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Anyone who has spent much time learning EFT will know that finding the core issue beneath a chronic illness or recurring pattern in our lives is key to long term healing. While we all agree with this in principle, it is not always as easy in practice to track down what the core issue supporting an illness or pattern actually is. This article contains some thoughts on discovering core issues.
Bruce Lipton*, a cell biologist and researcher, has observed that the conscious mind does not start really evaluating incoming information until we reach around 6 or 7 years of age. Prior to that time, everything that we are exposed to is absorbed into our subconscious mind, effectively writing beliefs into our mind like a program being written onto the hard drive of a computer. This is great in terms of us being able to absorb vast quantities of information and learn how to do a huge number of things, however it’s not so good when it comes to absorbing what others have said about us.
If someone says “You are so stupid” to a young child, that is written onto their hard drive as a belief, because their conscious mind is does not logically evaluate the statement. This means that in our first 6 or 7 years we absorb beliefs about ourselves and the world without our conscious awareness. Because the way we respond to situations later in life is largely determined by these subconscious beliefs, without us even being aware of them, our challenges with physical illness and recurring patterns often rest on top of these beliefs.
If we have been working on getting to the bottom of an illness or pattern for some time, and find that it is still firmly in place, it may be that we haven’t accessed the early beliefs that the illness or pattern are resting on. If you’ve been doing a lot of work on an issue and thought that you should have resolved it, after clearing issues that happened in your early adult or teenage years, it may be that you need to look to go another layer deeper, and track down the origins of how you reacted in your early adult or teenage years. These origins are almost invariably found in situations that arose in your first 6 or 7 years.
So knowing that finding the core beliefs is often necessary, the question becomes how can we go about it? Dr Carol Look has shared a series of questions that I find very useful in terms of tracking down core issues. Running through this list of questions and tapping on everything that comes up as a result can be a very effective way of tracking down core issues.
Stephen Daniel, who uses EFT and other modalities to help people to heal from very serious illnesses, believes that the beliefs that support chronic illnesses usually come from one of four groups:
· I’m bad/broken/unlovable
· People are untrustworthy/will let me down/will hurt me
· The world is a dangerous place/I’m not safe/I have to protect myself
· God is out to get me/God can’t love me/I deserve to be punished
Stephen suggests that you ask yourself what specific pictures you have that resonate with any of these beliefs. He asks his client what the earliest memory they have is that resonates with the belief, and then what images, emotions and thoughts or beliefs about themself or the world are associated, and then taps on what comes up. (Source: EFT Specialty Series 2 DVD – Using EFT for Chronic Physical Illness)
While it can be difficult to see which of these areas we may resonate with at first glance, if we set a clear intention to discover the core issues, we may soon be able to see which belief is underlying our challenges. For myself, I had chronic allergies, and was reacting to a number of foods and chemical substances. When I looked at Stephen Daniel’s belief listing, at first it was hard to resonate with any of them. However when I went back and looked at them, it was obvious to me that I must resonate with the “I’m not safe/I have to protect myself” belief. Doing some EFT around this, and the earliest memory I had associated with this, cleared all my allergic reactions, and I haven’t had another one since (if you would like to read about this healing, you can read about it here.)
It is important however to remember, that we may not always be able to jump directly to the core of an issue. Sometimes it is necessary for us to peel off the layers that have built up around the core belief, before we are ready to encounter the actual belief itself. So if you are unable to resonate with any of these core beliefs, relax and trust that if you continue to work on your symptoms or whatever is coming up in the moment, you will get to the core when you are ready to deal with it.
Something people regularly ask me is “How do I know what to tap on?”, and then that often leads to “How can I know whether what is coming up is real or just from my imagination?” Working as an EFT practitioner supporting others in their healing, and using EFT by myself, I have come to have enormous respect for the power of our subconscious mind. As a new practitioner, I thought that I had to discover all the reasons why a person had an issue, and work hard to figure out the right things to tap on. Before long I was able to see that none of that was necessary.
When we have the intention to heal, all we have to do is start where we are – with whatever symptom or concern is right in front of us – and tap and follow whatever comes up. So many times I will ask, after tapping a round with someone, “Did anything come up?” and the person will reply with “I remembered something but it’s really small and I’m sure it’s not significant.”, only to find that the “insignificant memory” which came up is the key to resolving the issue. So whether it’s your “imagination” or not, if you can learn to trust that whatever is coming up is the next thing to tap on, you will soon find yourself clearing issues. The only time that I find that this doesn’t work is when it appears that nothing is coming up as you tap. If this is happening, and the issue isn’t clearing, that indicates there is an internal story waiting to be told, that hasn’t yet been heard. To read more about this, you can read Clearing Blocks When EFT is not Working for You and Three Key Ingredients of Healing.
If you still just don’t know where to get started, I recommend the simple and powerful practice that I use myself when I just don’t seem to be able to resolve an issue. While you can do this by hand, I find it easier to do this using a computer so that I can easily pull it all together, then print it out and use it as a tapping script:
· Sit down and write a letter, as if you are explaining the challenge you face to an EFT practitioner who you are going to work with, who hasn’t met you yet. Write about the symptoms/challenges in as much specific detail as you can. Include any theories that you have about what could be causing the problem, any fears or concerns you have in relation to it, and how having the symptoms/challenge makes you feel. Share as much as you can about what you are feeling and what the challenge is.
· If you are using a computer, the next step is to put “Even though I” in front of every sentence that you have written, then “I deeply and completely love and accept myself” at the end of each sentence. Then group the sentences into groups of a maximum of three, based on themes that seem to go together, and print it out. If you are working by hand, you will either need to rewrite the sentences in full, or just use what you have written and add the start and end of the phrases as you tap.
· Now tap on everything in the “script” you have created, being very mindful of any other thoughts, memories, images or feelings that come up as you are tapping. You can tap on up to three related statements on the karate point, then mix up the words from the three as reminders as you tap through the points. As things come up, either incorporate them into the round you are tapping through, or write them down and do a round on them when you have finished the round you are on.
This process can appear at first glance to be too simple to be very useful, but I have found time and time again that it is a very effective way to work. When people email me about an issue they are working on, quite often all I do is copy and paste all that they’ve written, inserting the “Even though” and “I deeply and completely love and accept myself” and send it back to them, and watch the magic unfold. While it is very helpful to have a good practitioner working with us on the tough issues, if we are working on our own, this can help us to be our own practitioner. Once we start tapping, the subconscious will give us the rest, just as it would if we were working with a practitioner.
If you are using EFT to heal a chronic issue, hang in there and keep tapping. Work through the above, trusting that your subconscious will provide you with the answers. Persistence, and working towards the core, together with the magic of EFT, can soon see us moving towards freedom in areas that we previously felt totally stuck in.
* Note: To explore what Bruce Lipton has written, you can read an interesting 4 page article here, in which he recommends energy psychology methods as an excellent way to heal subconscious programs.