10 Ways to Combine Meditation with EFT

by Patricia Carrington, PhD

While there may be other reasons for the success I have obtained in combining EFT tapping
and modern meditation, here is what I have observed over the more than 25 years that I
have been experimenting with using these two techniques for my clients and groups.
Meditation provides a constant stabilizing effect that supports the periodic
troubleshooting action of EFT/Tapping. Meditation brings a special type of enforced
rest each day to the person who uses it one that is easier for the average person to
observe than are vague therapeutic prescriptions to "take it easy and get more rest," and it is
quite different in its effects from just napping. It therefore has a special value for many
people. I find that meditative rest gives a more solid basis to my EFT work with clients. After
commencing meditation, people tend to become steadier emotionally and better able to
handle any difficult problems that may arise during their EFT sessions. They are also more
apt to bring up core problems to deal with during EFT, ones they might have felt unprepared
to tackle before.
Meditation Reduces Anxiety Markedly. Although we
frequently see EFT reduce anxiety dramatically, I find
that it is only the person who consistently uses EFT every day
to target their anxieties who, in the long run, becomes less
prone to unreasonable fears in general ( i.e. who overcomes
generalized anxiety). Unfortunately not too many people have
the persistence needed to chip away at overwhelming anxiety
using a targeted technique such as EFT, and it is very valuable
to help such people get a running start on their anxietyreduction by using a global technique such as meditation to
reduce their overall level of anxiety. Since meditation does not
target a specific problem the way EFT does, it allows the entire Learn to Meditate with the
body, mind and spirit to find a peaceful space to be in so that
Complete Meditation
EFT can do its work.
System
If a clients anxiety level is too high to sustain the gains we have made with EFT for a long
enough time to allow them to take hold, I usually teach that person Clinically Standardized
Meditation (CSM) and we often see the benefits of doing this within the first week. At that
point, the regular practice of meditation can turn the tide in my EFT work with that person. It
can change the client who is too distressed to know which issue to tackle first, into a calmer
and more focused person. When that happens, I then have someone to work with in our
therapy sessions instead of having to rescue my client repeatedly from a state of deep
anxiety. Regular meditation can therefore be a great help in sustaining the benefits of EFT.
For Physical Illness. Another area where I find the use of meditation combined with EFT to
be extremely valuable is for stress-related illness. We have learned a great deal about the
possibilities of using EFT in this area and the advantages of adding meditation to the
therapeutic mix for this purpose are impressive.
Research shows that many stress-related illnesses respond extremely well to meditation.
These range from bronchial asthma to high blood pressure, to heart conditions, to high
cholesterol, and to many of the addictions, to name but a few. Treating a physical condition
with EFT and meditation (a winning combination in my estimation), the person gets help from

two different directions at once; EFT targets the core issues that need to be dealt with, and
meditation lends both physiological balance and spiritual support to this process.
Sleep Problems May Need the Combination of Both Techniques. Sleep problems have
been shown by research and clinical reports to be so responsive to meditation that if I have
to decide whether to use meditation or EFT to start with for this condition, I usually choose
meditation as the first line of attack because of its remarkable physiological relaxing effect.
Research has shown that meditation has an excellent ability to counteract insomnia and my
clinical experience strongly confirms this. However, eventually I tend to use both methods
combined for this purpose. Meditation gives the person a quieter and deeper sleep, often
quite soon after they learn it, and EFT can then target specific bouts of wakefulness and deal
with the deeper problems in the persons life that may be causing the insomnia in the first
place. Again, a winning combination.
Meditations Energy Increase Can Assist EFT. For many people, meditation results in a
surge of deeply nourishing energy which, if they meditate daily, becomes part of their life
from that point on. This results in a lessened need for daytime naps, increased physical
stamina, increased productivity, the dissolving of writers or artists block, and sometimes the
release of unsuspected creative potential. I find that as we work on specific blocks to
creativity using EFT, adding meditation to the clients life can be extremely useful to open up
their creativity in general. It can assist targeted EFT sessions by working continuously night
and day to dissolve the underlying block. Again, the two methods can work synergistically to
achieve remarkable results.
Lessening of Self-Blame. A little-known effect of meditation is the lessening of
inappropriate self blame often reported by meditators. This can result in an impressive
change from self castigating to self accepting, self nourishing behavior. While we can tackle
the specifics of a clients self-image problems with EFT, the addition of meditation a time
when the person is in close communion with a deeper part of themselves that is totally
nonjudgmental can assist profoundly. I often watch with wonder as a person becomes less
self-critical after they take up meditation and often develops a simultaneous increase in
tolerance for the human frailties of others. This makes it easier for them to tackle more
sensitive issues with EFT because self-blame is no longer getting in the way of their doing
so. Meditation can therefore be of great assistance to EFT when a tendency toward self
blame is excessive one technique complements the other.
Meditation Makes Previously Buried Emotions More Accessible
Another way that mediation can help progress with EFT stems from the fact that those who
commence meditation often find hidden emotions coming to the surface. Meditators often
report experiencing pleasure, sadness, anger, love, and other emotions more fully than they
did before and sometimes they experience emotions which had previously been unavailable
to them, or recover buried memories that are emotionally charged. These memories or
emotions can then be worked on productively with EFT.
Increased Sense Of Identity
People who meditate regularly often report that they have become more aware of their own
opinions after commencing meditation, that they are not as easily influenced by others as
they were before, and that they can arrive at decisions more quickly and easily. They may
also be able to sense their own needs more accurately, and therefore become more
outspoken and self assertive and more able to stand up for their own rights effectively. This

natural flowering of a sense of self and of ones own genuine rights works to assist EFT by
allowing the person to tackle self-assertion and self-esteem issues much more quickly with
EFT than they might otherwise do.
I find that in their EFT sessions, the person now tends to bring up core issues more readily
and to have more courage dealing with them than they did before. They may also be more
willing to address issues of self assertion with EFT where before they may have felt that this
would be futile.
Ability to Separate From Others Where Necessary
One result of the increased sense of identity that comes with meditation is the persons
ability to separate from significant others when such a separation is called for. Meditation can
be dramatically effective for counteracting pathological bereavement reactions, impending
separation or divorce, the anticipated loss of children who are growing up and will soon leave
home, etc. EFT can then be used to zero-in on specific painful thoughts associated with the
impending (or actual) loss, and change them to positive and appreciative thoughts. The
soothing effects of meditation can be an enormous help as it works in the background and
we apply EFT in the foreground.
Marked Lowered of Irritability
Many meditating people become far less critical in their personal relationships within a
relatively short time after commencing meditation. A large-scale study of CSM meditation at
the New York telephone company, in which over 5,000 employees were taught this method,
showed that a marked lessening of irritability and shortness of temper" was one of the most
appreciated results of meditation.
I find it extremely useful to add meditation to a clients EFT treatment if impulsive outbursts
or chronic irritability are an important part of the picture. It is extremely useful to obtain the
general lowering of irritability that comes with meditation so that we can move more easily
from issue to issue with EFT.
Conclusions
To sum up the use of meditation together with EFT, we might say that this combination allows
the person to approach any problem from two different angles at once the global
approach of meditation melding with the specific approach of EFT, each technique
augmenting the other. And, as the old saying goes, The whole is (often) more than the sum
of its parts.
Dr. Patricia Carrington, EFT Master,