Stress & the Power of EFT: Tap, Tap Tap towards Pain Relief
- Catherine Pollitt
- Mar 23, 2023
- 2 min read
When stress and emotional trauma or challenge happen, your mind and body shift into survival mode with your autonomic nervous system’s fight & flight response.
Symptoms of stress
You’ll possibly notice your breathing pattern becoming faster & shallower, your heart rate speeding up, you may sweat, become more vigilant of what’s going on in & around you, and you’ll likely have trouble thinking, especially creatively.
Less obvious will be the pause to normal digestion & sexual function and an initial boost to your immune system.
Helpful in the short term
Your body has evolved to do this to prepare you for fight, flight & wound healing, maximising your chances of survival from a predator. As is normal in “the wild”, when the stress or trauma passes, the stress response calms & your body soon returns to balance & homeostasis.
Long term difficulties
However, modern life’s stressors are different and often persistent. We often feel ourselves moving from one stress to another – traffic, commuting, computer & tech issues, difficult bosses, colleagues, partners, 24 hour world news, long hours, workloads, unrealistic expectations or goals initiated by ourselves or others - and a massive lack of calm, well-focused downtime!
On top of this, we humans tend to keep ruminating over difficult events and people, often holding onto grudges and resentments, etc. Negative thoughts stimulate negative emotions which stimulate more negative thoughts which stimulate more emotion… and we end up stuck in a loop. And whether we just think about these events/people or experience them in reality, our fight & flight system stays switched on.
The resultant chronic stress and anxiety is exhausting. Any symptoms you have tend to feel worse, good sleep becomes more difficult to achieve & your immune system takes a dive.
One solution: Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – AKA Tapping!
As part of Step 4 of my Freedom From Pain programme, I include this short introduction to EFT, which summarises its benefits, offers a few example practices & directs the reader to where to find more help with this simple, effective and self-treating modality.
Please feel free to download the short document now and get a-tapping to help soothe the stress of today!
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