Let’s tap, let’s tap away!
Tapping 101. It’s like acupuncture, but without needles, because who likes needles anyway.
Formulated in the ’90s, this alternative practice is gaining more and more popularity these days, thanks to its painless effectiveness; the Emotional Freedom Technique. Also known as Tapping, EFT is helping reboot our personal energy system with its non-invasive procedures. Everyone can practice EFT to help treat a wide variety of physical and psychological disorders, such as chronic pains, trouble sleeping, body dysmorphia issues, PTSD, or lifelong phobias. EFT is inspired by acupuncture, hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, and energy psychology.
“EFT is a simple, powerful process that can profoundly influence gene activity, health, and behavior” – Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. Sometimes, when we feel stuck with the standard options to heal our issues, it might be time to venture towards new alternatives. Tapping offers a non-invasive, gentle, soft alternative to healing. As described in the EFT International Tapping Manual, acupuncture uses needles on these points to release stuck, stagnant energy and rebalance the system; acupressure uses finger pressure. EFT has been called a psychological version of acupuncture; the simple process of tapping specific acupoints while focusing on an emotional upset helps release the intense charge of troubling emotions. No matter how challenging and intrusive symptoms may be, Tapping may have great wonders to offer. EFT is indeed a remarkable, life-changing tool. It can help you value, explore, and transform your emotional reality and the thoughts, beliefs, emotions you carry with you.
What is tapping?
The Divine Order Healing Center describes the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as an alternative treatment for physical pain and emotional distress. It’s also referred to as Tapping, or psychological acupressure, is a body and mind self-help method. It combines a gentle touch with mindful and vocal attention to thoughts and feelings. People who use this technique believe tapping the body can create a balance in your energy system and treat pain. According to its founder, Gary Craig, an energy disruption is the cause of all negative emotions and pain, and any imbalance can influence disease or sickness.
Tapping is an energy psychological technique where we use our hands and apply some physical pressure on specific mediums and acupressure points to break up energetic blocks within the body so as to implant new beliefs and release stress and anxiety.
EFT, similar to acupuncture, focuses on the meridian points — or energy hot spots or acupoints— to restore balance to your body’s energy. It’s believed that restoring this energy balance can relieve symptoms a negative experience or emotion may have caused. It is crucial to stay hydrated and drink lots of water to keep flushing your body after you do any energetic work.
The benefits of EFT
Although EFT has not collected enough significant support in clinical psychology yet, Tapping has already shown many benefits. The EFT International Tapping Manual states that Tapping can:
- Relieve stress and promote general relaxation
- Release and transform painful, uncomfortable, or “negative” emotions like anxiety, sadness, anger, guilt, frustration, etc.
- Improve or even eliminate some types of physical discomfort or pain
- Heal the effects of emotional trauma whether you remember the incident or not, whether the emotional trauma came from one event or many
- Diminish cravings for food and addictive substances
- Resolve financial blocks and help us change our financial behavior
- Address relationship problems
- Reprogram limiting beliefs
- Resolve emotional eating and weight issues
- Ameliorate or relieve symptoms from diagnosed medical conditions
- Relieve phobias and other fears, irrational or otherwise
- Relieve the symptoms of PTSD
- Foster better sleep and sleep habits
- Increase self-esteem, clear-thinking, positive feelings, and a sense of greater peace
- Improve performance (artistic, professional, athletic, sexual, etc.)
- Maximize creativity, visioning, and goal setting
- Increase energy and productivity
- Empower children, parents, and families
- Benefit the lives of animals
- Transform old patterns
- Promote spiritual growth, self-empowerment, and confidence
- Move us beyond self-limiting beliefs and open us towards greater possibilities
Just to name a few!
Let’s try tapping!
There are a few different ways to tap, all very effective. One of the most common sequences is the following;
Write down the issue
Be honest with yourself. Write down what is causing you trouble lately. It can be anything; eating disorder, phobias, chronic pain, name it! Clarify the issues as much as possible.
Evaluate
Rate your issue on a scale from -10 to 10 your level of pain or hurt; -10 extremely painful and 10 being really great.
Acknowledge the issue
Once you’ve written down the issue, it is time to acknowledge it by turning it into a statement, using the following sentence; “EVEN THOUGH I (use past tense) name issue, I DEEPLY AND PROFOUNDLY LOVE (accept, forgive, respect, believe in, trust, etc.) MYSELF”
Example: “Even though I have criticized every inch of my body, I deeply and profoundly love and forgive myself” or ” Even though I am terrified of bees, I deeply and profoundly love myself.”
Get ready to start Tapping
Before you commence tapping, you can start with a HAB experience. A Heart Activation Breathing is a guided meditation to help you breathe through your heart and breathing a little more deeply than usual. As you breathe in and breathe out, imagine you are doing so through your heart. In through the heart. Out through the heart.
Let’s tap it away!
Once ready, take your dominant hand to tap, gently but assertively, the following points for a few seconds. As you tap along, repeat your statement out loud.
- Karate chop point (side of the hand)
- Top of head
- Third eye point ( corner of eyebrows)
- Corner of the eye
- Under the eye
- Top of the lip
- Chin
- Collarbone
- Under the arm
- Wrists together
- Thumb
- Inside fingers
- Karate chop point
Evaluate
Now rate your issue on a scale from -10 to 10 your level of pain or hurt again; -10 extremely painful and 10 being really great. Hopefully, after a few rounds of Tapping, you should get closer and closer to 5+/10. If you don’t feel like you’ve reached 5+/10, feel free to go again for a few more rounds. You can do as many rounds as you feel necessary and let the process unfold.
“Emotions are our body’s reactions to our thoughts.” – Eckhart Tolle. With Tapping, you are freeing your emotions, moving blocked energies in your body and allowing yourself to interact with your system, and obtaining remarkable results for your health and well-being. One significant advantage of Tapping is that not only can you do it yourself by following videos or reading books, such as “The Tapping Solution for Manifesting Your Greatest Self” by Nick Ortner, but you can also get full sessions with a certified practitioner. A tapping practitioner is a professional coach, psychologist, therapist, or counselor who can work with you one-on-one or in a group setting. The practitioner will provide a safe space for you to explore and clear your emotions, help you discover the core issue of a specific challenge, assist you in identifying and clearing healing blocks you may have, and formulate effective EFT tapping statements. A daily Tapping routine is highly recommended; even if only for a few minutes, the more you practice it, the more you will get out of it.
