Natalie attended one of my EFT introductory workshop to please a friend. Little did she know that she would experience an unexpected relief...
A friend had organised my first EFT information evening at her place, so we could spread the word. I demonstrated EFT to the group as I usually do, starting with physical issues, since it's easy enough for anybody to talk openly about a body pain, and progress can easily be measured. Once most people had experienced benefit, I had their full attention and could explain more about the history of it and how it works. Their questions kept me talking and demonstrating for a little over 2 hours.
By the end of the evening, 6 people, who actually had some pain when they arrived, got either total or partial relief.
On the usual 0-10 scale (0 all is well - 10 can't bear it), a neck had gone from 8 to 0.5 (!), a back from 9 to 4, shoulders from 7 to 2, stiff thumbs (from gardening I think) from 3 to 0, arthritis in a knee down to "very comfortable" (can't remember this person's rating), but the most impressive progress by far was Natalie's.
Five months earlier, she had got a bad cold while travelling abroad. She went to another country a few days later, still with her cold, and on her return, had 3 really bad days. It felt like total exhaustion. Nothing specific had happened that she could remember, no event, no big sickness. Still, she had no energy left. She tried all sorts of vitamins and natural medicines, but nothing helped. After 2-3 months of this, she eventually got medical advice and had her thyroid checked. All was clear on that side, but 2 doctors identified her symptoms as post-viral fatigue.They did not give any medication though, they just said that in time the tiredness would go.
So now she had a label to put on her discomfort, but no progress. She was about 5 months into this when she started telling her husband that something was blocking her energy, and she should probably start enquiring about acupuncture, reiky and other solutions. She was thinking in that direction for 2 days... when my friend called her to talk about that evening.
Natalie wasn't keen to go. Another of these tiring meetings... But still, it looked like an option, so she made the effort.
I didn't know anything about Natalie's (or anybody else's) story. We did 2 shortcut rounds of tapping. The audience was a bit shy to begin with, but we eventually got tapping and talking all together, each adapting the sentence to their own issue:
"even though I have...., I completely love and accept myself."
There was some progress, and we went for the second one :
"even though I STILL have SOME OF ...., I DO completely love and accept myself ANYWAY"
Pains kept shifting down and as there were quite a few questions, I ended up talking a lot. It's only after 2 hours, as I introduced my one-page EFT process summary to the participants that I got to demonstrate the full EFT round. As I was watching everybody, checking for any progress or strong reaction, I noticed Natalie's face. She's a very good looking woman anyway, but she suddenly had a smile which was just something else. It was like if the light had been switched on.
After the round was finished, she confirmed that she had eventualy moved from the initial 8 to... 0. She felt free. We were getting towards the end of the evening, and she went away with a much lighter step than when she came in.
This is the "magic" of EFT, one of what Gary calls a "one-minute wonder". We might never know what really happened, but 'it worked". Isn't that what is important?
Follow-up : 2 months later
We had agreed to talk later for a follow-up. That's when I learned the full story. Natalie is now tapping regularly, "even though I'm not as good as I should be". To which I could comment that "should" is one word to forget when you do EFT, except when you're acknowledging your "shoulds" to sort them out.
She's still having some tired times, but nowhere like before : "I got a real boost that evening" was the way she put it.
She also came to an interesting conclusion as to why she had this "post viral fatigue". Natalie is 54. She's been caring for her family her whole life. Now the children are grown up and going away. Her husband is away for work for long periods of time, and she was now "tied up in her tiredness". This sounded to her like an alarm bell saying "it's time to take care of yourself".
I've heard that alarm bell with many many people. It takes many different forms, and I would not be surprised if, as you're reading this story, it rings a bell with you too. I hope this story will help you make the step and take care of yourself too.