What Is Anxiety? How To Use EFT Tapping For Anxiety Relief?

Does EFT Tapping For Anxiety Work?

In this article you will learn about what anxiety is, and how to overcome it with the help of EFT Tapping Therapy. The EFT Tapping for Anxiety has proven to be an effective alternative therapy to help individuals cope with symptoms of anxiety and heal the root cause.

I still remember that one particular night when I had my first anxiety attack. It was terrifying. I was struggling to breathe. My heart was racing and chest was hurting. It felt like I was having a heart attack.

Frantically, I banged on my neighbour's door, and asked for help. She called the paramedics and I was rushed to accident and emergency.

After four hours of waiting, interspersed with tests, I met with a slender figured Iranian doctor. Through his glasses he looked as I lay on the examination table and said, “You are in perfect health. You need to do Yoga. It will calm you down.”

As he shared his thought, I chuckled to myself that a medical doctor was telling me to have a daily yoga routine. It felt surprising, yet re-assuring and comforting.

Anxiety can occur for a variety of reasons, for example:

Worrying about the future
Thinking too much or over-analysing situations
Over-whelmed at work
Scared about your child’s health
Chemical imbalances in the body
Fear of what might happen

"We live in a society bloated with data yet starved for wisdom. We’re connected 24/7, yet anxiety, fear, depression and loneliness is at an all-time high. We must course-correct."

Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey

Perhaps underlying the surface emotions is a feeling of being scared, insecure or uncertain.

I will share this caveat though. Only someone who is gripped by anxiety can understand what it is like. For an outsider, it might seem like a list of symptoms.

Having experienced anxiety and healed from it, I can share it – it can be a very scary and lonely place where you can feel helpless and isolated.

In the most intense moments, I have found Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Tapping on myself and using the Bach Flower Rescue Remedy to be the most beneficial.

New to EFT? Learn how Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping heals, including Anxiety.

Emotional Freedom Techniques (tapping) is clinically proven to lower stress, tension, anxiety, past-trauma to enable health, happiness and vitality.

CLAIM MY FREE E-BOOKLET

Do you get nervous prior to a job interview? Worry about that exam? Experience butterflies in your stomach before meeting someone new?

If so, you are most likely someone, for whom worrying about major events is a normal part of life.

But what if, for instance, someone does not leave their home for an extended period of time, because they are afraid of being amongst crowds? This can have a major impact on one’s quality of life.

According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 13 individuals suffer from anxiety in the world. The study also shows that women are more affected by anxiety than men (1).

Identifying the nature of your anxiety and learning to manage it requires a lot of strength.

All anxiety related disorders are characterised by worry, nervousness or/and fear, excessive and on-going to the extent that it disables the person to function properly.

It is important to get it diagnosed by licensed medical and mental health professional.

Anxiety Related Disorders Are Categorised Into Three Categories:

Generalised Anxiety Disorder

This disorder happens to be a common anxiety disorder that involves chronic worrying and anxiety. Unlike worry or fear, people having the generalised anxiety disorder do not have a specific reason for this intense feeling.

This anxiety is not as severe as that of an anxiety or panic attack, but it is long lasting and could lead to a more severe form of anxiety as well. Generalised anxiety disorder is exhausting - mentally and physically; most of the times, it also appears to interfere in the personal and/or professional lives of individuals who have this disorder.

Panic Disorder

Here, you have sudden intense fear, panic, anxiety or just terror accompanied with panic or anxiety attacks. These attacks occur out of the blue and are quite frequent and severe for people who have Panic Disorder.

Someone undergoing this mental health issue may experience severe symptoms of rapid pulse, rapid breathing, shivering and even fatigue. Even though these attacks are sudden and surprising, they are usually caused due to a trigger of any traumatic suppressed emotion.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

This is a disorder that takes place due to excessive obsessive and compulsive behavior portrayed by some people.

It is categorised as an anxiety disorder since individuals who experience it go through severe anxiety, which leads to these unwanted but obsessive thoughts, ideas or images that are quite distressing. Compulsion is something where you repeat a particular activity or pattern over and over again, to relieve anxiety; which is why obsessions and compulsions go hand-in-hand.

People can also experience anxiety as a result of:

Phobias: An excessive fear of a specific object, situation, or activity; for example - trypophobia.
Social Anxiety Disorder: An extreme fear of being judged, humiliated or even rejected by others in social situations.
Separation Anxiety Disorder: Fear of being away from home or loved one which might have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Illness Anxiety Disorder: People with this chronic disorder are constantly anxious and fear that they have a serious illness or are prone to certain medical conditions.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): It is the anxiety which is triggered following a traumatic event; for example - an accident, a loss of a loved one or abuse.

HOW TO OVERCOME ANXIETY WITH EFT TAPPING

Society has generalised anxiety as a fault or a weakness, considering it a taboo, neglecting its severity which is as dangerous as any physical disease. However, research studies have found certain altered brain functioning to be linked with anxiety disorders (2).

Here are some coping techniques that can help you overcome anxiety with EFT Tapping and shift to experiencing emotional balance and calm.

Setting Small Daily Goals

Focus can be an issue for those suffering with anxiety, as is productivity and motivation due to changes in mood.

Setting up small goals on a daily basis can help individuals to differentiate between their expectations and reality.

Meditation

Consistent meditation has wonderful effects on your brain (3). A meditation practice can involve the following steps:

Begin by closing the eyes and sitting in a comfortable position. Then take a conscious breath in and out. As you breathe in and out to let the body relax and to let the mind wind down. Once the toes are relaxed move to all the other body parts from the toes to the ankles and calves, the knees, the legs, the thighs, the groin, the belly (you can tighten and loosen each of the organs inside the body), the check, the heart, the neck, the shoulders, the back and the head.

With meditation, the challenge is to still the mind. What you can do is complete the 6 count breathing, daily morning and evening. It will help to create a calmer state of mind.

Seek Help

Anxiety is something that prevents the sufferer from reaching out to others for support.

They often feel alone and misunderstood. People may not understand that asking an anxious person to “take it easy” or “let it go” won’t really help them, and may only prevent them from looking for help. Learn to convey your thoughts to your loved ones.

If you have anyone suffering with anxiety around you, be compassionate and make them feel that they are not alone.

We are also here to help as we have experienced psychologists and counselling professionals who have become Certified as EFT Practitioners according to the International Standards and are skilled at working with and resolving anxiety.

They also are skilled at working with Depression, Weight Loss, Serious Illness, Nervousness, Freeing Anger, Fears & Phobias, Food Cravings, Stress, Addictions like giving up smoking, Confidence/ Self Power & Workplace Stress.

To know more, you need to fill in an Intake form and have a no obligation conversation with your Practitioner. Just book a complimentary discovery call to find out if EFT One to One Sessions or EFT Practitioner Training is for you.

HOW TO SELF-HEAL & BECOME AN EFT PRACTITIONER

Discover how EFT can help you to self-heal or to become professionally qualified as a Certified EFT Practitioner. Emotional Freedom Techniques (tapping) is clinically proven to lower stress, tension, anxiety, past trauma to enable health, happiness and vitality.

BOOK A COMPLIMENTARY DISCOVERY CALL

Yoga

The practice of yoga calms the mind and stills the body's aligning with the spirit.

“In the practice of yoga (asanas), it’s the way in which one approaches the practice that helps to process emotions. The overall transformative power of yoga asanas lies in the mindful exploration of each pose, irrespective of how basic or complex the pose may seem.” shares Yoga teacher & EFT Practitioner, Saatvika Mangalaram.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

A treatment used to manage anxiety and depression. It is a type of talk therapy, where negative thoughts are reworked with positive ones.

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)

EFT Tapping for Anxiety relief is an alternate therapeutic method and is also clinically proven (4).

So over my years of experience I have developed a protocol known as the Anxiety Relief Protocol with the EFT Tapping Points.

The main summary steps from the Anxiety Relief Protocol to lower anxiety with EFT Tapping are outlined below:

STEP 1

Identify Physical Sensations:

Explore the physical sensations in the body associated with anxiety and use the physical tension tapping process to reduce the sensations.

Then use the EFT Tapping Points Process taught in detail during EFT Practitioner Training Online.

1. To get started, begin by investigating the physical nature of the anxiety.

Connect with the anxiety and notice where do you feel it in the body. Then use the Physical Tension taught in detail during EFT Practitioner Training to clear the surface feelings and feel calmer.

Briefly, you can begin by asking the following questions to explore further:

Where in the body do you experience the anxiety?
What is the colour, texture, size, shape of the anxiety in the body?
What are the sensations like? For example rough or smooth

Anxiety can sometimes be felt in a specific location like the heart and/or chest. The symptoms can involve the heart racing, general restlessness, shaking legs and hands.

The important thing is to use your specific words to describe the anxiety.

2. Then measure the level of anxiety by asking:

"What number is the anxiety at, where 10 is really high and 1 is not high at all." Just go with whatever comes up spontaneously, without thinking too much about it.

3. Begin by Tapping on the Karate Chop or Side of the Hand EFT Tapping Points:

Even though I feel anxious and I feel it in my chest and its at a number 6 and it's red in colour and it feels rough, I deeply and completely love and accept myself (Repeat 3 times).

4. Then Tap on the facial and upper body EFT Tapping Points for Anxiety using the phrases:

Eyebrow: This anxiety...
Side of the eye: So anxious...
Under the eye: Anxious in my chest..
Under the nose: It's a red colour...
Chin: At a number 6...
Collarbone: So rough...
Under the arm: This anxiety...
Thumb: I feel it in my chest...
Index Finger: So anxious...
Middle Finger: Really anxious...
Little Finger: The colour red...

5. Close the sequence by coming back the EFT Karate Chop Tapping Points and repeat once:

Even though I feel anxious and I feel it in my chest and it's at a number 6 and it's red in colour and it feels rough, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

6. Relax: Take a gentle breath in and out and take a sip of water.

7. Test: At the end of the EFT Tapping for Anxiety Relief Process, you can ask yourself the following questions:

What number is the anxiety at now?
What happened?
How does it make you feel?

You can repeat this process by going back to Step 1 if you feel like the number could come down a little more.

STEP 2

Clear Past Memories:

Explore past memories related to the physical tension and use the Tell the Story & the Movie Technique to clear it.

To uncover the past memories linked to the symptoms of anxiety, you can ask questions like:

When have you felt these sensations before?
What do these sensations remind you of?
When did the sensations start? What happened?
Was there ever a time when you did not experience these symptoms?
What can trigger and bring on the symptoms?

STEP 3

Identify & Resolve Past Events Linked to Anxiety with EFT Tapping

Identify past events linked to the feeling of anxiety and resolve it with the help of tapping therapy.

You can ask the following questions:

When have you felt anxious before?
What happens to trigger the anxiety?
Who or what triggers the anxiety?

These questions will identify your past experiences associated with anxiety.

STEP 4

Identify the Root Memories and Clear them with Gentler Techniques

Now, past experiences are most likely to be the root cause of your anxiety; in many cases traumatic and hurtful situations as well. For example:

Being scolded by a parent, guardian or teacher - For a child, this is deeply traumatic, since someone they love is yelling at them. It can trigger the nervous system to go into being overwhelmed and release the stress hormone - cortisol.
A car or motor bike accident - With an accident what can happen is every time you see a car or a motor bike it can trigger the stress response and cause anxiety. In my case I had an accident when i was crossing the road and after that accident every time I had to cross the road I would hesitate and pause and get anxious and ask myself, "Is it safe to cross the road?"
Losing a loved one - Loss is never easy for anyone and losing someone close to us, is devastating. It can cause intense emotional pain. What can happen is, there can be fear of feeling the emotional pain and to avoid or deny feeling the emotions anxiety can arise.
Physical, verbal or sexual abuse - Any form of abuse is traumatic; whether it's teacher saying shut up, or a loved one shouting. I recall working with adults to relieve their anxiety. In many cases they had been abused as a child, for example, locked in a cupboard or told to shut up and not speak. These terrifying and unacceptable experiences lead to the child feeling like, "The world is not safe" or "It's not safe." Anxiety then becomes a surface symptom when the thought, "It's not safe", is triggered, since it's like warning the person to remain vigilant as there could be danger ahead. Anxiety creates a state of hyperarousal. Being "on" all the time as a means of protection and survival.

These types of memories can trigger Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), where the anxiety is a surface symptom of a deeper root cause.

When working with any form of trauma it is better to use the gentler methods of trauma release taught during Inner Child Matrix Training or during EFT Practitioner Training in the form of Tearless Trauma.

STEP 5

Explore the Limiting Beliefs that Trigger Anxiety

Limiting beliefs are thoughts that limit health, relationships, wealth, career or finances. These thoughts can be conscious or unconscious and can end up becoming responsible for self sabotage, procrastination and low self-esteem, in an individual.

With anxiety, first uncover the limiting beliefs which can either be at the surface level or associated with the deeper root memories; then shift them from stressful to empowering. For example,

“Something bad is going to happen” to “Everything is going to be OK"
"It not safe" to "I am safe now"

STEP 6

Close with Positive EFT Tapping for Anxiety

Identify positive tapping sequences to close the EFT Tapping Therapy for anxiety relief.

An example of positive tapping is "Even though I was anxious, that was then and this is now, I choose to be calm now."

Then hold the thumb to calm the body and mind and release any residual anxiety. You can also use the Jin Shin Jyutsu finger hold process to gain relief from anxiety.

DOES EFT TAPPING REALLY WORK FOR ANXIETY?

Emotional Freedom Technique is an intervention that helps people overcome physical and mental problems that they go through. It has proven to be effective and long lasting; at the same time, this technique does not take much time to administer as well (4).

EFT Tapping for anxiety stimulates the body's ability to let go or release any sort of anxiety which may have been created during any sort of trauma that we faced previously.

EFT tapping for anxiety relief has also been proven to be useful and long-lasting for individuals who have experienced high levels of anxiety, but don't anymore, because of the usage of EFT.

HOW TO SELF HEAL & BECOME AN EFT PRACTITIONER

Discover how EFT can help you to self heal or to become professionally qualified as a Certified EFT Practitioner. Emotional Freedom Techniques (tapping) is clinically proven to lower stress, tension, anxiety, past-trauma to enable health, happiness and vitality.

BOOK A COMPLIMENTARY DISCOVERY CALL

There has been clinical evidence of the use of EFT Tapping for Anxiety Relief, for instance:

EFT Tapping For Public Speaking Anxiety - EFT was found to be very effective when a study was conducted on 36 individuals having Public Speaking Anxiety. Emotional Freedom Techniques were carried out and subjective self-assessment measures were taken before, after and during the session. The scores of each participant for Public Speaking Anxiety significantly reduced, in terms of subjective as well as behavioural scales (5).
EFT Tapping For Test Anxiety Among Students - Another study showed how students who followed the EFT depicted significant reduction in anxiety levels, than those who followed the Progressive Muscular Relaxation method. 70 students did the experiment and were asked to continue self-treatment at home. 2 months later, the same students were tested for test anxiety again; the scores demonstrated a drop in anxiety levels in students who were in the EFT group, than in the PMR group (6).
EFT Tapping For Pre-Surgery Preparation - A study evaluated the effectiveness of EFT on 50 women undergoing surgeries. Participants in the EFT group received two 10 minute sessions a day before the surgery and on the day of the surgery. Just before the participants were taken for surgery, it was found that the women in the group where they practiced EFT, depicted a significant decline in anxiety levels (7).
EFT Tapping For Veterans - EFT also helped a large number of military service personnel and families who suffered from PTSD. They used the Emotional Freedom Techniques for 5 days and after a year, none of them tested positive for PTSD. Their psychological distress also reduced significantly, after the continuous usage of this technique (8).

These are some successful clinical tests that were conducted, where EFT Tapping for Anxiety Relief profoundly helped individuals get over their issues.

Additionally, even though Emotional Freedom Techniques can be administered on the self, it is recommended to consult a professional EFT Practitioner to get help for physical and/or emotional issues you may be facing.

So what is anxiety and how can you defeat it? Watch the below video to know how to overcome anxiety with EFT Tapping.

"Anxiety is part of creativity, the need to get something out, the need to be rid of something or to get in touch with something within"

David Duchovny

Anybody suffering from anxiety is no less than a fighter.

A person can feel anxious due to a variety of reasons and with EFT Tapping you can uncover and clear the root cause. It is clinically proven that EFT Tapping for anxiety not only lowers the feeling, but also restores a sense of balance and calmness in our minds.

You can also embark on a program that includes Yoga, Meditation & CBT Therapy. If you are feeling overwhelmed it is best to ask for help.

Love

Dr Rangana Rupavi Choudhari (PhD)

P.S. Want to discover if EFT is right for you? Book a Complimentary Discovery Call.

In summary, anxiety can be really exhausting and distressing, but you can always overcome it by breaking down your tasks into small steps, practice yoga and/or meditation or even use a clinically proven method. EFT Tapping for Anxiety Relief will allow you to get rid of the distressing thoughts that you are going through; however, you don't need to rush the process. Take your own time and do what you feel is right for you, as and when when you feel comfortable.

References:

Disclaimer: The information on this website is purely for educational purposes and does not in any way replace the requirement for medical and psychological diagnosis and treatment. Please do seek professional medical and psychological diagnosis and advice for all medical and mental health conditions. It is advised to always book any consultations with qualified professionals.

Learn Emotional Freedom Techniques for self healing or to become professionally qualified - More

Our other seminars:

The Journey Healing Method - More
Breakthrough Coaching with NLP Practitioner - More

For the full calendar of events.

Other articles you may be interested in:

Stress? 10 tips to lose stress and gain health

I am no longer haunted by my past EFT set me free!

EFT Tapping for Energy

But seriously...Does EFT actually work?

How to lose weight by eliminating cravings