EFT and the Amazing Disappearing Hives

As an EFT practitioner, I have many examples of how our mind can cause actual physical changes in our body. I have never seen a case more compelling, however, then an experience that I had myself.

I was scheduled to do a session with someone that I was a bit intimidated by. By the day before the session, I was full of anxiety about the session, although I really wasn’t at all sure what the reason was for all that anxiety.

I woke on the morning of the scheduled session and noticed some itching in the palms of my hands. The itching was only mildly annoying at first, and I didn’t pay much attention to it. As time went by, the itching became more annoying and more severe, until I finally turned up the lights to take a good look at my hands. I was horrified to see that both my hands were covered with big, red, incredibly itchy hives. There were so many hives that you could barely see any normal skin.

My first thought was that I had inadvertently touched something to which I was allergic. I started tapping immediately.

“Even though I have these red, itchy hives all over my hands and it looks like an allergic reaction, but I don’t know what the reaction is to…”

“Even though these itchy hives are driving me crazy, and I must be allergic to something, I’m ready for the reaction to reverse itself…”

“Even though I must have touched something that I’m badly allergic to, and whatever it was made me break out in hives….”

What I found as I tapped was that the hives would start to clear a little, the itching would become a bit less intense, and I would get a small amount of relief, but as soon as I stopped tapping, the hives would return, just as severe as they had been prior to the tapping.

After tapping on an off for a couple of hours, with no sustained relief, I contacted a friend and fellow practitioner. I explained what was going on, and we started discussing what might be behind those awful hives. With a little push in the right direction from my friend, I realized that the hives were a manifestation of my anxiety over the upcoming session.

For an EFT practitioner, it made a weird kind of sense. The tool that a practitioner uses in sessions is their hands. If my hands were so badly broken out that I couldn’t use them to tap with, how could I possibly conduct the session that I was so anxious about?

Now tapping with my practitioner friend, the focus of the tapping changed.

“Even though I’m so anxious about the session I’m supposed to do with ________ that the anxiety is showing up in my hands…”

“Even though I have _________ in my hands, and I’m having an allergic reaction to that….”

“Even though I’m so nervous about the session that my nerves are causing red, itchy hives all over my hands…”

Tapping with this focus started to finally bring me some relief. Gradually the red bumps grew smaller and smaller, and the itching became less and less intense. My hands started to look more normal, and we continued tapping.

“Even though I can’t do this session if I have ____________ in my hands, I’m ready for the hives to disappear….”

“Even though I’m still a little nervous, I really want to do the session, and I‘m ready for my hands to return to normal….”

At the end of 45 minutes, the hives were completely gone, there was no more itching, and my hands appeared to be totally normal again.

I still marvel, though, over the power that my head had over my body, and how strongly my fears manifested in a physical way. Since then I have thought many times of how many other ways we all must be manifesting feelings and emotions physically, without ever having a clue as to what is behind those physical manifestations.

Mind over matter? Absolutely!