EFT/Tapping Q and A with Gene Monterastelli - Emotional Freedom Techniques

My Holiday Embarrassment

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I spent the Christmas holiday in my home state of Wyoming. The last night I was home my sister asked if I could share a way she could tap for a friend who was grappling with a lot of difficult changes in his life.

I spent about 30 minutes talking my sister (and my mother) through the “Talk About, Talk To, Talk As If” tool.

My sister then asked if it would a good idea if we tapped for a family member, “Bob,” who was having a particularly hard time.

It hit me like a ton of bricks… not only could Bob use some surrogate tapping, so could so many people in my life. And not just the people who were having a really tough time.

In the “My EFT Year” project I am obviously making it a priority to look at my goals but somehow I had lost track of what was outside me.

Then my mother asked if anyone has ever tried tapping on world peace… and again I felt crushed by disappointment. I knew things like this had been done before (see crime reduction in Washington, DC).

Years ago I even created the website Tapping4Peace.com encouraging people to do just that.

I regularly tap surrogately for people who ask, but somehow I lost my way in just tapping for others in my life.

For the last week I have been finding a little time each day to tap for others. I am not doing anything too complicated, just thinking of a loved one and of all the wonderful things I would like to show up in their life, and tapping.

It only takes two or three minutes.

It is really that simple.

By doing this regularly it has changed my daily disposition and has helped me to act in a more loving way.

Give it a try.

It will only take two minutes.

And let me know below how it goes.

What EFT Has Taught Me That I Wish I Knew When I Was 13 (Tapping For Self-Respect)

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photo by Jack Lyons

I wasn’t the coolest of kids when I was in middle school. I was on the math team, had feet larger than my 6’ 2” tall father, and I had a mullet.

It wasn’t pretty.

I didn’t think my life was horrible. I didn’t think I was a total loser. I wasn’t a complete loner. But I knew my place.

It was fine for me to be my quirky, funny self around my fellow nerds (back when being a nerd wasn’t cool like it is today), but when I was around anyone of a “higher” social status I just kept my head down.

I felt that if I opened my mouth everyone would look at me and think, “I can’t believe what a waste of time he is. Why do we even have him around? Could he just leave!”

This is something that persisted well into my twenties.

I can still remember one particular moment whilst I was at university. I was on campus early for training for a job I had in the resident halls. During a long afternoon break I sat with two guys I worked with who were older than me (and both former military). The conversation lasted for almost two hours and I didn’t say a word.

I felt out of place…or more likely I “knew” my place, which was below everyone else in the room.

As I think back to that moment now I can still imagine what it felt like to be a little kid who is tagging along with the big kids hoping they don’t notice that I was there. (In my memory even though I was 20 years old my body feels 4’ 10” tall.)

Self-Respect

Recently the design blog swiss-miss.com featured the following quote from Joan Didon:

“Self-respect is a discipline, a habit of mind that can never be faked but can be developed, trained, coaxed forth.”

I really love this idea. It points to the fact self-respect isn’t something that is given to us by an external source. It comes from within. It is all about seeing what we are worthy of AND (most importantly) it is something that we can consciously nurture and develop.

When I was younger I wasn’t able to see that. I saw my place in the world based on where I believed I was in relation to everyone else. I was either an equal or I was below.

There were certainly a lot of times where I faked that I belonged. I walked very upright with a confident smile on my face. But just because I was giving the outward projection of belonging didn’t mean that I was comfortable inside of my own skin.

My personal journey with EFT, especially over the last few years, has been about becoming more comfortable inside of my own skin.

Which is really just another way of saying I am growing in self-respect.

If you are working to grow your sense of self-respect I would encourage you to tap along to this script for the next four days. Below the tapping script is a link to a pdf so that you can print out the script if you would like to put it somewhere where you will remember to tap to it.

I choose to know I am worthy of respect…I choose to know that I am worthy of respecting myself…I don’t need to do anything to prove that I am worthy of self-respect…I am made for self-respect…I don’t need to do anything to gain my self-respect…I know I am not perfect…I know I make mistakes everyday…I know there are things in my life I would like to improve…Even though I am not perfect…I am worthy of self-respect…I am worthy of seeing that I am good…I am worthy of seeing that I am lovable…It is possible to see that I am worthy and still know that I would like better…By respecting myself I am not stopping my growth…By respecting myself I am not stopping my healing…Who I am is not determined by other people…Who I am is not determined by what others think…My value is not determined by other people…My value is not determined by what other people think…I choose to know I am worthy…I choose to know I am lovable…I choose to know that I am worthy of being heard…I am worthy even if I don’t believe I am worthy…My belief in my worthiness is not a prerequisite to my worthiness…I am worthy of respect even if I don’t believe it right now…

Download pdf script

Please let me know in the comments below how this works for you or if you have other phrases you have tapped to that have been helpful for self-respect.

Self Sabotage: The Number One Issue I Use EFT For (And How I Get Past It)

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Good morning!

Don’t you hate it when you get in your own way?

You know what you want, you know the right steps to take, and you just don’t take action.

(And to make matters worse, you then beat yourself up for not doing what you need to do.)

I use EFT first and foremost for self sabotage.

Not only do I tap on self sabotage every day, it is the one thing that has made the most profound impact in my life.

I want to teach you how I deal with self sabotage.

I have created a 10 part “Getting Out Of Your Own Way: A Quick Start Guide” and I would like you to have it free of charge.

Here is how you can receive it.

If you sign up you will also receive the 10 part “Getting Out Of Your Own Way: A Quick Start Guide”.

Starting the day you sign up, you will receive an email every other day until you have all 10 parts.

This will not interrupt the regular emails I send to you. It is just an added bonus.

I Need Your Input

Since you have been around the block a few times with EFT I would really value your feedback. Let me know how the steps are working for you, what is going well, what needs improvement, and in which places you think I have completely lost my mind.

Just reply to any of the emails to let me know your thoughts.

Sign up now! I know you want to stop the self sabotage. Get started on knocking it out.

As always, let me know what I can do for you!

Are You Entitled to Success? Passive Entitlement v. Active Entitlement

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[In this series we examine the importance of the words we use and how changing our vocabulary can change our minds, giving us opportunities for transformation. More articles can be found in this series @ Tools: Words]

photo by SweetCakery

In a recent episode of “Making It w/ Riki Lindhome” Riki and Pete Holmes were talking about the idea of entitlement. They were discussing the sense of entitlement that many young actors have when they first get to Hollywood. Many of them arrive in Los Angeles having been stars of their local theater scene. They think that by simply showing up they are entitled to success.

Riki made a distinction between “passive” and “active” entitlement. She stated that passive entitlement is when you show up to a situation and simply expect to get your way. For example, in a new job feeling like I should be able to work on the coolest projects.

On the other hand active entitlement is much more about what you are willing to work for. For example, who is to say that I am not capable of writing a best selling book? Writers of best sellers are not a preordained group of people who were destined for success. If I am willing to put in the work (i.e. by being active) then I, as much as anyone else, am entitled to create a best seller.

When we are in a state of passive entitlement we are not going to be able to move forward and are going to feel bitter that the universe is not giving us our just deserts. When we are in a state of active entitlement we recognize that we are capable of anything if we are willing to seize the opportunity.

To make sure that we are in a state of active entitlement we can tap on something like this:

I know that I am capable of being successful…I know that I have been made for success…but success and opportunity aren’t going to just show up at my front door…I need to seek success…I need to work for success…The universe owes me nothing more than the opportunity to work for what I am made to be…This does not mean that it must be a great struggle…This does not mean that I have to toil to achieve success…But I am entitled to success…I am entitled to opportunity…I have been made for this…I give myself permission to work actively towards the opportunities and success I am entitled to.

Action Step: What is something that you feel others are entitled too, but isn’t for you? Take a few moments to tap on it with the script above. Do it now! It will only take 90 seconds.

Can’t Keep Up? 6 Ways to Simplify Your Daily EFT Routine

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Learning EFT can be very exciting at first. Tapping is so easy.

Anyone can do it!

It can be done anywhere!

It seems to work for everything.

You download podcasts, tapping scripts, and ebooks. You start working on a personal peace procedure, listing every bad memory you have in your life. You decide you are going to tap for your health, your relationships, your creativity, and getting a better job.

And then…

It just becomes too much!

You feel overwhelmed with how much work you need to do, how far you want to go, and feeling like there is not enough time to deal with everything.

It’s going to ok!

Take a big deep breath and relax…you don’t have to do it all right now!

Healing is process, not a moment. You are not going to do it all at once. It is ok to let the process unfold over time. You want a long-term, lasting fix. You don’t want something that is quick, but does not last.

Here are 6 things to help prevent you from becoming overwhelmed with tapping and the amount of change you want to bring about in your life.

1) Limit Your Daily Tapping Sessions To 7 Minutes

On an average day I spend about 7 minutes tapping. I start my day by making sure I am relaxed and calm about what is ahead. I know that on the surface it doesn’t seem like I am doing very much towards my healing process, but these 7 minutes make a huge difference.

When you start the day from a relaxed, balanced place it puts you into a state of mind where you can respond easily to the unexpected. Being able to respond more easily to the unexpected means less stress in your day. Less stress means less overreaction, and less overreaction means less stress.

When you release all the stress from your day before you go to bed you sleep better. When you sleep better you start the next day in a better place. When you start your day in a better place…well you know how it goes…see paragraph above.

I am not saying that you shouldn’t go after major issues. I am not saying that you shouldn’t tap for longer than 7 minutes. You really only need to do longer tapping sessions once or twice a week. If you combine doing daily stress management with a few longer sessions each week you will make lots of progress.

Looking for help on how to tap at the beginning and end of the day? Check out these tap along audios.

2) Let Someone Else Do The Heavy Lifting

Sometimes it is hard to tap because we don’t know where to start. There is so much that we can’t find an entry point. When this happens give your mind a break and let someone else come up with the tapping phrases. Did you know that there are over 35 free tap along audios on this site? Well, now you do. Pick one, hit play, and let the audio do the hard work.

3) It’s All About Love And Acceptance

Recently I did an interesting interview with Steve Wells on Self Acceptance. Steve proposed that the root of all issues is that we don’t fully love and accept ourselves.

On some level, when we hear this, it might make us shudder. There is nothing about tapping that my clients complain about more than having to say “I love and accept myself …” as part of the set up phrase.

I don’t know if I fully agree with Steve, but I think one of the reasons that we struggle with saying the set up phrase is because we find loving and accepting ourselves difficult.

If you don’t enjoy saying the set up phrase or if you are looking for an easy, concise set of phrases to tap to visit the set up phrase generator. Each time you reload the page it will give you 10 unique tapping set up phrases. Tap through the list. After you have finished, just refresh the page and it will generate 10 more. Do that two or three more times. It takes less than 5 minutes, you will feel great and will not become overwhelmed with having to dive into lots of issues.

4) Give Yourself Permission To Tap For Just One Issue At A Time

Many of the issues we have are intertwined. When we work on one part, we are working on the whole. It’s ok to give yourself permission to let the healing process unfold over time. It is very easy to feel like we are not doing enough each time we sit down to tap. If that is what you are dealing with then start your tapping session with this:

I give myself permission to know that it is a healing process…not a healing moment…I give myself permission to know that I don’t have to do it all today…I don’t have to clear it all in one session…I know that if I do a little work today it is going to get me closer to the health and freedom that I want…Each time I tap I am going to clear a little more…each session is going to build on the last…I don’t have to do it all right now…

5) Basket/Container Tapping

One of my favorite tools is to tap for all your issues at once. It is a very simple technique that is often called the basket or container technique. Here is audio instruction for the Container Process.

6) Tap Without Tapping

Did you know you can tap without having to tap? It is possible to tap by just imagining you are tapping. It is also possible to find relief without having to tune into a specific issue. Once you learn it from this short audio you will be able to do it anytime, anywhere and it will only look like you are sitting quietly with your eyes closed. It’s so funky it doesn’t have a name, but you will love it! Listen to it now.