Hi,
I'm Andrea.
I'm a registered music therapist and a Thought Field Therapy practitioner.
I'm excited to be here today.
I'm not sure you are.
We'll be tapping through phobias.
So if you have a fear of anything,
For example,
Lots of common ones are fear of spiders.
Fear of snakes.
Birds,
Mice.
Cats or dogs,
Even if you're afraid of heights or if you're afraid of flying or you have to go for an MRI and be in a claustrophobic space,
This tapping sequence is for you.
So I'll be talking you through a short relaxation to ease into the space.
And then we'll be going through a series of tapping sequences.
As long as,
As well as bracing.
The sort of the.
Fear that you have of these things as we go.
So by the end,
We should reach zero and you should have the fear completely dissolved.
So,
Let's get to it.
We're going to begin by just getting relaxed in your space.
So that means find a space that you can sit or lie down.
It's best if you're actually sitting for the tapping sequence because we really want to have our feet grounded and flat on the floor so that the energy can kind of shift through our body the best that we can.
So if you can sit,
If you're lying down,
Then just keep your feet connected to the surface that you're lying down on.
You can bend your knees or put a bolster underneath your knees if that's helpful.
And.
.
.
Just begin to allow the body to sink into the surface underneath you.
Begin by just being aware of your feet touching the ground.
The surface.
Noticing any sensations as you work through awareness in your legs.
Through your knees.
The big muscles in the top part of the legs.
The hips and the pelvis.
Noticing.
Any tension through the middle section of the body.
The stomach.
Even thinking of this.
Phobias or fears can bring up some clenching,
Just notice that tension in the body if there is any.
Breathe through and notice.
Your breath and the movement of the body as you breathe.
Notice the contact.
The body to the surface,
The chair.
Cushion.
Just noticing the body relaxing more and more,
Easing into the space.
Becoming more present in the world.
The present moment.
Relaxing.
The chest and the ribcage.
Heart center and all the way up through the throat and the jaw.
Relaxing now from the base of the spine,
The backside.
Through the lower back.
And each side of the lower back moving up through the spine.
Noticing each side of the back relaxing.
Shoulder blades.
All the way up through the shoulders and the neck.
Pull back,
Relaxing,
Easing in to this.
Process.
Noticing any tension in the shoulders.
Upper arms,
Allowing the relaxation to flow through the upper arms,
Through the elbows.
Through the lower arms,
Wrists.
Hands.
Fingers and thumbs.
Be aware again of your breath as you breathe.
You might even let out an exhale with the sound.
Letting go of whatever doesn't need to be held on to for right now.
Again,
Just noticing yourself in this present space as you continue to bring awareness through the throat.
Choon.
All the muscles around the mouth.
Noticing the gentle breath as you breathe in through the nose.
Into the chest and stomach.
And another exhalation.
Really letting go.
Really leaning into the present.
Moment,
Our time together,
This time for you.
Relaxing all the muscles of the face,
Releasing any expression.
Relaxing the eyes.
Area around the eyes and behind the eyes.
Forehead,
Temples,
All around the face,
The ears.
Relaxing and releasing.
Relaxing the top of the head all the way through the scalp.
And above the head,
Above the crown.
Relaxing and releasing.
Another breath in.
And releasing breath out.
Noticing the whole body.
Focused and aware in this present moment for you.
And with your eyes open.
Just noticing any sensations in the body.
In this moment,
Just noticing yourself unwinding in the space.
So letting the body be straight and remember not to cross any arms or legs.
We want the energy to flow.
Field to be able to loosen and flow.
And then we're going to close our eyes and become aware of this thing that we're afraid of.
You might call it a phobia.
This can also be.
A tapping sequence that you can use for trauma because oftentimes our phobias are associated with a traumatic experience,
Something that bothered us.
The last time we encountered this thing.
So we can use this tapping sequence for either one.
So with your eyes closed,
Just bring to mind.
This thing you fear.
Remember that you're in a relaxed space.
You're safe,
You're fine.
I'm springing to mind this thing you're afraid of.
Noticing any sensation in the body.
You might feel tightness,
You might feel cold or hot.
You might feel nervous,
You might feel.
.
.
Frozen.
Check in with what is safe.
Going on for you.
Just name that feeling and sensation.
And then I want you to rate it on a scale of 0 to 10.
0 meaning it's not there at all and 10 meaning it's there.
It's so horrible that you can't even do anything.
It could be somewhere in the middle.
You don't have to worry too much about getting this number exactly right,
Just finding the a place to start.
For today.
And then opening your eyes,
And we'll begin our tapping sequence with the side of the hand.
So we call this the karate chop.
We're just tapping with gentle pressure.
Keeping the fear in mind as we tap.
We're going to move to under the nose.
Tapping gently.
With gentle pressure.
Then we're going to bring our fingers up to the top over our eyes.
Above our eyebrows.
If you're using one hand,
You can tap in the center.
Continuing to breathe as you tap.
And then moving to the space under the eyes,
If you have glasses on,
You might need to shift them a little bit.
That's okay.
Just tapping under the eyes.
Again,
If you're using one hand,
You can use either hand and either side will work.
Continue to breathe and then moving the tapping to under the arm you can tap with two hands like this.
If it's too difficult,
You can reach around with one hand.
Arm on hand tapping.
The fingers under the arm,
It doesn't matter which side.
And then Bringing the fingers to the collarbone.
Tapping gently.
And then the last point is called the gamut spot.
This one can be a little bit tricky to find.
It's between the bones of the little finger and the ring finger.
And we're just going to tap there lightly.
It might be easier to rest your finger or your hand on.
Your lap to do that.
We're going to stay there for a little bit longer.
Tapping gently and breathing.
Continuing to tap.
And then rest and you can put your hands on your lap and just close your eyes once again.
Breathe.
Release.
And then check in to the sensations in the body with that thought in mind.
Notice if feeling or sensation is shifted or changed.
And then write that feeling once again.
From zero to 10.
Don't be too alarmed if the feeling has actually increased.
If your rating has increased,
That's common because we're often fixated on it and it can become a little bit of a panic the first time when we bring our awareness there.
That's totally normal.
If it's stayed the same or just gone down a little bit,
Not to worry.
If you're down to zero and it's already gone,
Awesome,
But you can keep tapping with us a couple more times.
We're going to go through that sequence again.
So before we do,
You can rate the feeling again.
You've got your new rating,
Opening your eyes,
And coming back to.
The side of the hand,
The karate chop.
Tapping lightly and gently,
Keeping that thought in mind.
This might be something you've been carrying around for a long time and you're finally actively doing something to dissolve this.
Feeling in the sense.
The next one is under the nose.
Or above the lips.
Just tapping there gently.
Dissolving any feelings of being overwhelmed or like embarrassed,
Like I shouldn't be afraid of spiders.
They're really not so bad.
It's okay,
We all have things and this could have been inherited from our ancestors.
It's not necessarily something that we've inherited.
Planted a fear of in our body.
Something that we've carried for generations.
Above the eyebrows.
Or eyebrow if you're only tapping with one.
And gently tapping.
Continue to breathe and then move to under the eye.
Underarm.
And again,
If this is difficult,
Just one side is okay.
With your fingers.
This can be the part where we feel emotional distress we don't feel.
Good about ourselves.
Giving ourselves a little bit of confidence.
And then moving to the collarbone.
Dissolving any further fear.
Continuing to keep the thought in mind.
Breathing.
And then moving to the gamut spot,
That spot.
Between the little bones,
The bones of the little finger and the ring finger.
Tapping there.
Little bit longer.
Continuing to breathe.
Sticking with that feeling and that thought.
Being present.
And then let go and rest the hands gently on the lap,
Close the eyes,
Breathe.
Release.
Notice any shift in the.
.
.
Degree of fear.
Notice any shift in the sensations in the body.
Notice if any thoughts have come up.
And then rate.
That feeling again on the scale of 0 to 10.
And just take another deep breath in.
And out.
And other things may come up as you're going through the sequence,
We're going to stick with the phobia and the fear.
If you found that you're finding sadness or that you're finding pain or that you're finding anything else.
Other than.
The fear of the thing itself,
Then you might want to look at some other tapping sequences to sort of supplement this.
But for right now,
We're going to go through that tapping sequence once more.
So you've got your rating opening the eyes and coming back to the karate top one last time.
The tapping.
Rhythmically,
Gently.
This is just setting ourselves up.
Under the nose,
Taking away any feelings of being overwhelmed or embarrassed.
Over the eye.
This is sort of our space of feeling panicked.
It's creating a like,
Oh,
Takes our breath away a little bit or feeling like we might want to.
What are pants?
Sometimes when we see these things,
We can have that sense.
Under the eye.
Feeling unsettled,
Especially in our stomach.
Feeling uneasy.
Sometimes this feeling can make us even feel like we might want to throw up.
Or vomit.
Under the arm.
Feeling.
Rejected or that somebody didn't show up for us or we didn't show up for ourselves in this space.
And then the collarbone.
Enough is enough.
It's time to let this go.
We're not going to be afraid any longer.
We have the tools.
We have the resources to work through it.
Inside.
And then the last tapping point is the gamut spot again.
I'll just tap there so you can see.
And tapping there continuously,
Lightly and gently.
Breathing.
And then resting the hands on the lap,
Closing the eyes,
Taking a deep breath in.
Breathing out.
Checking in.
Noticing any shift in the degree of fear.
Noticing any change in the feelings in the body.
Noticing if the fears changed to another sensation or feeling.
And then going back to that fear and rating it once again from 0 to 10.
And now we will move on to sort of sealing the deal.
So I'm going to ask you to tap the gamut spot while we go through this next sequence of eye movements.
So you're going to continually tap the gamut spot without stopping.
Continue to breathe and continue to keep your eyes or your face facing forward and your eyes following my fingers.
So face stays still,
Keep tapping on the gamut spot,
Following my fingers with your eyes.
So allowing the eyes to move,
But the face to remain still.
Following my fingers.
Continue tapping.
Breathing.
And then humming with me as you continue tapping,
Happy birthday.
And counting out loud one to five.
One,
Two,
Three.
For five,
And humming happy birthday again,
And following my fingers again.
Continue to tap,
Keep the head straight,
Facing forward.
Last one.
And then stop tapping,
Release.
Letting go.
So you should be feeling really good.
Really calm.
And really ready to come into contact with anything that you brought in that you were afraid of.
It should feel perfectly fine.
I'll give you an example of somebody I worked with.
This person had a fear of dogs.
Had a dog themselves and had a fear when they went to walk the dog that they'd come across other dogs and they didn't know what to do.
We went through the tapping sequence three times.
Next time at the dog park,
They were fine.
You might find that for the phobia that you're experiencing,
You might have to tap through that sequence a few more times,
Or it might decrease your response to it the next time you come in contact with it,
But it'll be less or it'll be different.
Or if you noticed other feelings coming up as you were going through the tapping sequence,
Such as more trauma or sadness or depression or anxiety,
So,
Tap into some of the other algorithms or the other sequences that I've provided on the Insight Timer and these will help assist with those other feelings because oftentimes these phobias are like peeling an onion.
It's stuff that we didn't know was there and we kind of peeled something off and uncovered something else.
This is really common.
You can keep tapping and.
.
.
In the meantime,
You can use this sequence again for anything you're afraid of or any trauma.
So something that's caused you to have a bit of a panic or us being startled,
It'll help with that as well.
I look forward to hearing how you go with this and if you need to check in again,
Please do and use this tapping sequence as much as needed.
Or share it with friends who might also have phobias.
I think we all have some sort of skeletons in our closet,
No pun intended,
That we'd like to tap away.
So dissolve those feelings of fear and keep tapping.
And we'll see you again.
