EFT /Tapping for Stress & Anxiety should you give it a go?

For me EFT was the tool that I was able to use to overcome anxiety and stress. 18 years ago, my underlying feelings of “nervousness” and stress that I had struggled with for 10-12 years took a serious turn for the worse. This began a 6-year period where I struggled with constant stress, anxiety and pervasive panic attacks. This started to narrow my life, constricted my comfort zones and began years of avoidance. I felt if I could keep myself safe by avoiding certain places, people, situations and heightened emotions, that ultimately might trigger me, then maybe I would be OK.

I put routines and support systems in place and began to live smaller and smaller. To keep a handle on my anxiety I leveraged away anything and everything that felt even remotely uncomfortable. In fact, I was essentially giving away all my power, my happiness and years of my life thinking all the while that I was winning this war against anxiety. I was running away from this thing that was inside me and letting go of my own self-worth and power. I was left feeling highly stressed and extremely exhausted, whilst I was outwardly functioning well and appeared to have it ‘all together’, inside I was a mess.

By pure chance a family member introduced me to this thing called TFT that lead me to EFT- Emotional Freedom Techniques. It sounded just too good to be true, a simple tapping technique to help with stress and anxiety and a whole host of other things too!! It sounded a bit scary and unknown – having to deal with my emotions…. this was something I needed to avoid right?? Avoiding myself and my emotions was something I had become very good at but this little voice inside my head occasionally broke through the Fear and Loud Static and said “what if there is a better way” & “this is not living”.

So I began to read about this tapping thing and found some information and Low and behold that word “emotion” was popping up again! Emotion this was something I had always been told I had too much of and to stuff that down so no one would see it. Did I really want to get in touch with my emotions, little lone face them or share them? No thank YOU! I think I’ll stay hiding for as long as I can it’s safer here right? Of course, this only compounded my stress and as my avoidance behaviours grew to become unmanageable I felt I was not running fast enough and everything was catching up.

At this point I was truly afraid of everything whilst outwardly putting on the “I’ve got this all together” charade – What a nightmare.

I read some more about this tapping technique and decided I really didn’t have a lot to lose at this point so I began to tap to see if I could help reduce my feelings of stress. Tapping was actually easy and I just used it when I felt overwhelmed. It became a part of my week and as I began to tap regularly, I started to notice some subtle changes in the constant chatter in my head. At this time I was purely using tapping as a stress management tool, it was simple, it was safe and it made me feel better after I tapped. Just the act of tapping gently on these acupressure points on my head face and upper body gave me a chance to relax enough to slowly begin to see different options, opportunities and broaden my world a little.  I started to wonder what else this EFT/tapping could achieve.

Some of the changes I began to notice were;

  • Less preoccupation with worrying
  • Less need to control every aspect of my environment
  • Slightly less self-critical
  • Less avoidance of places
  • Easier to fall asleep and more restful sleep


Wow this is magic at my fingertips. EFT gave me the opportunity to quieten the anxiety and stress just enough to begin to get a bit of space to get some of my freedom back.  This really was power at my fingertips and this began my journey through and across the river of overwhelm to a better future. Once I trusted this process, I searched for a great EFT practitioner. What came next for me was the most amazing experience of my life so far.

If you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed or anxious and feel that there is no way out maybe this tapping technique can help you too. At a minimum you will definitely get a reduction in the Stress hormone Cortisol and that is a good thing. If you are ready to see how Tapping can release some stress and overwhelm, I am ready to hold the space for you, and teach you this great tool.

Louise Sage
Clinical EFT Practitioner
www.tapintowellbeing.com.au

Expert in Stress and Anxiety

Heartfelt Living