In Feb 2014, I was all set to experience my inner self and so I enrolled myself for Vipassana. Anxious, yet excited, I began my journey. I went to Igatpuri, finished the documentation work, set up my room and submitted my phone (which was the hardest thing ever!). As I sat in my room, the severity of the loneliness caught up with me and I threw up. I was trying to calm myself and I threw up once more. Soon, it was time to assemble in the hall. The churning in my stomach began and I threw up yet again. By this time, I was really exhausted. I knew it was a desperate subconscious attempt to get out of there, back to the safe and the known. I knew I didn’t want to be there, I just couldn’t be there. So I approached the authorities, made a few calls back home. My husband told me that he would be there to pick me up the next day. I was shifted to another area and given a room away from the other participants. It was eerie, I was alone.  My health worsened with a bout of diarrhoea. I was desperate for the morning to arrive. Though I was relieved, I also felt like a failure, deep within. I knew I had failed myself.

I was quiet throughout the journey back home. With every passing moment, I cursed myself for being such a coward. I could have been better the next day. If only, I could hold on for a day…That evening, while mindlessly surfing the net, I came across a link to the World Tapping Summit by The Tapping Solution. I had seen a video of tapping, also known as Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT while studying Hypnotherapy and it had really intrigued me then. A beautiful synchronicity caught me unawares. It was the day the 10-day summit began for which I just had to enrol free of cost. The 10 days beautifully coincided with the 10 day Vipassana course I had just left. So, to compensate for my failure, I took it upon myself to listen to their two audio presentations daily. I would tap along, make notes and internalise every word spoken. The times I couldn’t attend, I made sure I recorded them to listen to it later.

By the end of those 10 days, I had another tool added to my repertoire of therapies, this one being my favorite. I knew I was made for EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)  and it is going to change my life. In the days that followed, I applied it to anything that I could for myself, headaches, back pain, anger, lethargy, etc. I even worked on the feeling of failure that I got because of my return from Vipassana. It helped.

But the best of my EFT sessions were yet to come. In June 2014, we went on a family trip to Bali, Indonesia. We all excitedly enrolled ourselves for deep sea diving in Gili, a beautiful sub island. The lessons in the pool were a cakewalk but I knew the first session in the ocean would be a real test. Though I love being in the ocean, it really intimidates me with its endlessness, in terms of depth, expanse and sheer power. So, in my first attempt, I came down with a panic attack and refused to go down to the sea bed. I just floated on the surface, wishing if only I had enough courage…When I climbed back to the boat to go back to the shore, I experienced a bad sea sickness. I knew I had to tap on it. My father insisted on a tablet, but I remained adamant. Within a few moments, I was ok. I kept tapping even while having lunch. I tapped as and when I could, to prepare myself for the next day. I had to do this. And I knew in my heart that EFT could make me do it.

The next day, as a measure against sea-sickness, everyone popped a pill. I went ahead without it. I kept tapping and the first hurdle was over. The next one was jumping from the boat, backwards, with my head first. It was scary as hell the first time. They had to push me. This time, I did it rather elegantly. I was impressed, partly with myself, majorly with the power of tapping. When I was taken down, I was mesmerized by what I saw. It felt like I was not on earth anymore. It was so beautiful and yet so crude, nature at its best. No sound, only life echoed in my ears and I was filled with gratitude to God to have given me this chance to witness the marvel that I did. I touched the sea bed, and I knew, that no matter where you are, you need a base to hold magnificence, you need grounding. Seeing so many fishes swim by, I was wooed by the number and variations of colours that swam with me. So many vibrant colours, changing and moving. I was exposing my senses to the best experience ever. I swam through the ocean delighted, camouflaging myself with the serenity of the depths of the ocean.

As I climbed back to the boat, I sat on the stairs leading up, with the lower half of my body still under water and a current of joy running up my spine. I knew I had befriended my fear, only to let it go…

Since then, I have used EFT with so many things, with myself, my family, friends and clients. I even got over my fear of flying using this wonderful yet simple technique. I later undertook professional training to learn it and it has further increased my orbit of using it.

For me learning Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT is like having a black dress, a white shirt and a pair of denims…absolutely essential in one’s wardrobe of life! I hope it touches your life the way it did for me and millions of others.

– Mitali Akarte Kokate, Dr Sodhi’s Enhancers