Here is a practical demonstration of a simple self-help tool called Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), or tapping, which is a quick and easy way to help you to relieve difficult emotions, pain and other symptoms. 

EFT is a form of “emotional acupuncture” as it uses the same energy channels in the body (meridians) as acupuncture to gently tap on. Tapping helps reduce blockages, allowing the energy to flow freely and reducing your symptoms.

As well as tapping on various points on the body, you combine this with words and language as part of EFT. The words used are ones that mean something to you, they can support you to help create a change in your symptoms. 

You can choose words of kindness, love and acceptance that help lead you the release of physical and emotional symptoms. They create a contrast between the difficult issue you are going through and a kinder and more accepting mind state and a body that is more at ease.

The tapping points are on some specific bony points of the hands, face, breast bone, side of the chest and top of the head. It only takes a few minutes to go through the sequence a several times.

You can measure the effects of your EFT practice on a scale of 0-10 to see how the effective EFT is for the problem you are wishing to address

Then you can go deeper and be more specific with language around the details and location of the problem and also what was going on in your life when the problem first started. You can look at the emotion that is present now when you bring that time to mind and work with EFT with that emotion.

Tapping can be practised on a regular basis to help relieve symptoms in the moment of difficulty, you don’t have to use the words and it helps to rebalance our bodies and minds. Give it a go!