A few nights ago, I was surfing around the ol’ internetz, looking for some guided meditations. I’ve been struggling with both depression and boredom lately, and I thought I might find some visualization and relaxation exercises that I could use to help get me to a better place.

I did find some meditation podcasts that were pretty good, but the most intriguing thing I found was this video of a young, pointy-haired, British man tapping himself in the face. I have to admit that my love for Brit accents sucked me in more than anything, and then there was the what-the-heck factor as well. So I watched for a while, and since I was alone in my room anyway, I decided to play along.

The video was an introduction to Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). EFT is a method of releasing negative emotions by tapping on accupressure points. There are some scientific studies of EFT, but the results are mixed, and most of the evidence for it’s efficacy is anecdotal. But it’s not like it’s going to hurt you, and since the videos were free I thought I’d give it a shot.

The process involves recalling a negative emotion or experience, saying some affirmation-type statements out loud, and then the aforementioned tapping.  I felt enormously silly, at first - but then I got over it. By the time the 20 minute video was done, I actually felt better. Noticeably better. So I watched another video, and then clicked over to the website to find out more.

According to EFT proponents, you can “tap away” pretty much anything - from self-doubt to addictive cravings. There’s really no way to know if the tapping process works, or if it’s just focusing on the emotion and saying affirmations, or if it’s placebo effect or what. But here’s the thing that I really like about the idea behind EFT - that thoughts follow emotions.

Saying that emotions come first and then thoughts follow them is basically opposite of what every  therapist has ever told me. Most of my therapists (and especially the CBT trained ones) hold that first we have a negative thought, and then the negative emotion comes from the negative thought. So, if you can control your negative thinking, you can make yourself feel better. Which is all well and good, unless you’re like me and your negative feelings seem to spring up from nowhere, no matter how much analysis of your thought process you engage in. In fact, I’ve argued with basically every therapist I’ve ever had that they had it ass-backward, and what really happens is I feel bad, and then my thoughts latch onto that feeling and proceed accordingly.

So now I’ve been vindicated by Magnus of YouTube fame (that’s the pointy-haired Brit), who asserts that negative feelings are actually the culprit, and that once removed, the negative thoughts will vanish. The feelings are there, just trapped in our bodies as nervous energy, and that’s what the tapping helps to clear up. The more I’m typing the more this is starting to sound like woo-woo, crazy-talk, so I’ll just leave it at this. After many weeks of depression and moping around the house and generally backsliding, I found the EFT videos and did some tapping sessions. Today, I got up and went to the gym…and even stayed and worked out. And I wrote two blog posts. Did I mention that I did the “Procrastination” video? I still haven’t cleaned the house though…

I firmly believe that we never can have too many tools to deal with cravings, boredom, or any of the myriad other crap emotions that can derail recovery. Maybe EFT works the way they say it does, maybe it works some other way, and maybe it’s just a bunch of hooey. All I know is that I’m feeling better after trying it, so I’m going to give it another shot.