HOW TO TAP WITHOUT TOUCHING YOUR FACE
You can minimize the risk of tapping on your face by giving your hands a good, long, thorough clean immediately before you start.
But there are plenty of other options. So, to avoid tapping on your face at all, start by looking at the diagram below. Subtract the face and what you still have is the crown of the head, the collarbone, the side of the hand, underarm.
The crown of the head: This alone covers all but one of the meridians, including all the yang meridians. The Chinese name for this point is a metaphor that is translated as 100 meetings or 1000 meetings meaning that a lot of channels meet there.
Two other points between them cover all the yin channels. They are:
Wrist point. If you bend your hand towards you and notice those two little tendons that stand out, the point is between them. You can cover it by just slapping the wrist at about wristwatch level.
Ankle point. If you put four fingers on the protruding point of the ankle bone, then look for the fatty area between the tibia and the Achilles. You can tap that. The easier option and just as effective is just to bang that general area.
NB the ankle point is contraindicated for pregnant women. (Ditto index finger.)
The side of the hand: This is a great point and just tapping on it and saying to yourself all the negatives feelings you have right now can go a long way. In traditional acupressure it is thought to be a point for sadness. How relevant is that right now?
The thymus thump: Do a Tarzan thump in the idle of your chest. Great for anxiety. Ditto about relevance.
The gamut: This was part of the original EFT tapping protocol but has become somewhat neglected. That is a shame because the gamut procedure has a lot to recommend it. It is traditionally a point for despair and loneliness. The gamut procedure (below) incorporates the bilateral stimulation that neurologists speculate is the explanation for how EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) works. It can be useful when things seem stuck.
Tap the gamut point, the dip on the back of the hand below the knuckles of the little finger and ring finger when you have made your hand into a fist. Then
close eyes
open eyes
look down hard right (make sure it just eyes, not head)
look down hard left
roll eyes in one direction
roll in the other direction
hum (don’t sing) a few bars
count to five
hum a few more bars
Under the breast:
This point seems to appeal more to men than to women. Women, especially if generously -endowed, have to yank the breast out of the way – though some find it convenient and powerful to use if lying down on their backs.
Finger points:
The finger points were part of the original form of EFT and were mostly discarded because there seemed to be enough redundancy in the protocol to cut some out without loss of effect. If we are avoiding face points, it makes sense to reinstate them.
Th – on the outside edge of the thumb level with the base of the nail
IF – on the side of the index finger closer to the thumb level with the base of the nail (this point is not recommended for pregnant women)
MF – in the same place on the middle finger
RF – on the ring finger the point is actually on the other side of the nail.
LF – in the side of the little finger closer to the thumb
Finger tapping:
Use the thumb to tap on the tapping points on the other fingers. You can do both hands at the same time. Helpful in keeping yourself on an even keel.
The butterfly hug
Cross your arms across your chest and put each hand about halfway up between the elbow and the shoulder on the opposite arm and tap alternately. There are meridian points in your fingertips. And you are giving yourself bilateral stimulation and a hug at the same time. You can pair it with something like: “Even though I am (insert what’s relevant) I accept myself with or without (insert what is relevant such as wish compassion or without j
Cut the words
If you are really feeling overwhelmed, skip the set-up and just tap around the points with something like: “this feeling.” Or just tap the points and say nothing. The words are to keep our attention on what we are tapping on. Sometimes our attention is so much there already that it doesn’t need help.
Cut the fat
Some people naturally have slower metabolic rates than others. That means they will use fewer of the calories from their food as fuel and start to turn the rest into body fat much sooner than others do.
And a lot of women may start with an average rate and end up with a very slow-burning metabolism after going on and off diets or alternating starving and binging or taking diet pills for decades. It is hardly surprising if part of them thinks there is a famine and tries its best to ensure they survive this perceived starvation danger by gearing right down metabolically as soon as they cut back what they eat so they burn as little of their reserves as possible.
Besides doing the practical things to speed up metabolism – having breakfast, exercising aerobically and building muscle, reducing stress, getting enough sleep – we can tap.
A great way to do this is to tap and talk to the part of us that is trying to protect us in this way. Thank it for its intention and tell it we have plenty of nourishment available, there is no famine, it is safe for us to burn up food because more is easily available.
(There are more hints about using EFT for eating and weight in my book Introduction Emotional Freedom Techniques – a practical guide available from my website or from Amazon.)
When someone keeps pushing your buttons
Have you ever found that someone presses your buttons disproportionately to what they are doing or saying? When you know you are over-reacting over and over but find yourself unable to stop? Do you tap and the negative feelings seem to go, but next time the same thing happens they come back again?
Tapping on specific events with someone who gets to you may detach the emotion from your current feelings about them. But it will not necessarily immunize you against getting just as angry or upset or hurt next time.
And when this is someone you have to deal with regularly, perhaps a colleague or a boss, this can make life really stressful.
When there is a person in our lives who really triggers us like this, it is often not really because of their behaviour or their vibe but because they remind us, unconsciously, of someone else who has upset us in the past.
Next time it happens try this: close your eyes and notice the feeling that comes up for you. Feeling can be emotion or physical sensation or, ideally, a combination of the two.
Let your mind drift back to an earlier time you had this feeling. And when you feel you have it, see if you can drift back even further to an earlier time still.
Now tap on what came into your mind. If it is a specific event with a different person, tap on the memory of that event. Or if it is just a feeling you had being around a different person, begin to explore your relationship with that person. What did they do or say that upset you? Or what did they stop you from doing?
If you direct your tapping not to whatever or whoever is the trigger in your current life but to the person or event this unconsciously reminds you of, it will not only have the best chance of clearing your current problem but also of stress proofing yourself again further reminders in the future.
I am not good enough
Do you ever beat yourself up with the “not good enough” Or similar stuff? And do you think if you tap on all your short-comings and failings and self-criticisms, and if you just find a way to have more self-esteem you would be okay?
Would this still be true if you really accepted yourself?
You probably know in your head that we are all and always will be just works in progress. But has your heart got the message?
Try these versions of the set-up to see if they help get the message to where it really matters.
- “I accept myself anyway.”
- “I accept myself with compassion.”
- “I accept myself without judgment.”
- “I accept myself as a work in progress.”
- Or even just say: “I accept myself” as if you really mean it.
