Craving Emotional Freedom? Try Tapping
When I was a teacher and stressed out of my mind, my friend told me she just learned about this awesome technique called EFT (tapping). It alleviates stress, depression, and anxiety, you say? It can help with PTSD, insomnia, chronic pain, and more, you say? Say no more, show me the way!
When I finally checked out the link she sent me, I was immediately skeptical. It seemed too simple at first — tapping these “random” places on my face and upper body while saying what was on my mind just seemed silly. But after just a few minutes…it was working. It was working pretty freaking well. I felt more relaxed and peaceful than I had all school year. It was that “I’m a teacher on summer break” feeling…almost.
And over the years, my love affair for tapping has just grown and grown. I’ve used it to work on everything under the sun: anxiety, depression, stress, anger, sadness, grief, shame, releasing toxic friends, betrayal, regret, physical pain, fatigue, procrastination, old childhood wounds, and the list literally goes on. Emotional freedom never felt like an attainable thing, but now it’s something I can return to again and again.
And with ten years of personal experience under my belt, I’ve spent the past three years or so incorporating this amazing method with some of my clients. The results are nothing short of fascinating — a huge shift from emotional suffering to emotional freedom. What can I say? I’m in love with it!
Ok so what IS EFT?
It stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. It involves tapping different acupressure points that coincide with energetic meridians in the body as you focus on a specific memory, physical sensation, or emotion.
Essentially, whenever we experience something negative, our bodies and energetic systems feel the stress of it. If we don’t fully release the stress and its energetic leftovers, it stays stuck in our bodies and contributes to an overactive sympathetic nervous system (the fight-or-flight part). This excessive stress and imbalanced nervous system contribute to all sorts of physical and mental ailments. Tapping on these acupressure points helps to release the stuck energy, enabling us to fully let go and feel better.
Get Mary Arciero’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
For an experience and to learn more about the points, check out this YouTube video I made.
That sounds cool and all, but what is the evidence?
Although we don’t understand every single detail about why it works yet, the scientific research coming out for EFT is impressive. Here is some of what’s available to us:
- EFT Tapping can decrease pain, depression, and anxiety while increasing happiness, quality of life, and satisfaction with life.
- EFT can decrease psychological conditions such as anxiety, depression, phobias, and PTSD; physiological issues such as pain, insomnia, and autoimmune conditions; professional and sports performance; and biological markers of stress.
- More than 60 research articles in peer-reviewed journals report that EFT has a 98% efficacy rate for psychological distress such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and phobias; physical conditions such as pain, asthma, seizure disorders, and fibromyalgia; and performance issues in athletics and academia .
- EFT is reported to promote the release of opioids, serotonin, and GABA, while also decreasing cortisol, the stress hormone. These neurochemical changes are associated with lowered heart rate, decreased anxiety, pain relief, decrease of the fight-or-flight response, and regulation of the autonomic nervous system.
Bottom line — you gotta try it
Maybe you’ll do it and feel silly, never wanting to repeat it. Maybe you’ll try it and fall in love like I have, wishing you had discovered it sooner. The main takeaway is: don’t knock it til you try it. It just might change your life, in the best way possible. =)
Resources to Support Your Journey
Satisfy the Soul Podcast — a spiritual health and happiness podcast exploring the highs and lows of the human experience. Listen now on: Spotify, Amazon, Apple, Rss.com, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Mary Arciero’s YouTube channel — a range of videos to support you holistically including guided meditations, yoga classes, exercise routines, and more
Contact me for a free discussion if you’re seeking guidance on your spiritual journey.
