As you may remember from my last blog post (The Beginning of Something New: Positive Energy Psychology), I recently had an epiphany about how to do EFT in a whole new way that feels much more uplifting and empowering. I realized that we don’t necessarily need to focus on negative phrases, ideas, and memories in the way that EFT traditionally does. Although I love EFT and find it a very effective tool when I’m feeling intense negative emotion, I’ve never really liked its negative focus as a regular daily practice and I finally realized that this inner resistance was telling me something. There is another way.
So, today, I’m going to tell you how to do this new technique which I call Positive Energy Psychology, or PEP for short. PEP is my own version of EFT that involves simply touching twelve key acupressure points while you focus on various positive words and phrases related to what you want to experience.
Positive Energy Psychology is the Perfect Daily Practice
For me, I have found that PEP is the perfect technique to use every day, every morning and evening ideally. It feels very positive and uplifting, it only takes a few minutes, and you will feel really good at the end of each session. It’s the ideal daily practice. PEP is a great technique to use when you are not feeling a high level of emotional intensity and you want to focus on the positive. I have also found it to be a rapid and effective technique for releasing mild to moderate levels of anxiety or other emotions within a couple of rounds. For more intense emotional reactions in the moment, I find it most effective to do a simplified version of EFT where you simply tap on the points while you are thinking or feeling about whatever issue you want to clear.
How to Do PEP
To do Positive Energy Psychology, you simply focus on positive words or phrases while you use a medium amount of pressure to touch (not tap) these twelve key energy points:
1. Eyebrow
2. Side of the eye
3. Under the eye
4. Upper lip
5. Chin
6. Collarbone
7. Under the arm
8. Index finger (with the thumb of the same hand)
9. Middle finger (with the thumb of the same hand)
10. Ring finger (with the thumb of the same hand)
11. Pinkie finger (with the thumb of the same hand)
12. Thymus gland on chest with both hands (green dot on illustration)
If you have both hands free while you are doing PEP, you can activate the finger points on both hands at the same time. You can also just do the four finger points with the thumb as a secret finger touching technique while you focus on positive phrases if you are in public and want to be more discreet about it. (Thanks to David Lake and Steve Wells for introducing me to this technique.)
Step One: What Do You Want to Let Go of?
This first step is optional; it will just give you clarity about what you want to focus on with PEP. To do this step, just think about the problem that you want to let go of. This is what you do not want. You can write these down if you like to help you get clear for step two. It is not really necessary to formally focus on what you don’t want once you get the hang of this, but it can be helpful to do this while you’re learning this skill.
Step Two: What Do You Want?
Think about and/or make a list of what you do want. These are the positive phrases or affirmations that you will be anchoring in your mind with PEP.
The Most Effective Way to Phrase an Affirmation
I have found that the best way to phrase an affirmation for PEP is to simply describe the state that you want to be in rather than using a sentence or phrase using an “I statement” that labels you in a particular way. To clarify, let me give you an example of what I mean. Instead of saying “I am prosperous and happy” when this may not feel true to you, I find it more effective to simply say “feeling prosperous and happy.” Can you feel the difference between how these two phrases feel to you?
So, just leave the “I” out of the phrase and generally begin with a verb ending with “ing.” Here are some good ones to get you started: “being, feeling, knowing, welcoming, enjoying, appreciating, trusting…”
There seems to be less resistance to this form of affirmation from our consciousness. I think our ego has a harder time arguing with a simple phrase. You get around the resistance of your mind because you are not directly saying you are that. What you are doing is harmonizing your thoughts with what you want to experience. By focusing on the internal experience of what you want to feel, you bring yourself into vibrational harmony with what you want. If you are familiar with cognitive psychology or the ideas of the Law of Attraction, you know that it is much more powerful and effective to focus on what you want rather than what you don’t want. And it makes you feel much better. And that’s what the PEP technique is all about.
Step Three: Touch the Points As You Say the Positives
Next, simply touch each of the acupressure points as you think or say each of these positive phases that you’ve come up with. Make sure you take a couple of seconds to touch each point before you move on, saying one phrase for each point. Touch each point with a medium amount of pressure; you want to activate the point but it should be a comfortable feeling.
You’ll find that you begin to breathe more deeply and calmly as you go through this process. You may occasionally yawn as well. These are signs that your energy is releasing and coming into balance with these new positive thoughts. I’ve found that it generally takes a couple of rounds of PEP to feel your energy shift if you are experiencing any level of anxiety when you begin this process.
Why Touching Instead of Tapping?
Touching these points is a much gentler experience than tapping on the points. I still like to use tapping when I want to loosen issues from my psychological energy system. However, with PEP we want to remind ourselves of these positive thoughts and anchor those in our energy and belief patterns. To do this, I have found that it’s much more effective to simply touch the points. Touching these points instead of tapping them is much more calming and centering in my experience as well.
Don’t Hurry Through
As you go through each item on your PEP list, leave your finger on each point for a second or two. You don’t want to rush through this process because in my experience that can cause you to feel an additional layer of anxiety just from rushing. The process works most effectively if you simply touch the points with a medium amount of pressure for a couple of seconds as you say each phrase.
Effortlessly Releasing Resistance
You don’t have to focus on the negatives with PEP because as you say these positive phrases, the opposing negative beliefs, thoughts, and feelings will automatically be activated in you. Activating the energy points will help you to release the part of you that resists accepting these positive phrases without even having to focus on the negative beliefs and feelings directly at all. These negative beliefs naturally get activated when you begin focusing on what you want. As you touch the points, you release these underlying negative beliefs with PEP. You simply focus on what you want and activate the points; that’s all you need to do.
Step Four: Finish with Your Hands over Your Thymus
When you finish, place both hands over your thymus gland in the upper part of your chest. See the green dot in the illustration above to see where this point is. Close your eyes and say one of the positive affirmation phrases and then say, “And so it is. Thank you.” Placing your hands over your thymus gland is a natural thing that we all do to balance our emotional energy. By the way, simply placing your hands over your thymus works extremely well for releasing anxiety of any kind, particularly when paired with a positive phrase. (Thanks to David Childerley for introducing me to this point.) One of my favorite PEP phrases for relieving anxiety is this: “feeling peaceful well-being.” It will make you feel better in most situations you find yourself in.
Step Five: Check-In
Check in and see how you feel. If you are feeling better and you feel like that’s enough for now, then you’re done. If you’re still feeling any anxiety or other negative emotion, you can use EFT or PEP to continue clearing this issue. It’s a good idea to continue to address whatever issue you are focusing on until you feel better.
I love PEP. I have found it to be a wonderful daily practice. It feels very positive and uplifting to go through your PEP list each morning and evening. It’s as if it is resetting your consciousness to harmonize with what you know to be true at a deeper level of your being.
Because it feels so good to do it and you feel so wonderful when you’re done, it’s an easy habit to establish and follow. I hope you give it a try. If you do, please let me know what you think… I’d love to hear about your experiences.
More PEP to Come
I’ll be creating a lot of recordings and videos for PEP soon. My test anxiety program already incorporates a PEP recording. You may want to sign up for my free eNewsletter (in the right sidebar), my RSS feed, or subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want to be notified when I have new stuff available.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy PEP as much as I do. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Blessings,
Laura
