EFT tapping has truly changed my life in such significant ways that I’m so excited to finally be writing this post! The most awesome thing about tapping is how easy it is to do combined with how quickly it works.
In today’s article, I’m going to be sharing what EFT tapping is, how it works, how to do it and what you can use it for.
What is EFT tapping?
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques and it’s essentially a healing modality that involves tapping on the meridian energy points to calm the body while rewiring the subconscious mind.
Dr. Roger Callahan, a traditionally trained psychologist, discovered the power of tapping while attempting to help a client overcome a severe water phobia that she’d had since childhood. He had spent a year treating her, trying all different kinds of traditional psychotherapy techniques to no avail.
He had been studying the meridian points, which are the basis of the Chinese medical system of acupuncture. In traditional Chinese culture, qi or ch’i is believed to be a vital, force-forming part of any living entity. Qi translates as “air” and figuratively as “material energy”, “life force”, or “energy flow”.
Each meridian is associated with a different organ. When Dr. Callahan’s client mentioned the fear of water causing a “pit” in her stomach, he decided to have her try tapping on the meridian point underneath her eye, which is associated with the stomach.
Within minutes, the bad feeling in her stomach was gone. She was able to not only think about water without getting that pit in her stomach, but she was also able to go near a pool without experiencing the old sensation of fear in her stomach.
How EFT tapping works
When you’re stressed, anxious or in fear, your brain–the amygdala specifically–sends out a distress signal to the hypothalamus that you aren’t safe. Stress hormones begin flooding your body and you go into flight-or-fight mode.
Tapping on the energy points sends the brain the signal that everything is okay. While thinking about the issue you’re trying to overcome and tapping on these meridian points at the same time, your brain relaxes around the issue and no longer sends out stress signals when the issue is thought about.
You’re letting your brain know that not only are you safe, but that this thought or feeling is not cause for alarm.
You may not think that stressing over the bills or a health issue has put your body into flight-or-fight mode, but this is exactly what happens with ongoing stress. When you’re in flight or fight, your immune system is suppressed and eventually the body will begin to show signs of dis-ease.
Tapping not only soothes and calms the body, thereby releasing stress, but also calms and rewires the mind. Tapping was actually what brought me out of my dark period of health anxiety. I had tried hypnotherapy and Psych-K, which are other healing modalities to help rewire the brain, but neither of them worked as quickly and efficiently as tapping.
When the brain is on board, you will experience a whole range of seeming miracles, from physical healing to releasing self-limiting beliefs around any area of your life that you’re struggling with. You can tap on money, relationships, health, losing weight, phobias, chronic pain, etc. The list is endless.
All of these things can be healed or majorly improved with tapping. If your desire for change is strong, you will have results.
The EFT tapping points
There are nine tapping points that are in the most commonly used tapping sequence. Below I’ll share more about each one.
1. Eyebrow
The eyebrow is the first point, which corresponds with the bladder, tapping on either one side or both using your index and middle fingers. It’s located right on the bone where the eyebrow begins. For each point you want to tap about eight times.
2. Side of eye
On the little bone right at the corner of your eye is where you tap for this point, which corresponds with the gallbladder. Again, use your index and middle fingers to tap here.
3. Under eye
For this point, which is the stomach meridian, use your two fingers to gently tap on the bone under the eye. Not right under the eye, where it’s sensitive, but a bit below that area.
4. Under nose
For this point, a governing vessel, you can use two fingers or turn your fingers sideways (if you’re using your right hand, your fingers would be facing west) and tap your finger/s right beneath your nose.
5. Chin
This point, a central vessel, can be tapped with two fingers or fingers turned sideways like with the nose.
6. Collarbone
These points, which correspond with the kidneys, are about two inches below the collarbones. Use all of your fingers here, including your thumbs. This is my favorite area to tap–I can almost instantly feel my body calming down.
7. Under arm
This point, which corresponds with the spleen, is about two to three inches below the armpit, around the same level as the nipple. I use four fingers to tap this area.
8. Top of head
If you draw an imaginary line from your ears to the top of your head, this is where the top of head point lies. Again I use four fingers to tap on this point, which is a governing vessel.
Side of hand
This point corresponds with the small intestine meridian. It’s located on the karate chop point on the side of your hand. Use four fingers here.
How to do EFT tapping
Tapping can be done as many times a day as you want, but even once or twice a day will yield near instantaneous results.
You can do back-to-back tapping sessions on different subjects, as well. If you’re feeling both anger and regret, you could do back to back tapping sessions on each emotion.
Step one
Before you begin, you acknowledge the emotion behind the situation (where it’s coming up in the body when you think the thought) or the physical pain you’re experiencing and rate it on a scale of one to ten. After the session is complete, you rate this again to see if the number has lowered.
For my health anxiety, I would rate the level of fear I was experiencing (as well as identify where in my body I felt the fear) or the level of physical pain I was feeling.
This is so helpful because it gives you a way to measure how you’re feeling. Most times, my number drastically drops after a session, but a few times the emotion was so intense that it only dropped down two numbers. This encouraged me to continue tapping but let me know as well that I definitely needed to keep helping my body and mind to relax around the emotion.
Step two
All tapping sessions begin with the side of hand (either hand is fine), and this is when you state your main issue followed by something soothing.
You say something like “Even though I’m feeling anxious about this situation, I deeply and completely accept and love myself. Even though I’m so scared, I accept my feelings and allow my body to relax now. Even though I’m stressed over what’s going to happen, I choose to relax and let go now.”
Step three
You then go through a few rounds on the 8 tapping points acknowledging your fears, worries and concerns. Next, you’d go through a few rounds of self-empowering or calming statements.
Perhaps in the future I will create some tapping sequences to share here, but for now I’m going to direct you to the resources that I learned from and use frequently.
My favorite tapping resources
The best way I recommend learning is by downloading The Tapping Solution app (I am not affiliated with this app, this is just what I personally use.) This app will show you how to tap and has several free meditations that are always accessible.
If you want to go deeper, they also have a monthly membership called the Tapping Insiders Club. The app is sufficient, but the club just goes into way more topics. I pay for both because that’s how much tapping has changed my life! I consider them both to be essential in their own way.
Benefits of tapping
Since tapping is a way to rewire the subconscious mind, you can shift any area in your life.
The most immediate effect you will experience is inner peace. This is not to be understated because when you have inner peace, so many “outer symptoms” fade away. To heal your body, finances or relationships you need to heal the mind first. This is exactly what tapping does.
Here are some of the benefits of EFT tapping:
- relieving anxiety & PTSD
- healing the body of dis-ease & pain
- losing weight
- improving relationships
- healing past experiences
- increasing abundance
- releasing phobias & fears
- processing & releasing negative emotions
- improving mental health
EFT tapping books
While I have mostly learned about EFT tapping through the tapping app and videos on YouTube, there are a few great books you can check out if you’re wanting to learn more thoroughly about tapping. Here’s the ones I recommend:
- The Tapping Solution
- Manifesting Your Greatest Self
- The EFT Manual
- Tapping Into Wealth
- The Tapping Solution for Pain Relief
- Coping Skills for Kids Workbook
EFT tapping is a quick, easy form of energy healing and a powerful way to reprogram your subconscious mind, which in turn heals your life.
Tapping has been one of those things that I share with everyone because of how much it has helped me and continues to be one of my top go-to’s for healing any aspect of my life.
I truly hope you give it a chance and see if it works for you.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this article and found something to take away with you. Please leave any questions or comments below, and I’d also love to hear your success stories with tapping!
For holistic self-care tips every Sunday afternoon, you can sign up for the Dwell in Magic weekly newsletter.
If you’d like more real life examples of daily self-care, you can connect with me on Instagram.
And if you’d like more direct support and community with like-minded people, come join the Dwell in Magic Facebook group.
With love,
Jessica
Jessica Dimas is the author of Sacred Self-Care for Your Chakras.
- Spiritual Guidance for Navigating 2020 - June 3, 2020
- The Cutest (and Best) Cat Subscription Boxes for 2020 - May 19, 2020
- How to Manifest Money with Joy, Excitement & Ease - May 14, 2020
Leave a Reply