More on Tapping

I cannot speak highly enough about EFT, also known as Tapping. It totally changed my life and is the sole reason I am able to speak publicly. With the pervasive tension in the air, I believe everyone should do Tapping. I would be willing to lead some Facebook Live Tapping sessions to just help calm people down. So here’s a little more about my experience with it. And please try it. I promise it seems silly, but it is worth it.

People tap to clear emotional energy around one of three things: an event, a belief or an emotion. Often these are all events that people feel are holding them back. People tap on the negative and also on the positive. So there are athletes who also tap for peek performance.

For me, I had an irrational fear of airplanes. We were moving to Washington, DC and I knew that I was not taking our car with me. We sold the Jeep to my parents and left my car there for when I came home. I was planning to commute via plane since I was still working at NECTAC at UNC. But I knew that I was terrified of flying. I wasn’t always, so I don’t know what triggered it. I had a massage session one night and I asked the practitioner if she knew how to do tapping. She did! So I asked her to help me with my fear of flying and knowing that would be my only way home.

Whenever you begin tapping, you always measure what you are feeling on a scale of one to ten. We talked through some of my fears and she helped me bring down the level of anxiety I felt around flying by tapping through the points. I remember balking at her choice of the statement, I am going to die. I haven’t heard that again or since. But really, you should always say statements that resonate with you.

I left feeling much calmer and for whatever reason, I was spending the night with Sarah in Chapel Hill that night. Rough weather was headed our way and I never felt compelled to check the weather. This was a miracle. Every since I visited the Land of Oz when I was three, I was petrified of tornados. I remember sunny afternoons ruined by tornado watches on the TV. I didn’t seem to grasp that a tornado is usually accompanied by wind, rain and hail. But since tapping on the airplane issue, my fear of tornados had dissipated to a normal, rational level. I am certain that I would have headed for cover if one was in the area. And I am certain that I would be a little scared. But I wasn’t glued to the TV throughout the night, praying obsessively for my safety.

So tapping is great like that. It takes the edge off. Your memories and events are still yours. But they don’t have that same vice gripe on your life that may be holding you back or keeping you stuck or sending you down a dark path.

I love it when I hear people talk about tapping at wellness events. But I find that the training is always added on as a bonus at the end. It looks a little, well VERY, weird. And they seemed to use it for something easy, like pain. I love tapping so much that I always want to say, You can use it for so much more!

Tapping reminds me a lot of Godly Play. It is very curious as an observer. But you have to actually do it yourself to feel the transformative effects. You can’t just watch the process. You actually have to do it.

You can tap on ANYTHING. And tons of people have created scripts that area available online. So I generally google an issue that I want to address and watch a video clip. You basically just follow along with what they say. There are also podcasts available and The Tapping World Summit is a free, online event beginning February 27th through March 8th. You receive an email to two hour-long presentations on a topic with tapping, plus a bonus mediation.

One block people have is not knowing what to say. And that is okay. I usually start with a script that I found online and keep going afterwards by adding the thoughts that come to me. Sometimes I end up just repeating a word over and over again or not saying anything as I tap through the points.

For whatever reason, mine always evolve into a prayer. But, if you are stuck on ideas, you can use just that – a prayer. A common prayer that is widely recognized, like the Lord’s Prayer, or one you have written yourself. Or that song that has been racing through your brain for the last week. Look up the lyrics and tap away. 

Let It Go is an awesome song to tap to, as it deals with letting go of perfectionism, which is the key to killing that inner critic and melting your frozen heart. For real.

If all else fails, you can just use cuss words. Repeating the f word over and over is incredibly effective. Really, you can’t go wrong, even if you only hit a few of the points. 

If you yawn, you have experienced an energy shift. This is exactly what you want. 

I found that just tapping the side of my hand during a time when I was pulled over for speeding really calmed me down. It is something that someone could do while sitting at their desk and having to deal with that person who drives them crazy in their doorway. Or you could tap on these points if you find yourself in the midst of a health emergency, as way to calm your system down.

Lia shared tapping with her congregation, almost like a way to go deeper in yoga. I love this idea. Yes! Bravo. Because it is when I am listening to a sermon that I think, we need to do tapping on this problem. We need a lot of tapping in this world.