What is tapping about? And what is eft tapping for?

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What is tapping about and what is EFT tapping for?

Tapping or emotional freedom technique (EFT) as it is sometimes referred to, is basically an ancient Chinese method similar to acupressure which works by releasing blockages in the body’s energy system, which can lead to emotional discomfort, stress or anxiety. It was introduced to the Western world by in 1995 by Gary Craig, who although not a doctor, was a researcher, practitioner and minister as well as a personal performance coach.

A few years ago I had never heard of tapping but since discovering this powerful technique, I find I use it a lot and it works for me every time – after a couple of minutes, I feel my anxiety or stress levels reducing and I’m able to see things in a better light, without the negative emotions that were initially causing me distress.

Is it really just tapping yourself?

Basically yes…..and no. There is a psychological element to the practice that helps to clear your negative thoughts and doing this whilst tapping, helps restore a balance in your body and mind.

In tapping therapy, you literally use your finger tips to repeatedly tap acupressure meridian points on your body whilst repeating a positive affirmation related to the anxiety you are feeling. You are therefore using your body’s own healing power to clear the energy blockages. These could have been caused by an emotional event or experience from the past, or by negative thoughts that are now holding you back resulting in stress or anxiety.

We are all made of energy and our energy system is much more than the internal digestive system that we learn about at school – how we digest food and the energy it gives us for example. That is the energy of Western thinking. The energy I am talking about is the life-force or spiritual energy system that flows through us constantly. It makes use of our chakra points in the body although there are other points outside the body as well. This energy and derivations of it, has many different names in different cultures, such as Chi (or Qi), Ki in Japan, prana, kundalini, the Great or Holy Spirit, universal life source and source energy. They may differ in their explanations and precise meanings, but to me, It really doesn’t matter which culture you come from and what you call it; the thing to acknowledge is that the energy system exists and flows through all of us.

Some people may dispute the existence of this energy system, and as far as I know, there have been no definitive randomised controlled studies that we are so fond of in the West, to prove or disprove the existence of this energy. However, what I do know, is that from my own personal experience, I can feel it. I can feel it if I breathe deeply, I can feel it if I place the palms of my hands close together, and I can definitely feel it within my body if I do a tapping session.

Blockages in our energy system, prevent us from connecting fully with our source energy (the term I tend to use) and emotional blocks can seem to prevent the law of attraction from working with us because it affects our vibrational frequency. In fact the law of attraction is always working perfectly and reflecting back to us our own vibrational energy. So when we are stressed or anxious, we vibrate at a lower frequency and focusing on this only brings more of the same. Tapping is a way of releasing energy blocks so that the energy flows more freely, and I have found it can quell anxiety and allows us to see our problems in a better perspective.

Is there any scientific evidence as to why tapping works?

Emotionally traumatic events cause the brain to release cortisol which is a stress hormone that is beneficial in helping the body deal with stress. Cortisol is a natural hormone that also regulates the way we metabolise the food we eat, changing it into usable energy. However an imbalance in cortisol levels can lead to Cushing’s syndrome (too much cortisol) or Addison’s disease (too little cortisol). According to the Mayo Clinic(1), high cortisol levels in the body can lead to:

  • Severe fatigue.
  • Muscle weakness.
  • Depression, anxiety and irritability.
  • Loss of emotional control.
  • Cognitive difficulties.
  • New or worsened high blood pressure.
  • Headache.
  • Bone loss, leading to fractures over time.

These symptoms can have a negative effect on emotions. Restoring cortisol levels to normal can reduce these symptoms and work by Dr Dawson Church has shown that tapping can reduce cortisol levels by 25% and up to 50% in some people. (See his work in more detail at EFT universe).

Other researchers such as the renowned psychologist Dr David Feinstein Ph.D, have investigated ‘energy psychology’ in PTSD sufferers, veterans and I countries such as Guatemala, Kosovo, Rwanda, South Africa, and the USA to name but a few.

So how do I do it? In a nutshell

The following is basically what I do.  There is a lot more information and training available from the EFT universe website which gives the basics of how to do tapping.

  1. Use the tips of your first 2 or 3 fingers to tap on the meridian points in your body. You can use different points at different times but some that I like to use are:
    1. On the top of your head
    2. Just above your eyebrows
    3. Just under your eyes
    4. Just under your nose
    5. On your chin
    6. On your collar bone
    7. On the side of your thumb, first, second and last finger (missing out the third finger)  – do BOTH hands
    8. On the fleshy bit on the edge of your hand (as if you were going to do a karate chop) I find with this one that I can feel the energy flowing through my legs interestingly.
  2. Whilst tapping lighting for about 15 seconds on each point, repeat your affirmation phrase (E.g. “Even though I am concerned about (enter your problem) I totally love and accept myself”
  3. Move onto the next meridian point
  4. Repeat the whole thing. You can do this for varying amounts of time. I tend to do 1-3 minutes until I feel better.

What should I say?

I have used tapping to get rid of emotional and psychological stresses that I feel but there are also many people who have used tapping for different health purposes too. Now I freely admit that I not a doctor and I do not advocate tapping therapy to replace any professional medical practices or solutions that you have found work for you. If you need medical help, you should see your doctor. However I can tell you that tapping has helped me.

Phrases I like to use include:

“Even though I’m concerned about .(insert my current issue, e.g., money, my health) ………I trust in the universe and totally and completely love and accept myself”

“I know I am sometimes worried about….(insert problem) …..but I totally and completely love and accept myself.”

There are many more affirmations that you can use and many practitioners out there who can help.

For more information:

These websites have lots of good information, training videos and information about the science behind tapping on them.

If you want to see some book resources on tapping and EFT, then see some best ones below.

References and links

1. Mayo Clinic – http://www.mayoclinic.org/dise…

 

You might also like to read about how fear of failure might be holding you back or how positive thinking and feeling can help.

Posted in General.

Gail Lowe

View posts by Gail Lowe

Hi. I'm Gail and I'm a teacher, coach, writer and blogger who has been involved with self-development and the performing arts for over 30 years. I'm passionate about helping people to develop their full potential and I've studied education, the law of attraction, personal development and NLP which I write about on this site.

I love working with people of all ages and backgrounds and truly believe that we are all unique, unlimited creative beings who can do wonderful things with a positive attitude and spiritual outlook on life.

Here's to your continued success.

Gail

26 Comments

    • I’m glad you liked it. I really do think it has some great health benefits but everyone has to try it for themselves to find out. And the positive affirmations are always good to know. Everything is always working out, we just need to remember that and stay positive. Thanks for reading. Gail

  2. Very informative article, especially for people like me who have never heard of tapping. It is an interesting concept and certainly worth a try.

    • Great and thanks for reading. I’m sure you’ll find it useful. I always do. Simple, drug-free and effective! Thanks for reading.

  4. This is the first that I have heard of tapping. And I am absolutely intrigued by this. I have high blood pressure and one of the things I do to combat it is meditate every morning before I go to work. If you don’t mind me asking Gail, can tapping help with high blood pressure? Look forward to your answer and I will be looking more into tapping.

    • Hi Juan. Thanks for reading. You can use tapping for many conditions and yes, high blood pressure is one of them. Obviously you would not replace your prescribed medication but I know that tapping can help with balancing blood pressure. You need to understand both your symptoms and any psychological cause of your stress too and use the affirmations on both. There is a lot of information at the websites I’ve suggested to look at, including much more in depth training and the use of tapping in many different conditions. All the best and I hope you find that it works for you.

  5. Hi there!

    Thank you so much for that. I honestly never knew Tapping even existed. But now I know. And I sure will be using it in my life, especially with the stress that I go through everyday with my 2 kids!

    • Me too! Kids can be very stressful so I find myself using the karate chop point several points in the day, which helps. Thanks for reading.

  6. Awesome article! I first heard of tapping a couple of years ago I believe from Dr. Wayne Dyer, not sure, but didn’t apply to myself. I also had suggested the book at the time to a friend who is still afflicted with lupus. She found the results to be positive but not sure if she kept up with it. It all makes sense, however. Where your focus goes energy flows and if you’re tapping an area and saying affirmations to program the cellular signature of that area then it’s only logic that the area focused on will respond in a positive manner. Thanks for great information! Keep writing!

    • Thank you Adrienne. I agree with all your comments – energy is what we are made of. Makes sense to give it some love! And thank you for your kind comments.

  7. I have never heard of tapping therapy, but any healthy activity, I am always ready to try. While reading this post, I stopped to try tapping on the meridian points as suggested. I must say that I actually felt relief. Now I think tapping therapy is cool. The fact that I didn’t even do it for the suggested time makes me think that this activity is a powerful technique indeed.

    • Hi Carol. Thanks for reading and trying the technique. I do believe it can help which is why I wrote the article. I’m going on my own experience but there is a lot of other research and information out there as well.

  8. Never heard of it. This is an introduction for me. However, I do the effects of energy transference. Why does tapping on these specifics points of the body are necessary?

    Will you please respond via e-mail?

  9. Hi Gail,
    I had heard about tapping before but you have explained it better here so I feel like it makes more sense to me now. I tried it and it felt best on the spots over my eyebrows. I felt the tingling in my legs from the collarbone spots rather than the side of my hands like you mentioned…that was interesting.

    I have benefitted greatly from massage, myofacial and other treatments and this seems to be related.

    I like your site!
    Jessica

    • Thank you for the kind comments Jessica. Glad you found it useful. It’s such a simple technique and that’s why I love it. Have a great day. Gail

  10. Hi Gail,

    Thank you so much for your great article on tapping. Tapping is a process I learned about 10 years ago and practiced regularly. For some unknown reason, I had forgotten about tapping. It’s seems hard to believe how I could forget such an amazing health benefit. I can only put it down to a serious illness in 2014. It just shows how we can let life get in the way!

    So, today I was excited to find your article. After reading your article completely I had a session with myself on tapping. I will certainly make this a regular daily practice.

    It is said there is a reason for everything. And today, taking time to read some of your writings lead me to your website. For me, it was meant to be.

    My sincere thanks to you, Gail.
    Valerie

    • Hi Valerie. Thank you so much for your comment too. I really love the benefits I get from tapping and find it a great stress relief when things get too much. I’m so glad that you firstly knew about it already, and secondly that you found the site again today. We in the law of attraction niche would say that it is the universe bringing you what you ask for. 🙂
      I’m also flattered that you’ve read some of my other posts as well and hope you found them useful too.
      Sorry to hear about your illness, but if you take charge of your mind, I believe you can overcome anything.
      All the best and thank you again for reading and commenting. Gail

  11. Hello Sir,

    I am A affiliate marketer and I just built my first niche website but i am not getting enough organic traffic can you please tell what can i do to increase my website traffic.
    Thank you

    • Hi Shiva. There are many things that affect your traffic when creating a website. The first thing to do is make sure you are really creating a site that answers people’s questions or gives them something that they want to read. There are lots of other ways, but I suggest you have a look at my other site at how-to-start-in-affiliate-marketing which has a lot more about websites and traffic.

  12. My sister struggles with anxiety and depression, and I suggested she look into tapping therapy. Your article had some great information about this kind of therapy, and I liked how you said that tapping has been shown to reduce cortisol levels in the body, which means reduced depression, anxiety and irritability, and reduced fatigue. Thanks; I’ll share this with my sister so she can consider tapping therapy for herself.

  13. Hello Gail, it’s nice to see that your article is beneficial for many people who have just heard of Tapping. I’ve been doing Tapping for years, and I always feel relief when saying the phrase “I deeply and completely love and accept myself” and while tapping on the collar bone point.

    You could point out to people new to Tapping that they can even tap on just one spot while saying their affirmations if doing a full round is too much movement (like in an office). Thanks

    • I couldn’t agree more. I often just tap on the edge of my hands and say the mantra and feel it instantly in my legs! Even a few times throughout the day seems to be a good way to manage stress levels. Thank you for taking the time to comment and all the best. Gail

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