Take the Edge off with EFT Tapping: Body Sensation Technique

Take the Edge off with EFT Tapping

You, who are reading this are most likely an adult and most likely an emotionally mature person (most of the time…. perhaps). And yet, what about those emotional triggers that wreak havoc in your life? We all have them. My triggers take me to my edge and they don’t always make logical sense.

After being an adult for some time, I became curious about the illogical outbursts that I experienced over the most minor things. I remember a time years ago when I walked into the kitchen and blew up because my housemate ran the dishwasher before it was full. What was the big deal? Why did I revert to an 8 year old?

Mysteriously, I hit an unconscious emotional edge, and spilled over that edge in a flash, reverting to child-like behavior. For some, we become semi-crazy people because of our triggers, or freeze in overwhelm. Know what I mean?

These edges can be difficult to get through and yet it’s important to get through them. Not by brushing them aside, but by taking tender, caring responsibility for our experience, just as it is.

Chances are, when I was a kid, something happened that made me mad, made me feel helpless or overwhelmed, and no one was there to help me process my emotions or even care that I was having emotions. So they got kinda stuck, only to create a trigger in my adult life.

Knowing how trauma works, I know that these things get stuck in our nervous system, which means that they get stuck in the body. I have all kinds of stories about why I feel the way I do, but often they are just stories that my mind makes up to make sense out of what is happening. How do I know I am having a “traumatic” response? When my reaction is larger than the situation warrants.

Now that I’m the adult, I have the opportunity to take care of my emotions by applying some loving, yet practical, tender care. When I do this, I am rewiring my nervous system. Yeah!

I’m not talking about just feeling better. I’m talking about transforming the energy – transforming the little trauma vortex – so it can relax and reintegrate back into the rest of me. *

To do this, I like to use EFT Tapping with mindfulness. Here’s what I do:

(see the chart here for the tapping points)

First: I acknowledge that it’s ok that I am triggered and that I don’t have to make sense of it. If I judge myself for being triggered, I add to the burden. Buddhists call this the second arrow. I’m feeling bad – arrow 1-  and I dump on myself for feeling bad – arrow 2. One arrow is enough. Give yourself a break. Acknowledge your activation and have a little self-compassion.

Step 2: Take a couple of deep breaths. Often I like to put one had on my heart and one on my belly. I find it comforting and containing, like I’m being held.

Step 3: Notice where you feel the activation in your body. Is your heart racing? your breath constricted? your hands shaking? your belly or jaw clenched? Identify your body sensation and gently, with a loving attitude, let yourself be with the body sensation.

Step 4: Tap on the tapping points while being with the body sensations. Hold an attitude of love and caring for yourself and the reaction that you and your body are having.  You can tap very gently if you want, or simply touch the point mindfully, take a breath and touch the next point, take a breath, etc.

Feel or be with the body sensation as best you can. I like to imagine myself feeling the sensation from the inside out. This is in contrast to looking at it from outside in. Often we look from the outside of our body because our senses make us so outside oriented. Try feeling the sensation from the inside, just as it is. See what happens. If it is too overwhelming, shift your focus away from the sensation and just tap with an attitude of love for as long as you want or until you calm down.

Touching the Non-verbal Parts of Ourselves

In this technique there is no set up statement (traditionally used in Tapping) or words used. We are simply being with our experience as best we can and tapping with love.

I believe that by being with the sensations without words we are able to touch our unconscious, non-verbal self more deeply. The non-verbal place inside us is a profound place in my experience. Deep healing can happen when we are with this part.

My Discovery

This technique is a beautiful blend of Somatic Experiencing, mindfulness and Tapping. It is one of my secrets to emotional regulation, which leads to emotional resiliency. I discovered it by accident through desperation and exasperation:

For years I had a person in my life who’s very name sent my heart beating outside my chest and made my whole body shake. Over the years I had done hours of forgiveness, praying, regular EFT tapping (with words), everything, to make it all more tolerable. All of this helped but didn’t eliminate my reaction.

One day, the name was mentioned again and I went into the full fledged body reaction, again! This time, I simply slowed myself down (slowing down is really important when dealing with emotional reactivity, otherwise things get out of hand very quickly). I let myself feel my heart beating outside my chest as best I could, the full sensation of it, and I tapped. No words, just being present as best I could with the beating heart as I tapped. Five minutes later, everything was calmed down. Better yet, the reaction has not come back. After all those years, it finally shifted in a significant way. I still get a little nervous before seeing the person, but it is only a little nervous and then it goes away.

Life is short, truly. I honestly don’t want to spend too much of my time in a funk. We have a humanity to evolve! And we are all a part of that. What I do with my energy is very important to me. I’m into Tapping because it helps me get through my stuff faster, so I can spend more time being the person I want to be.

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*Some of you may know that I am passionate about the transformation of consciousness, starting with me (guinea pig L, for Lauren) and others and the planet. This is my mission. There is nothing more interesting or urgent in my world. So I had to figure out: why the blow up in the kitchen? And how do I change that behavior, not just to encounter it again later, but to really transform it?

Right after I got my Religious Science Practitioner (spiritual counseling) license, into my life comes Somatic Experiencing trauma healing and right on the tales of that, EFT meridian tapping. Knowing about trauma and how it is held in the body, I understand the power of Tapping and how it can gently and very quickly release these trauma vortexes out of our system.