Difference between EFT Statements and Traditional Affirmations

By Puja Kanth Alfred, M.A (Psychology), EFT-CERT I , EFT-ADV

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The dictionary meaning of Affirmation is -“Something declared to be true; a positive statement or judgment.”

Example of an affirmation would be the famous quote by Emily Coue

“Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”

Dr. Joseph Murphy in his book “the power of sub-conscious mind” says that “to Affirm is to state that it is so, and as you maintain this attitude of mind as true, regardless of all the evidence to the contrary, you will receive an answer to your prayer. Repeating that affirmation knowing what you are saying and why you are saying it, leads the mind to that state of consciousness where it accepts that wish you state is true.”

History of Traditional Affirmations

Autosuggestion –

In 1920 Emily Coue gave the concept of autosuggestion which incorporates affirmations as a tool. He was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a method of psychotherapy based on autosuggestion or self-hypnosis. He has been called the Father of Applied Conditioning.

He said –“whenever you want to do something, or when you have some duty to fulfill, always remember that the task will be easy for you. Words like difficult, impossible, can’t, too much, not good enough … and so on, will disappear from your vocabulary, and be replaced by words like I can, it’s so easy, I will … If you think something is easy, then it becomes easy for you, although it might seem difficult to others. Whatever you do will be done quickly and effectively, without fatigue, almost without effort.”

The New Thought Movement, 1904–1910, introduced the Law of attraction concepts which uses affirmations.

William Walker Atkinson’s book “ Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World”, Bruce MacLelland’s book “Prosperity Through Thought Force andWallace D. Wattles’s book “The Science of Getting Rich” gave insights into the law of attraction.

The phrase “Law of Attraction” appeared in the writings of the Theosophical authors William Quan Judge in 1915 and Annie Besant in 1919.” “ (Source Wikipedia)

What are EFT Statements?

EFT Statements called EFT Affirmations differ dramatically from the traditional affirmations as outlined above. In EFT the statement that we repeat, “Even though I have this problem, I deeply and profoundly love and accept myself”, is NOT to affirm the negative as mistakenly believed by many people, BUT to remove psychological reversal. The format of EFT statement requires stating the problem and then accepting yourself with it, thereby removing the Psychological Reversal. In contrast, the traditional affirmations are about affirming the positive aspirations as if they were true.

Psychological reversal is caused by negative thinking. The EFT statement is a counter for that. In EFT the negative “reminder phrase” is repeated on each sequence point to remove the energy block related to that particular problem.

Conclusion

The EFT statements are NOT negative affirmations, as usually perceived by newcomers in EFT. They do NOT instill negative. EFT Statements also known as affirmations are designed to weed out the negative thoughts and emotions from your system. Remember traditional affirmations did not require tapping on the acupressure points. However, in EFT the acupressure points and sore spot are used to remove the negative effects of the problems.

EFT can also be used to reinforce a positive affirmation by using choices method.

One can also use a traditional affirmation to find tail Enders and then tap on that tail ender with EFT statements.

Example of a traditional Affirmation – “I am a picture of perfect health’

Tail ender- “but I am not.”

EFT statement – “Even though I am not a picture of perfect health, I still love and accept myself”.

In conclusion I would suggest that it is more logical to call EFT affirmations as EFT statements to avoid confusing them with traditional affirmations.

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Puja Kanth Alfred

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