The Science Behind EFT

The Science Behind EFT

EFT can take our body back to it’s original homeostasis. Here the body’s energy field can contribute to the optimum functionality giving all of our organs the ability to communicate with one another in total synchrony resulting in aiming for optimum health!

 

Really? This sounds a bit farfetched to me, you might say. But scientific evidence shows over and over again that indeed this does happen. So much so that EFT was used to treat trauma after the Genocide in Rwanda to the children who witnessed the despicable machete killings of their families. Practitioners contributed to the healing efforts made in New Town Connecticut at Shady Hook Elementary School, South Florida High School Parkland Florida, and at Santa Fe High school in Texas to aide in reducing the traumas there. Founder Gary Craig did a study among the soldiers who had been home from war (for quite some time) and had dramatically good results in treating PTSD disorder. And now EFT is being used and accepted in the mental health field, hospitals, and slowly becoming a part of the curriculum at some schools that are advocating mindfulness for their students, helping to decrease anxiety and bullying.

So how does this all work?

As we begin to ‘Tap’ on the acupressure points of our body we recite certain phrases that pertain to our particular target, (issue, pain illness, trauma). Here, we can start to feel calmer. It is believed that as we tap on these points we are alerting our amygdala and communicating that it is safe to look at the situation at hand again so that we can release it. It is said that with this combination of ‘Tapping’  and acknowledgement, we can obtain amazing results!

What exactly is the Amygdala?

The Amygdala is the place where our emotions are held It is a rough almond-shaped mass of gray matter inside each cerebral hemisphere, involved with the experiencing of emotions. It is part of the Limbic System which is responsible for emotions, survival instincts and memory.

The Limbic system located deep in the brain, as clusters of neurons called basal ganglia, plays an important role in movement. It is the emotional motor system responsible for the experience and the expression of our emotions. Again this system located in the core of the brain, in essence includes our amygdala, hippocampus and hypothalamus. {I will say here that the belief has been debated with the belief that the limbic system operates independently of the amygdala} In a way this system houses our unconscious emotional memories. It’s this alarm circuit that fires when we are threatened, which then ignites our “fight, flight or freeze” response to thoughts, situations or the pain we are experiencing. It’s actually there to protect us, getting us ready for battle (to deal with whatever is as hand). When it fires, basic hormones of cortisol, adrenaline and epinephrine are released into the body system. The emotion fear (as well as all of the emotions that carry negative connotations) are the basic emotions that triggers this biological occurrence. Although, fear actually can help us with self-preservation, protecting us from danger as well as heightening our awareness to help us to deal with our conflicts, this process can also cause some adverse effects if this ‘firing” is constant…this often happens even on an unconscious level because we got our bodies so used to this expression.

The Hippocampus which is the elongated ridges on the floor of each lateral ventricle of the brain also adds to this process. Here we find the Autonomic Nervous System.

The Hypothalamus also contributes to this. It is a region of the forebrain below the thalamus that coordinates the Autonomic Nervous System and the activity of the pituitary, controlling temperature, thirst, hunger, and other homeostatic systems involved in sleep and emotional activity. It contains clusters of neurons that supply a variety of functions. One of its most important functions is to link the Nervous System to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland. The knee bone is connected to the shin bone and the shin bone is connected to the…

So, the nervous system plays a huge part in the overall Physiological Phenomenon when we experience stress in any way. Stress as a result again of the past traumas (just in rethinking them, (the mind/body cannot differentiate between something that has already happened (past) or what is happening in this moment).

Here we go again…Introducing the, drum roll please….

The Autonomic Nervous System!

Now this system consists of two very important regulation systems of the body.

The Sympathetic and the Parasympathetic Systems  which work together to retain the entire homeostasis of the body. Both act largely unconsciously regulating the bodily functions. They are responsible for our heart, digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary response, urination and our sexual arousal.

The Sympathetic Nervous system (SNS). The sympathetic nervous system responds to the activation of that “Fight, Fight or Freeze response.” When we become agitated our heart rate increases, blood flows to the extremities of our body, the hormones of cortisol, adrenaline and epinephrine get released into our body systems helping to ass ist in getting ready for a fight (let me run and get away from this) or fight (I’m standing my ground and I’m going to fight this), or freeze mode (I don’t know what to do, or how to deal with this, maybe I can sweep it under the rug and do nothing). After this biological occurrence the job of  Parasympathetic Nervous System to take over and take us back to the ‘normal’ functions of the body.

The Parasympathetic Nervous System conserves energy as it slows the heart rate, increases intestinal and gland activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles in the gastrointestinal tract. It’s thought of to be responsible for stimulation of “rest-and-digest” or “feed and breed” activities that occur when the body is at rest, especially after eating, including sexual arousal, salivation, lacrimation (tears), urination, digestion and defecation.

So if you read down this far, you now know: When we alert the Limbic System, we alert the Amygdala. When we do this, the Sympathetic Nervous system is activated. Once we are feeling safe again the Parasympathetic system jumps in to rescue; slowing down all our necessary functions.

There sure is a lot going on here! Are you still with me? Now this gets really exciting!

So our body has all these amazing systems that work in synchrony like a fine machines.

The stress response of the ‘Fight, Flight, or what is sometimes called the Freeze” mode has been put in place to help us deal with life’s circumstances. To prepare us physically so that we can reconcile the threats that appear. For instance: What if we’re making breakfast at our camping site and here comes that big black bear in the woods, Yikes!

But think of this:

What if our Amygdala is consistently being activated? What if these hormones are constantly streaming into our body even in a subtle way, where it is barely detectable because we are so used to our bodies being/feeling this way. Having this process repeat itself over and over again without being able to get back to our natural state of calm ( our natural homeostasis, so that we can begin the rejuvenation process, is not good for us. Little by little, day by day, we start to compromise our immune system. This is subjective, we each process differently. Some of us are good at recovery, (which is actually dependent on the traumas of childhood, our early environment, the messages we received from the people around us (including family, play friends, teachers etc.), for whatever reason and some of us are not. It all has to do with the way we think. Everything comes into play.  The thoughts, situations, traumas, over and over again. We carry many false beliefs that were instilled. What perceptions and false beliefs are you still carrying around with you? What old tapes come up for you when you become triggered or stressed by something outside yourself ? So it’s about the way we think of our pain. It’s about that little voice in our head; the self-ridicule, the self-deprecation, the feelings of not being good enough, the thoughts that we can’t change, we can’t lose weight (what’s really behind that?). We could be at the beginnings of an illness, we can feel scared and lost inside, on so many levels. Without the tools to get ourselves through (if you think you can’t recover, you won’t) we sit with these feelings and the “Fight, Flight and Freeze” mode automatically kicks in. This is apparent in regard to the vast plane of circumstances one finds themselves in emotionally, mentally and physically.

BUT GUESS WHAT!! WE CAN CHANGE!!

Enter NEUROLPLASTICITY!

Neurolplasticity is the ability of the brain to learn new things; the power to change your mind! Period. The brain loves to learn new things, lucky for us! It gets so excited! New neural pathways are grown with every new thing we learn, and when we practice, these pathways grow stronger and stronger. Imagine what it can do emotionally for us! We can become so strong in our determinations of our goals, our good reactions, and our stabilized good health that we they will maintain themselves with less conscious effort on our part. We can intentionally get to the subconscious brain that has held on to all that has been holding us back from finding real inner joy and say “NO, I’ve changed; that’s my old self, I now possess new habits of empowerment! I am an awesome-tastic-ist!”