Hello from beautiful Montana,
When you have a headache do you rub your temples or push hard with your index finger between your eyes? How about when you were upset, did you hold your belly or hug yourself tightly? Do you rub your neck when other people are literally giving you “a pain in the neck?”
If so, you are doing what comes naturally, but has been called the Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT for short. EFT is a soothing technique that releases feelings of stress, anger and buried resentment. Why wouldn’t you want to teach your child to find ways to break negative thought patterns and become calm?
Self Soothing and Self Care
Dr. Terry Brazelton, author of TouchPoints says one of the most important coping skills we can teach ourselves and our children is how to take care of yourself when you are upset or stressed. Many adults head for food, alcohol, or drugs when life gets sticky, mainly because we have not developed other coping skills.
We can help children learn techniques of self-soothing so they do not turn to detrimental things like out of control anger, misuse of drugs and alcohol and defiant behavior. No one likes the feeling of being out of control. We can empower our children to take care of their needs with simple strategies that do not depend on outside sources. EFT is a soothing and easy to use technique that releases feelings of stress by rubbing or tapping acupressure points in order to balance your energy.
Why Massage Feels So Good
We are electrical beings with many electromagnetic fields in the body. Our physical body, which we can see and touch and our energy body which we cannot see. Positive and negative thoughts and belief systems have electrical charges. When you are stressed, these electrical charges can get stuck and out of balance.
You may find spots on your body that are tender when you get a massage. Perhaps you didn’t even realize they were sore until they were rubbed. It feels good to release those knots of tension and move your muscles more freely.
Tapping on Emotional Bumps
Tapping while you think about what upsets you helps smooth out those too-much and too-little energy places. When you tap you release the energy so it can flow more smoothly. Breathing and talking about your feelings helps to let them go. Deep breathing goes past the rib cage down into the belly and helps create relaxation.
Emotional Freedom Technique is very effective and can be taught easily to children and will benefit them for the rest of their lives.
I am preparing a special report on using EFT for children, so be sure to check back often to get up to date information that will assist you and your family to gain the necessary skills for a happy life.
In gratitude,
Judy Helm Wright aka Auntie Artichoke, family relationship author and keynote speaker
There couldn’t be better advice than this. Very good suggestions that parents everywhere need. Thank you.