What is Emotional Freedom Tapping and How Can It Help Anxiety?
I am incredibly fortunate to have come across Jaime Kalman about 10 years ago while living in LA. Jaime is a Certified Empowerment Specialist with extensive training and clinical experience in Hypnotherapy, Emotional Freedom Techniques, NLP, Spiritual Healing & Counseling, and Life Coaching. So, basically, she is an all around badass. Jaime and I work together quite often, now over the phone since I reside in Chicago. She’s introduced me to A Course in Miracles, uses hypnosis to help me with my anxiety (especially with flying), and does E.F.T. - or, emotional freedom techniques - to me to help rewire subconscious beliefs and release the emotions surrounding them.
Jaime has helped me through some pretty difficult times, including dealing with a new panic disorder. We’ve genuinely become friends over the years and I truly cannot say enough wonderful things about her!
What is Emotional Freedom Tapping and How Can It Help Anxiety?
Today she’s here to talk more about Emotional Freedom Tapping. I’ve been on a big mind/body connection kick lately. And focusing on how positive thoughts can create positive experiences - and the science to back it up. I recently watched “Heal” on Netflix, and also listened to the goop podcast “How to Become Your Future Self” with Joe Dispenza. Joe firmly believes that you have to change the way you think and act to change your life. EFT is one of the tools to help you do this. Here’s Jaime to tell us more!
What is EFT?
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. It is a body-based, healing modality that combines tapping on acupressure points and the principles of Positive Psychology to help people self-soothe and deactivate the fight or flight response in the body that gets triggered when a person experiences stress or trauma.
EFT helps calm the person down so that they can approach their situations from an emotionally neutral place. Rather than being largely influenced by an intense emotional state.
How does EFT work?
EFT works by using the fingertips to tap on various pressure points that are located very close to the surface of the skin, while focusing our thoughts and words on the painful or uncomfortable feelings we are experiencing.
By tapping in a simple sequence while tuning into the painful feelings, we are soothing the Amygdala and altering our bio-electrical state from highly intense to neutral. The Amygdala is the part of the brain that triggers the stress response in the body - the "fight or flight" instinct is there to protect us from threats to our physical safety. However, when a person continues to feel threatened after the perceived or actual threat has passed, it becomes increasingly difficult for the person to move on from that experience. And the fear and stress can continue to affect the person's emotional, mental and physical health.
Our feelings can hold us back from taking positive action in our lives. Or cause us to act impulsively to protect ourselves from further harm. EFT focuses on the feelings (emotions) in our bodies and how to move the energy of our feelings so that we can calm down. Get unstuck and make choices that are free of intense emotion. So, we aren't tapping to change our situations. We are tapping to change the way we are reacting emotionally to the situations. So that we can approach those situations in a clear, confident and calm way. Once the emotional intensity has been decreased, a more positive perspective can be tapped into. So that we are tapping out the pain and tapping into our personal power to create positive changes.
Can EFT help with anxiety?
EFT is very helpful for anxiety because it gives the person suffering from anxiety a tool that they can apply themselves at any time, anywhere. It's empowering because it gives them an action at a time when they feel helpless and trapped by fear.
It also allows us to LISTEN to ourselves. Fear is an alarm clock that wants to alert us to danger. It's self-protective in nature. But can be harmful when it becomes debilitating, such as with a panic attack. EFT lets you listen to the fear, explore the fear and what it's trying to do for you. As well as actually express the fear exactly the way you are experiencing it. By allowing yourself to openly express your fear while tapping on the pressure points, you are moving the energy in your body. Our bodies are bio-electrical. (That's why when you shuffle across a carpet and then hit the light switch, you get a shock!).
When we are focused on fearful thoughts, the energy of our body shifts to become more fearful. And the body experiences increased heart rate, temperature increase, difficulty breathing. Or the feeling of numbness or being frozen. By allowing yourself to focus on the fear while tapping on the pressure points, you create a gentle electrical impulse that moves through the body. The energy you are creating with the tapping can dissipate the blocked energy that gets stuck in the body when something scary or stressful happens to us.
The tapping creates energy waves that help to break up that stuck energy. And helps to release the person from identifying emotionally with that particular trigger.
For example, a person may have anxiety when it comes to public speaking. By tapping on pressure points while talking about their feelings of fear of public speaking, they can begin to calm down. And imagine themselves speaking in public in a way that is calm and positive. This allows the mind to accept that a new perception of this feared event is possible. And because that new perception is desirable, it is likely to be accepted by the subconscious mind and ultimately replace the old, panic response.
The mind only holds onto fear if it thinks it needs the fear in order to survive. EFT allows you to hear the positive message your fear has for you. But it also lets you release it so that you can focus on the results that you want to create for yourself. Anxiety usually begins with a significant event that resulted in an intense emotional response. If that emotion was never processed, it sits in the body like a block. And whenever you experience anything related to that original event, the amygdala is triggered and the panic sets in. EFT neutralizes that original energy disruption so that the trigger is eliminated. The memory of that event will still be there. But the emotional energy surrounding it can be altered.
Here is a video on what the pressure points are, and a brief explanation on how to tap.
If you want to give tapping a try for anxiety in particular, here is a 5 minute sequence to guide you through. There is also a great app that will guide you through any situation you’d like to tap through. Jax on Vanderpump Rules taps too, so it has to be legit, right? Jokes.
Let me know what you think!