What is Tapping?

What is Tapping and how does it work?

Tapping is a term used for Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). It is a treatment that uses the body’s acupressure points to help calm and relieve anxiety. When a performer is stressed, their energy system of their body is out of balance. EFT is a form of acupuncture without needles, and involves tapping on meridian points on the face and upper body.

It works on the basis that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in the body’s energy field. Energy is channelled through different meridian points: If you tap them while thinking of a negative subject, you release emotional tension and rebalance the body’s energy.

How can it help performers/athletes/ musicians?

The problem

When an artist is about to perform, often their biggest challenge is dealing with the emotional pressure of the occasion. The fear of failure, being judged, letting themselves and others down, making a mistake the pressure to perform etc. These negative emotions are stored in our sub conscious, often outside our awareness and under pressure trigger the fight or flight response in our body: feeling sick, dry mouth, muddled thinking, and tense tight muscles, possibly shaking.

Conventional ways of dealing with stress, such as deep breathing, positive thinking, visualisation and more practise often struggle to deal with the body’s fight or flight response to stress.

The solution

This is where EFT can help. It can be used to deal with the power of the sub conscious mind. The beliefs and programming that often runs our life, for example self doubt, anxiety, poor performances from our past. EFT uses the body’s energy system to erase negative thinking. Once the negative and limiting belief has been cleared, positive affirmations can more effectively take hold, the competition has been eliminated and is therefore easier to accept how we really want to feel.

A different look at the future of performance 

Many performers are reluctant to focus on the negative thoughts, feelings and sensations, instead trying to force their attention away from them. The problem with this is that the negative vibration is still there and interfering with your ability to give your best. All of these negative thoughts and sensations are the interference that gets in the way of the expression of your talent and skill.

The great news is, that it’s possible for this insecurity and doubt to be reduced, sometimes removed altogether. By focusing for a short time on this negative emotion, and by using this simple energy technique, the interference is acknowledged and cleared. With your mind free you can commit totally to the performance. And enjoy it!

EFT is of course it not for everyone and may seem a little ‘New Age’ however, a simple technique that can help performers/athletes and musicians rediscover that sense of joy and freedom when they play, must be worth a look?