How to Apply Emotional First Aid Using EFT
What is emotional first aid?
We all know about First Aid for physical injuries and illness, and some of us now have access to Mental Health First Aid officers in our work places, but have you heard of Emotional First Aid? Emotional First Aid is an important intervention for when we experience emotional stress/wounds, such as grief, rejection, failure, heartbreak, fear and guilt. Emotions are energy in motion and are part of the human experience; however, we can run into trouble if we don’t recognise, process and release these emotions. Trapped emotions can turn into depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, digestive trouble, aches and pains, PTSD, low self worth, etc.
I’ve trained to be a Mental Health First Aid officer and I value having received that training. However, I saw a gap, in that often the mental health crisis could have been avoided if the initial emotional wounds had been addressed at the time they occurred. Hence, the need for Emotional First Aid tools.
I believe that EFT (aka tapping) is one of the tools that can fill this gap. If we can address unwanted emotions as they arise, or shortly after, we can stop them becoming energetically stuck in our bodies. To deal with our emotions in a healthy manner, it is important to first be aware of them before we process and release them. EFT is such a fantastic tool for achieving this process.
When using EFT, we don’t shy away from the negative/unwanted state. Instead we focus on it, while at the same time tapping on acupressure points to calm our nervous system and the emotional brain (aka the limbic system). And for those of us that struggle to tap into our emotions (due to childhood trauma/woundings), EFT provides us a door to experience how emotions feel in our body. Many people new to EFT ask “why do we have to focus on the negative?”. The answer is that it is the first step needed to release emotional stress. If we shove down our unwanted emotions and never deal with them, they eventually begin to wreak havoc on our bodies and mental health. I recently read the book “When the Body Says No” by Gabor Maté. This book delves into the impact that emotional stress has on our bodies, and I highly recommend reading it for those that want to understand the cost of hidden emotional stress on health and wellbeing.
So how do we put this into practice? Let’s look at an example:
You have an argument with a family member and you are left feeling angry because they ridiculed you in front of the rest of the family. Leave the room and tune into where you are feeling the anger in your body. Are you physically shaking, does your chest feel restricted, etc.? Once you can feel where the anger is manifesting in your body, score it on a scale of 0-10 with 10 being the most intense. Then start the tapping process.
Tapping on the side of the hand (karate chop point) state “Even though I’m feeling all this anger in my body, I accept how I’m feeling right now.
Repeat two more times, before tapping through the remaining points while using a short reminder phrase (e.g. all this anger).
Stop after each round and rate the intensity of your anger on the 0-10 scale. Keep doing rounds of tapping until you get your anger down below a score of 2.
This quick technique can be used in all kinds of situations to quickly restore the body and mind to a state of calm. Can you think of any situations in the past day or two where trying EFT might have been useful? Keep this simple and effective tool in mind for the next time you experience emotional stress and see for yourself the benefits of practicing emotional first aid.
