EFT and the Power of Forgiveness

In 2005, after several years of chronic pain and all the misery that goes along with that, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. My rheumatologist’s solution was to immediately medicate me. I was prescribed an antidepressant, 2 pain killers, and something to help me sleep at night. Admittedly, I did get some relief from the medication. Unfortunately, with fibromyalgia you still have bad days. And sometimes you have very bad days.

Being a person who likes to have control of my own life and my own medical care, I attempted a conversation with my doctor to discuss possible treatments that might help to improve my condition. My doctor offered me no hope at all, and reminded me that fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that I would have all my life, so I should accept it and get used to it.

There was no part of me that was willing to accept that statement. I immediately set out to research possibilities, and during that research I discovered EFT. It seemed like an improbable and highly unusual solution to my problems, but I was willing to give it a try. After all, I had nothing to lose. I downloaded the PDF version of the EFT manual, and read it from cover to cover. I then ordered Gary Craig’s training DVDs. By the time that I had completed all the training DVDs, I was ready to get to work.

My initial success had to do with tapping for job stress, for which I found great relief. Subsequently I tapped for headaches, stiff necks, sore backs and injuries that I suffered in a fall. As each problem was resolved, I was more and more convinced of the very real results of tapping, and how consistently I could get those results.

Even after all the hours of videos that I had watched, I still was to some extent coming from a place of “It can happen for others, but not for me…”, so that was where I started my tapping. I tapped away my doubts and moved on to the real business at hand.

My belief was that my fibromyalgia was a response to my highly stressful work situation, so I started there. I was already tapping on issues like my micromanaging supervisor, my CIO who practiced management through fear and intimidation, and the total lack of appreciation shown for all my hard work. I continued to address those issues, while also tapping individually on pain in my legs, arms, back, shoulders, neck and so on. I found that I would get some temporary relief, but ultimately the pain would return. I convinced myself that it was a matter of patience and persistence, so I tapped on. My results, however, did not differ from my previous results.

Other specific issues came up during my tapping that I felt might have contributed to my problem. I had an issue with feeling safe, and worked on that. I also had a lifetime of “mom issues”, having been the child in the family that was never good enough. Lots of time and energy went into working on those issues. In spite of my persistence with tapping, though, there was no significant improvement in my results.

I was becoming more and more discouraged. When you are in constant pain, it becomes the focus of your life, and I badly wanted to move beyond the pain, but that just wasn’t happening.

I pushed through the discouragement, though, and went back to tapping on my mom issues. There were several crisis situations in my life in which my mother had emotionally abandoned me, and for which I still felt anger. As I focused on those situations, I intuitively felt the need to incorporate forgiveness into my tapping. Now, as I worked through the issues, I completed my setup statements by saying, “and I deeply and completely love and accept myself and I choose to forgive my mom”.

Along the way I realized, though, that I needed to forgive myself even more than I needed to forgive anyone else in my life. I had many things in my life for which I felt responsible, whether I knew logically that was true or not. I needed to face those things and unconditionally forgive myself, in order to release all the energy I had invested in self blame and guilt.

As soon as I started to do this, I could feel a difference in the results of my tapping. More energy was moving, results started coming more quickly, and finally, the pain began to ease! Including forgiveness in my statements made all the difference for me. The lack of forgiveness, both for myself and others in my life had been blocking me from moving in the direction that I needed to go with EFT.

Nearly a year down the road, my condition has improved tremendously, thanks to the power of EFT. I am now completely off all pain medications, and while I still have a bit of pain at times, it is easily manageable with tapping. The pain that often kept me bedridden is gone, and I now ride an exercise bike every day to strengthen my legs and help with my mobility.

For me, there was an important lesson learned in this process. I had my own agenda, and knew exactly what I wanted to do. What I had failed to do was to drop inside my own head and listen for the messages about how I needed to go about the process. Once I stepped back and listened, and got the loud and clear message of the importance of forgiveness, I was able to unleash the full power of EFT.

I would strongly encourage everyone to step back and listen when working on their own healing. EFT practitioners working with clients are encouraged by Gary Craig to “get out of their own way”, and I feel that it is every bit as important if you are working on your own to listen to your inner self and pay attention to your intuition in order to get the guidance that you need, and to be able to enjoy the full benefits of EFT.