Tapping/Effective Freedom Technique (EFT) 101

The practice of Tapping is an excellent tool to use to reduce stress and anxiety. You can use Tapping to shift stuck energy and break free of barriers holding you back. Tapping can help push you through traumatic experiences and chronic pain. Tapping has been proven to reduce stress, lower cortisol, improve sleep, reduce anxiety, relieve pain, and increase productivity.

With all these benefits, don't you want to learn more? This is a brief discussion explaining how Tapping works and how to do it.

Transcript

Welcome to this discussion on tapping,

Also known as Effective Freedom Technique,

EFT.

I wanted to provide some tapping meditations,

But before doing so,

I wanted to ensure that people that have not done tapping or have never heard of tapping understood what tapping was.

And so today is a discussion on tapping.

And tapping is a technique used to help reduce stress and anxiety in the body.

It's a tool to move the body into the parasympathetic mode,

Also known as rest and digest.

Tapping can be a wonderful tool to help move you through stressful situations.

We use tapping to help individuals that have post-traumatic stress,

People who feel stuck.

Maybe they achieve and have success in many places of their life,

But are stuck in some places,

Maybe with weight loss or finding a partner or finance.

Tapping can help you move through these moments of being stuck.

It's a really powerful tool,

One very worth learning.

And so let's get into this.

So I am Denise and I am a certified EFT practitioner.

I also am a therapist.

I have a master's in psychology.

And so I understand the importance of mental health.

And so I found tapping to be very useful with helping people who are having struggles,

Maybe have had past trauma or feeling some discomfort in their life.

And I find it interesting that the body can have difficulty separating past experiences from present experiences.

If I retell a story,

My story of trauma,

My body thinks that I'm currently experiencing that trauma.

So let me share an example.

I live in a place where I can go out and walk along the river.

And I'm out walking and a stray dog comes up.

Now I love dogs,

But this dog is not happy.

And he begins to run at me and he's snarling.

And so I turn and I run and I run and I run.

And this dog is right on my ankles,

Snapping at me,

Growling.

I can feel the breath of this dog on my ankles trying to bite me.

Luckily,

I jump into my car and I shut the door and I am safe.

For a few moments,

My heart is still beating fast.

But I take a deep breath in and I allow my body to settle.

I come home and I want to tell my story to my partner.

And so as I'm sitting on the couch,

I retell the story of the dog chasing me,

How I could feel its breath at my ankles,

How I could hear the snarl.

I was so afraid that this dog was going to bite me.

And I notice that as I tell this story,

My heart is beating fast.

There is a bit of sweat on my forehead.

My body can't tell the difference.

My body thinks that in this moment,

I am in danger.

I loved helping people when I did therapy.

But what I found was that each time my patients would share their story,

They would be diving back in to that past situation.

That their heart would beat fast.

Or they would become anxious or depressed.

And what happens over time,

When we have these same emotions,

We create a groove.

In Ayurveda,

This is called a samskara.

It's a deep groove.

And this is kind of like,

If I go back to my walk along the river,

I'll find a path to the grass,

A place where the grass has been beaten down.

And I notice that this is the path that maybe the squirrels,

The coyotes,

The dogs,

People have walked.

And over time,

A path has been created.

This is what happens in the brain.

When we say that same story over and over,

We create a path,

A groove.

And this groove can become deeper and deeper.

To me,

Now I live in the United States,

And we have a place called the Grand Canyon.

And it is a canyon that is deep.

It is so deep that when you stand at the bottom,

You cannot see over the top.

And I think of these grooves as being as deep as the Grand Canyon.

I see people being so deep in their canyon that they can't see out.

And what happens is,

Our life becomes shaped around these new beliefs.

If I go back to my story with the dog,

Pretty soon,

Dogs are scary to me.

I can hear a dog bark in the distance.

And because I have created such a deep groove,

My mind moves so quickly to fear.

There is no other path to take.

There is no stopping and deciding whether this dog is a safe dog,

A friendly dog.

There is just that quick reaction,

That response.

And this is what happens when we live in trauma,

And we continue to tell the story,

And we relive in trauma.

This is where tapping can help.

When we softly tap on very specific points on the body,

On the face,

We send our body a message that we are safe.

So we come back and we tell our story,

Our story of trauma.

And as we do so,

We tap.

Now this can confuse the body,

Causing the body to create new messaging,

New neural pathways.

We can develop a new way of experiencing an event.

A time where we can remember the event,

But no longer does the body become activated.

This sounds good,

Doesn't it?

So this process begins with us sharing what is causing the discomfort.

We start off by stating a setup statement.

And we do this so that we can release that trauma.

I kind of see it,

When I was doing therapy,

Especially couple therapies,

People would come to me with all these issues.

And I see it as a closet full of stuff.

And that closet is so full that we don't even want to open the door,

Because everything is going to spill out.

And so maybe we open the door,

Crack,

And we shove new things in.

Or maybe we sneak in and we organize a few of the shirts.

But if we want to get to the root of what is causing us discomfort,

If we want to figure this out and be able to release it and let it go,

We have to pull everything out of the closet.

We have to open those doors and take a look.

We have to pull it all out and sort through it and then decide what do we want to keep and what do we want to let go.

And so as we begin tapping,

We start with a setup statement that brings us to that place of discomfort.

And the setup statement is,

Even though,

Even though I'm experiencing stress,

Even though I beat myself up over overeating,

Even though I am so afraid of financial distress,

Whatever that concern is,

We state it out loud.

And we check in with the body to see,

How do I feel?

And we take a measurement.

This gives us a baseline of where we're starting.

And so when I think about the stress in my life,

When I think about the conversation that I have to have and I know it's uncomfortable,

When I think about that time that I have to stand up and speak in public,

Whatever it is,

I check in and I measure.

On a scale from 0 to 10,

How activated am I?

And we write that number down.

And then we come back to our setup statement,

Even though I am feeling stressed.

And as we make this statement,

You'll be tapping on a specific part of the body.

And this tapping happens on what we call the karate part of the hand.

It's the meaty part of the hand by the pinky.

And when we tap,

We tap gently.

Not as if we're trying to release something from the body,

Like we're going to tap it out,

But just a gentle tap to stimulate that acupuncture point.

In Ayurveda,

The Marma point.

And so we tap gently and we use the setup statement,

Even though I am feeling stressed.

I trust myself.

Even though in this moment,

There's so much anxiety in my body.

I love myself.

I believe in myself.

This might be difficult for some to say,

I love myself,

I trust or I believe.

But this is us accepting the situation as it is.

It doesn't mean that we need to keep it this way.

It just means that in this moment,

This is what I'm experiencing.

And then we'll move through points of the body.

And I will move us through a quick demonstration,

Just so you can experience tapping.

And so after we create our setup statement,

Even though I'm experiencing stress,

I trust myself.

After we've created our number of how we feel our body is experiencing the stress.

We move to tapping between the eyebrows.

And we tap gently.

Even though I'm experiencing stress in this moment.

And then we'll move to the outside of the eyebrows.

Just to the outside of the eyes.

Still on the bone,

Not on the temple.

And we tap gently.

In this moment,

I'm experiencing stress.

And we say these words as we tap.

And we'll bring our hands now to right under the eyes.

On the cheekbone.

And we tap gently.

In this moment,

I'm experiencing stress.

And I can feel this stress in my body.

And think about what does that stress feel like to you?

Maybe it rises up in the chest.

Maybe it creates tightness or tension.

Maybe you feel it in the belly.

We want to experience this stress as we tap.

And I'm tapping under my eyes gently.

And you can use both hands on both sides or you can do one side.

And I'm gently tapping.

And I'm sharing out loud.

I am feeling stress in my body.

And I can feel this stress.

Across my shoulders.

Across my chest.

In this moment,

I am feeling stress.

We're going to bring our hands now down to under the nose and above the lip.

Right in that little crease.

And we're going to tap gently.

And think about the story that might be associated to your stress.

I am feeling stressed because I am afraid my job is over.

And I don't know how I am going to make my house payment.

I am feeling stressed because I have a difficult conversation.

And I'm not sure if I will be able to handle it.

I am feeling stressed because what is the story that comes with this stress?

And we continue to tap.

And we talk about what is causing this stress in your life.

And we now move to tapping under the chin.

So I move to that crease between the lip and the bottom of the chin.

And I tap gently there.

And I think about what is this stress doing to me?

Is it keeping me from moving forward?

Am I avoiding that person because I don't want to have that conversation?

Am I not spending money because I'm afraid I won't have any the next day?

How is this situation changing how you behave in life?

How is it making you or causing you to act differently,

To behave differently?

And we tap.

And we share how it is affecting our life.

And now we move to the collarbone.

And we have collarbones on the right,

On the left.

And if you move your hand slightly beneath the collarbone,

There is a soft space.

And we gently tap there.

And we're still thinking about this stressful situation.

We're recognizing that we're holding it in our body.

We're noticing the stories that are connected to it.

And we're recognizing that this stress is acting upon our behaviors.

That we're changing what we're doing because of this stress.

And I want you to tap on this.

This area of the collarbone.

Thinking about how this stress has been so consuming in your life.

How it is affecting you.

Maybe your health.

Maybe your relationships.

Notice how this trauma is seeping into other places of your life.

And now we move to tapping under the arm.

And we're going to tap.

Maybe you use the left hand to tap under the right arm.

And we're tapping,

If you were a woman,

Where the bra strap would rest.

And we tap gently in this space.

And we consider letting this stress go.

Now you might think that would be a good thing.

But many of us hold on to stress.

Because it is the message that tells us this is important.

Stress tells us that we need to pay attention.

Some of us wear stress like a badge.

Like,

Look how stressful I am.

And so we consider letting the stress go.

And we notice how our body responds.

I can consider letting this stress go.

I can let this stress go.

I'm ready to let this stress go.

And check in to see how that feels.

And as we do that,

We tap on that under the arm spot.

And now we bring our hands to the top of the head.

And you can tap right in the center of the top of the head.

Or maybe you want to separate your fingers and kind of tap all along the top of the head.

And I want you to rest into this idea that you can let the stress go.

That you can trust your body.

That you can believe in the fact that your body heals.

And you can release this stress.

We continue to tap on the top of the head.

And we relax into the idea that we can let this stress go.

And we let the hands rest and we take in a deep breath.

And we sigh it out.

And we check in again to see.

If I were to talk about that stress,

That trauma,

Whatever it is that is causing you discomfort.

And I were to measure it on the scale.

Zero to ten.

Where is it now?

For some,

That number might go up.

The fact that we talked so much about it.

That we brought it to the forefront.

That number may rise.

It might move from an eight to a ten.

From a seven to a nine.

For some of us,

That number might drop.

There is not a right or a wrong answer.

It's showing us that we're shifting.

That this energy is moving through us.

And so we'll continue to move through tapping cycles.

We might go through another type of tapping cycle in order to release the stress and the trauma.

If it feels like the number is dropping,

We can move into some positive tapping.

How do you want to feel?

And we start in that little space between the eyebrows,

Tapping.

I can relax my body.

I have the capacity to relax,

To soften.

And then we move to the outside of the eyes,

Tapping.

I can let go of stress.

I am resilient.

I move through stress with ease.

And we tap under the eyes.

And we'll continue to move through that cycle.

Bringing in the story,

The ideas,

The behaviors that we want to associate with our life and who we are.

And then we end,

Again,

Checking in on that scale,

0 to 10.

How do we feel?

And we continue to tap until that number gets so low that we no longer are activated.

All right.

I hope that this was helpful.

I will start doing some tapping meditations for different reasons.

And you can follow along with me,

Knowing that you are helping your body move into parasympathetic.

You're lowering cortisol,

Which brings so much health to the body.

And you'll be much more resilient in future events and future stressful situations.

All right.

Have a beautiful day.