I heard about tapping for the first time in 2017. When I did start to hear about it, I didn't understand what it was all about: there's movement and talking and tapping on our faces, and it just all seemed very confusing to me! I think because it seemed confusing, I was a little more hesitant to get in there and learn about it. So, I want to explain the basics of what it means to be tapping, of what we do when we tap, so that you'll have a better understanding of what it is and don’t have the same confusion that I did. 

Tapping is an evidence-based stress reduction technique that can also help with trauma. We tap on different parts of our face and our chest that correspond to some of the areas used in acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine- where they would put needles- but instead of using needles, we use acupressure or tapping. As we're tapping and saying the thing out loud that's distressing us, it sends calming signals to the stress center of our brain, and it allows our brain to rewire the way it processes things that were previously stressful.

We start with the issue that we want to tap on, which would be something like ‘I'm anxious about my presentation that I have to give at work tomorrow’ or ‘I’m angry at my spouse for not helping with the kids’ or ‘I’m sad about my breakup’. You can really tap on anything, though; the sky’s the limit! 

We do something called the setup statement, where we tap on the side of the hand and we say something like ‘even though I am anxious about this presentation I have to give for work, I love and accept myself’. The ‘I love and accept myself’ part can sometimes make people feel a little bit uncomfortable at first, or worried about saying it if they don’t fully believe it. If you really don’t want to say it, you can say something like ‘I’m a good person’ or ‘I accept myself’. That said, it’s also somewhat aspirational, so even if you don't 100% believe it, I invite you to say it anyway! 

Ideally, we don't want the setup statement to just be ‘even though I'm having strong feelings, I love and accept myself’. We could do that if we can't identify the exact feeling, but in our tapping sequence, we want to be as specific as possible about what we’re feeling. 

To monitor our progress through the tapping sequence, we rate the intensity of the emotion from 0 to 10 (10 being the most intense and 0 being we don't feel it at all), and then we check in with that intensity periodically while we’re tapping. Also, if this is something we connect to, we can ask ourselves where do we feel the emotion in our body- a lot of people feel butterflies in their stomach when they’re nervous, or tightening in their chest, or any number of ways the emotion can show up in their body. 

We usually repeat the setup statement two to three times, and then we go through the different tapping points, saying (out loud) information about our emotions. It's okay to keep it super basic and repetitive; there’s no need to be perfect! These are the different topping points and what we might say at each point (check out the video to see it in action!):

Top of the head: ‘I'm really anxious about this presentation’

Inner corner of the eyebrow: ‘I’m so anxious’

Side of the eye: ‘This anxiety about my presentation’ 

Under the eye: ‘I'm nervous that I'm going to forget what I'm supposed to say’ 

Under the nose: ‘My boss is going to be there and it's a big deal’ 

Chin: ‘I'm anxious’ 

Collarbone point: ‘I'm anxious about my presentation’ 

Under the arm: ‘I'm anxious and I feel it in my chest’ 

You go through that whole sequence two to three times, and then you pause and take a deep breath in and out, which resets the nervous system. Then you check in with how you feel: is the intensity of the emotion the same, has it gotten stronger, or has it gotten less intense?  Also, check in to see if new emotions have come up, and if so, there are ways to bring that into the tapping sequence.

You keep going through the tapping sequence until you feel either regulated enough, or if you'd like to try to get it down to a zero, that's also an option. Sometimes emotions aren't necessarily meant to get down to zero intensity (for example, processing grief soon after the death of a loved one); often it’s enough to feel a little bit more regulated in terms of how the emotions are impacting our day.

So there you have it: the basics of tapping. You can learn more about using tapping yourself, or teaching it to others, at my upcoming EFT/tapping training. Here’s more information: www.jillwener.com/tappingtraining.