Since I learned about EFT, I've been using it extensively. When I first began using it, I mostly used it for physical symptoms. For instance, "this dull pain in my ascending colon," with as many rounds as it took for me to gain relief. I also used it with affirmations. For example, for months, every night before I went to bed, I went through a round or two of EFT while saying, (at each tapping point), "My colon allows me to sleep for eight hours without interruption." I started out saying, "My colon allows me to sleep until morning without interruption," but in high summer, morning light came before five o'clock a.m., so I had to modify my statement, because my body took me at my word and woke me up as soon as it became light!

As I progressed, I began addressing more emotional issues, past and present. For example, there was an occasion in my childhood when I got in trouble unfairly. I not only tapped on the occasion itself, but on my feelings about what my sister said that caused me to react in a way that got me into trouble, my mother's tone of voice and facial expression in responding, my hyperventilating later on when I was by myself, the fact that my father didn't come to my defense and finally, forgiveness, for myself and everyone involved. (What was unfair was that I was the only one who got into trouble.)

Recently, I've been able to deepen to why I got Crohn's Disease in the first place. Writing out my health history for Dr. Dean was extremely helpful in making patterns visible to me. Physically, I had recurrent bladder infections while pregnant with my first son, and was treated with antibiotics several times over the course of about a year, without being treated with probiotics. (Yes, I cringe to think of that now, but back then, I simply trusted the doctors to tell me what was best without any input from me.) Also, there were years of steady ibuprofen use. There were years of pressure while I was the main breadwinner and my husband was starting a business and simultaneously, years of eating convenience food because both of us had so many demands on us. Over years, there was a lot of consumption of starchy, sugary food, with its attendant immune system suppression.

So there are physical reasons....these are the physical things I believe predisposed me to getting Crohn's Disease in the first place. But underlying that, there are emotional/spiritual reasons, and here is where a gold mine of "tappable" points can be found. "WHY?" is the best question I've learned to ask to uncover issues. For instance, WHY, when I knew better, did I consume such a large proportion of sugary foods? WHY didn't I love myself enough to take care of myself the way I knew to? If I don't know the answers, I might tap on a statement like, "Even though I don't know why I consumed so many sugary things when I knew they weren't good for me, I deeply and completely accept myself." Sometimes, while tapping on a statement like that, something else comes to mind and allows me to delve further into the issue at hand, or perhaps a related issue.

I've even tapped on a statement like, "I ask my tissues to release any traumas they've been holding for me, " and then subsequently tapped on anything that came up in my mind, which might be something at one time and nothing at another.

I've also tapped on cravings, if I'm craving something like a cookie or brownie, which the rest of the family is having, but which I know is going to be detrimental to me. In a case like this, where I'm in more of a public forum, I'm likely to imagine myself tapping and verbalizing on the issue rather than actually speaking and tapping. I find that works just as well.

Besides the free newsletter on Gary Craig's website, a book I've read which gave me some good insights was, "The Eight Keys to Healing What Hurts" by Rue Haas. It is available at www.lulu.com.