Tapping Into Stress - A Body Based Approach

In this stress reduction technique, I combine brain, body and energy psychology techniques to release stress from the body. Tapping has its origins in the 1970s when it was discovered that by stimulating acupressure points on the body, that there was a reduction in stress. This is very much a body-mind connection technique and uses finger tapping rather than needles.

Transcript

Hi there,

My name is Barry Zwaristine and you are listening to the Post-Military Transition Challenge talks and meditations.

I am a combat medic from the Rhodesian Bush War,

Psychologist and author with over 20 years of supporting veterans and current serving as well as their families.

Although these talks focus more on the military mindset,

The meditations are applicable and useful to all.

I hope that these talks and meditations will support you in whatever transition or life challenges you may be currently facing.

Please feel free to follow my profile.

You will then receive notifications around ongoing episodes.

At the end of the talk or meditation please take time to rate and comment as this supports me with my vision and mission that no veteran should ever have to return home to die.

Thank you all for taking the time to be with me today.

Hi,

Thanks for joining me today and I hope this finds you all travelling well.

Today I am going to take you through a little bit of an experience.

I really don't know if this is going to work.

It's a technique called tapping and normally you do it visually so you'd be able to see me.

Whether in fact this can work in this kind of modality I'm not sure and so I'm asking you all if you can give some feedback at the end of this just send me a comment.

I'll always respond and let me know what the experience was like for you.

I'm not going to explain the science behind this.

I'm just going to give you the experience of it but first I want to take you through the different points before we actually begin the process.

So the first point in the body is on the sides of the eyebrows closest to the nose and you can tap using your fingers or the first two fingers so just tap on those points.

Side of the eyebrow closest to the nose,

You're just tapping there.

Then I want you to move to the outside of your eye.

You know if you almost had to tap in too close you'd be tapping your eyeball.

So just tap on the very edge of the outsides of your eye on both sides at the same time.

Just tapping there and just tap a few times.

Then we tap under the nose and I'd like you just to tap under the nose.

Tap a few times there.

Then go down under the mouth and just in that dent between the mouth and the chin and just tap there under the mouth under the bottom lip.

Then go down to your collarbone and you'll see that the two parts closest to the middle of your chest there are bumps.

One inch below with two fingers just tap a couple of times there.

Then go under your arm under the armpit drop down a couple of inches and just tap on the ribs and tap away there.

And finally go up to the top of your head and just tap a couple of times there.

So those are the points that I'm going to call out as we do this process.

Now I'm going to keep it very simple to begin with and we're just going to talk about stress.

Most of us have some stress that's dwelling in our body somewhere.

So let's begin the process and first the process begins by tapping on what we call the karate chop point of the hand.

So I'd like you to open your left hand or your right hand depending which is your more dominant hand,

Palm facing up,

The karate chop point which would be if you were going to break a stick where you would be hitting it with that part of your hand by your baby finger.

And we're going to start off by doing three sequences tapping on the karate chop point.

So if you can open the palm facing upwards and just start tapping and then repeat exactly what I say.

We'll keep it quite generic and simple but before we begin I'd like you to assess the level of tension in that place in your body.

So what I want you to do is just sit for a second or two,

Breathe in and find a level of tension somewhere in your body.

Think about where it is in your chest,

In your shoulders,

In your stomach,

Wherever it is and assess whether the impact of that,

So one would be zero impact to ten would be it's got a real kick to it.

Tapping on the karate chop point,

Repeat after me.

Even though I have all the stress in my body,

I choose to care and respect who I am.

Again,

Even though I have all the stress in my body,

I choose to care and respect who I am.

Last one.

Even though I have all the stress in my body,

I choose to care and respect who I am.

Go to the inside of your eyebrows,

Closest to your nose,

Tapping.

All the stress in my body,

Repeat it.

Sides of the eye.

All the stress in my body.

Under the nose.

All the stress in my body.

Under the bottom lip.

All the stress in my body.

Under the collarbone.

All the stress in my body.

Under the arm.

All the stress in my body.

On the very top of the head,

Tapping.

All the stress in my body.

Back to the inside of your eyebrows,

Next to your nose.

All the stress in my body.

Sides of the eye.

I choose to allow my body to release the stress.

Under the eyes,

All the stress in my body.

Under the nose,

I choose to allow my body to slowly release the stress.

Under the bottom lip.

All the stress in my body.

Under the collarbone.

I choose to allow my body to slowly release the stress.

Under the arm,

By the ribs.

All the stress stuck in my body.

Top of the head.

I choose to allow my body to slowly release the stress.

And one last round,

Starting with the inside of the eyebrows next to the nose.

I choose to allow my body to release the stress.

Outside of the eyes.

This stress no longer serves me.

Under the eyes,

I choose to allow my body to release the stress.

Under the nose,

This stress no longer serves me well.

Under the bottom lip,

I now choose to allow my body to release the stress so I can heal.

Under the collarbone,

I choose to allow this energy of the stress to be released from my body.

Under the arm,

I now choose to allow my body to gradually release the stress.

Top of the head.

I choose to allow my body to release the stress so that I can enjoy less stress in my body.

Take a deep breath in,

Breathe in,

And out.

Breathe in,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Out,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Take a deep breath in,

And let it wash through the stress.

Breathe it out.

Feel it going through your body.

Now what I'd like you to do is just tune back into your body and assess from one to ten how you're experiencing the stress at this point in time.

If you initially assessed it at six,

For example,

Is it a five,

Is it a four,

Or is it staying where it is?

So thank you for trying this out.

I really don't know whether this is something that will be useful or whether I can continue to develop over time,

But really what would help is at the end of this,

If you would just go on and leave a comment,

You can leave a comment on Insight Timer.

Let me know whether there was any positive impact or no impact at all.

If you had any observations that may be of use to me,

And even if,

And perhaps if it was useful,

Let me know if there are things that you would like me to include in future tapping sequences.

So it would be really helpful to hear from you all so I can tune this into your needs.

So thank you again.

Again,

I'm looking forward to hearing from you,

And I wish you well,

And have a good week ahead,

And I'll see you again soon.

Cheers.

Reviews

This is very helpful. There is a useful TAPPING SOLUTION article online that can also provide a visual for anyone looking for this type of introduction to the tapping process. Also, there is a Tapping app. Thank you for sharing this.

I was at a 7 and went to a 4. I felt vibrations in various parts of my body from the tapping. The vibrations went all the way to my feet. This was helpful.