Ever wish you could just take a step back from your emotions and control your anxiety? With the remarkable healing technique of EFT, you truly can! Here is how…
Emotional Freedom Technique (or EFT) is a combination of ancient Chinese acupuncture and modern psychology that works to physically alter your brain, energy system and body all at once. The practice consists of tapping with your fingertips on specific meridian points on your body while talking through traumatic memories and a wide range of emotions (fear, anxiety, a bad memory, an unresolved problem, or anything that’s bothering and overwhelming you at that moment.)
Ok, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. What are these meridians? Simply put, energy circulates through your body along a specific network of channels, and you can tap into this energy at any point along the system on the specific energy points. We all tend to touch them subconsciously every day (especially our temples when we’re stressed or worried) as our built-in soothing mechanism. Acupressure therapists make use of these points to stimulate our bodies in various ways, depending on the issue.
Acupoint tapping sends signals directly to the stress centres of the mid-brain, not mediated by the frontal lobes (the thinking part). Because EFT simultaneously accesses stress on physical and emotional levels, it gives you the best of both worlds – body and mind – almost like getting a massage during a psychotherapy session. In fact, EFT’s ability to access the amygdala (an almond-shaped part of your brain that initiates your body’s negative reaction to fear – the fight or flight response), that makes it so powerful.
This self-calming standard routine is really easy and safe to do, anytime and anywhere you need it! The basic technique first requires you to focus on the negative emotion at hand (fear of flying, worrying about exam results, a panic attack). While maintaining your mental focus on this issue, use your fingertips to tap 5-7 times each on 9 of the body’s meridian points (see video below). Tapping on these meridian points – while concentrating on accepting and resolving the negative emotion – will access your body’s energy, restoring it to a balanced state.
EFT was shown to reduce cortisol (the stress hormone) production by 25% compared to psychotherapy and relaxation intervention. It is estimated that around 10 million people worldwide make use of EFT healing technique today, including artists, professional athletes and war veterans with post traumatic stress disorder. But no problem is too insignificant to tackle before it gets out of hand (literally)! So get tappin’…