't feel safe getting close to
someone, I choose to love and accept myself."
"Even though I've suffered enough, and don't need
to suffer anymore, I deeply and completely love and
forgive myself."
Brenda said this last round released the tremendous
pain she had been carrying around for so long. She heard
herself say "You're right. I've suffered enough"
and felt free to let go of her deep grief at this point.
I talked to Brenda today (4 weeks later) to see how she
was doing. She had been doing her own tapping during the
first week, but then stopped. She had not eaten ANY sweets
since the class, including while she was on a week-long
vacation in Florida. Ice cream used to be her favorite
comfort food, and she hasn't had any in four weeks. It was
her birthday last week and she took one bite of birthday
cake and didn't like it because it tasted too sweet! While
in the class demonstration, Brenda used the bag of M&M's
as a symbol for all sweets in her life and was so pleased
that it had obviously worked for cake and ice cream as
well.
Brenda said she has not gotten on the scale yet, but
that several people told her she looked as if she had lost
some weight.
She is ready now to deal fully with her weight issue,
and reported that the tapping came at exactly the right
time in her life.
