One of the most common questions I’m asked about EFT/Tapping is “How does it work?”
For the full answer, watch my video.
Here’s my abbreviated answer.
For a long time my answer was two-fold. First, I’d say no one really knows how it works, but I don’t care because I know it does and there’s research that shows it is effective.
Second, there was research that showed acupuncture and acupressure, which use the same points as Tapping, send a message of safety and calm to the amygdala in the brain that interrupts old connections there that trigger emotional responses.
The research has advanced since then. Now it tells us:
• Tapping leads to the downregulation of the amygdala, including a measurable lowering of the stress hormone cortisol. (Kinda the same thing I was saying in the past about that message of safety and calm, but in a more academic tone.)
• The results hold after we stop tapping because of Memory Reconsolidation, a way to permanently change the emotional component of a traumatic memory.
This explains why Tapping is a great way to release Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and phobias, but it still doesn’t exactly explain why MY tapping works.
Watch the video for my best guess on why Tapping works on success blocks like clients’ money ceilings.
When releasing subconscious success blocks, I rarely work directly with specific memories anymore. Many of these blocks come from multiple messages and years of experiences in childhood, many of which were not traumatic.
Plus, I’ve found—and created—faster Tapping techniques to effectively and permanently release success blocks than going through memories, one after the other, to get rid of all their emotional content.
So, while I believe I am using Tapping to send the message of safety and calm to the amygdala (i.e., “downregulating” it), I don’t know that I’m doing “Memory Reconsolidation” to make the changes permanent.
I’m guessing that there is some sort of Memory Reconsolidation for ideas that’s happening in the brain.
So I’m back to saying Tapping works on my clients’ subconscious success blocks. I don’t really know how, but I know that it does.
I’ll have to wait for the research to catch up to me to explain it all with hard science.
Hope that was interesting.
Until next time . . .
Happy Tapping!
—Nancy
