I have recently been diagnosed with a rodent ulcer on my chest that will need surgery...or will it?  I have asked my Reiki students and colleagues to send distance healing and I wonder whether EFT may also be used? I am unsure what affirmation to use in this instance.  Do you have any suggestions on phrases that I should use?

There are three really good questions here.  Let's look at them one at a time.

Will I need surgery or should I use EFT?
To be honest I have no idea.  I am not a medical doctor and am not qualified to advise you in this way, but I would offer this thought.

I am very excited by the many strides that have been made in energy-psych over the last few decades.  We have learned so much about how the body gets sick and how it heals itself.  What is even more exciting is the fact that we are just scratching the surface with the human body's potential, especially to heal.

With that being said, I do NOT believe that energy-psych is the best or only treatment for every situation.  There are many ways of helping the body back to full health, which include procedures and techniques that modern medicine has provided us. 

When I am bleeding the first thing I do is reach for something to stop the bleeding.  My first thought is not to tap.  Once the bleeding is under control I will then spend time tapping to help the healing process.

The important point is that you take control and responsibility for your body.  Get all of the information you can for as many trusted sources that you can.  Weigh all your options and make the choice that makes the most sense for you.

There are people who will approach your situation only using only a surgical/pharmacological approach.  Others will use only an energy-psych approach.  Still others will use a combination of the two.

There is no one right answer that can be applied to every situation.  The nice thing about EFT is it only costs you a small amount of time to do and won't make things worse.  This makes it very easy to add to whatever approach you decided to take.

Can my friends do EFT at a distance for me and will it help?
When EFT is done on one person for another person (be they present or a long way away) it is called surrogate tapping.  Describing surrogate tapping and the best way to do it is a topic that requires an article unto itself.  But I would offer this...

When I am explaining surrogate tapping, especially to parents who would like to tap for their children, I say, "Surrogate tapping might work and it might not.  If you choose to set 7 minutes a day aside to tap for your child you are going to be spending 7 minutes thinking loving healing thoughts for your child.  Even if the tapping does nothing for your child I believe that is time well spent."

There is a library of anecdotal evidence that suggests that surrogate tapping can be effective.  I have seen such things in my own practice, but it is hard to know how effective this is.

If you have friends who know EFT and are willing to take some time to tap for you, I say go for it.  Again, the worst thing that will come of it is your friends will spend time thinking of you in a loving healing way.  Everything else that comes from their time and effort is a bonus.

What phrases should I use?
This is the second most common question asked of an EFT practitioner (right after, "Will EFT work on...?").  It is important that we keep reminding ourselves that words we use while doing EFT are not Magic.  The phrases we use are reminder phrases with the sole purpose of keeping us tuned into the issue at hand.  There is no right or wrong way to come up with these phrases. 

The thing that is much more important than the phrases we use is the issue that we are tuning into.  This is the place that we do the work.  In the circumstance of a serious health concern there are two places that I would start.

First, I would start with the emotions that you feeling about your current situation.  Often times when we receive a medical diagnosis most of our thoughts are turned to how we are going to heal the body and cope with the situation.  In doing this we often forget about our emotional health.

It takes a great deal of energy to feel angry, frustrated, overwhelmed, and frightened.  All of these emotions are very common when we are faced with major health concerns.  If we are spending a great deal of energy on these emotions then we have less energy to do the work of healing the body needs to do. 

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It is important to spend time with the emotions we are facing.  By taking care of our emotional health we are going to have a clearer mind to make the choices that are right for us and we are going have the bodies full reserve of energy committed to the healing process.

Some of most common emotions associated with health issue that are worth tapping on are:

• anger (at self for letting happen, for not getting the care you deserver, at it not being fair)
• fear (of death, of debilitation, of never being whole again, of being dependant on others, of getting worse, of being a burden to others, of not being able to heal, of not knowing what to do)
• frustration (that you have no control, that you did everything you could and it still happened, that is cost so much to deal with)
• sadness
• loss (of mobility, of health, of freedom, of youth, of activities)

By spending time clearing these emotions we are going to feel better, have a clearer mind to make choices about our care, and have the full store of energy committed to healing.  I truly believe is a very important (and often over looked) step in the healing process.

Second, I would spend time with the symptoms themselves, which is what the main question is about.   I have written on this topic before.  If you are interested in seeing how to approach the symptoms themselves check out:

The Body Has Information About Our Issues

3 Easy Ways to Approach Physical Issues

I know I sound like a broken record, but the words are magic.  The important thing is focus.  The two articles above will show you great ways to tune into what is going on in your body, giving you words that will help you tune into the issue at hand.

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