Episode 151: What is EFT Tapping and How Can it Help You Reach Your Goals?
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Summary
Have you ever heard of tapping?
I had seen it around social media and heard about it from a few friends where you tap on various meridian points throughout your body (you know, like in acupuncture) while repeating certain phrases.
Supposedly it can help with limiting beliefs, trauma, anxiety, depression, and even food cravings.
But honestly, I was a bit of a skeptic.
That is until a few weeks ago when one of the girls in my business mastermind connected me with her girlfriend who does EFT tapping sessions.
I couldn't tell you what came over me exactly, other than the fact that I've been continuously working on my self-worth and trying to be better about communicating my needs with loved ones (a very hard thing for a people pleaser) and was feeling a bit stuck. So I decided to give it a shot.
After one session I was honestly surprised at how much the anxiety I felt about communicating my wants, needs, and preferences with others dropped.
I was so surprised in fact, that I decided to do a little research and find out what this tapping was really all about. How it worked, what the science was, and how far reaching its powers were.
What is Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Tapping?
You start off by identifying a concern or issue you want to address using the tapping and rate your level of distress or discomfort around that particular topic on a scale of 1-10 (10 being terrible distress, 0 being totally neutral and calm about it).
You then create a set up statement that usually looks like, "Even though I have this problem or am experiencing this emotion, I deeply and completely love and accept myself." You say this while tapping on the edge of your hand (on the meaty part below your pinky finger).
You then tap on various acupoints on the body (in my experience it was the top of my head, right above the inside corner of my eyebrows, my cheek bones just below the outside corner of my eyes, on the spots directly to the sides of my nose and under the inner corner of my eyes, under my nose, on my chin, right below my clavicle, and on my ribs underneath my armpit).
As I did this, my tapping coach
Lucy talked me through various phrases that I had to repeat back that centered around releasing the negative beliefs that were keeping me stuck, validating and accepting myself, and feeling safe as I confronted my struggles.
Other coaches may have you simply tap as you say a 'reminder phrase' like 'feel angry' to keep you focused as you tap, or you can just continuously say the set up statement until the number rating you gave earlier is very low (a 0 or 1).
Now you may be wondering if this is some woo-woo nonsense. But the research backing it up is extensive.
"EFT has been extensively investigated for anxiety and depression. In the first large-scale study of 5000 patients seeking treatment for anxiety across 11 clinics over a 5.5-year period, patients received either traditional anxiety treatment in the form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), with medication if needed, or acupoint tapping with no medication.26
An improvement was found in 90% of patients who received acupoint tapping therapy compared to 63% of the CBT participants.
Only 3 acupoint tapping sessions were needed before an individual’s anxiety reduced, while an average of 15 was needed for CBT to show results.
Complete relief of symptoms was seen in 76% of people in the acupoint tapping group compared with 51% of people in the CBT group.
One year later, the improvements seen were maintained by 78% of the acupoint group compared with 69% of the CBT group." -PubMed
And EFT isn't only effective for psychological matters like anxiety and depression.
Physical conditions that have responded well to EFT include fibromyalgia, psoriasis, tension headaches, frozen shoulder, pulmonary injuries, chronic pain, chemotherapy side effects, traumatic brain injury, insomnia, and seizure disorders according to PubMed.
How is this possible? It turns out EFT has the ability to impact cortisol levels, heart rate variability, and even gene regulation related to inflammation and immunity.
But we aren't done yet. This is a health and weight loss podcast is it not?
EFT tapping has even been shown to be effective at combating food cravings!
“With food cravings, there's a program running that says when bad things happen, I just need to get a candy bar or some junk food. That program tells you it's a quick fix, and you'll feel better briefly. What you do is access the feeling of anxiety that's causing cravings, tap on it, and remove the trigger of anxiety for that personal craving." -NBC News
So there you have it! This skeptic has become a believer. It's always a good reminder to keep your mind open and curious, because you never know what you might be missing out on when you close yourself off to new ideas or approaches.
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