Frequently, the stressful situation you need to deal with is not in the past, but is happening right now. Though emotions from your past may be coming into play, the main threat, challenge, or pain is occurring right now. Some examples of stressful present situations might be: driving through sleet and snow, undergoing a medical procedure, sailing in turbulent waters, playing in the Big Game of the season, getting married, giving a speech to a large crowd, staying at the in-laws’ house overnight, taking the bar exam or starting a new job. I’m sure you can think of many more!
EFT Tapping can be of enormous help in lowering your anxiety levels right in the moment, which can allow you to deal more effectively with a present challenge or even with a critical situation. Anxiety tends to feed off itself and produce more of the same. Sometimes we even become anxious about being anxious (“We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” said American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to the people about the Great Depression of the 1930s). The more anxious we feel, the more removed we become from the situation at hand. We may get “stuck in our heads” and make poor decisions or deliver self-defeating performances. We may “choke” or tense up.
Tapping allows us to tame the extraneous, unproductive anxieties, and become more focused in the present moment. The more centered we are right in the moment, the better we can handle whatever comes up. Challenging situations lose their threatening flavor and become more neutral.
When I talk with people about using tapping in the present, the question I’m most often asked is, “How can I possibly use tapping at a funeral or a board meeting? It will be very noticeable and more than a little odd if I start tapping on myself in public.” Yes, it is noticeable; that why you will want to find a way to do it inconspicuously. One way to do this is to make an excuse to leave the room, so you can be alone. There’s almost always a way to get out of a room for a few moments.
Inconspicuous Tapping
Another option is to tap inconspicuously on the karate chop spot on the side of your hand, underneath a table or somewhere else where this will not be noticed, or to simply place your fingers lightly on each tapping spot without tapping at all (this works very well). Or, you can do “mental tapping” by just imagining tapping the sequence of the spots and repeating the phrases to yourself mentally.
In the future, perhaps tapping will be so common that we won’t need to seek out privacy, but in today’s world, you will still need to create a way to do this privately. Tap down the issue to a zero, or as low as you can get it in the time you have available. Then re-join the stressful environment and you will usually find that you’ll handle it quite differently. Your change in mood, attitude, or behavior will not only help you cope with the situation, it will often help to the resolve the situation, itself.
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The Biggest Misconception That Creates Fear…
Can you guess what this is?
Try a few little hints:
1. You have almost certainly experienced it often.
2. It has an amazing way of feeling like “the truth”.
3. Without it your life would be free from hundreds of common worries.
