Reducing Anxiety through a Simple Tapping Exercise

March 19, 2019 By Helly Bartolome Hernandez Marin, MD

Sometimes there’s a solution beyond taking drugs to help resolve anxiety. In some cases, a simple exercise can solve a serious problem. All you need is proper advice and instructions.

Tapping is a technique that helps fight stress, anxiety and contributes to focus mentally on those feelings that are positive and to discard everything that prevents you from continuing with a full life.

This practice consists of tapping the fingers on precise parts of the body to release the stagnant emotions. Tapping is based on the premise that all problems, whether physical, economic, emotional, etc., are rooted in an energy imbalance within the person who suffers. The purpose of Tapping is to eliminate this imbalance, by stimulating certain points of the body. Like acupuncture, this technique acts on the energy points of the body.

Experts in meditation say that when stimulating energy points signals are emitted to the brain that reduces emotional tension and allows relaxation. As soon as this happens, the anxiety is immediately reduced, allowing you to move forward more calmly.

This technique of emotional liberation has gained great popularity in recent years given the collective awareness of the importance of personal and spiritual care. One of the main advantages of Tapping is that it can be carried out in any place since it is a discrete method that does not require the use of force to achieve the desired effect.

It has been proven that Tapping can alleviate a wide variety of negative afflictions, such as chronic pain, emotional problems, addictions, phobias, post-traumatic stress, and even physical illnesses.

How is the tapping done?

The first step to practice Tapping is to identify the problem you want to address. It can be a general situation that produces anxiety or a specific concern.

After assessing from 1 to 10 the level of anxiety felt, the person begins to hit with the tips of the fingers at certain points of the body, while saying positive statements about themselves.

What points must be hit?

The tapping points coincide with points of beginning or end of acupuncture meridians, and they are the following:

• 0: The side of the hand, between the base of the little finger and the wrist.

• 1: The top of the head.

• 2: The inner end of the eyebrow.

• 3: The lateral of the eye.

• 4: The bone under the eye.

• 5: Between the nose and the upper lip.

• 6: The point between the chin and the lower lip.

• 7: The tip of the inner end of the clavicle.

• 8: About four fingers below the armpit.

• 9: The inner angle of the nail of the thumb.

• 10: The inner angle of the nail of the index finger.

• 11: The inner angle of the nail of the middle finger.

• 12: The inner corner of the fingernail.

The points from 0 to 8 are the basic points of tapping and are always used. In contrast, the finger points (from 9 to 12) are optional. In principle, they are not used, but if you see that with the basic points you do not get good results, you can add them.

Do not worry too much about the accuracy of the points, hitting the area is enough. You just have to hit the points on one side of the body.

A tapping sequence to relieve stress.

Tap each point about seven times and repeat the following sentences out loud.

Point 0: "Even though I feel overwhelmed and afraid, I accept who I am and how I feel." Repeat it three times.

Continue touching on the other points with adjacent phrases:

Point 1: I know I can move through this

Point 2: I know that I have the inner strength

Point 3: I choose to believe that I will overcome this

Point 4: I know I can find my power inside

Point 5: I think this is my trip now

Point 6: I know I can go through this

Point 7: And to feel good about me again

Point 8: I choose to believe in my inner strength

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