What is Tapping Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)?
New to Tapping and looking for a complete guide to the Tapping points?
Not sure if you are Tapping on the right location and want more details on how to tap on each point? Do you simply want to learn more about the Tapping points so you can take your Tapping knowledge even deeper?
Then you’ve come to the right place! Below, we’ll get to know the Tapping points a little bit better – why we use them, where they are located, how to tap on them, and more.
What Is EFT Tapping?
Tapping, also known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), is a powerful stress relief technique. Tapping is based on the combined principles of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology.
Studies have shown that Tapping decreases cortisol (often called the stress hormone) in your body. The World Health Organization has announced that stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century.
This is because stress is linked to anxiety, weight gain, sleep problems, lack of motivation, chronic pain, stomach issues, and depression. Tapping is proven to reduce stress, lower cortisol, improve sleep, reduce anxiety, relieve pain, increase productivity, and so much more!
Stress is also detrimental to your immune system because when you're stressed, your immune system's ability to fight off antigens is reduced, and you are more susceptible to infections. Tapping helps to lower stress, and in turn, allows your immune system to do its work!
So How Does It All Work?
The basic Tapping technique requires you to focus on a negative emotion at hand. This can be a fear, a worry, or any unresolved problem. While maintaining your mental focus on this issue, you use your fingertips to tap 5-7 times on 9 specific meridian points of the body (more specific information on this below).
Tapping on meridian points sends a calming signal to the brain, letting your brain know it's safe to relax. So, for example, when you receive bad news from your boss or you begin to worry about future events, it triggers a part of your brain called the amygdala.
When you think of the amygdala, one word should come to mind:
Fear.
This part of the brain is responsible for triggering the stress response in our bodies, releasing stress-related hormones into the bloodstream. Also popularly known as the fight-or-flight response, it is the body's natural reaction to a perceived threat.
The problem is, we tend to have our amygdala in charge way more often than we want.
The amygdala's response is effective when you're faced with real-life danger but damaging when you want to feel calm and confident during a high-stakes meeting. And most of the time when this is happening in your body, you aren't experiencing the fight-or-flight (or freeze) response for the same reason that our ancestors did long ago were. There is no tiger in the woods, but the response in your body is still the same.
Tapping on these meridian points (the same used in acupressure) while you think about what is causing you stress helps your mind understand that you are not in any physical danger and it is safe to relax, reducing cortisol levels.
Tapping gives you the opportunity to bring your life back into balance and reduce stress around your relationships, finances, weight, pain, fears, and so much more.
Is There Scientific Evidence of Tapping's Effectiveness?
In recent years, there's been a growing pool of undeniable research proving that Tapping produces real, lasting breakthroughs.
Here are a few of those research studies:
https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Ftra0000563
https://oce.ovid.com/article/00005053-201302000-00014/HTML
https://s3.amazonaws.com/eft-academic-articles/HealthCare.pdf
https://www.energiepsy.com/uploads/3/1/7/7/3177769/andrade_feinstein_paper-1.pdf
Here are a few noteworthy findings to point out:
Tapping regulates the nervous system and boosts the immune system by putting the body back into the parasympathetic (relaxation) nervous system response. This allows the immune system, digestive system, reproductive system, and endocrine system to function as it should.
Reducing stress also reduces cortisol levels in the body. This reduction aids your body's ability to fight inflammation and boost your immune system.
The most remarkable study regarding Tapping and stress hormones was a landmark study by Dr. Dawson Church published in 2012 in the prestigious Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. The study found that EFT Tapping lowered cortisol significantly more than traditional talk therapy or resting.
What's the History Behind Tapping?
t began in 1980, with a psychologist by the name of Roger Callahan. Dr. Callahan combined his studies in traditional Chinese medicine with his knowledge as a psychologist.
Dr. Callahan began a series of investigations to develop and refine this technique, which he termed “Thought Field Therapy,” or TFT. It was fairly complex and required a trained practitioner to use specific algorithms and techniques to determine which meridian points to stimulate to obtain the desired results.
Gary Craig, trained under Dr. Callahan's tutelage in the 1990's, learning the procedures for TFT. He began to improve the process by creating a simpler sequence that could be easily learned and repeated, even by the patient him/herself, calling it Emotional Freedom Techniques, or EFT.
More recently, three siblings, Nick, Alex and Jessica Ortner developed a way to make this simple yet powerful technique accessible to mainstream audiences. Creating a process called Tapping Meditation they have been able to make this tool available to you in the comfort of your own home.
The spread of Tapping has caught the eye of the medical community around the world, leading to multiple clinical trials that have documented its unquestionable effectiveness.
How Can I Use Tapping in My Life?
Millions of people are settling for lives filled with poor health and emotional baggage.
Not knowing how to achieve the joyful and satisfying lives they desire, they're stuck accepting a lifestyle of emotional trauma, chronic physical pain, compulsions and addictions, or perhaps just an empty feeling inside, leading, as Henry David Thoreau famously said, lives of quiet desperation.
Does this sound familiar to you? Is there something holding you back from enjoying your life?
If you're like many people, you may feel trapped, caught in this cycle. You're tired of feeling sad, depressed, anxious, discontent, and unwell. You'd like to grow, flourish, and thrive, putting the past in the past. You want to be your best, living a life that is filled with peacefulness, joy, and fulfillment, from day to day and moment to moment.
Tapping can be used on a daily basis to reduce the stress and anxiety that is interfering with your happiness and well-being. You can use Tapping to help you fall asleep at night, to help you overcome your paralyzing fear of driving, and everything in between.
Many people also use Tapping in combination with protocols from their doctor or therapist, so make sure to let any of your health professionals know what additional steps you're taking to support your well-being.
If you're wondering, "Can I use Tapping for <insert your topic here>?" take a look at the long list of topics that are available in Nick Ortner’s Tapping Solution App.
