How to send your mind’s sabertooth tiger back into extinction.
We all inherited some hard-to-shake programming from our ancient ancestors, including our response to stress.
Their stress involved coping with life-or-death situations from sabertooth tigers and other such threats, which thankfully they survived (or we wouldn’t be here!).
Our stress mostly does not.
But there’s a reason we still perceive the daily stressors in our lives as being just as threatening, and why so many of us have such high levels of anxiety...
Maybe you’ve felt it - the sense that things are about to fall apart, or that your mind is too crowded with distressing thoughts that prevent you from breathing, relaxing, and sleeping...
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18% of the population.
Luckily, we’ve come a long way in our understanding of how our ancestors’ fight-or-flight mechanism remained with us, and even more importantly, what we can do to fix it.
Did you know that Tapping has been scientifically proven to rewire the brain and body to bring it back into balance? Read on to see what this means to you and your anxiety...
Your Programming
You may have heard of the amygdala in your brain. That’s where your survival instincts live.
When you’re truly in a dangerous situation, the amygdala perceives the threat and releases biochemicals that flood your body with the mental and physical energy you need to fight or flee it.
But what about when you’re not truly in danger?
Unfortunately for many people, that ancient survival instinct kicks in anyway. Everyday stressors are all it takes and their anxiety is off and running.
Sometimes it doesn’t take much - like a traffic jam, a rude barista at the coffee shop, or just being too busy. But there are also big ones, which may not be life-threatening, but can seriously trigger our anxiety. These include things like:
- Health
- Money
- Job pressures
- Painful memories
- Relationship concerns
- The world!
When your body constantly goes into fight-or-flight mode, you lose your sense of control. You lack the peace of mind to deal with a situation as effectively as you might. You become exhausted, distracted, and at some point, unhealthy.
In fact, according to Harvard Medical School, “Evidence suggests that people with anxiety disorders are at greater risk for developing a number of chronic medical conditions.” They state that these include gastrointestinal disorders, chronic respiratory disorders, and heart disease.
This is no secret. That’s why the market is booming with individuals and organizations doing their best to help you alleviate your anxiety. They know how important it is in the scheme of your overall health.
Maybe you’ve already tried some of their (and your own) techniques such as:
- Practicing meditation, deep breathing, yoga, etc.
- Exercising regularly
- Cutting down on caffeine or alcohol
- Diffusing essential oils
- Recording your honest feelings in a journal
- Getting massages and other types of bodywork
- Taking hot baths
- Talking to someone you trust
Those are all wonderful ways to temporarily relieve your anxiety. If you do practice any of them, I want to congratulate you for taking an active role in your own health and wellbeing!
But what if you practice one (or all) of them faithfully, and you still suffer from anxiety more often than you think you should?
This is where Tapping does what other techniques can’t do.
Tapping rewires your brain, which means it short-circuits the amygdala’s response so you don’t have to continue feeling like a victim to your programming anymore.
In other words, Tapping helps you get to the root of the problem, which is the only place where you can truly eliminate it.
How It Works
Anxiety is brought to life at particularly stressful moments. Without our prehistoric programming, we’d be able to more easily recognize each event’s actual level of threat, deal with it in the moment, and file it away in the knowledge and wisdom part of our being.
But when your nervous system has become overly sensitized due to past events and emotions, your programming kicks in and new anxiety gets added to your already overloaded system. You feel ambushed, again and again.
[Just for fun, do you know what a group of (sabertooth) tigers is called? An ambush!] :)
Not to make light of anxiety. I don't wish that feeling on anyone. But there is a proven solution, and I think by now you know it’s called Tapping.
What Tapping does is send a calming signal to the amygdala, allowing your brain and body to feel safe, and thus, dissipate your anxiety.
The combination of tapping on the meridian points of your body and speaking to the reason(s) for your anxiety brings your mind and body into alignment. It reduces the automatic flow of anxious feelings when those memories get triggered by everyday life, until it stops them altogether.
And though it may take a few rounds of tapping to clear particularly intense emotions, you can feel when it happens. Then one day you realize that you just don’t react to things the way you always did.
Here’s what a few people have shared about their experience with Tapping:
“Since the Tapping World Summit in February, the last of my anxiety has gone and along with it my fear of heights apparently although I hadn't got around to tapping on that yet.”
Alex, Melbourne, Australia
“Things I thought were hard-wired into me have dissolved and I’m doing things I would never have believed possible.”
Alice, South Africa
“I am noticing shifts after repeated use of tapping videos such as less worry, fear, stress, nervousness and anxiety - virtually disappeared which feels amazing and such a relief to be able to move through the world in a state of grace, peace, love, joy and happiness.”
Michelle, Ireland
EFT Tapping has been known to work for years by psychologists, therapists, coaches, and everyday people. It is also used by some of the leading physicians in the holistic health world:
"EFT studies have shown that after treatment, when subjects recall the events that used to trigger big emotional reactions, they are now calm. The memory appears to have been reconsolidated with the self-soothing emotional tags generated by tapping."
DR. DAWSON CHURCH
"Studies show that people who use Tapping recover very quickly from whatever ails them, often in just a few sessions. Whether you use it to reduce physical symptoms or for changing limiting beliefs, Tapping has the effect of releasing the emotional memories associated with your symptoms or beliefs."
DR. CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP
“Nothing comes closer to ‘magic’ than the positive results I have personally witnessed using EFT on thousands of my patients who suffered from physical and emotional pain and illness. EFT can lead you to incredible breakthroughs on your healing journey, and it can help you in your daily life.”
DR. JOSEPH MERCOLA
And now, a powerful study reveals EFT Tapping promotes a significant decrease in anxiety...
If you’re new to Tapping, you might still be wondering how something so simple can really make you feel safer and calmer, and even eliminate your anxiety. Or maybe you’ve done enough Tapping to know it works, but you’re still curious to know the hard science behind why it works.
If so, this is for you.
In a nutshell, the Tapping Solution Foundation helped fund a study that was published in the May 2016 edition of The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease titled, "Emotional Freedom Techniques for Anxiety: A Systematic Review With Meta-analysis."
We wanted an objective review and documented evidence of what Tapping achieves.
This analysis applied the most stringent study selection using the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) Task Force on Empirically Validated Treatments.
This meta-analysis analyzed the results of 14 randomized controlled trials that included an assessment for anxiety and involved a total of 658 participants.
It found a “large” treatment effect and a significant decrease in anxiety.
Critical analysis of the findings of these studies is both clinically important and timely, as the practice of EFT continues to gain adoption into the psychotherapy community.
And because of its efficacy and ease of use, EFT may possess significant practical advantages to public health outcomes compared with resource-intensive approaches including Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
Back to What Matters Most: You and Your Anxiety
Would you like to experience a feeling of safety flooding your body right now? Then take a minute to do some tapping!
All you have to do is download The Tapping Solution App, where you’ll find a (FREE) Releasing Anxiety Tapping Meditation.
Follow along as Jessica leads you through the tapping points and statements. You’ll even be able to rate your anxiety at the start of the tapping session, and again at the end to see your results.
Go ahead and try it! You’re just a few minutes away from feeling calmer and breathing easier.
We developed The Tapping Solution App to put this powerful tool in your hands at all times. We wanted to be just a click and a swipe away when you need help getting through a stressful moment.
In time, we’ll have hundreds of Tapping topics available when you need help. But for now, we already have many to choose from - with FREE meditations available from each category.
DIY Tapping
You can also learn to do Tapping on your own. We have lots of resources on our website at thetappingsolution.com, which we invite you to use whenever you can.
If you're new to Tapping, you can watch a video on how to tap here.
Why wait another minute?
Getting relief from the misery of anxiety is absolutely possible. We want you to know how that feels and to begin changing your life into one that is full of more joy, more peace, and more fulfillment. It’s really up to you, but we’re here to help.
You know how they say you should never wake a sleeping tiger? Well, here at The Tapping Solution, we don’t agree.
We say WAKE IT UP AND TAP ON IT! It’s the only way to make it go away for good.
Until next time,
Keep Tapping!
Nick Ortner
Have you used Tapping to lower your anxiety? Share below! I'd love to read your comments.
The article Releasing Anxiety with EFT Tapping is republished from: http://tappingsolution.com/
When you feel stress, your body tenses up. Your facial muscles tighten. Your breathing becomes more shallow.
Whenever you're feeling stress, the amygdala in your brain fires. The amygdala is best known as the brain’s fear center.
Remember how I mentioned above about the fight, flight, or freeze response?
It’s not hard to see how the conditions and circumstances of the times have led to the massive wave of people who are Tapping, getting results, and excitedly sharing it with others.
“Now, a new, cutting-edge technique has emerged to make achieving success easier than ever before. Meridian Tapping, sometimes known as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), is a revolutionary new tool to remove the fears, doubts, and upsets that keep you from living according to your values and ideals.”