Penny Araujo
What is EFT Tapping, The Tapping Points, How to Tap for Self-Care & Self-Healing (Tutorial)
*This post is a transcript of the eft tapping tutorial video I published on YouTube and Rumble. This transcript has been slightly modified in some sections to make it easier to read.*
The first time I used tapping I had a profound healing experience. I healed a dog phobia after 15 minutes of applying tapping to the two memories that triggered the phobia. I wasn’t sure in the moment whether it worked until I tested it the following day and noticed I had zero anxiety being around dogs. I suffered with that dog phobia for 4 years. I remember how excited I was and all this joy I felt when I realized I had healed this issue. It was such a huge relief!
This is the power of tapping. Some issues are very quick to clear, such as phobias, and other issues can take a bit longer and require more tapping. It has been my experience that tapping, when skillfully applied, is more effective than conventional therapies for healing anxiety, anger, trauma, physical pain and more. Since my initial experience with tapping many years ago, I have continued to use it with success on myself and with clients for a wide range of issues.
In this tutorial, you’re going to learn how to use eft tapping for self-care and self-healing. I’m going to cover the three main levels to using tapping, I’m going to show you the tapping points, and I’m going to equip you with strategies and five key tapping techniques so you can release the fears, stress, anxiety, pain and emotional issues that have been preventing you from feeling good.
Learning how to use tapping in the ways I will show you can result in you healing your issues, manifesting your desires, and cultivating a deeper understanding and connection with yourself and others.
I recommend reading this tutorial from beginning to end. You may wish to return and review parts of this tutorial. Here are some quick links to make it easy for you to access a section you would like to review.
What is Tapping? EFT Tapping? EFT?
How to Tap: The Tapping Points
How to Tap: The Tapping Techniques
- Tapping & Talking / Tapping & Venting
- Tapping on Body Sensations (aka chase the pain)
- Using Words in Tapping: The Setup Statements & Reminder Phrases
- The Movie Technique
- Tapping & Grounding
Doing the Work & Recording Your Progress
Use Tapping as Part of Your Holistic Approach to Healing
Let’s get started…
What is Tapping? EFT Tapping? EFT?
EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques which is the original name for this therapy and self-help method. It combines elements of cognitive therapies with tapping on acupressure points on the face hands and chest. It is often referred to as tapping because it involves using your fingertips to tap on acupressure points while being tuned into an emotional or physical issue. It’s also referred to as EFT Tapping and this is to avoid confusion with other therapies that also use EFT as an acronym.
There are three main levels to using tapping for self-healing.
Level l. You can use tapping as a stress reduction and calming technique.
Simply tapping the acupressure points when you’re stressed helps reduces cortisol and flooding of stress hormones, as well as, balance your body’s energy. If you’re feeling anxious or upset in a particular moment or situation start tapping the points. This will help you process and release the stressful emotions.
When you apply tapping to the truth of how you feel and what you think, this allows the distressing emotions to move through you quicker, so you can feel better faster. In all my years of helping people and working on myself, I can say with complete confidence that tapping is hands down the best stress reduction technique I have come across.
Level ll. You can use tapping to heal specific emotional issues, such as, ongoing and persistent anxiety, phobias, traumas, physical pain and more.
It’s normal for us to experience a range of emotions and for emotions to move through us as the part of the human experience. When we experience emotional trauma and when we repress our emotions, this can create energetic blocks in our body and energy field. If we don’t release trauma and repressed emotions this can cause us to experience persistent and ongoing feelings of fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, guilt and shame, as well as, dis-ease in the body and mind. One of the most effective ways to heal these types of issues is to apply tapping to the specific events and repressed emotions that triggered the issues in the first place.
Sometimes, it can be pretty clear what events triggered the issues you’re dealing with, like the dog phobia I had. There were two key events that triggered the phobia: I was chased by a group of dogs when I was 6 years old which made me weary of dogs for many years. And when I was in my 30s, I got bite by a dog while walking on the street and this triggered the phobic response. Both events were very scary, they occurred suddenly and unexpectedly, I didn’t see it coming, and I felt a sense of helplessness. These are ingredients for emotional trauma and what triggered the phobia.
A phobia is an intense fear that can often feel debilitating. I had feelings of very high anxiety in my whole body when around or near dogs. I avoided them as much as possible. I applied tapping to the two key events that triggered the phobia, and voila, no more phobia.
You can expect to feel neutral and calm about past events when tapping has been successfully applied.
Sometimes you may not be aware of what events triggered your issue. However, the answers are within you. Your openness to discovering the roots of your issues will allow your subconscious mind to bring the information to the surface, to your conscious awareness, so you can heal it.
If you think of your issues as a table tops, the table legs are the specific events holding it up. The issues you want to heal can be held up by a few events or many specific events. The great thing with tapping is that you don’t need to apply tapping to all the specific events but some of the key events, like I did with the dog phobia, in order to collapse the table and have a generalization effect and experience full relief. Keep this in mind when you’re applying the tapping techniques I’ll be discussing later in this tutorial.
If you’re wondering whether tapping will work for you and you’re reading this tutorial, the answer is yes. Tapping is considered evidence-based which means there’s significant research showing it works even if you don’t believe in it. Tapping is effective for releasing fears, anxiety, phobias, traumas, PTSD, physical pain and more.
Level lll. You can also use tapping to collapse limiting beliefs holding you back from the fruition of your dreams and goals.
Most of our core beliefs including limiting core beliefs were formed during childhood. One of the most common limiting beliefs people have is ‘I’m not good enough’. When you believe you’re not good enough, you engage with people in a different way than if you believe you are good enough. The energy is very different and it can show up in a variety of ways. Your beliefs shape your experiences. You could also have this belief in one area of your life and not in another.
For example, one of the ways this ‘I’m not good enough’ belief showed up in my life was when I unintentionally manifested romantic relationships where I wasn’t valued or treated with respect. When I applied tapping to my relationship issues, one of the things I found myself working on, over and over again, was this anger and upset I had about being treated like garbage, that was my experience and those were the words I used. I felt like I was disrespected and then tossed in the trash and forgotten about, like I didn’t matter. Because it was a recurring theme that came up in more than one relationship, I knew it had to be related to something deeper.
I discovered that these feelings and limiting belief mostly stemmed from several traumatic events that occurred during my birth and early infancy. Then I used tapping and matrix reimprinting, which is another way of using tapping, to heal my experiences and transform my beliefs.
You see, we are born with unlimited potential and the power to make our dreams a reality, except most of us are not raised to believe this to be true. Through socialization and taking on other peoples limiting beliefs or when bad things happen to us, we may accept limiting beliefs about ourselves which offers a perspective that can shape our future experiences. Becoming aware of the limiting beliefs that are shaping your experiences can help you transform them.
One of the most effective ways to transform limiting beliefs is to apply tapping to the specific events, especially childhood events, that initially triggered them. Remember, I talked about the table top and table legs concept earlier? It’s the same idea here. The limiting belief is like a table top and the table legs are the specific events holding it up. Tapping, when effectively applied to specific events, has a generalization effect and allows the limiting belief to fall away. This results in you recognizing your unlimited potential and the power you have in creating the reality you desire.
You can do this with some practice: Heal anxiety, trauma and painful memories, and transform your beliefs to empowering ones that will help you manifest the relationships and life you desire.
Although working with an eft tapping practitioner can be very helpful for a variety of reasons, there’s a lot of healing you can experience with tapping on your own. My intention with this tutorial is to equip you with tapping techniques and strategies to help you with your self-healing.
Now let’s cover the tapping points.
The Tapping Points
You can start tapping your acupressure points as I explain where to tap.
The first point is at the side of your hand, on the fleshy part, just below the pinky finger. As you’re tapping through the points, you may notice that you start to yawn, sigh, cough or even burp, these are just some of the physical ways that the body releases energy. If you’re not having these physical signs of release it doesn’t mean that tapping is not working but if you do have them, they are completely normal and just allow them to happen.
The next point is at the top of the head. Tap here with an open hand, with your fingertips around the centre of your head. Some people feel a tingling on this point while tapping on it, sometimes I do, most of the time I don’t. Some people like to use both hands while tapping this point which is totally fine. I prefer to use one hand but you can do what feels better for you.
The next point is at the beginning of your eyebrow. You can tap on one eyebrow or you can use both hands and tap at the beginning of both eyebrows. Or you can use one hand and tap right across the middle which will have you tapping at the beginning of both eyebrows. I prefer to tap this point with one hand across the middle, but do what feels better for you. It doesn’t matter if you tap on one side or both sides in terms outcomes, they’re both effective.
The next point is at the side of your eye. There’s a bone right at the side of your eye, before the temple, tap right on the bone.
The next point is under the eye. Tap right at the top of your cheek bone with two fingers closer to your nose. Be sure to tap underneath the fleshy part under your eye and right on the cheek bone.
The next point is under the nose and above your lip.
The next point is on the chin, tap right on the crease of your chin.
The next point is the collarbone point which is about an inch below the collarbone, right underneath the collarbone. You can use two hands and tap on both sides or you can tap one side or you can take one hand and tap on both sides, with your thumb on one side and your fingers tapping the other side.
The next point is under the arm, a few inches below the armpit, parallel to your nipple. For women this point is approximately where your bra strap would be. You can tap with an open hand on one side or you can use two hands and tap on both sides.
The next point is the wrist point, on the inside of the wrist. This is considered an extra point and not one of the main tapping points but I often use it as a shortcut to the finger points.
Now we’re going to cover the finger points. Start with your palm facing you. Tap at the base and side of your fingernail, where the skin and the nail meet. Starting with your thumb and then working your way down through all the fingers, the index finger, middle finger, fourth finger, and pinky finger.
Another way to tap the finger points is to use your thumb to tap on your index finger and then go through the rest of the fingers if you like.
The last point is on the back of the hand, in between the bones of the pinky finger and the fourth finger on the back of your hand. You can also rest your hand on a table or on your lap while tapping this point.
Tapping though all the points or some of the main points is considered a round of tapping.
Do a round or two of tapping now and while you’re tapping, I’d like you to notice how you feel while tapping the points. Start with tapping at the side of the hand, move to the top of the head, eye brow point, side of the eye, under the eye, under the nose, the chin point, collarbone point, under the arm, the wrist, the finger points starting with the thumb, index finger, middle finger, fourth finger, pinky finger, and the last point, the back of the hand.
When you use tapping for self-care and self-healing, you can do rounds of tapping in the sequence we just did or you can tap the points in any order if you prefer, you can also skip points if you like. As you become familiar with the tapping points, there may certain points that you like using more than other ones which is totally fine.
Note about tapping the points
Something to keep in mind is that tapping the acupressure points with your fingertips is one of the key ingredients to tapping’s effectiveness. Can you tap your fingers or hand on a table or chair? It’s not the same thing and not the kind of tapping I’m talking about. There is electricity moving though your body and out your fingers tips. The acupressure points you’re tapping on, have less electrical resistance. When you’re tapping these points, you’re transmitting electrical pulses through these energy pathways which helps to clear energetic blocks and sends a calming and safety signal to your body and mind.
Drink water
It is common to feel thirsty when using tapping and processing emotions, so I recommend having water with you so you can drink when you feel thirsty.
How to Tap: The Tapping Techniques
Tapping mostly involves leaning into uncomfortable emotions and painful past memories while tapping acupressure points. However, there are times when it is not helpful to lean into painful issues or past events. If you are feeling overwhelmed about how to address your issues using tapping or have experienced significant trauma, you may want to consider consulting directly with me or another tapping expert that can help guide you.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if you’ve been avoiding feeling uncomfortable emotions, they will likely come to the surface when using tapping, so it is possible that it might feel worse before it feels better but this is temporary. Some issues may be related to deeper emotional issues or childhood trauma, and some issues may require more time and persistent tapping to fully heal.
Please use your discretion and take responsibility for your health and well-being and your use of tapping when applying the techniques and strategies I share in this tutorial.
I’m going to share 5 key tapping techniques that you can use for self-care and self-healing:
- Tapping & Talking / Tapping & Venting
- Tapping on Body Sensations (aka chase the pain)
- Using Words in Tapping: The Setup Statement & Reminder Phrases
- The Movie Technique
- Tapping & Grounding
1. Tapping & Talking / Tapping & Venting
One of the easiest ways to use tapping to process your emotions and calm yourself is to simply tap and talk or vent about what’s bothering you. If you’re feeling scared, sad, anxious or upset, start tapping and talk about it. It can be helpful to give your emotions a voice.
You can vent by speaking out loud while tapping or you can vent silently in your mind if you prefer. You can do this privately while tapping on your own. You can also do this while talking to someone on the phone, they don’t even need to know that you’re tapping while you’re venting to them. You can also tap and talk with a supportive friend who may be willing to tap along with you as a way to support you.
All you need to do is pick one point and tap on it while you’re talking. You can also tap through a few points, or tap though all the points while you’re venting about what’s upsetting you. You can experiment with the various ways to tap the points and do what feels better for you.
Many of you already vent to someone when you’re feeling upset about something. Now, you can add tapping to it. This will help you process and calm your emotions so you can feel better faster.
Alternatively, you could also tap the points if someone is venting to you or talking to you about something stressful. This can help you calm your stress response and avoid feeling drained or taking on that person’s energy. This is a helpful tip especially if you are very empathic and easily pick up people’s emotions.
Tapping and venting is one of the best ways to release anger.
If you are experiencing a lot of anger or even rage because there’s layers of things that have happened that are upsetting, you may want to consider setting aside some time on a daily basis to tap and vent which will help you release the anger and get to a place of peace and calm fairly quickly.
I’ll give you an example from my own life. I used tapping and venting to heal anger and rage following a relationship breakdown. I remember feeling angry that I was so angry, and I was determined to get over it as quickly as possible. I did tapping on my own, sometimes speaking out loud about what I was angry about, and often times I would vent silently in my mind while tapping. I allowed myself to imagine screaming, swearing, basically letting it rip, giving my anger a voice and focusing on what I was upset about and letting it all out.
After each day of tapping and venting for about an hour or so, I continued to feel angry about things that happened in that relationship. Because I needed to get on with my day and focus on work and other tasks, at the end of the hour, I would imagine taking all the stuff I was upset about and placed it in an imaginary container and set it aside, until I tapped the following day. I did not know how long it would take to fully release the things I was upset about with that relationship but I persisted with applying tapping and venting on a daily basis because I was determined to feel better and I know tapping works.
I remember waking up one morning, after a month of tapping and venting almost every day, and spontaneously feeling forgiveness. The anger was completely gone and I stopped thinking about my ex. I felt peace and happiness and was able to move on. This is called organic forgiveness.
When you apply tapping to distressing thoughts and emotions, the layers of stress and worry fall away and your truth changes. You start to feel calm, you experience greater clarity, and you can also experience forgiveness.
When I started tapping and venting to release anger, I focused on my anger and what I was angry about. I did not set an intention to forgive, forgiveness was a natural side effect of taking the time to tap on the truth of how I felt and what I thought.
How long will it take for you to experience relief with tapping & talking/venting?
Sometimes you may only need to tap and vent for a few minutes to experience full relief. For other situations you may need to tap for up to an hour to experience full relief. And some situations require more time tapping over a period of time.
I shared a personal example to show you that when there’s layers of upsets it can take some time and require more tapping but as you can see, persistence pays off.
How many people do you know that are still pissed off at their ex or someone else, for something that happened in the past, and it’s been how many years? I didn’t want that to be me and it doesn’t have to be you. If you have been angry at someone and it’s been years, you can use tapping and venting to help you release the anger and help you heal.
2. Tapping on Body Sensations (aka chase the pain)
We experience emotions in every single cell of our body. Stress, anxiety, fear, trauma and anger can produce physiological responses in the body, such as, heart racing, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, headaches, stomach aches, back pain, mystery pains in the body, dizziness and more.
A gentle way to process and release pain and constriction in the body, as well as, stressful emotions, without specifically naming emotions, is to focus your attention on the sensations of stress, discomfort or pain in the body while tapping the points.
If you are experiencing stressful sensations in more than one place in your body, focus your attention on the one that’s bothering you the most while you’re tapping the points. While tapping, you may notice a stressful sensation completely subside and another one comes up.
For example, if you have a headache and you feel the pain in your forehead and it subsides as you tap through the points, and then you notice a feeling of pain come up at the side of your head, this is a called a shifting aspect, which means that one part or aspect of your issue was released and another one came up. Continue to apply tapping to the stressful sensations that come up or ‘chase the pain’ which will help you release it.
One of the ways that can help you connect and stay focused on the stressful energy you want to release is to use words, silently or out loud, to describe the sensations of stress in the body while tapping the points.
How would you describe the sensations of stress or pain you’re experiencing in your body? Does it have a shape? Does it have a colour? Is there a symbol that comes to mind when you focus on the sensations of stress or pain in the body?
Look at your symptoms with curiosity and allow your intuition to provide you with the answers. You may not get answers for all of them but your intuition will show you what you need. Then you can apply tapping while naming the sensations, shapes, colours, or symbols that come up for you. You can say the words out loud or silently in your mind as you tap through the points.
For example, if you have a headache and you described it as a “red searing sharp pain” on the right side of your head, you could tap the points while stating “this red searing sharp pain on the right side of my head”. Still with the headache example, let’s say you described it as a “heavy foggy cloud”, you could tap the points while stating “this heavy foggy cloud in my head” and so on.
The descriptive words you use help connect to the energy you’re clearing. You’ll notice that the shapes, colours, symbols and sensations start to change and become lighter as you tap through the points while focusing on them.
When you tap while focusing on body sensations you’re processing and releasing stressful emotions without specifically focusing on the emotions and what triggered them in the first place. You’re also releasing energy disruptions in the body which helps you heal and balance your body’s energy.
I haven’t taken pain medication in many years because tapping is an effective pain reliever. I’ve used this technique with success on myself for various ailments including menstrual cramps, back pain, inflammation and more. I’ve also guided many of my clients in using this technique with success for pain relief.
It is possible to release emotional and physical issues in the body without needing to know or even go to the roots of the issues to experience relief. This gentle technique helps you do that.
That being said, simply tapping on body sensations may not always provide relief. I’ll talk about what you can do about that next.
What to do if tapping on body sensations does not provide relief
If tapping on body sensations does not provide you with relief, it is an indicator that you may need to use another tapping strategy and bring awareness to the source of the issue.
For example, one time, about 9 years ago, I had really uncomfortable lower back pain for three days, right before attending an eft tapping workshop. I had tried tapping on body sensations before attending that training but I did not experience relief. At the workshop, the trainer suggested that lower back pain could be related to feeling unsupported. I immediately remembered that just prior to experiencing the pain I felt really unsupported by my boss at the time. When I applied tapping to the frustration I felt and lack of support from my boss with a specific situation, the pain immediately lifted, which was amazing after having suffered with that pain for three days.
Another example: I remember once suffering with an intense sharp pain in my hip. I tapped on body sensations but the pain persisted and felt so debilitating, it was so hard to focus and do anything. When you’re suffering and experiencing intense pain it is not easy to be your own therapist.
Later that day I got some help from my partner at the time who was also familiar with tapping and he asked me a classic tapping question: what happened before the pain started? I remembered that I had been stressed and overwhelmed about a work task that I had not yet completed. When I applied tapping to that stress, the pain immediately subsided and I was able to function normally again.
If physical sensations don’t shift or subside after tapping on body sensations you can ask yourself some questions to help get to the root of the matter, such as: what stressful thing happened right before I started experiencing this pain or distress? Or you could tune into the area of constriction or pain in the body and ask: if this constriction or pain had an emotion, what emotion would it be? Still tuning in to the constriction or pain, you could also ask: what event is connected to this sensation?
Then you can apply tapping to what comes up using one of the tapping techniques that I’m covering in this tutorial.
3. Using Words in Tapping: The Setup Statements & Reminder Phrases
In tapping, there are setup statements and reminder phrases that are designed to help you stay focused and connect to the energy of the stressful issue, the stressful event, the uncomfortable feeling or distressing emotion you want to release and experience relief from.
Remember, when you lean in to the truth of what’s stressing you while tapping, this accelerates the processing of your emotions and it helps you release repressed emotions, which will naturally have you feel better.
The traditional setup statement looks like this: “Even though (fill in the blank) I deeply and completely accept myself.” You fill in the blank with the details of the issue, event, feelings and emotions you want to release, followed by an acceptance statement.
My default acceptance statement is I love and accept myself. Some people get triggered by saying I love and accept myself because it doesn’t feel true. It’s ok to feel this way. I’ve worked with a lot people that don’t love and accept themselves.
Remember: Your truth will change as you apply tapping and continue to release baggage from the past keeping you from recognizing your potential and how awesome and loveable you really are.
You can modify the acceptance statement to what feels true for you in the moment, as long it’s neutral or positive.
Here’s are some examples of acceptance statements you could use:
“Even though I have this anxiety in my chest, I’m learning to love and accept myself” which would be a true statement.
You could say: “Even though I have this anxiety in my chest, I accept how I feel” (or “I accept my feelings” or “I’m learning how to accept my feelings”)
You could say: “Even though I have this anxiety in my chest, I’m safe right now” (or “I’m ok right now”)
You could say: “Even though I have this anxiety in my chest, I choose to be calm and confident” (or “I’m learning how to calm myself”)
You get the idea. The acceptance statement should be tailored to what feels true for you in the moment, as long as it’s neutral or positive.
Typically, you would tap on the side of the hand point while saying the setup statement, and then state the reminder phrases as you tap through the points. The reminder phrases would be the words that holds the most emotional charge and keeps you focused on what you want to release.
For eg: “Even though I have this anxiety in my chest, I love and accept myself”. The reminder phrase would be “this anxiety in my chest”. Then you tap though the rest of the points while stating the reminder phrase on each point.
Tapping is more effective when you are specific about what’s contributing to the distress.
Remember I talked to you about the table tops and table legs concept earlier? The table top is your main issue or presenting symptom and the table legs are the specific events triggering the issue and the holding it up. I encourage you to be specific about what’s bothering you the most and include the details in your setup statement and short reminder phrases. The specificity helps you connect to the energy in order to clear it.
Here are some questions to help you.
You could start with the emotion: What distressing emotion are you feeling? Where do you feel this emotion your body? What happened that triggered it?
You could start with the negative thought or limiting belief: What negative thought are you having? What happened that triggered the negative thought? What emotion comes up when you think about what happened? Where do you feel this emotion in your body?
You could start with a specific event: What stressful thing happened? What emotion comes up when you think about it? Where do you feel this emotion in your body?
You could start with the painful body sensation: If the tension or pain in your body had an emotion, what would it be? What stressful thing happened before the tension or pain started?
Then include the details in your setup statement and short reminder phrases.
For eg: “Even though I’m so angry he spoke to me in that condescending tone and I can feel this anger in my throat, I love and accept myself.” The reminder phrases could be “this anger in my throat” “his condescending tone”.
Another eg: “Even though I feel scared thinking about that look on her face and I can feel this fear in my gut, I accept how I feel.” The reminder phrases could be “that look on her face” “this fear in my gut”.
Another eg: “Even though I feel anxious and guilty for hiding this from my partner because I’m afraid he won’t accept me and he’ll be upset, and I can feel this in my chest and my throat, I’m learning to love and accept myself.” The reminder phrases could be “this anxiety and guilt in my chest and throat” “hiding this from my partner”.
If you’re feeling anxious or upset and you don’t know why, you could state that in your setup statement. For eg: “Even though I have this anxiety in my stomach and I’m not sure why, I love and accept myself.” The reminder phrases could be “this anxiety in my stomach”.
As you allow yourself to lean into the anxiety or distressing emotions while tapping, this will calm your body’s nervous system and allow your subconscious mind to bring the root of the issue to the surface. Then you can apply tapping to what comes up if necessary.
Remember to choose reminder phrases that are triggering and have the most emotional charge. You’ll notice that as you tap though the points, stating your reminder phrases, your emotions will start to shift. If you were angry and it starts to subside, you may notice sadness or disappointment come up. Or you if you were feeling guilty, this could shift to shame or embarrassment. Continue to tap the points and modify your setup statements and reminder phrases to your shifting emotions until you feel calm or neutral about what happened.
Because most of use don’t learn about emotions and how to manage them growing up we may sometimes struggle with identifying and naming emotions. The Center for Nonviolent Communication has produced an excellent list of emotions and feeling states called Feelings Inventory that you can refer to when looking for words to describe your emotions and feeling states. Access it here.
Some of you may feel dissociated from your emotions or may not feel them in your body. You can still process and release emotions without feeling them in your body. When you’re crafting your setup statement, if you don’t feel the distress in your body, leave that part out and include the other details in your setup statement.
If you’re focusing your tapping on one event and another one comes to mind or a childhood memory with similar emotions and feelings comes to the surface, you can make a decision: you can continue to apply tapping to the memory you were originally focusing until you’re feeling calm or neutral about it before moving on to the other one that came up. Or you can focus on the new memory that came to mind and apply tapping to it until you’re calm or neutral about that event. Then go back to the original one you were working on to see if there is still an emotional charge there and whether there is more tapping to do.
Earlier I talked about tapping on body sensations which you can do with or without words. You can also tap on body sensations with setup statements and reminder phrases if you prefer. You can experiment with the techniques and use what resonates.
Note about using words in tapping
When people are new to tapping, sometimes they get caught up with the words: “Am I saying the right words?” “Am I doing this right?” Tapping is very forgiving. Remember, one of the key ingredients in tapping is to actually be tapping the acupressure points. There are no right or wrong words in tapping. There are, however, more effective and less effective ways of using words and statements in tapping.
The words and statements you use can help you connect to your emotions and the energy you want to you release. It’s more effective to articulate what you really think and feel while tapping the points, as opposed to what you want to be thinking and feeling. What you want to be thinking and feeling is the goal. The quickest way to get there is to tap on your truth.
For example, when I talked about my ex earlier and how upset I was at end of our relationship. I really wanted to feel neutral and calm about all the things that had happened. So, I applied tapping to all the upsets and after a month of tapping, I felt even better than I anticipated. I felt peace, happiness and forgiveness.
It’s not as easy to achieve to your goals when you have repressed emotions taking up space and driving your behaviour, often at unconscious level.
Remember, when you use tapping, your truth is going to change and you will naturally start to feel better and think differently as you release repressed emotions. You’ll come to recognize your unlimited potential and the power you have in creating your reality.
4. The Movie Technique
The movie technique mainly entails thinking about a past stressful memory or specific event and replaying it in your mind as if you are watching a movie or video clip, from beginning to end, pausing at the most triggering parts, all while tapping the acupressure points. This is typically done silently, which can also be helpful if you want to heal a particular memory without talking about it.
The movie technique is what I used to heal the dog phobia I used to have, as well as, other childhood memories. I have also used this technique to help me process and release painful emotions connected to relationship conflicts, as well as, traumatic events including near death experiences.
If you find yourself feeling really upset following a difficult conversation with someone, or maybe you had argument with someone, maybe you felt mistreated by someone, or maybe you’re upset with yourself about how you behaved in a situation. You can experience relief with tapping, by applying the movie technique to the specific events that triggered the upsetting feelings in the first place.
This is how you do it. While tapping the points, think about a specific bothersome event and replay it in your mind like a movie, imagine it as vividly as possible, starting at a neutral point and then pause at the first part that is bothersome or triggering. Then focus your attention on that part of the event until it feels neutral or calm before moving forward in the memory. Take the time to pause and focus on the bothersome parts of the memory, all while tapping the acupressure points, until you feel neutral or calm about it.
After you have you gone through the event in your mind, replay the memory again in your mind from beginning to end, and you can do this in slow motion if you like, while tapping the points, and notice if there is a new part of that memory that comes to mind that didn’t show up the first time around. Then repeat the movie technique until you feel calm or neutral about the entire event.
As you release repressed emotions using the movie technique, you may start to remember things that you forgot, which is why it is helpful to replay the event again in your mind. This helps with taking care of any remaining aspects of that memory that still need healing.
One of the ways to test whether the movie technique has worked is to describe the memory out loud and see whether you are neutral or calm about it or whether there is an emotional charge related to aspects of that memory that would benefit from more tapping.
When I used this technique to heal the dog phobia I use to have, I was dissociated from my emotions connected to the two events that triggered it, which means I did not have an emotional charge and did not feel the stressful emotions while I was thinking about it and tapping. So I imagined the events, vividly in my mind, and spent more time tapping on the really scary parts. I replayed the two memories over and over again, within about 15 minutes, until I felt like I had really taken the time to dive deep into them and tapped on all the scary parts and felt like I was ready to move on.
I didn’t know in the moment if the tapping had worked until I tested it the following day. I barely noticed the dog on the side walk until I had walked by it and had to do a double take and realized, wow, I just walked by a dog and had zero anxiety. The movie technique works even if you’re dissociated from your emotions while tapping.
When tapping has been effectively applied you will feel calm or neutral about things that would have triggered you in past and you can experience emotional breakthroughs that bring in clarity, peace of mind, positivity, joy and happiness.
Remember, one of the most effective ways to heal emotional issues is to apply tapping to the specific events that triggered the issues in the first place. The movie technique helps you do that.
Note about the movie technique
Please don’t apply the movie technique to major traumatic events without expert guidance as it is not necessary to relive serious traumatic events in order to heal from them. There are techniques that can help you that are beyond the scope of this tutorial. Please use your discretion and discernment when applying this technique and seek support if you need help.
5. Tapping & Grounding
Sometimes thinking about past painful memories feels unsafe, too overwhelming, it can feel like too much to handle or it’s not the right time to address it. In these situations, it can be helpful to practice tapping and grounding techniques which will calm your nervous system and turn your attention away from triggering thoughts and memories and bring you back into the present moment.
In the present moment, you are safe, and you survived the negative events that happened in the past. One of the grounding techniques I’m suggesting is to acknowledge the truth of your safety and survival while tapping the points. This exercise can release trauma and anchor that feeling of safety in your body.
You can tap through the points and say: “I’m safe and I survived” or “I’m safe right now.” If you prefer, you could also use setup statements. For example: “Even though I feel scared, I’m safe and I survived” or “Even though I’m overwhelmed, I’m safe and I survived” or “Even though a part of me feels unsafe, another part of me acknowledges, I’m safe right now.” You can craft a setup statement that feels right for you. Then tap though the points and say: “I’m safe and I survived” or “I’m safe right now.” You could add other reminder phrases if it helps. For example, you could say: “this part of me that feels unsafe” “I’m safe and I survived”. You get the idea. You can do as many rounds as you like until you feel calm and relaxed.
Another grounding technique involves tapping the points while using your senses to focus your attention on what you see, hear, feel and smell in your immediate environment. Look at your surroundings, what do you see? Name what you see in your environment while tapping the points. You could notice the book beside you or the painting on the wall and all of its intricate details. You could bring your attention to your feet on the floor and feel yourself press your feet into the floor. What sounds do you hear in the room? Is there a smell in the room? What does it smell like? Really pay attention and be curious about your present surroundings, all while tapping the points.
The last grounding technique is heart-breathing. With heart-breathing you could place your hands on your chest and imagine your breath going in and out of your heart or chest area while breathing a little slower and deeper. Imagine breathing in through your heart and breathing out through your heart. Heart-breathing is very calming, it promotes heart-brain coherence and it enhances your intuition. I recommend heart-breathing for as least 5 minutes and up to 15 minutes for optimal results.
You can use these grounding techniques at any time to help you calm down and bring you back into the present moment.
How Long Should you Tap?
The amount of time you choose tap is up to you, however, spending more time tapping, being specific with what you’re working on and being persistent really pays off. I recommend tapping for at least 5-15 minutes and up to an hour at a time, especially if you’re working through particular issues that would benefit from more tapping.
If you’re tapping on a particular issue and have not experienced full relief yet, and you need to get on with your day, you can imagine placing your issues in an imaginary container and set it aside, out of sight and out of mind, to create distance from them. You could also use one of the grounding techniques I mentioned earlier to help you shift your focus and attention.
Doing the Work & Recording Your Progress
What would you like to experience relief from? What state of mind and emotions would you like to experience most of the time? What goals would you like to achieve? What’s standing in the way?
Applying tapping to fears, emotional issues and limiting beliefs will help you feel better, as well as, free up your energy and make it easier for you to manifest and focus on creating that which you desire.
If you want to keep track of your progress with tapping it can be helpful to keep a journal where you write your goals, what you’re working on, what comes up during your tapping, and your breakthroughs and successes.
One of the ways to track your progress while you’re tapping is to record what you’re working on and rate your distress from 0-10 before you start tapping. Then after doing a round of tapping or several rounds of tapping you can check on your number to see your progress. Keep tapping until you reach zero distress. You can you use the 0-10 scale with all techniques I covered in this video.
You may wish to set aside some time in your calendar to do the self-care healing work that’s going to make you feel better and help you accomplish your goals.
Remember to be kind to self and celebrate your breakthroughs. Those always feel good.
Use Tapping as Part of Your Holistic Approach to Healing
While tapping helps you process your emotions and balance your body’s energy, if you are feeling very dysregulated and your body feels significantly out of balance, you will benefit from taking holistic approaches that include a focus on optimal nutrition and natural remedies that can support your body’s healing.
I learned a lot about using food as medicine and natural supplements from Anthony William, the Medical Medium, as a result of my own struggles with serious health issues following traumatic events. I highly recommend all the Medical Medium books, videos, and information to support you with your body’s healing.
If you asked me to pick one of the Medical Medium books that is a must have for your home, it would Cleanse to Heal. When your body is receiving healing foods and nutrition it can help you feel more balanced and stable, which in turn, will help you with your emotional healing work.
There may also be other interventions that can help you, and you can use tapping as one of the healing tools in your holistic approach. I encourage you to do your own research when making decisions about interventions that can improve your health and wellness.
Final Thoughts
We covered a lot in this tutorial. Thank you for being here and taking the time to learn how to use tapping to heal yourself and feel better.
Tapping is an amazing healing tool that can help you heal fairly quickly. In addition to healing emotional wounds, tapping can enhance your intuition and deepen the relationship you have with yourself and others. I’ve healed and learned so much about myself using tapping, and I’ve helped many clients heal and achieve goals they didn’t realize were possible. The breakthroughs have been amazing!
There are times when you may need or want extra support and guidance with using tapping to heal emotional issues. Receiving expert tapping guidance to your unique situation can propel your healing forward. I’m here to support you. When you work with an eft tapping practitioner like me, I hold a safe space for your healing, I can offer perspectives you may not have considered, I help you discover the answers within you, and I guide you, using my expertise in energy psychology and my intuition so you can experience even more profound healing.
If you would like to receive my personal support with your healing, I invite you to book an intuitive wellness coaching session with me. I offer video sessions online via zoom, so, wherever you are in the world I can work with you as long as you are able to access zoom. I do have an office in Toronto, Canada, and can offer in-person coaching sessions after an initial online session. You can learn more about my coaching services here and book a session here.
I do offer subsidized rates to those in need, just send me an email though my contact page on my website to get that conversation started.
If you’re a therapist or coach that wants to use tapping with clients, I highly recommend going through the training to become a certified practitioner as this will enhance your skills and expertise in helping clients heal using tapping.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and found it helpful. If you did, feel free to share it. You can also share the video version of this tutorial posted to my YouTube and Rumble channels.
You can subscribe to my email list, as well as, YouTube and Rumble channels so you can be notified when I release a new video and post.
I’d love to hear from you! What tapping techniques have helped you the most? Let me know in the comments below.
Sending you love and healing vibes,
Penny Araujo
