We live in stressful times, a fast paced, always switched on world. None of us were made to live like this.
Chronic stress for us all can have debilitating side effects. Our body will work hard to keep us going and running these programmed responses in heightened states.
Many of us are functioning daily with our alarm system firing, (ANS) the autonomic nervous system. It keeps us in a state of Fight or Flight with a high level of cortisol and adrenaline flooding the system. Being stuck in this ‘state’ means we are living on the edge all the time. You probably don’t breathe properly, too shallow so your organs are not nourished with the right levels or oxygen, you might have a tight chest, restricted rib cage, shoulders up near your ears, you may loose your patience, flip your lid, shout, or maybe you’re jumpy and every little thing feels like a threat. You have so much energy and nowhere for it to go, you want to run away and escape from it all or Freeze and Flop, loose all that energy and give up – its all too much.
Eventually, the body starts to wain and symptoms kick in signalling there is a problem and it can’t cope. You might get backaches, headaches, panic attacks, digestive issues, loose your appetite or comfort eat because the body is not in rest and digest its channeling all the blood and energy from your digestive tract to your brain, as your brain wants to keep you safe and survive.
The list of symptoms is endless, the body keeps the score and will keep shouting louder and louder until action is taken to rebalance your system.
Many of us do this with medication which works but it’s not actually getting to the root of the problem, it’s fixing the sympton but not addressing whats causing that in the first instance.
EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique is a really gentle way of shifting the stress out of bodies, while acknowledging what’s going on at the time, allowing the body to relax and let go.
Regular practice of tapping changes the neural pathways to the brain. Your brain starts to recode a state of calm and peace, finding relief to acknowledge feeling these emotions and still accept ourselves. That we are safe and loved.
Once learnt, Tapping EFT, is a powerful tool to bring yourself back to your baseline so you can remain in your upstairs brain; the logical, thinking, prefrontal cortex, enabling you to stay in the moment and focused and not react to things going on in your life in a unhelpful way.
How to Tap
Firmly but gently tap on each of the points shown on the image, you can tap on either side of the body and switch.
Starting with the hand, Karate Chop and acknowledging the feeling.
- Karate Chop – (Outside edge of hand, below little finger)
- Eyebrow (either side, tap on and end and near bridge of nose, the bony area)
- Side Eye (either side, boney are of eye socket)
- Under the Eye (below eye, on either side on the bone)
- Under the nose ( above upper lip)
- Chin ( below lower lip, crease where chin starts)
- Beginning of collar bone (Inside end of either CB)
- Under armpit (side of rib cage)
- Crown of the head (Middle of head, using 3 tips of fingers in circular tapping)
This is the basic recipe for the Emotional Freedom Technique. There are other points that pracitioners will take you through and different techniques when working at a deeper level but for general, daily cleansing of the emotional build up it dilutes and take the edge off.
There is always trauma, a biological marker in the cells in the body, that sits at the root of and below anxiety, depression, pain, phobias, these are the tip fo the iceberg so to truly make a difference and heal from these symptoms it is a gift to peel back the layers and remove the old events or experiences that are the actual problem. Your symptoms are just messages from your body. You are not your symptoms and this is a great way to break free and find peace in yourself.