How often do you struggle with intrusive or irritating thoughts? Once a day? A few times a week? Rarely? Often? No matter how often it is, you can address these intrusive thoughts. The frequency of the thoughts isn’t necessarily the issue, it’s the thought itself. By healing our mindset we shift the base belief behind these thoughts. Every “negative” thought we have is a small branch of an enormous tree. They all relate back to the primary limiting beliefs we face as humans: I’m not good enough. I’m not worthy. I’m not smart enough, strong enough, or brave enough. These trees are planted at a young age and slowly fostered by the circumstances and experiences of our lives. By practicing mindset healing, we slowly heal these branches, eventually leading back to the root of these trees.

Every time we iterate these thoughts to ourselves, we’re further developing a neural pathway (literally think of it as a root of a tree) that reinforces these thoughts. So how do we address the root? There are several different answers to this question. This article in particular is here to highlight the process of Emotional Freedom Tapping, or EFT. This alternative therapy method targets your neural pathways using the meridian points on your body. Meridian points are founded in Chinese medicine that claim certain points in your body connect to your overall energy. Not the energy you have, like happy, sad, etc. The actual energy of your body; your vibrational existence. The concept claims that by tapping on these points while simultaneously practicing a type of mindset-reprogramming, you can fundamentally change the structure of your beliefs.

Mindset Healing: The Process of EFT

The process of how EFT can unfold your mind is quite interesting. Often times, it takes tapping on the “baby limiting beliefs” to identify the root cause. The reason is that we typically form these limiting beliefs when we’re young. As children, these beliefs are not known to our conscious mind until someone illustrates them to us. For example, a young child doesn’t know to believe he/she is “not smart” until a bully walks up to them in 3rd grade and tells them they’re stupid. From there, every time a scenario occurs in which the child may learn they’re “not smart,” this neural pathway is built, therefore increasingly growing stronger. The issue here is that when this child grows into an adult and choose to practice EFT, they may not remember that instance in the third grade. The practice of EFT uncovers these pinnacle moments by working in reverse.

Reverse Engineering Your Timeline

Start with your most recent memory of the fundamental belief. Maybe you were at work recently and a coworker undermined you making you feel dumb or inadequate. Or perhaps you misread your calendar and missed a meeting, and your response to yourself in that situation was “What an idiot.” Start with the most recent moment where the belief reined true. When you tap and clear the belief in that moment, it invites your mind to remember moments in your life where you’ve felt like that before. Perhaps now, your memories are flooding back a little further and introducing moments that hold even more weight to this belief. Keep track of the timeline you’re building and slowly work your way back through your subconscious.

Break Down the Emotions

As you’re working your way through your subconscious mind, challenge yourself to be as descriptive with your emotions as possible. What can you identify? Following on the example of feeling stupid, that feeling is often paired with emotions of insecurity, feeling small, anger, or sadness. Ask yourself as you’re working through each memory, “What emotions can I identify here?” The more you’re able to identify, the more you’re able to tap around using affirmations or whatever your chosen method of rewiring is. The reason for identifying all emotions instead of one is to focus on that fundamental belief that your attempting to reprogram.

The belief of “I’m stupid” could translate to all aspects of who you are. Someone who believes they’re not smart will likely feel that way in all facets of their life. By identifying the list of emotions, you’re giving yourself a stronger foundation to rewire. Your brain will stop conflating two emotions, therefore creating distinctions between a moment of feeling something, versus the belief that this trait is your identity.

The Effects of Rewiring Your Mind

EFT practitioners use all different kinds of methods of rewiring. From variations of pattern interruptions, repositioning phrases, to affirmations; all of these methods are effective in rewiring your mind. I, however, have personally found the most effective method to be affirmations that reposition the thought. So instead of saying to myself “I’m stupid,” I’d be doing EFT tapping while saying “My mind is always showing up the best it can.” Sounds silly? Believe me, it’s not. I personally have effectively used EFT to heal limiting beliefs around worthiness and abundance, effectively growing from earning $0 in one year to my first six-figure year. And not only have I used EFT to heal limiting beliefs, but to heal my grief and personal trauma.

Clients and friends of mine have used EFT to land new jobs, grow their income by 10X, call in new partners, heal relationships, and so much more. Mindset healing starts with EFT. From there, the possibilities of your personal growth, happiness, and success are infinite.