Why do We Need to Tap on the First Childhood Memory of Any Emotion? Or the First Time We Noticed a Certain Reaction?

This question is part of The Burning Questions Project. For answers to 100+ questions on EFT tapping, check out The Burning Questions Project and ask your own questions.

You see a lot of emphasis on finding the root cause or core issue when it comes to EFT tapping. A root cause is nothing but a belief acquired as a result of certain life experiences. Root causes more often than not can be traced back to our childhood times.

As children, we are constantly absorbing the emotional emissions of others. This is also the time when our belief system is forming. We are more impressionable. We are prone to believing something just because a grown up said so. When your primary school teacher told you that you would amount to nothing, it sounded like an ultimate truth. You’re probably still running your life based on that belief.

As children, we are open to forming positive as well as negative beliefs from our experiences. This belief system is our world view. If we diffuse the first memory of when we took on a belief, all the events that only reinforced the belief will also diffuse as a result. This will become clearer with an example.

Say you keep running into men who try to arm twist you into their way of thinking. As a result, you find yourself utterly powerless in your relationships with men. If you try to recall the first time you experienced this powerlessness, you may get reminded of a class bully who routinely troubled you in preschool. It may have been then that you reached a conclusion that no matter how hard you try, people will find a way to subjugate you and you will be able to do nothing.

As a grown up, you could have easily shrugged off this bullying, but as a kid, you did not have the necessary understanding or resources to stand up to a bully. The threat seemed real and being bullied seemed a way of life.

When you tap on the memory of the preschool bully, you are collapsing all the later incidents that only mirrored this belief. So tapping on the root cause not only saves a ton of time, but also modifies the way things go from now on.

Forming negative beliefs is not limited to childhood. There are times when are vulnerable and prone to forming limiting beliefs even as grown ups. Especially when we are faced with adversity, we are more impressionable. At such times, we are quick to reach conclusions because we feel better knowing that we have learned something from adversity. We tell ourselves that if we do this or that from now onwards, we will keep ourselves from getting into trouble again. Many of these conclusions become root causes for further problems.

This question is part of The Burning Questions Project. For answers to 100+ questions on EFT tapping, check out The Burning Questions Project and ask your own questions.