The Morse Code for Your Mind: Understanding FasterEFT
A simple tapping practice to communicate directly with your amygdala and rewrite emotional patterns.
Introduction to the Magic of Meridian Tapping
If you could send a soothing message to your stressed out amygdala and let it know you’re OK in the present moment how might that be useful to you?
While you’re considering my question, let’s time travel back 15 years. I was polishing the cobblestones of my rock bottom singing a ‘woe is me’ tune when an email landed in my inbox from Dr. Mercola.
Opening this email, about something called Emotional Freedom Technique, was the moment my life began to turn around.
Dr. Mercola shared this technique that looked weird. Almost too weird to try, but I was desperate and I had nothing to lose (except daily panic attacks).
So, as I have been known to do, I went all in with Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also called meridian tapping.
I think of it as Morse code for the amygdala.
The amygdala refers to two almond-shaped structures in the brain and is a part of our limbic system. The amygdala is our threat detection center and back then my threat detection center was working overtime, resulting in daily visits from the panic attack fairy.
The amygdala plays a powerful role in processing our emotions: especially fear and anxiety and that makes communicating with it incredibly useful.
EFT, which I’ll refer to as tapping from here on out, uses a gentle, percussive tapping motion with the fingers of one or both hands on what are called energy meridian points of the body.
This gentle tapping motion paired with the energy meridians creates relaxation in the physical body, interrupting the fight-or-flight response in the amygdala and its release of cortisol and stress hormones.
As these changes happen you’re able to return to whatever the original fear inducing stimulus was while experiencing a sense of calm. This is called ‘depotentiation of emotional arousal’ and it is powerful.
Energy meridians are like energetic communication highways in the body. Maybe you’ve heard of them, most likely related to acupuncture. Same energy meridians, different tools - your fingers rather than needles.
This makes tapping extremely portable and user friendly.
Dr. Mercola’s email was promoting The World Tapping Summit starting the following week. A week felt like a long wait, but it was worth it!
At this point you might be wondering, where did it come from, or like I thought at the time, “Where has this been all my life?”
Where Does Tapping Come From?
Stimulating energy meridians to create healing has been around for five thousand years.
You read that right, five thousand years. Traditional Chinese Medicine began using acupuncture and acupressure to address imbalances and improve energy flow a long time ago.
Tapping is something very old re-presented in a new and user-friendly way.
It began with Dr. Roger Callahan, a psychologist who wanted better results than the traditional therapy model was delivering to his patients.
Dr. Callahan combined the ancient Eastern practice with applied kinesiology and psychotherapy techniques to create Thought Field Therapy.
This is why tapping falls into a category called “Energy Psychology.”
When I was first learning FasterEFT, which I will come to later, I heard the story about Dr. Callahan’s assistant Mary who had a debilitating water phobia that she had been trying to release in therapy for years.
While focusing on the sensation in her body (her stomach) created by thinking of water and simultaneously tapping on the corresponding energy meridian (under the eye) the fear spontaneously dissipated. Gone.
It is interesting to note that when I work with my clients, there often comes a point where we fear releasing our fear. Because we feel like we need it to stay safe.
As I tell my clients, based on the story above, releasing your fear does not make you stupid.
It did not make Mary stupid either, even though she no longer feared water, she knew she could not swim. She was free from being paralyzed with fear and now could think objectively.
Dr. Gary Craig, a student of Dr. Callahan’s, distilled Thought Field Therapy into a streamlined approach he coined Emotional Freedom Technique.
Dr. Callahan used specific algorithms for certain issues, like a recipe. Have anxiety? Use these points. Have a phobia? Use these…
Dr. Craig combined the nine tapping points in one basic recipe so you can basically “use it on anything” as the saying goes.
There’s wisdom in that simple phrase, too.
Because no matter what issue you have, physical or emotional, there is always an emotional component with a belief system, and this influences our outcomes tremendously.
After practicing EFT Tapping for a couple of years, I found FasterEFT, created by Robert Smith. FasterEFT reduced the tapping points down to four and added powerful aspects of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), hypnosis, and Be Set Free Fast (BSFF) to create rapid emotionally focused transformations.
One of the reasons this is so powerful is how Robert Smith incorporates his learnings of how the unconscious mind, and our memories, control our entire system and how to create powerful changes within that system.
One of the reasons FasterEFT resonated with me so much just might stem from growing up in New York.
FasterEFT uses a direct aim and change method with shorter, more concise tapping rounds that match my fast paced way of thinking.
Two years later I certified as a FasterEFT practitioner.
Work With Me Personally
If you're ready to:
Break free from limiting patterns that keep you stuck in anxiety, fear, or pain
Release traumatic memories that are controlling your present experience
Create a new internal blueprint that supports the life you truly want to live
I invite you to schedule a personal breakthrough session where we'll create a customized plan to transform your unconscious programming. (Note: This will be a conversation about investing in your transformation. If you're not open to investing in yourself if the value is there, please don't book this call).
FasterEFT: A Primer
Let’s break it down into five simple steps:
Aim at the Problem
Notice how you know you have a problem: focus on what you see, hear, feel inside you.
Tap and De-Fractionate
Change your focus, feel your fingers as you tap on the four tapping points and repeat simple callouts such as “let it go.”
Reset and Re-Center
Squeeze your wrist, take a deep breath in, relax it out, and say peace.
Focus on What You Want
Think of a happy memory, use all your senses to see it, hear it, feel it (even taste and smell!)
Reassess and Notice What’s Changed
Observe what is shifting and repeat the process until you feel really good.
This follows a universal pattern of how all change is created:
Associate to the problem state.
Disassociate from the problem state.
Associate to the resource or target state.
Collapse the problem.
Robert Smith calls it the Bad-Good Collapse. Mike Mandel and Chris Thompson of The Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy call it ADAC (Activate, Dissociate, Associate, Collapse). Melissa Tiers, Founder of the Center for Integrative Hypnosis calls it the Meta - Pattern.
No matter what you call it, the result is the same: change and freedom.
The Persistence of Memory
One of my favorite Salvador Dalí paintings is “The Persistence of Memory”
My memories told me who I was and who I could become. And it wasn’t a good picture.
A unique aspect of FasterEFT is the way we address memories.
Memories are not fixed and permanent, they can be updated and changed.
Memories are a code of action that tell you how to think, feel, and act outside of conscious awareness and control.
The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your memories.
Memories are distorted representations of past events which are over and gone.
As I worked on releasing and reimprinting my own crappy and painful memories, my life began to change for the better.
As I worked with my clients on releasing and reimprinting their own memories, their lives began to change for the better.
In my previous article, The Pattern Interrupt Party: De-Fractionation Explained, I shared how interrupting the trance of memory leads to a tangible shift in how we perceive it.
Fully reimprinting memories is where FasterEFT parts ways with EFT. Instead of tapping a charged event down to a zero, FasterEFT persists until an entirely new and beneficial memory takes shape.
Using a groundbreaking framework called the Six Ways of Reimprinting Memory the memory will look, sound, feel, even taste and smell better.
This is accomplished by addressing all the details of a memory:
The expressions of all characters.
Feelings, sensations, and emotions of all characters.
The action, what’s happening in the memory.
What’s being said, any sounds and voices.
Mental images and movies.
Plus a healing process to integrate the changes.
A Simple Daily Practice You Can Adopt Now
Learning to reimprint a memory takes time. Some are best changed with the guidance of a practitioner. Even so, you can get started using the Mindset Metamorphosis Method, my daily FasterEFT practice to shift into a positive emotional resource. It’s simple and I show you how in this video:
Take Your First Step Toward Lasting Change
I hope this introduction to FasterEFT and the Mindset Metamorphosis Method has shown you that positive change is not only possible, it's within your reach starting today.
To support you on this journey, I've created a simple PDF guide of the Mindset Metamorphosis Method that you can download and keep. This guide includes:
Step-by-step instructions for daily practice
Alternative aiming questions and tapping phrases for flexibility
A tracking sheet to note your progress
Simply sign up below to receive your free copy and start transforming your mindset today.
Remember, the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your memories and emotional responses. By dedicating just a few minutes each day to this practice, you're giving yourself the gift of emotional freedom.
This concludes my Four Part Series of my journey to emotional freedom with FasterEFT.
Great information here, Nicola! Thank you! And you look so beautiful in your video.
Wow. That's a great informative article. Thank you. And great job on the images. There perfect.