BY: ALEKSANDRA TARABIC
I held my hands out straight and pressed my back up against the wall. My arms were parallel with the floor and my fingers were pointing outwards. I was instructed to close my eyes and focus on my breathing, as I had to activate my muscles so that my arms wouldn’t fall to my sides when she pushed down on them. She was going to ask me a question—I could choose to tell her the truth or not. To test out the legitimacy of the results and whether my ego was getting in the way of them, I was to begin by introducing myself to her, even though I’ve known her for quite a while.
“My name is Aleksandra,” I said. While I spoke, the instructor gently weighed down on my left arm with the palm of her hand. It was unbendable and wouldn’t budge—a very different response from the one she got when I whispered “My name is Marija.” The second time around when I fibbed about my name, my arm went shooting down to my hip, as I was unable to keep it straightened out while focusing on formulating this lie that required extra energy from my subconscious. Now that we knew how I responded to affirmative everyday statements, it was time to touch on the personal, the intimate and quite possibly the undiscovered.
This alternative, self-healing method is based on a fairly new discovery within the field of Energy Psychology. It’s called the Emotional Freedom Technique , which allows you to tap into your subconscious and offer you insight into your deepest self. When I had this method tried on me, I allowed myself to confess to things I wasn’t even consciously aware were true.
The way that this technique works and the reason it is so special lays in a spiritual crossroads with science. A recent study showed that 1 in 2 of us live with some form of anxiety. This anxiety causes disruptions in our energy and leads to blockages in our energy system, ultimately challenging us emotionally and limiting our beliefs and behaviour. When this happens, we aren’t able to live harmoniously, our conscious realities are blurred and we aren’t aware of the many processes taking place in our own brains—processes that would tell very different stories than us if we were asked to compare.
This type of spiritual engagement is an approach that is closely linked to discoveries that have been made in the East dating back over 5,000 years. Even Albert Einstein stated that “everything, including our bodies, is made up of energy.” While the approach does not entirely agree with Western medicine, it is widely accepted today that emotional disharmony is a root cause of physical symptoms, disease, depression and addiction. As such the Emotional Freedom Technique has been applied to cases of physical illness, producing astonishing results. One case that stood out in particular, was one reported by a Sue, a victim of the aftermath caused by Hurricane Katrina. Literally shaky from the anxiety and feeling physical pain due to the trauma, she had planned on visiting a doctor for some pain medication. Her session with Sophia Cayer in Energy therapy brought her to a state in which her shaking subsided, her pain was gone and she felt she no longer needed the medication. Another woman named Linda, just like Sue and many more, cured depression using the same method. These reports had me research the method myself.
EFT is based on the Ancient Eastern discovery of energy systems, which have been found to closely align with the modern scientific understanding of the human endocrine system:
My experience with a certified practitioner was riveting, and I learned that it’s also possible to do this test on yourself. The easiest example of how to do so is by joining your thumb and index finger of your non dominant hand. Putting your other hand’s index finger into the middle and swiping it towards where the two fingers are meeting, you’ll know when your body knows a statement to be untrue because you’ll create a metaphoric short circuit, breaking the two fingers apart.
Our energy responds in strong ways to things our subconscious knows are true, just as it responds in a weak way to things it knows are not. When we say a positive statement that is not true and apply this body lie detector test on ourselves, our energy will go weak, meaning our muscles will go weak, meaning the results will show when we are lying to ourselves.
Another method involves placing your middle finger on top of your index finger. Saying out loud the said statements all the while pushing your index finger down, you’ll feel the similar strength, or weakness, on your index finger. The main focus of your thoughts should be focusing on the energy your body is emitting, so as to get a truthful result.
People choose this form of therapy for many reasons, one being its positive and proactive approach, although its rapid and long lasting relief doesn’t hurt either. It’s like a magic diet pill for the mind. This Energy Psychology technique may not be for everybody, but those who fully engage in the process may find a reduced need for psychiatric visits and an increase in independence.
Sources: wallpaperup.com, salon.com, onlymyhealth.com
