How Can I Work With A Cancer Patient Using EFT Tapping?
EFT tapping for cancer relief
In this article you will learn about cancer, how it affects your mental health and how the EFT Tapping technique can be helpful in overcoming the stress, anxiety, and other overwhelming feelings that the disease may cause.
Cancer. No, not the zodiac sign, the disease. One of the most dangerous, infamous, and heartbreaking illnesses discovered on this planet.
It goes without saying that nobody wants to be afflicted by this illness. And yet, there are millions of people who are affected by it.
According to WHO reports, in the year 2020, cancer was responsible for nearly ten million deaths around the world. Cue the shudders.
For us, just hearing the numbers makes our eyes pop out of the sockets. But what about the people who actually have cancer? Can you imagine what they must be feeling? I cannot even begin to comprehend their state of their mind.
But the thing is, we humans persevere through the thickest of thorns, the foggiest of fogs, and the stormiest of storms. No one can deny the ability of our minds to transform us into the most resilient and tenacious of all living beings.
It is not an easy pill to swallow when one hears that they have cancer. We experience a myriad of emotions. Emotions which can and do threaten to overwhelm us in ways we have not dealt with before.
As someone who has seen a loved one suffer through this disease, let me tell you that it is not pretty. Not at all.
People who are going through the treatment or the after-care require a lot of support, care, and love.
Feelings of shame, guilt, anger, denial, anxiety, stress, over-thinking, sleepless nights become a daily part of their routine.
It is not easy to understand what they are going through, physically and mentally, and we feel so helpless because we think we are not able to do anything about it.
My mother was diagnosed with leukemia a few months ago. It was really heartbreaking to hear that she had cancer.
One day she was healthy and fit, and the next she was being wheeled off to a cancer specialty hospital in the middle of the night. It was all so sudden and confusing.
It is not easy on anyone. Not the person going through this disease nor their friends and families.
My mind could rationally understand that she had this disease, but my heart was not willing to accept it. I shuddered and cringed when I thought what she must have been feeling.
How difficult it must have been for her. What an arduous journey lay in front of her.
Before we dive into how EFT can play a pivotal role in helping with cancer treatment, let us take a journey into what cancer is, and how emotions affect the body during this state.
New to EFT? Learn how Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping heals.
Emotional Freedom Techniques (tapping) is clinically proven to lower stress, tension, anxiety, past trauma to enable health, happiness and vitality.
What Is Cancer?
We all know that the cells are the basic units of our body. They grow and multiply to form new cells. When the existing cells grow old, they die and the new cells take their place.
But, what happens when the old ones do not go away? They multiply. And instead of new cells, we get damaged cells spreading in our body through the bloodstream or the lymphatic system.
Cancer is the amalgamation of these damaged cells in our body.
Sometimes these damaged cells may form a tumor. Tumors may be benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous).
When the tumors spread to the other parts of the body and attack healthy issues, it is known as malignant.
There is a reason why cancer is one of the world’s most infamous illnesses: The body’s own cells are attacking it.
Causes Of Cancer
It is not normal for damaged cells to multiply, but if they do take the forbidden road, it is because of the changes in the gene that controls cell function.
This change in the genes occurs due to some errors while the cells are multiplied or it could be due to damage to the DNA due to a polluted environment, or UV rays from the sun.
It could also be that you inherited those genes from your parents.
Types Of Cancer
There are hundreds of types of cancer known today. Some of them are as follows:
- Breast cancer
- Leukemia (blood cancer)
- Lymphoma
- Brain Tumors
- Cervical cancer
- Metastatic cancer
- Ovarian
- Lung cancer, and so on and so forth.
"Cancer didn't bring me to my knees, it brought me to my feet"
- Michael Douglas
Emotions and Cancer
As I alluded to before, a flood of emotions will hit you the moment you know you are diagnosed with a particular type of cancer.
Some of these feelings we may have experienced before, but the intensity and severity of these emotions increases. So much so, that the individual diagnosed with cancer may not know how to manage them.
Let us go through them one by one.
1.
overwhelm
It is very common to feel out of control when the cancer news hits the individual. So many questions, so much anxiety ready to engulf you.
There are or will be so many changes that that individual would have to go through. Helplessness and loneliness are also something that one might experience.
My mother told me that all those medical terms the doctors used made her feel overwhelmed because she could not understand the meaning behind them and that made her feel more out of sorts with her situation.
2.
Denial
“Oh no, I do not have cancer. My reports must have been mixed up with someone else's.”
“I am fine, nothing is going to happen to me. I do not need to be admitted to the hospital.”
“Nobody in my family has ever had cancer. Surely, I do not have it.”
An individual who has received the news of them having cancer would have some difficulty in believing this. They go into the denial mode.
Sometimes it might be good to be in denial because then they have time to process all this new information.
But denial for too long can be troublesome because it would prevent that person from getting the proper treatment they should be getting.
3.
anger
This is a very normal reaction to have. That individual will feel angry with everyone. If they are the religious type, they would even be angry with God for putting them through tough times.
Anger with themselves, with family members and friends often overshadows other feelings that can be hard to see:
For example:
- Panic
- Nervousness
- Anxiety
- Irritation and frustration
- Fear
- Helplessness
Often, people do not know how to express these emotions and what does come out is anger. It is very easy to lash out with anger when one does not know how to cope with such feelings.
How To Self-Heal & Become An EFT Practitioner
Discover how EFT Tapping can help you to self-heal or to become professionally qualified as a Certified EFT Practitioner. Emotional Freedom Techniques (Tapping) is clinically proven to lower stress, tension, anxiety, past trauma to enable health, happiness and vitality.
4.
Fear, panic, and worry
Whenever our health is threatened, whether the issue is potentially fatal or not, fear is our primary response. Although it might not apply to all individuals, it is prevalent.
The following are some of the situations that a cancer patient could fear about:
- Fear of pain: before, during, or after the treatment. Pain is something which everybody fears - at one point or the other.
- Fear of how they look: Loss of hair, gaunt looking eyes, a tired and fatigued face. Nobody likes to look haggard, and the fear of being seen by other people is even more intense.
- Worrying not being able to take care of responsibilities: What will happen to my children if I am not able to take care of them?
"What will happen to my family?"
"Who will take care of the house?"
"What will happen to my dog if I am not there to feed him?"
"How will I pay for all these treatments?"
"Will my company relieve me of my job? Will I be jobless after?"
"Will I die?'
All these questions throw us in a loop of fear and worry.
5.
Anxiety and stress
Not everybody is open to change, especially when it has the potential to turn your life upside-down.
It is completely okay to feel stressed out about what is happening. Do you want to know a little fact about stress? Some stress is totally okay. In fact, it is essential for our growth. To make us resilient.
Anxiety keeps us on the edge, makes it difficult for us to relax. Overthinking, tension takes hold of us. It is the way our brain protects us because it thinks we are in danger.
We begin thinking with our emotions - which is not a good idea especially in times when strategic thinking, keeping a calm mind, and sound judgment is paramount.
I can go on and on about what unchecked anxiety and stress can do to our mind and body. The bottom line is: learning how to manage these conditions is essential to our sound healing.
Anxiety and stress express themselves in physical symptoms too. For example:
- Racing heartbeats and pulses
- Feeling fatigued, dizzy, lethargic
- Body pain and headaches
- Loss or gain in appetite
- Uneasy sleep cycles: too much or too little sleep
- Difficulty in concentrating
- Stomach pains
- Tightness in chest and/or throat
"An individual doesn't get cancer, a family does"
- TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS
american writer
6.
Depression and sadness
It is so very easy to slip under the blanket of depression and not have the energy or willingness to come out of it.
And a person who feels like they are losing their health and life because of cancer is inclined to fall into a depressive state.
Depression is that black pit (if you want to visualize it) where it is easy to go down but it is a hard climb back up. A climb they must make to overcome their suffering.
There would also be a reason to feel sad, because with all the things happening to the body, it seems like little energy is left.
7.
Guilt and shame
“Why does she have good health and I don’t?”
“I am so envious of how great she looks.”
“How can I fault someone for their health? I feel so ashamed of myself.”
“I am a burden to those around me because I cannot take care of myself.”
It is understandable that a cancer victim must feel envious of the health of others around them. They also wish to be free of this disease.
They also want to go hiking in the Himalayas, or sunbathe on the beaches of Goa.
Feelings of being a burden on those around you also come into effect.
A cancer patient would blame themselves for making their loved ones worry about them, they think it is their fault.
(Reminder: None of it is your fault.)
8.
Loneliness
Feelings of loneliness are bound to creep in. A person with cancer feels alone because he or she is not able to participate in their hobbies, in the things they used to enjoy.
They also feel as if no one can understand what they are going through.
How Can EFT tapping Help?
EFT is a self-help tool which will help unblock all the negative emotions in the body and mind, and has been clinically proven to help with stress, anxiety, fears and phobias, and even pain.
EFT cannot cure cancer, but what it will help with is the emotional stressors that can make it harder for the body to heal.
Our body is a wondrous organ, if you think about it. With cancer, there are various stages where the cancer patient needs support the most.
- During diagnosis
- During treatment
- After treatment
EFT Tapping can help one manage these overwhelming and confusing emotions.
You might wonder: Why is it so important to not let these emotions go rampant?
The answer, simply put, is that you are what you believe. Everything you think, you feel, has an impact on your mind, body, and soul. A calm mind is needed for a healthy body.
How Does EFT Exactly Work?
EFT Tapping is a mixture of acupressure and modern psychology.
Its foundations go way back thousands of years to ancient China, and it involves tapping on energy or meridian points on the body while saying out affirmations out loud to help with overcoming challenges or attaining life goals for a wholesome and fulfilled life.
By tapping therapy we are essentially telling our body - Hey, Mister! Calm down! I want to relax!
It is believed that our mindset, our attitude, our outlook in life impacts our well-being a lot.
With a build-up of negative emotions, we tend to stop this energy flow, and thus cause adverse effects on the body and mind.
The more power we give to negativity, the more we get stuck in a vicious cycle of temporary respite and relief.
As you tap on specific points on your body, and repeat specific phrases loudly, it directs kinetic energy through all the blocked meridians and clears the energy system to relieve you of the distress.
It was clear to me how mere tapping on these points can alter the distress in a memory and take you miles away from stressing over your well-being just to constantly get worried about oneself.
Now, let us find out how EFT Tapping can help with when cancer is like a thundercloud above your head
1.
suppressed or unchecked emotions
EFT can help deal with unexpressed emotions, it can help let go of them and resume the energy flow through the body. Emotions such as guilt, grief, unaddressed trauma, anxiety, to name a few.
As discussed above, so many overwhelming feelings can threaten to pull you over. Effective and efficient management is highly beneficial for a wholesome recovery.
2.
forgiveness
EFT Tapping and Inner Child Matrix can help forgive that which once seemed not forgivable. One is able to recover lost, forgotten memories essential to the issue and can help forgive the individual themselves or somebody else. It begins by uncovering what needs to be forgiven using the memory clearance techniques such as Tell the Story or Movie Technique. Once you realize what has been weighing on your mind, it becomes easier to let go and move on.
3.
regain lost confidence and improve self-confidence
With struggles faced and traumas endured, one may lose confidence in themselves, and sometimes even their self-esteem. EFT Tapping uncovers these past struggles through tapping on the energy points of the body with positive affirmations establishing confidence and improved self-esteem.
4.
overcoming limiting beliefs
Beliefs such as, “I cannot do this,” “I deserve this suffering,” “I am not able to…” These beliefs mostly stem from our childhood and what we have observed throughout our lives.
These kinds of limiting beliefs make us miss out on so many amazing opportunities where we could thrive in our life. EFT helps to uncover the root cause of these beliefs and overcome them.
New to EFT? Learn how Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping heals.
Emotional Freedom Techniques (tapping) is clinically proven to lower stress, tension, anxiety, past trauma to enable health, happiness and vitality.
EFT TAPPING STEPS FOR CANCER RELIEF
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT): EFT Tapping for cancer relief
Step 1:
Identify your feelings and explore them
Take deep, relaxing breaths and identify your emotions. What are you feeling?
Explore the physical sensations in the body associated with your current state of mind and use the physical tension tapping process to reduce the sensations.
Then use the EFT Tapping Points Process taught in detail during EFT Practitioner Training Online.
1.
To get started, begin by investigating the physical nature of pain.
Connect with the pain and notice where you feel it in the body. Then use the EFT Tapping for Physical Tension taught in detail during the EFT Practitioner Training to clear the surface feelings and feel calmer.
Briefly, you can begin by asking yourself the following questions to explore further:
- Where in the body do you experience these emotions?
- What is the colour, texture, size, shape of these emotions in the body?
- What are the sensations like? For example, rough or smooth.
2.
measure the level of your feelings by asking:
"What number are they on, where 10 is really high and 1 is not high at all." Just go with whatever comes to your mind, without thinking too much about it.
3.
Begin by Tapping on the Karate Chop or Side of the Hand EFT Tapping points:
"Even though I feel (insert whatever you are feeling and I feel it in my [part of the body where there is pain] and it's at a number 6 and it's red in colour and it feels rough, I deeply and completely love and accept myself." (Repeat 3 times).
4.
Then tap on the facial and upper body EFT Tapping points using these phrases:
- Eyebrow: This feeling..
- side Of the Eye: So (ex: painful, anxious, stressed...., etc)
- Under the eye: I feel it in my chest..
- Under the nose: It's a red colour...
- Chin: At a number 6...
- Collarbone: So rough...
- Under the arm: This feeling...
- Thumb: I feel it in my chest...
- Index Finger: So (ex: painful, anxious, stressed...., etc)
- Middle Finger: Really feeling..
- Little Finger: The colour red...
5.
Close the sequence by coming back to the EFT Karate Chop Tapping points and repeat once:
"Even though I feel (insert whatever you are feeling) and I feel it in my chest and it's at a number 6 and it's red in colour and it feels rough, I deeply and completely love and accept myself."
6.
Relax:
Take a gentle breath in, release it out, and take a sip of water.
7.
Test:
At the end of the EFT Tapping, you can ask yourself the following questions:
- What number is the feeling at now?
- What happened?
- How does it make you feel?
You can repeat this process by going back to Step 1 if you feel like the number could come down a bit more.
Step 2:
Discover past experiences where you felt similarly and clear them
Explore memories related to the physical tension and use the Tell the Story & the Movie Technique to clear it.
To uncover the memories linked to the symptoms of edema and fibromyalgia, you can ask questions like:
- When have you felt these sensations before?
- What do these sensations remind you of?
- When did the sensations start? What happened?
- Was there ever a time when you did not experience these symptoms?
- What can trigger and bring on the symptoms?
Identify past events linked to the feeling of this pain and resolve it with the help of tapping therapy.
You can ask the following questions:
- When have you felt like this before?
- What happens to trigger these emotions?
- Who or what triggers these feelings?
These questions will identify your past experiences associated with your current issues.
Step 3:
Explore any limiting beliefs that prevented you from being pain-free
Limiting beliefs are thoughts that can be conscious or unconscious and can end up becoming responsible for self-sabotage, procrastination and low self-esteem in an individual.
First, uncover the limiting beliefs which can either be at the surface level or associated with the deeper unconscious memories. Then shift them from stressful to empowering. For example,
- “Something bad is going to happen” to “Everything is going to be OK"
- "It is not safe" to "I am safe now"
Step 4:
Close with positive EFT Tapping for relief from cancer:
Examples of a positive tapping sequence might be:
- “Even though I felt painful—now, I am open to feeling pain free.”
- “Even though I was living with this pain for many months—now, I open myself to the possibility of being pain free."
"Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul."
- JIM VALVANO
American Basketball Player
Just the word ‘cancer’ coming from the doctor is enough to send us over the edge. Our thinking affects us, our whole life. Being overly positive all the time is not the answer. In fact, it can do more harm than good.
What will do us good is to accept who we are, what we are going through, and be prepared for the challenges ahead of us.
With EFT Tapping, we realize and get to experience the power we have over our thoughts and emotions. We prove to ourselves that yes, I have the ability to get over my fiercest challenges, my darkest doubts, my deepest fears.
And that, my friend, is a thrill.
We have this life. We decide what we are going to do with it. Let us make it a memorable one.
Love,
Dr. Rangana Rupavi Choudhuri (PhD)
P.S. Want to discover if EFT Tapping is right for you? Book a Complimentary Discovery Call.
How To Self-Heal & Become An EFT Practitioner
Discover how EFT Tapping can help you to self-heal or to become professionally qualified as a Certified EFT Practitioner. Emotional Freedom Techniques (Tapping) is clinically proven to lower stress, tension, anxiety, past trauma to enable health, happiness and vitality.
In summary, EFT is a very powerful tool to deal with scenarios like cancer that diminish your sense of peace and calmness. EFT Tapping helps to reduce tension, promote a deeper mind-body connection, and manage symptoms of anxiety, depression, or stress.
Disclaimer: The information on this website is purely for educational purposes and does not in any way replace the requirement for medical and psychological diagnosis and treatment. Please seek professional medical and psychological diagnosis and advice for all medical and mental health conditions. It is advised to always book any consultations with qualified professionals.
Learn Emotional Freedom Techniques for self-healing or to become professionally qualified - More
Our other seminars:
For the full calendar of events.
Other articles you may be interested in: