As someone who is familiar with The Emotion Code, you likely subscribe to the idea that, as an emotional being, you can be haunted and hindered by the emotional energies that inhibit your body. Though these “trapped emotions” can be triggered by emotionally-charged events that happened in the past, the powers of energy healing and effective muscle testing can help clear Heart-Walls, release harmful subconscious emotions, and improve the body’s overall sense of emotional well-being.

The history of manual muscle testing can be traced back to the early 20th century when it was used to measure disability levels in patients suffering from nerve damage as a result of injuries and diseases like polio. However, despite the fact that muscle testing has been around for decades, the practice is still being developed and experts are continually finding ways to make the procedure more applicable and effective for both practitioners and patients.

The following three tips can help you hone your muscle testing skills and determine which methods and practices are most effective for you.

Repeatedly Test Questions with Known Answers

One of the best ways to routinely test and improve your muscle testing skills is to repeatedly ask questions with known, concrete answers. Not only does this help your muscles better respond to clear “yes” and “no” questions, but it improves your ability to read your body and trust in your muscle’s response.

Consider mastering the “Finger Pad Test” outlined by Dr. Bradley Nelson. Ask yourself blatantly honest questions throughout the day like what your name is, what the date is, how old you are, etc. while simultaneously rubbing together the pads of your thumb and forefinger. If the answer is a yes, positive, or congruent answer, your pads will typically continue to slide with ease. If the answer is no, negative, or incongruent, your fingers will tend to stick and not slide as easily, due to the change in the body’s energetic field.

Muscle Test to Understand What Your Body Wants

Before you can begin to truly expose and uncover the energies connected to and affecting your subconscious mind, Dr. Nelson recommends becoming an expert at muscle testing your body to determine what it wants. This can be done via the Ring-in-Ring test, where you make interlocking rings with your fingers and, while asking yourself a question like “Do I want to eat this apple?”, gently pull the rings apart with the intent of separating them. If you find your fingers resisting and not breaking apart easily, this indicates an affirmative answer that, yes, your body does want to eat the apple. If your rings more easily break apart, this indicates your body doesn’t want the apple.

Do this frequently throughout the day by asking you body questions about what it wants. Remember to listen to your body, rather than your mind: even if you think you don’t want to go to the gym or take a nap, your body might tell you otherwise. By regularly checking in with your internal energies, you’ll be able to truly hone in on what your muscles are telling you.

Don’t Focus on Your Fingers

One of the most common mistakes that people make with their muscle testing is that they have a tendency to focus on their fingers as they are trying to get an answer. This actually makes getting an answer more difficult, and here’s the reason why. Imagine that you are a touch typist. Your fingers are flying over the keyboard at 100 words per minute, transcribing the document that you are intently focused on. Your fingers know what to do. Anyone who can type at rapid speeds will tell you that if they start to think about what their fingers are doing, or if they look at their fingers, their speed immediately drops drastically, and they begin making all kinds of mistakes. Muscle testing works best if you don’t focus on fingers and what they are doing. Instead, focus your mind on the question you are asking, or on the person you are testing. Allow your heart to fill with love and gratitude for that person, even if that person is you. Allow the muscle testing to take place slightly disconnected from you. You will find that it works much better this way.

Be Mindful of Pressure

One of the most difficult aspects of mastering muscle testing is to know how much and how long to apply pressure. Because you only need to apply a nominal amount of pressure to get an accurate reading, applying too much pressure can interfere with your test results and make it difficult to detect the difference between strong and weak responses. Like most things, you will continue to improve your skills the more you practice muscle testing, but there are things you can do to ensure you apply the appropriate amount of pressure.

Perhaps the most effective way to improve your touch is to slowly increase your pressure over 1-3 seconds. If you’re issuing a muscle test on yourself with either the Ring-in-Ring or Finger Pad tests, apply fingertip pressure as if you are pinching a dollar bill. After asking the question, slowly and gently apply additional pressure as you test for the muscle response. If you’re testing another person, apply light pressure like you’re testing for a pulse.

Though these tips are designed to help you hone your muscle testing skills, the most important thing to remember is that—in order to find success—you shouldn’t invest yourself in a particular answer or dedicate yourself to mastering a certain tip. Instead, experiment with different muscle testing practices and find which tactics work the best. One of the most critical elements of muscle testing is to understand what you’re feeling in your heart. By asking for help from above, filling your heart with love and gratitude, and believing wholeheartedly in your practice, you’ll be able to treat yourself and your recipients with the best care possible.