Picture this:
You are unbelievably stressed. You come home from a crazy day at work. The project you’ve been working on needed to be delayed again and your boss was super passive aggressive about it. Pick up was a mess. Your kid was a total crank and the teacher sent you home with the news that half the class has lice. While you attempt to create something that looks like dinner (that your kids probably won’t eat), the baby won’t stop crying, literally hanging onto your leg. You feel like you can’t keep up with it all, that you’re failing.
Imagine feeling confident, capable, and calm in just ten minutes. Suddenly, what the boss thinks doesn’t matter anymore. You meet your children’s needs with love, knowing that you can handle whatever bug comes your way. A feeling of acceptance and of being enough in this difficult moment wash over you. As a result, the energy of the house magically shifts and dinner is served without any more drama.
If I told you that this is possible, you’d probably want the drug that I was selling, right?
Except it’s not a drug. This is an outcome of tapping, the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).
What is Tapping?
Tapping combines Ancient Chinese Acupressure wisdom and modern psychology to stimulate emotional changes through the mind-body connection. While we tend to think of stress as being something in our heads, stress is very much a bodily response. This technique honors this mind-body connection to shift your thoughts, energy system, and body.
In tapping, meridian points are stimulated in a sequence through tapping on them with your fingertips while speaking about emotions or traumatic memories. This sends signals to our mid-brain and accesses the amygdala, the stress center in the brain, similar to acupuncture or acupressure. This activity can reduce the stress response within our bodies. (The Tapping Solution)
If you’ve never heard of EFT before, it may sound a bit like woo-woo pseudoscience. However, there is a large body of research that have shown EFT to be particular effective for improving PTSD and complex PTSD, stress, anxiety, depression, and food cravings. EFT has been demonstrated to improve happiness, resting heart rate, cortisol levels, blood pressure, heart rate variability, and mental wellbeing. Other studies have found benefits in weight loss, athletic performance, phobias, and cancer patients (1). The beauty of this practice is that it is easy to perform, requires no equipment, is cheap to DIY, and sessions can take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. Anyone can tap!
What Tapping is Not
Tapping is not meant to be used as the only treatment for disease, but as a part of a holistic treatment plan. While tapping is very safe with no known side effects, it is meant to be used in conjunction with modern medicine.
The beauty of integrative health is that we can utilize complementary therapies to help our body achieve optimal health and wellbeing. Tapping allows the body to relax and release old stress, giving our body a chance to heal itself and the pharmaceuticals and other treatments to better do their jobs.
Holistic therapies take into consideration the ENTIRE BODY, utilizing the least invasive means necessary. We can use these methods AND modern medicine. Please keep this in mind!
5 Ways to Use Tapping in Your Life
If you’ve been on my Instagram lately, you’ve seen me using tapping a lot this past fall. It’s help me through various stressors, helped me to release many of my own traumas, has played an essential part in building my business, and gives me a chance to release what is holding me back in my life and in motherhood so that I can better cope.
Here are some ways that EFT can be utilized:
Anxiety management. Not only does tapping help to relieve stress, it can actually work at the core of anxiety, allowing one to release old stories and beliefs that keep us stuck. When we are able to get out of the constant flight-or-fight mode, we are better able to think, focus, love, and be creative.
Pain. I have found great relief with my own back pain through using EFT. Very often there is an emotional or stress component to our stress. We tend to fight against the pain, rather than sitting in our discomfort. This actually can make the pain feel worse. While I highly recommend utilizing other means in addition to tapping to relieve pain, EFT has the potential to release the emotions behind the pain, allowing you to relax.
PTSD and complex PTSD. Everyone knows about PTSD, but many of us are not aware of the developmental trauma that so many of us have. In complex PTSD, our bodies and minds have a large collection of stored traumas, which effects how we think and feel. Those with CPTSD are very often in a constant stress response, putting them at risk for PTSD, anxiety, depression, and a host of physical disease. But let me be very clear. Trauma is in the eye of the beholder. You do not have to have been in a war zone or have been physically or sexually abused to have trauma. There are many ways that we as human beings collect experiences that way heavily in our bodies. Stress that is not released very often manifests itself physically, creating disease and dis-ease. Tapping have been shown to help to release the power of these traumas.
Relationship with food. Ever have a craving that felt so powerful that you didn’t feel like you could resist it? Do you feel guilt or shame over eating food? These are emotional responses that can be cleared with tapping. Additionally, disordered eating can be a result of trauma, which can be released through EFT. In fact, I’ll be using tapping in my Whole30 WholeLife program this upcoming January!
Manifestation and removing blocks. I become fearful in my work. I worry about being judged, about doing it perfectly. As a result, I procrastinate in real action, only doing what makes me feel busy and important. Tapping through these emotional blocks have allowed me to release fears and remind myself of what actually matters. I’ve found great relief through this particular use.
Are You Ready for Less Stress?
This coming Wednesday, November 27th, I will be hosting a live online workshop all about How to Ditch the Stress and Enjoy Your Holiday Season. I’ll be sharing with you HOW to tap, as well as more details about how you can use it in your life, particularly during this upcoming crazy month.
If you’re ready to have a holiday season that you actually enjoy, sign up right now. You’ll receive a complementary tapping guide in your email so that you can get started.
I know that this upcoming week is hectic, so you don’t have to be there live to see it! I’ll send you the recording! BUT, if you are able to be there live, I’ll send you a BONUS Thanksgiving tapping guided meditation to help you feel grounded and grateful.
I hope to see you there!
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