Have you been riding the coronacoaster*?

If you have been experiencing fluctuating emotional responses to all that has changed during the pandemic, as well as to national and world events, you are not alone. As an introvert and someone who works from home in a beautiful wooded sanctuary, sheltering in place was not that different or difficult for me the first month. Since then, cancelled events with family and friends, too much time sitting at a computer Zooming,  dramatically reduced personal territory and the relentlessly alarming news stirred up quite a bit emotionally for me.

To manage this gamut of feelings, I am grateful to have learned a powerful tool that can bring me back to center – Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or Tapping. EFT is a body-mind process that can help clear the emotional charge around any issue by using your fingers to tap on acupressure points connected to energy pathways called meridians. In Chinese medicine, each meridian is associated with an organ and a particular emotion. It’s healthy to feel a range of emotions, but not when we are buffeted about by them. Often, due to past traumas, we get stuck in our emotions, causing stress and resulting physical symptoms in our bodies. Healing comes from acknowledging an emotion, feeling it, and then releasing it.

Tapping facilitates healing

Tapping clears stuck energy, reducing stress, and restoring balance emotionally and physically. Research published with the NIH (see RESOURCE below) demonstrates that participants using EFT experienced significant decreases in pain, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Blood pressure, resting heart rate and cortisol also significantly decreased. Happiness levels increased as did immune system function.

EFT has been an especially potent tool in my healing process and a significant part of my coaching practice due to how transformative it has been for me and others. What I love most about Tapping is that the basics can be easily learned by anyone. Working with a professional (such as myself) can offer a deeper, longer-lasting clearing, as there are many advanced techniques, but having emotional first aid at your fingertips may be essential in these rapidly changing times.

Self-help tapping

I will share more about EFT in a subsequent blog, but to get you started, I am introducing TTT (Trauma Tapping Technique). I recently became aware of this variation of tapping that was created to help severely traumatized people learn self-regulation of their emotional states. Whereas other forms of Tapping use words, TTT is silent to reduce the possibility of re-triggering trauma. It has been taught to refugees, survivors of genocide and first responders around the world with great success.

If you want help dealing with intense emotions arising due to personal and world circumstances, start tapping! (see Instructions in PRACTICE below).