[Today I’m presenting a guest post from Kate Marillat, an international Tapping expert, on how Tapping can help men release pressure and stress. Two more posts from Kate will follow next week, to help you get a fuller picture of how this Energy Medicine technique might help you.]
Most of the men walk through the door of my online clinic carrying a backpack of expectations, from themselves, their families and the wider collective.
As a woman, I am well-versed in the pressure that my gender feels (hello, the mother lode), but it is not often that I hear about the nuances of male pressure until I have a man sitting in front of me.
Often men say, “It’s just got to be too much” or “Why am I so tired?” or “I don’t know why my partner is so angry with me, I’m doing the best I can.”
This pressure can manifest as all sorts of problems if it is not released, managed or even simply accepted without causing an emotional response.
Pressure is an emotional or energetic response in the body.
I work with the emotions, and the business of freeing them. You may have heard of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which does exactly what it says on the tin. If you can have freedom from your emotions, then you can overcome fear and the pressure and do anything you set your mind to.
EFT is also called Tapping, because it is a process of lightly touching or tapping acupressure points on your body while consciously tuning into a problem, a block or an emotion you are experiencing.
Think of it as a way to connect and release your emotions and the pressure you’re feeling, ultimately giving you clarity about the problem.
How does Tapping energy points release the pressure?
This modern technique comes from the Eastern theory that there are energy channels or meridian lines through the body and that Chi is the energy that flows through them. Yoga, acupuncture, shiatsu, and many ancient techniques are all based on the concept of energy moving through these channels and that we can alter our state by unlocking or unblocking it.
Fast forward a few millennia and thanks to science and engineering, we’ve found a hack to move this energy through the body through touching the energy points while consciously tuning into a problem.
It works on three levels:
- Symptoms
- Memories
- Beliefs
Let’s say you feel intense pressure before a work meeting.
The symptoms (energy in the body) might be sweaty palms, checking your hair, dry mouth, and shallow breathing. The first step in Tapping would be to bring down these symptoms to a manageable level.
This is what most of the mainstream Tapping helps you do, because research has shown that it can reduce cortisol levels when you tap on the energy/meridian points. It sends signals to the brain that help reduce the intensity of the emotional response. This makes Tapping an effective method for managing anxiety, depression, and that pressure.
One step deeper is to find out why this response to the stimuli (in this case, a meeting) is happening. A good practitioner will guide you to find out where you learned this response – for example, being an awkward teen who was shamed in class.
Once you know the memory (or usually a collection of linked memories) you can change your reaction to that memory using Tapping. Think of your brain like Google, yet you have the power to reprogram it. So rather than going to a stress response (that traumatised teenage you), if you release the stress with Tapping and it becomes a neutral (stress-free) memory it will no longer be a trigger causing that reaction in the body.
If we can find the belief associated with that memory (or memories), then we can change things on a deeper, all-encompassing level. Rather than believing something like “I’ll mess this up” or “I’m useless,” imagine if we created supportive beliefs like, “I’m talented” or “I know my stuff, I’ve got this.” This creates a ripple out into all areas of our lives.
And if this all sounds a bit woo-woo, there have been numerous clinical trials to back it up. In one study, participants who used EFT experienced a significant reduction in cortisol levels. Dr. Peta Stapleton notes, “The evidence for EFT is compelling, with numerous clinical trials confirming its effectiveness in reducing anxiety and improving emotional well-being.”
Where do you need to start?
Exactly where you are – in the body, with the symptoms. Learn more in my next guest post!
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Kate Marillat is the author of the bestselling Hay House book, Transform Your Beliefs, Transform Your Life, published in seven languages. An EFT and Matrix Reimprinting Trainer and founder of The Tapping Collective, she’s known as the Crossroads Coach. Kate helps busy professionals clear out past trauma, grief and overwhelm in order to connect them to their true needs and desires. Visit Kate at www.katemarillat.com
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
