By far, most of what we read about EFT has to with helping people move from an unwanted emotional state - trauma, fear, anger, etc. - to a state of relief. For the past several months, I have been using EFT to help people who are in a state of emotional “okayness” to achieve personal and financial goals. The technique consists of combining the usual tapping with statements giving permission. Think of it as an EFT technique that helps us practice the art of allowing that which we want into our lives.

The tapping sequence takes two basic forms depending on whether an emotion stands in the way of what you want to accomplish. If something seems to keep you from achieving your goal, the set-up statement takes a form similar to that of Dr. Pat Carrington’s Choices Method:

Even though I have procrastinated in the past,

I give myself permission to make meditation a priority.

Repeat three times on either the karate chop point or sore spot; then you tap on each of the tapping points while saying,

I have procrastinated in the past

.

Then tap again on each of the points while saying,

If you wish, you can do a third round alternating the first and second statements. Just make sure that you end on the permission statement.

The second form is simpler and just involves tapping while saying the permission statement. You do not need the set-up statement (”Even though”).

These tapping sequences can be repeated as often as necessary.

To be thorough, I should mention that the Permission Technique can be very powerful in situations where the client is not in a state of okayness:

Even though I don’t know what is causing this anxiety,

I give myself permission to reveal it to myself at a rate that is safe and comfortable.

However, the focus of this article is using Permission in achieving goals or a better quality of life.

At times we can give permission for a goal and it is pretty complete within itself:

However, giving permission can be very powerful when used sequentially. For example, “Joe,” a salesman who came to me because he could not seem to initiate sales calls to set up appointments with potential clients.

We worked through the normal fears of success and fears of failure using EFT with little success. Joe felt better but did not make any calls. So we started working with granting permission. We began with:

We don’t need to find all of our “blocks” and eliminate them. We just have to believe that they won’t stop us from moving ahead. In other words, we can succeed without addressing them directly. So we might say something like:

Joe had pretty much put all his eggs in this basket – he needed to make this sales job work. He thought he was not making the calls because of bad habits he had developed while unemployed. While that may have been true, he was also overwhelmed by the pressure of doing everything he needed to do to make a sale. Tapping directly on this feeling of overwhelm allowed him to feel better and excited to make his calls, but his enthusiasm died quickly once he got started, and he returned to a state in which he did not make his calls.

So, armed with the permission to succeed in spite of any blocks he might have, we did what some people call “Walking Backwards in Time.” The way this exercise works is that you imagine yourself on your personal time line. You are facing your future and your past is behind you. You imagine yourself turning around so that you are looking at your past. You see how you got to where you are right now. Now you walk backwards into the future to a point where you have succeeded in your goal.

Joe’s initial goal was to make enough money to meet some debts that were coming due in four weeks, so Joe walked backward four weeks into the future to the point where he paid his debt. He looked back at what he had done to get there. In order to pay this debt, he had to make three sales that week. In order to make three sales, he had to set up appointments, and in order to set up the appointments, Joe had to call his leads.

So, knowing that he had four weeks to generate three sales, we could design a four-week program. In the first week, Joe had to call his leads. We started by tapping with:

The goal of this week was simply to make the calls, as that is all Joe really needed to do to reach his goal. So we added some permission phrases to help relieve the pressure he was under.

I give myself permission to not set up any appointments.

and

I give myself permission to allow making the calls easily.

I give myself permission to enjoy talking with people on the phone.

Joe ended up making several appointments, but was not able to follow through with a single one. The first few canceled, and then Joe came down with a cold that put him out of commission. But he had placed the calls and had done so easily. So the next week we worked on making and following through with appointments.

At the end of the second week Joe had made two sales and was on his way.

Of course, Joe’s coaching sessions included more than simply the Permission Technique. Some of his issues were more readily resolved using traditional EFT: fear of creditors calling, pressure from his spouse, etc. We also used the principles of the Law of Attraction to reframe situations to make them more understandable and keep him focused on manageable, short-term goals. In this case, however, significant progress was made only after the Permission Technique was introduced.

Here are some more ways the Permission Technique can be used.

Use the Permission Technique to allow yourself more understanding, release, renewal, re-prioritizing, action, enjoyment, love, and freedom of choice.

&copy 2009 Chip Engelmann

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