As I begin this experiment it seems appropriate to document where I am currently in my life – physically, emotionally, financially and spiritually. One of the key steps in the EFT technique is to gauge your state of well being and rate how distressed you feel about it with a number between 1 and 10 – 10 being  the most upset and unhappy you could be. They call that rating the SUDS – Subjective Units of Disturbance Scale.

Physically - (8) This area needs a lot of work these days. As I mentioned in my About Me page, I am in my late 30′s (pretty darned close to 40 actually). I am generally pretty healthy but at 5’5 tall and 167 pounds I am most definitely overweight. I haven’t lost the baby weight from my last pregnancy and I haven’t had the time nor the motivation to do anything to improve matters.

I am an emotional eater and I’ve been doing a LOT of compulsive eating in the last year or so which has prevented me from shedding those extra pounds. I won’t lie. Losing this weight is one of my biggest aims since it affects everything else in my life. My libido is pretty close to non-existent (to my husband’s profound discontent). My clothes don’t fit right. I’m lethargic from carrying this extra weight and that keeps me from going out more often and doing things with my husband and children. To summarize; this extra weight needs to GO!

Financially - (9) This area of my life is a BIG mess. We filed for bankruptcy in August of this year and things have been real tight. The only reason I did not rate this area a 10 is because at least my husband has a job and is able to provide an income for the family.

I used to also bring an income into the household but had to quit to take care of my children full time. We realized that daycare costs outweighed the amount I was able to make. Losing my ability to do something with my life aside from keeping house and children has been really difficult for me. I miss the mental stimulation of my job and many times I feel that I am not cut out to be a full time Mom and wife. I suspect my feelings of depression are greatly due to this major shift in my life.

Emotionally – (8) My emotional state – especially as of late – has been quite unstable. I have my moments of clarity (especially after several rounds of tapping) but for the most part I feel depressed, overwhelmed, anxious and pretty BLAH quite a lot of the time.

Spiritually - (7) Through the years I am studied many different religions and philosophies but today I am no closer to feeling that deep feeling of faith and connection to the divine that I’ve been seeking all this time. I would love it if EFT could help me feel that spiritual connection I’ve glimpsed at briefly through the years on a more consistent basis.

Well…. from reading that… I sound like a big mess. The first step to solving any problem is acknowledging the problem, right? I think I am ready to make some big changes in my life.