If you’ve gone to therapy, you may have a very good idea of what is pushing you around. In that case, you can simply talk and tap at the same time until you realize that the thing that was driving you crazy seems quite silly, and that you now have compassion for the person responsible for your pain. (This does not give permission for them to hurt you again!)
You can use a doctor’s diagnosis as a great way to start tapping, and to change that reality. Really? Tapping can absolutely change physical reality. It usually takes longer than changing our emotional state, but it is quite possible.
And perhaps you just want to feel better. Your knee has been bothering you. We tend to look away from pain, but look into this pain carefully, as though it were not yours. Ask questions: where exactly is the pain, what does it feel like (a knife slice, a nail driving in, a fire?), what color does it have? Then you think, well duh, of course my knee hurts, the docs told me I have major arthritis in this knee! For the moment, set aside what the doctor said. Here’s why! There are very interesting studies with x-rays taken of people who have knee pain, and people who do not. Here’s the deal: Both sets of people have arthritis in their knees! But some people do not feel pain. Back to the tapping. Let’s say your knee pain is like a knife slice in this one particular area and it is icy white. Furthermore, it hurts like this when you get up from a sitting position. At that point it is a 9-10. When you’re not getting up, it is a dull gray ache and is about a 3.
Starting to tap on the side of hand, you will say three times: “Even though I have this icy white knife slice in my knee, I totally love and accept myself.” It is fine to alter the front part of the statement some. For instance, you might add, “and it drives me crazy because I don’t know what to do about it and I don’t want surgery!” Then you have a choice for the rest of the tapping. You can pull a couple of key words out of your statements, which can be as simple as “this knee” or “this white hot knee.” Or, you can start tapping around while simply describing what is going on in the knee and how you feel about it. Tap about 7-10 times on each point while you say your words about three times. You can go around the points more than once. Pay close attention while you are going around – does some other memory come to you? If so, hold that thought! If possible, write it down so you don’t forget it. When you stop, ask yourself, what’s my number now? One way to find out the number with this knee will be to stand up!
If the number has gone down to 0-1, you are done. If it has gone down, but is not 0-1, there are two options. The first option is that you change the statement to this: “Even though I still have some of this issue in my knee, I totally love and accept myself.” The key word is simply “remaining knee.” This acknowledges that you have had some improvement, and still have a ways to go. Keep tapping! It may feel fantastic to be at a 5 if you started at 10, but don’t stop! Do pay attention. Has anything shifted? How would you describe it now? Change your language and tap for that.
The second option is that while you were tapping you had a memory pop up, perhaps of that time when you fell skiing. Go back to that memory, and, unless it is too painful, go “into” the memory. (If you know it is too painful, stop! Do not do this by yourself, get help! See below) Make it slow-motion, and pay careful attention to how you felt – not just the knee pain afterwards, but to the initial “uh-oh” beginning panic, the shock of landing, the further shock of realizing that you were hurting badly, the noise of your friends yelling, all of this can be tapped on, piece by piece, until you can go back and look at the whole thing as a kind of curious thing that you realize happened to you, but it doesn’t feel like it relates to you any more. This can be relatively quick, or you may be surprised that you have uncovered more than you expected – take your time! It will be worth it. When you have done that, come back to present time, stand up, and assess your current number. You may be at a 0-1, just for clearing the memory. If not, then assess how you would describe the issue now, and tap on that. If it still doesn’t hit 0-1 in a few rounds, just make a note to come back to it later. You may find that the whole issue subsides over the next 24 hours. You may find another memory that is relevant and needs to be cleared. You may find that when you clear up an issue someplace else, that the issue in the knee goes away.
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