Tapping, also known as Emotional
Freedom Techniques, is a powerful tool
for improving your life on multiple
levels: mental, emotional, and physical.
It has been proven to effectively address
a range of issues. It’s also one of the
easiest and fastest practices to learn. You
can learn it in minutes, do it anywhere
and on virtually any issue, and often
experience immediate results.
Based on the principles of both ancient
acupressure and modern psychology, tapping
concentrates on specific meridian endpoints while
focusing on negative emotions or physical sensations.
Combined with spoken word, tapping helps calm the
nervous system to restore the balance of energy in the
body and rewire the brain to respond in healthy ways.
If altering the limiting pathways in your brain or
changing your biology isn’t enough of a motivation to
get you to tap, consider the negative effects of frequent
stress responses on your health. If not cleared through
tapping or another technique, the emotions connected to
disturbing events, experiences, or thoughts will
continue to trigger the stress response in you, perhaps
many times a day.
What’s Bothering You Most?
I find that the easiest way to start tapping is to focus on
what I call the MPI, or Most Pressing Issue. We all have
one; it’s the issue, problem, or challenge that dominates
our mental and emotional space in the present. If I
asked you, “What’s bothering you most right now?”
What would be your answer? What are you most
stressed or worried about?
It is important to be as specific as you can. Tapping on a
more general issue can certainly improve your mood
and make you feel better. But adding details that create
specificity—particulars that pinpoint an experience,
such as when it happened, who was involved, what you
felt in your body, etc.—draws the focus more clearly to
that particular issue. As a result, you’ll have a better
ability to rewire the brain’s response to it.
If you ever get stuck on the exact language, just focus
on the feeling. Or visualize a picture of what happened
(or is happening) and then describe it. Do whatever it
takes to get a clear memory or feeling, and that will do
the job.
Craft Your Setup Statement
Craft what’s called the “setup statement.” This brings
forward the energy of the MPI that you’re going to be
working on. Once you know your setup statement, you
can start tapping.
The basic setup statement goes like this:
Even though [fill in the blank with your MPI], I deeply
and completely accept myself.
So you might say, “Even though my back hurts, I deeply
and completely accept myself.”
Accepting Ourselves with the Problem
Along with the concern about focusing on the
“negative,” some people don’t feel comfortable with
saying they accept themselves in light of the problem
they’re tapping on. The problem simply seems too big,
important, or intolerable to allow for self-acceptance.
If you find you really, truly can’t make that statement—
it’s rare, but it happens—that’s OK. You can skip it and
just keep tapping on the issue without the setup
statement and then try again later. But for most of us,
it’s very important to say it, even if it feels hard.
When we accept ourselves as we are, we aren’t
“settling” or “keeping the problem in place.” We’re
showing love and compassion for ourselves—for our
feelings, our situation, and our history.
Choosing a Reminder Phrase
The reminder phrase is short—just a couple of words
that bring to mind your MPI. You will speak this phrase
out loud at each of the eight points in the sequence.
Examples of reminder phrases might be:
This fear I’m feeling…
This sadness…
This frustration…
This back pain…
You’re repeating the reminder phrase out loud to
remind yourself of the issue at each point. This
reminder phrase serves to keep your focus on the MPI
so you don’t get distracted.
Tapping through the Points
Once you have your reminder phrase, you are ready to
start tapping through the eight points of the EFT
sequence. These points are:
Eyebrow
Side of eye
Under eye
Under nose
Chin
Collarbone
Under arm
Top of head
Check In
You’ve now completed a round of tapping! First things
first: Take a deep breath. Feel your body and notice
what’s happening for you. Ask yourself: Did the issue
shift? What thoughts came up for me while tapping?
How do I feel on the 0-to-10 scale now?
Experience Tapping Now
My favorite part of the tapping process
remains its simplicity, how easy it is for
anyone to learn, put into practice, and
benefit from. Get started with these
eight simple steps.
1. Choose your “Most Pressing
Issue” (MPI) and devise a reminder phrase.
2. Rate the intensity of your MPI on a scale of 0–10,
(What level of distress does it bring up for you? A 10
would be the most distress you can imagine; a 0 rating
would mean you don’t feel any distress at all.)
3. Craft a setup statement. (Even though [fill in the blank
with your MPI], I deeply and completely accept myself.)
4. Tap on the karate chop point while repeating your
setup statement three times.
5. Tap through the eight points in the EFT sequence
while saying your reminder phrase out loud. Tap five to
seven times at each point.
Once you have finished tapping the eight points in the
sequence, take a deep breath.
Again rate the intensity of your issue using the 0-to-10
scale to check your progress.
Repeat as necessary to get the relief you desire.