We all know about first aid for physical injuries and illness,
And some of us now have access to mental health first aid officers in our workplaces.
But have you heard of emotional first aid?
Emotional first aid is an important intervention for when we experience emotional stress or emotional wounds,
Such as grief,
Rejection,
Loneliness,
Rumination,
Failure,
Shame,
Heartbreak,
Fear and guilt.
Emotions are energy in motion and are part of the human experience.
However,
We can run into trouble if we don't recognise,
Process and release these emotions.
Trapped emotions can turn into depression,
Anxiety,
Sleep disturbances,
Digestive troubles,
Aches and pains,
PTSD and low self-esteem.
I've trained to be a mental health first aid officer and while I value having received that training,
I saw a gap in that often the mental health crisis could have been avoided if the initial emotional wounds had been addressed at the time they occurred.
This is why I believe we all need emotional first aid tools.
I also believe that EFT,
Otherwise known as tapping,
Is one of the tools that can help fill this gap.
If we can address unwanted emotions as they arise or shortly after,
We can stop them becoming energetically stuck in our bodies.
To deal with our emotions in a healthy manner,
It is important to first be aware of them before we process and release them.
EFT is such a fantastic tool for achieving this process.
When using EFT,
We don't shy away from the negative or unwanted state.
Instead,
We focus on it while at the same time tapping on acupressure points to calm our nervous system and the emotional brain.
And for those of us that struggle to tap into our emotions due to childhood trauma and emotional woundings,
EFT provides us a door to safely experience how emotions feel in our body.
Many people new to EFT ask,
Why do we have to focus on the negative?
The answer is that it is the first step needed to release emotional stress.
If we shove down our unwanted emotions and never deal with them,
They eventually begin to wreak havoc on our bodies and mental health.
So how do we put this into practice?
Let's look at an example.
You have an argument with a family member and you were left feeling angry because they ridiculed you in front of the rest of the family.
Leave the room and tune into where you are feeling the anger in your body.
Are you physically shaking?
Does your chest feel restricted?
Do you have a knot in your stomach?
Or is there some other sensation showing up?
Once you can feel where the anger is manifesting in your body,
Score it on a scale of 0 to 10,
With 10 being the most intense.
Then you are ready to start the tapping process.
First you would tap on the karate chop point on the side of the hand while saying something like,
Even though I'm feeling all this anger in my body,
I accept how I'm feeling right now.
You would then repeat this statement two more times while tapping on the side of the hand,
Before tapping through the remaining points while using a short reminder phrase,
For example,
All this anger.
If you don't know where each of the tapping points are,
I cover how to find them in the talk,
An Introduction to EFT Tapping,
Which you can find under my profile.
After each full round of tapping,
You would pause and tune into your body and rate the intensity of how the anger is showing up on a physical level,
On the 0 to 10 scale.
If the score remains above 2 out of 10,
You would do another round of tapping before checking in again to see what shifts are happening.
You then just keep doing rounds of tapping until you get your anger down below a score of 2.
This quick technique can be used in all kinds of situations to quickly restore the body and mind to a state of calm.
Can you think of any situations in the past day or two where trying EFT might have been useful?
Keep this simple and effective tool in mind for the next time you experience emotional stress,
And see for yourself the benefits of practicing emotional first aid.
