The following is a letter written to Gary Craig, the developer of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), a psychological accupressure technique that involves tapping on the body's energy meridians, as well as the use of positive affirmations:

Dear Gary,

I'd like to share an experience using EFT while I was exercising that occurred earlier today.

First, thank you; thank you, for your wonderful gift of EFT. I feel very blessed to have learned about EFT and very grateful you have made EFT information so available, so affordable, and so user-friendly for all the non-professionals like me.

Over the last three weeks I have been working my way toward a daily 90-minute aerobic workout to help a specific medical condition. This is part of Dr. Mercola's "exercise as a drug" concept and coincidently, I first learned of EFT from Dr. Mercola's website;

Thank you Dr. Mercola!

Today I felt ready to reach my 90-minute goal for the first time.

My workout on my old cross-country ski exerciser was uneventful for the first 50 minutes. At that point however, despite lowering the machine's resistance, my heart rate began to climb higher than I wanted. My goal is to keep my average heart rate as close to 136 beats/min as possible. (This is to obtain the maximum benefit, without working too hard and crossing over into an anaerobic, gasping for breath, workout.) I use an averaging pulse meter to monitor this.

It's interesting to watch how my body responds on different days to essentially the same exercise. On this day I could not keep my pulse below 140 and still exercise with my arms, so I stopped using my arms and continued working my legs only. For the next twenty minutes my pulse stayed between 136 and 140.

At about the 70-minute mark I felt pretty fatigued, tired enough to seriously consider stopping. I always listen to my body and, although my legs were sore, there was no actual pain or other signs of "too much."  I was surprised, as I had previously completed several 70- or 80-minute sessions without this fatigue. On the other hand, whatever was going on, I did not want to overexert, as that could just set me back for the next several days.

Without making a conscious decision to do so, I began to tap while still exercising, something I have never done before. Tapping on the karate chop spot, my set up was "Even though I'm feeling tired, I choose to continue so I can strengthen my body, my mind, and my spirit."

I continued two rounds of tapping with reminders such as "choosing to continue," "feeling healthy," "getting stronger," and whatever else came to my mind at the moment.

I don't know why I stopped tapping after two rounds, like my beginning, that was not a conscious decision. However, after only one or two strides I suddenly realized I felt much better! And let me tell you, now I was very conscious!

I did a quick physical check in and could find no difference in the feelings in my leg muscles. They were still sore, tired, no better, no worse. But mentally and emotionally, wow, I felt positive, confident, and satisfyingly tired; not weary tired. There was not the slightest need or desire to stop. Awesome!

But here is the most amazing part to me. After the tapping, my pulse had suddenly dropped to 128! This was the exact same physical load that had kept my heart rate close to 140 for the past 20 minutes. I was very curious so I made no changes, continuing to work only my leg muscles at the same pace. My pulse stayed at 128 to 132, and no higher. At the 90-minute mark I still felt comfortably tired. I kept going. At the 100-minute mark: no change, I still had plenty of positive energy and my pulse still 128-132!

I could have continued, but EFT is not an excuse for stupidity. I am 53 years old and haven't exercised all winter. Now, after only three weeks of warm up I had just completed 100 minutes of solid exercise at 80 percent of my maximum recommended heart rate. Discretion can be the better part of valor.

Gary, I can't tell you how exciting this use of EFT is to me. Ten hours later I still feel great. I have put in a full day's work and now I'm appropriately tired, ready for some rest. I can detect no lactic acid build up in my leg muscles and I'm looking forward to a strong, healthy workout tomorrow, but with a new exercise tool to help me through the rough spots, EFT!

Now I really will "try it on everything!"

Gratefully,

Paul Pieri, Little Compton, RI