Dealing with stress and anxiety during this time is critical to our overall health and well-being. Wanted to share a mindfulness technique that brings about a peaceful and calm state of mind and body. It is called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) which is also known as tapping – where you lightly tap on the energy meridian points of the body with your fingertips. This helps to relieve fear, limiting beliefs, stress, judgement, pain, and any other negative patterns that are holding you back and keeping you stuck.
What is tapping?
EFT is a psychological acupressure method that supports emotional health by combining the cognitive benefits of therapy with the physical benefits of acupuncture to restore your energy and heal your emotions. Although, tapping does not use needles. You just stimulate the nine energy meridian points (see diagram below) that trigger the amygdala (aka the fight or flight part of the brain) and signal it to calm down.
How does tapping work?
The goal of tapping is to equal out disturbances in your energy field. Over 5000 years ago, the Chinese recognized a series of energy circuits that run through the body and called them meridians. This concept is what later became acupuncture and acupressure healing.
When you tap on specific energy meridians found on your face, head, arm, and chest, you can release negative patterns and even physical pain. While you tap on these spots, you talk out loud about the issue you are looking to heal. Allowing yourself to express emotion while simultaneously tapping on the energy points, sends a signal to the brain that it’s safe to relax. Our fear response, controlled by the amygdala, is lessened.
What are the benefits of tapping?
Personally, I have found tremendous relief after only 10 minutes of tapping from my limiting beliefs around money, confidence, and judgement. Often, I tap before bedtime especially if I am stressed after watching something on TV or a long day. It does take some practice to get to a comfortable place with tapping so do not give up after one or two tries. I promise you it is well worth the effort and can be quite freeing and emotional as you go through the practice.
I usually follow guided tapping meditations (recommendations below) but have also tapped on my own while listening to EMDR music therapy by Emdr in the background. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music.
Where to learn how to tap?
I recommend starting with downloading The Tapping Solution App created by Nick Ortner, best- selling author and motivational speaker. It is filled with a number of free tapping meditations including a tapping basics video as well tapping audios for releasing anxiety, stress, fear, grief, self-doubt, muscle pain, and boosting safety, patience, motivation, happiness, healing, quieting a racing mind, and falling asleep faster.
Guided EFT for anxiety and stress
If you are looking to address the root cause behind your stress, best-selling author and motivational speaker, Gabby Bernstein, has some great resources including a YouTube video tutorial to get you started.
Note that tapping can bring up some unexpected emotions so be aware and take full responsibility for your own well-being. Gabby first recommends starting by rating your stress level on a scale from 0 to 10 (being the most severe). Secondly, take a moment to write down the most pressing issue causing your stress. Some examples are:
- I’m stressed because of work
- I’m stressed because of my partner or marriage
- I’m anxious about a health problem or
- I’m just stressed out in general
Press play and get started here https://youtu.be/Clylzu4cP6A
What to do after tapping?
Once you have finished your tapping meditation, rate your stress level on a scale of 1 to 10 again. It’s likely you moved down and maybe even to 0!
Take note of the emotional shift that happened. If this works for you, keep tapping! If it didn’t work, keep tapping! Tapping has numerous benefits and reducing stress and keeping you calm is one of the greatest.
For additional mental health resources, please refer to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) at https://nimh.nih.gov
Love and many blessings.
Debbie