How to Use Tapping for Anxiety

Have you ever heard of tapping for anxiety? Well, if you haven't it's a simple way to curb your anxiety while costing you nothing out of pocket. It's also known as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), where you tap gently on different parts of the body with your fingertips while you repeat a phrase out loud and pay attention to your emotions.

It can help reprogram your mind and body, and help you get in a better state of mind in a hurry. Strange as it may seem, this simple tactic can change your life. We all know the feeling and signs of anxiety, it's helpless at times, but tapping can help stave off anxiety induced panic attacks.

How exactly tapping relieves anxiety and helps with mental health is not exactly understood (still needs more study), but it's thought to be in the same ball park as acupuncture. It accesses your body's energy points, and somehow works to break them down. Now that you know a little bit more about what tapping is, you probably want to know how to use tapping for anxiety.

Tapping Points

Take two or three fingers, whatever you prefer and locate the points you want to tap. Touch is a natural stress reliever, it's why we humans touch each other for comfort all the time — in a variety of ways.

There are plenty of points you can tap, but for the sake of brevity we will focus on a few. The top of the head, the chin, the eyebrow, or under the arm all work very well. Physical pain and disease are intricately connected to negative emotions, so these spots all are ideal for novice tappers.

Tapping under the arm can restore the body’s energy balance, and negative emotions can be conquered. All things to keep in mind when learning how to use tapping for anxiety.

Up near the head area is going to clear the mind, and if you can do this I think you'll notice the body often follows. You can focus on bad memories or a problem that's currently pressing. Either way with some tapping it should subside substantially. While maintaining your mental focus on whatever issue you've chosen, use your fingertips to tap five to seven times on the areas selected.

Choose a Set Up Statement

Choose a statement or phrase, this will be the thing you repeat throughout the tapping process to further drive the point home. You’ll repeat a phrase (known as a set up statement) out loud to help you focus on your emotional and physical feelings.

It usually focuses on how you feel in the given moment, followed by how you'd like to feel — a bit of positive thinking! It might be a good idea to inject what you're nervous about in your set up statement, and then project it going well towards the tail end of the statement. When you're just starting to learn how to use tapping for anxiety it's okay to have a simple setup statement.

Say you're nervous about a big work meeting, just tell yourself you're a smart person, and everything you need to do you're fully capable of. Then, to top it off, say how you want the meeting to go, and hopefully this will make it so during the actual meeting — down the line you can use set up statements to employ the proper body language when possibly interviewing at a better job or going for a promotion. This can be extremely versatile because it can be tailored to whatever is stressing you out at any given point in time.

Tapping Through the Points

Make sure you are making good physical contact with the tapping points, but it should never be so hard as to hurt or become uncomfortable. Choose the hand you will tap the points with and use it for one whole round of tapping, and then alternate and try the other. Which hand doesn't really matter, just be consistent. Consistency is key when learning how to use tapping for anxiety.

Start by tapping the side of the hand you will be tapping with, it's known as the "Karate Chop" part of the hand. Now, tap the points you've decided on, say your set up statement, and remember to breathe deeply. Repeat until you feel better!

Tapping for anxiety really does work when you're feeling anxious, and it's surprisingly effective at dealing with negative emotions. Read for yourself, there is plenty of science behind the Emotional Freedom Technique.