Lower your stress, with just two fingers

I want to share a technique that I use with many of my clients to get rid of all sorts of blocks to their success. The technique is called EFT, or simply “tapping”, and it’s growing in popularity, is being used around the world, and the number of studies documenting its effectiveness is mounting. Really, the only drawback to it is that it looks weird. Ah well, can’t have everything.

I’m going to teach you a simple version of tapping to use when you are feeling stressed. Stress can lower your ability to think and be creative, so it’s important to limit stress when you can. Before we start, though, go drink some water. No really, go. This won’t work if you are at all dehydrated. I’ll wait.

Welcome back. Okay, the first step is to write down the feeling you are working on. I’ll be using the word “stress,” but if “overwhelmed,” “underwater,” “scared” or some other word captures what you’re feeling better, please use that. Next, on a scale of 0 through 10 (0 is not at all, 10 is as bad as you can imagine), write down how stressed you are feeling right now.

It’s time to do the actual tapping.

1. Karate Chop. Take two fingers of one hand and tap on the karate chop point on your other hand. That’s the fleshy part on the side of your hand under your little finger. You’re tapping about as hard as if you had a push-button phone with a sticky button. So, you’re not whiffing it and you’re not leaving a bruise, but it’s solid. Now, while tapping on that point, we’re going to say something three times. Repeat after me: “Even though I’m feeling really stressed, I deeply and completely accept myself . . . Even though I’m feeling really stressed, I deeply and completely accept myself . . .  Even though I’m feeling really stressed, I deeply and completely accept myself.”

2. Eyebrow. Now tap right where one of your eyebrows starts and say “This stress.”

3. Side of Eye. Tap on the ridge of bone on the side of your eye. “I am stressed.”

4. Under the Eye. Tap about and inch below your pupil under your eye. “I’ve got too much going on.”

5. Under Nose. Tap under your nose. “And it’s real.”

6. Chin. Tap on the line on your chin. “I’ve got good reasons to feel stressed.”

We could use two fingers for the next spots, but it will take too long to find them, so let’s do this the easy way.

7. Collarbone. Make a fist and, with the flat part of your knuckles, tap on your collarbone where a man would knot his tie. “I’m really stressed.”

8. Under Arm. Take all four fingers and tap under your arm, about four inches down from your armpit. “All this stress.”
9. Top of the Head. Finally, tap with all five fingers on the top of your head and say: “I’m so stressed.”

Okay, stop tapping and take a deep breath. Great. That was a single round of tapping. (By the way, all you really need to say as you are tapping around the points is “this stress,” but I like to keep it interesting.) Check in with your stress level. Is it still the same number you started with, did it go up, or down? Write down the new number. Usually the numbers go down, but sometimes they go up. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means you are accessing something you’ve been pushing away and now you’ll be able to tap it down.

Time for a second round of tapping:

Karate Chop: “Even though I have this remaining stress, I deeply and completely accept myself.” (Say that two more times.)

Eyebrow: “This remaining stress.”

Side of Eye: “There’s a lot on my plate.”

Under Eye: “I’m not sure how I’ll get it all done.”

Under Nose: “So of course I’m stressed.”

Chin: “Anyone would be.”

Collarbone: “Still, the stress isn’t helping. It’s actually making it worse.”

Under Arm: “Maybe I can let go of some of it.”

Top of Head: “I’m letting go of some of that stress now.”

Stop. Breathe deeply. Check your stress number now. You can keep doing rounds of tapping until you get that number down to zero or until you have to do something else. Usually just a few rounds is enough to get the stress way down from where you started so you can think better and get more done.

There’s lots more you can do with tapping, but sometimes all you need is a quick boost. I hope that was helpful.