By: Rebecca Rondone
Owner of Pura Vida Yoga
& Physical Training
I’m honored to share this practice for all readers. I’ve had the privilege to share with Police and Fire Professionals, Cecil County Health Department, Voices Of Hope, Peer Specialists, and Girls and Boys Club of Harford and Cecil County. The practice consists of tapping with your fingertips on specific meridian points while talking through an emotion and or traumatic memories. Suitable for ages child to adult.
What is a Meridian Point?
Put simply, meridian points are certain points that can be mapped throughout the body. Energy circulates through your body along this specific network of channels. You can tap into this energy at any point along the system.
All negative emotions are felt through a disruption of the body’s energy. The body, like everything, is composed of energy. Restore balance to the body’s energy, and you will mend the negative emotions and physical symptoms that stem from the energy disruption. Tapping restores the body’s energy balance, and negative emotions are conquered.
How does Tapping Work?
The basic technique requires you to focus on the negative emotion at hand: a fear or anxiety, a bad memory, an unresolved problem, or anything that’s bothering you. While maintaining your mental focus on this issue, use your fingertips to tap 5-7 times each on 9 of the body’s meridian points. Tapping on these meridian points – while concentrating on accepting and resolving the negative emotion – will access your body’s energy, restoring it to a balanced state.
Acupoint tapping sends signals directly to the stress centers of the mid-brain, not mediated by the frontal lobes (the thinking part, active in talk therapy). Because EFT simultaneously accesses stress on physical and emotional levels, EFT gives you the best of both worlds, body and mind, like getting a massage during a psychotherapy session. In fact, it’s EFT’s ability to access the amygdala, an almond-shaped part of your brain that initiates your body’s negative reaction to fear, a process we often refer to as the “fight or flight” response, that makes it so powerful.
Think of your amygdala as a personal alarm system. When you experience trauma or fear, the
amygdala is triggered and your body is flooded with cortisol, commonly known as the “stress hormone.” This intricate chain reaction – your stress response – significantly influences and sometimes even causes whatever it is that troubles you, whether that’s an illness, injury, emotion, or even an external problem such as an issue with a friendship.
It’s estimated that 10 million people worldwide have used tapping.
What’s so exciting is how incredibly quickly it can eleviate issues like depression, anxiety, insomnia, PTSD, physical pain, and even illness. By stimulating these parts of your body – as we do in EFT Tapping – you can drastically reduce or eliminate the distress that accompanies or gives rise to these problems you face. By doing so, you can often eliminate the problems themselves!
Tapping is simple and painless. It can be learned by anyone. And you can apply it to yourself, whenever you want, wherever you are. It’s less expensive and less time consuming. It can be used with specific emotional intent towards your own unique life challenges and experiences. Most importantly, it gives you the power to heal yourself. Emotional Freedom Techniques is a form of counseling intervention that draws on various theories of alternative medicine including acupuncture, neuro-linguistic programming, and Thought Field Therapy.
1. Identify the issue
In order for this technique to be effective, you must first identify the emotion or ailment you have. This will be your focal point while you’re tapping. Focusing on only one problem at a time is purported to enhance your outcome.
2. Test the initial intensity
After you identify your problem area, you need to set a benchmark level of intensity. The intensity level is rated on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the worst or most difficult. The scale assesses the emotional or physical pain and discomfort you feel from your focal issue.
Establishing a benchmark helps you monitor your progress after performing a complete EFT sequence. If your initial intensity was 10 prior to tapping and ended at 5, you’d have accomplished a 50 percent improvement level.
3. The setup
Prior to tapping, you need to establish a phrase that explains what you’re trying to address. It must focus on two main goals:
- acknowledging the issues
- accepting yourself despite the problem
The common setup phrase is: “Even though I have this [fear or problem], I deeply and completely accept myself.” You can alter this phrase so that it fits.
4. EFT tapping sequence
The EFT tapping sequence is the methodic tapping on the ends of nine meridian points.
There are 12 major meridians that mirror each side of the body and correspond to an internal organ. EFT mainly focuses on these nine:
- karate chop (KC): small intestinemeridian
- top of head (TH): governing vessel
- eyebrow (EB): bladdermeridian
- side of the eye (SE): gallbladder meridian
- under the eye (UE): stomachmeridian
- under the nose (UN): governing vessel
- chin (Ch): central vessel
- start of the collarbone(CB): kidney meridian
- under the arm (UA): spleenmeridian
Begin by tapping the karate chop point while simultaneously reciting your setup phrase three times. Then, tap each following point seven times, moving down the body in this ascending order:
- eyebrow
- side of the eye
- under the eye
- under the nose
- chin
- beginning of the collarbone
- under the arm
After tapping the underarm point, finish the sequence at the top of the head point. While tapping the ascending points, recite a reminder phrase to maintain focus on your problem area. Recite this phrase at each tapping point. Repeat this sequence two or three times.
5. Test the final intensity
At the end of your sequence, rate your intensity level on a scale from 0 to 10. Compare your results with your initial intensity level. If you haven’t reached 0, repeat this process until you do.