More and more people today have heard of “this weird tapping thing” that for some reason works. Another name for tapping is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). Its forerunner – TFT (Thought Field Therapy) – has been developed by American psychotherapist Roger Callahan at the end of the 70s. Both forms of tapping therapies have been recognized for achieving amazing results where various conventional means have failed. In the States EFT has been used successfully in restoring to life war veterans suffering from severe Post-traumatic Stress Disorder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQerP14LgP0.
In Rwanda EFT is being engaged to bring healing and hope to orphaned young people who still bear horrific scars of the genocide of 1994:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymp4vbK8O0g.
On a day-to-day basis, EFT is being used with great success both in therapy and in home settings to help people achieve relief from a wide range of uncomfortable emotions and conditions, including
– Fear
– Anger
– Stress
– Anxiety
– Depression
– Food cravings
– Childhood trauma
But how exactly does EFT work? Why does the simple act of tapping with your fingers on some acupressure points produce such a shift?
Recent scientific studies have begun to throw light on this mystery. It appears that tapping has a calming effect on the amygdala – a “fear centre” in our brain responsible for the “fight or flight” response. The amygdala gets activated in response to the perceived danger, either real or imaginary. By the prompt from the amygdala, adrenaline and cortisol are released to prepare our body for action (i.e. to fight or to run). The aroused amygdala, in interaction with hippocampus, also facilitates the deeper engraining of the learned information (both emotional and intellectual) in our brain and in our body. Thus, for example, if a person has been in a road accident, the experienced emotion of fear gets recorded in the body and this person may experience anxiety every time she/he has to travel by car.
So how does EFT help?
When doing tapping one has to tune in to an uncomfortable emotion or state that one suffers from. When we do that the amygdala gets reactivated. However, the subsequent series of tapping on acupressure points actually calms the amygdala and thus “persuades” the body that nothing wrong is happening right now, so that it can stop producing stress hormones. In this way the body “unlearns” the trauma and returns to functioning in a more relaxed and optimal mode. Tapping has also been shown to increase the production of endorphins and assist in overcoming chocolate and other ‘comfort-food’ cravings.
For more information about scientific research on EFT you can read an article by David Feinstein:
http://www.eftuniverse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10571&Itemid=21
To tap on your own, you can download a simple one-page tapping guide from my website: www.Soultap.co.uk.
There is also free manual available on Eftuniverse.com. And if you would like a brief individual consultation you are welcome to book a free meeting with me at Jade Healing Centre.
Happy tapping!
Ludmila Gin