Sometimes there’s a solution beyond taking drugs to help resolve anxiety. You can speak to your brain through your body senses with tapping.
Tapping is a technique that helps fight stress, anxiety, and distraction. It’s physical, but it does its work by speaking to your mind and helping you focus on those feelings that are positive and discarding everything that prevents you from continuing with a full life.
This is a DIY practice you can learn in minutes, safe to try at home. The technique involves using one or two fingers to tap on a precise sequence of spots on your body to release the stagnant emotions. The full directions are at the bottom of this message.
Why It Works
Dr. Roger Callahan who originated tapping called it Thought Field Therapy. He was looking for a technique that would activate the same energy points that are touched in acupuncture and acupressure. By combining light, quick pressure with a positive message, he found he could help people within minutes.
Callahan got the first glimmer of his idea while treating a patient he calls Mary. Mary had such a severe water phobia that she could not even bathe her children. They had been working on her phobia for months with only a little progress.
One day, while sitting near a pool in Callahan’s back yard trying to work up the nerve to approach, Mary started to react to the mere sight of water. “I feel it in the pit of my stomach,” she said.
Callahan instantly thought of acupuncture and tried an experiment. He asked Mary to close her eyes and tap on a spot below her eyes while thinking about her water fear.
Two minutes later the therapist and the patient were both astounded. “It’s gone… that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. It’s completely gone,” Mary said.
So, how would you like to try this yourself? Callahan and other psychologists have worked out a specific sequence you can try yourself.
How is the tapping done?
The first step to practice Tapping is to identify the problem you want to address. It can be a general situation that produces anxiety or a specific concern.
Next, give the problem a number for how severe it is. Use a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being no problem and 10 being terrifying.
Then begin tapping.
What points must be hit?
The tapping points coincide with points of beginning or end of acupuncture meridians, and they are the following:
• 0: The side of the hand, between the base of the little finger and the wrist.
• 1: The top of the head.
• 2: The inner end of the eyebrow.
• 3: The lateral of the eye.
• 4: The bone under the eye.
• 5: Between the nose and the upper lip.
• 6: The point between the chin and the lower lip.
• 7: The tip of the inner end of the clavicle.
• 8: About four fingers below the armpit.
Do not worry too much about the accuracy of the points, hitting the area is enough. Also, you can choose to do your tapping on just one side of your body. So if you are right-handed, you will find it easier to tap points on the left side of your body. And vice versa if you are a leftie.
A tapping sequence to relieve stress.
Tap each point about seven times and repeat the following sentences out loud. As you get used to this practice, you can change the script to your own words. But be sure to keep the same reassuring, positive, message.
To begin, tap 7 times at each spot and say…
Point 0: "Even though I feel overwhelmed and afraid, I accept who I am and how I feel." Repeat it three times.
Continue touching on the other points with adjacent phrases:
Point 1: I know I can move through this.
Point 2: I know that I have the inner strength.
Point 3: I choose to believe that I will overcome this.
Point 4: I know I can find my power inside.
Point 5: I think this is my trip now.
Point 6: I know I can go through this.
Point 7: And to feel good about me again.
Point 8: I choose to believe in my inner strength.