What is EFT Tapping?

See, here’s the thing, while we’re existing under the COVID-19 Pandemic, I found it pertinent to share a tool that has helped me for over 5 years, that is EFT or Tapping.

I learned about tapping watching a motivational video and the woman shared a quick tapping sequence after her talk. Even though I was watching the video from my room, I decided to join and I feel an immediate change after I tapped. What? So like any rabbit hole we get into, I learned all the things about tapping, I started listening to podcasts and I read all the things I could related to tapping. As a good Recovering Procrastinator, I got to a point when another shiny object came into my world and my tapping practice slowly faded.

What I find fascinating is that every time I’d have anxiety or some type of emotional block, I’d tap, so the practice didn’t really go away, it would come and go as I needed it.

But what is EFT, though?

Tapping is emotional acupressure, it’s a stress-reduction technique that can help you during times of stress.

EFT is part of the field of energy psychology. EFT was adapted from Thought Field Therapy or TFT by Gary Craig in 1995. If you look at the scientific research about EFT they say EFT was developed by Gary Craig because he was an engineer and he had an engineer-mind, if you look into Gary Craig’s talks and writings, he says EFT came as a gift from God. So what I believe is that Gary received a download to share it with all of us.

When you tap, you tap on meridian points in your body. These meridian points are inspired by Chinese acupuncture. However, I think it’s pertinent to include that Ayurvedic practices, and Mayan medicine also used meridian points in their ancient methods of healing. One question I’ve received in the past is if EFT is appropriating acupuncture, and my answer is no because the practice clearly honors the origin of the meridians and because aside from using the meridian points the practice of it includes other types of elements as you tap along.

The purpose of tapping is to allow the negative emotion trapped in your body so you can allow positive emotion to enter.

How does it work?

Before you start tapping it is important to identify what it is you want to tap about. Is it worry, fear, or anxiety? It is important to be as specific as possible so the effects can have more impact.

Then, we need to have an intensity measurement so we know where we’re starting and how much progress we’re making. These are called SUDs Subjective Units of Distress and we simply check in and ask ourselves, on a scale of 1-10 how much stress am I feeling? So write down that number or keep that number in mind. It could be stress, it could be fear, it could be worry. 1 meaning you barely feel it, 10 you feel it everywhere.

Let’s identify the tapping points on your body:

The set up statement

Once you’ve identified your SUDS, then we are going to create a set up statement. The set up statement consists of three parts: The acknowledgment, the problem (exposure), and the cognitive acceptance. We repeat the set up statement three times as we tap on the side of the hand, one for the mind, one for the body, one for the soul. 

Options for cognitive acceptance: I am ok today, I am working on it, I am here right now, I exist today. Make sure your cognitive acceptance is true to you at the moment.

Are you ready to tap?

After you’ve tapped on your set up statement, you go through the tapping points by mentioning the aspect you identified. Let me know if you want me to come up with some tapping recipes for different issues you might be presenting. Leave a comment below, or send me a message.

Once you complete a round of tapping, you check your SUD levels and decide if you want to do another round, or if one round was enough. Ideally, you want to drop your SUDs down to a 2 or 3. Anything above 3, I’d tap more until it’s fully collapsed.

I created an episode where I talk about COVID-19 and we do a tapping session for stress. You can play the episode below:

Tapping is definitely a tool you can learn and use it for many things. As a Professional EFT Practitioner, I can guide you through a personalized tapping session where we can explore many things you’re going through and unblock that emotion you might be carrying.

Stay shining, manis!

XXOO

Pam