Taking a Sledge Hammer to My Mental Blocks (with EFT)
would you, could you, tap on your blocks? would you, could you, with a fox?
It’s 5:55 as I’m typing this right now!! Hello angels. Welcome to my Substack!
This post is about breaking up with some of our limiting beliefs (that we may not even know we have) and installing new ones with a somatic energy work technique called EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). This practice is like taking out an old floppy disc with your parents’s old work files (conditioned beliefs) and inserting the new Hilary Duff CD. Yes, it’s exactly like that.
What is EFT Tapping?
It’s like a little DIY energy work session you can do anywhere. It helps loosen worry, anxiety, or those “energetic blocks” that get stuck in the body.
It’s a combination of acupressure and psychology.
Tapping > acupressure (like acupuncture without needles)
Psychology > talking through a challenge and/or your emotions as a means of processing
How does tapping work?
You think about a feeling or problem that’s bothering you.
(Like being scared, grieving, overwhelmed, burnt out, or remembering a painful past memory.)While you’re talking about it, you gently tap with your fingers on 9 specific spots on your body.
You tap each spot about 5–7 times.
These spots are on meridian points, which are kind of like “energy pathways” in your body. Tapping these points sends a message to your brain that says:
“Hey chicky! It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re so pretty and no one is mad at you. We can handle this.”
When your brain gets that message, it calms down. Your body relaxes. And your emotions settle.
The beauty of tapping is that the more you do it, the more it works. Sometimes the shift happens instantly for me and other times I get a burst of inspiration or “ah-ha” moment the next day that help me understand what’s going on underneath the surface.
Tap and your brain finally gets a sighhhhhh of relief
You know when you’re singing I got…I got…I got a pocketful of sunshine in the shower and you just start getting a million amazing ideas? That’s because your brain is relaxed.
Tapping helps calm the part of your brain called the amygdala the center of emotions so you can
think more clearly,
feel more like yourself &
connect to your intuition more easily
The way I explain it to my clients (friends, family, besties for the resties and to my dog) is that tapping is like taking a very small, but very effective, chisel and breaking up some of our core beliefs that are hiding underneath the surface. They can weigh on our heart without us even knowing and it takes somatic work (mind & body connection) to “break up” some of that hardness.
Ok ok! Tell me how to start!
It’s so easy that your boyfriend’s mother’s mother’s dog could do it.
Speak out loud your woes.
Tap while you speak.
Add “I deeply love & accept myself” to the end of every statement.
Repeat until you feel calmer.
When you feel calmer, repeat the process and add in some positive spins to your situation. Tap while you speak. Add I deeply love & accept myself to every statement. Repeat.
What are the pressure points?
As you talk through your fears, feelings, past traumas and subconscious beliefs while tapping lightly on certain pressure points:
Side of Hand (Karate Chop Area)
Eyebrow
Side of Eye
Under Eye
Under Nose
Chin
Collarbone
Under Arm
Top of Head
Not pictured: side of hand, collarbone, under arm
The goal is to use acupressure to signal safety to your body while you process an emotion or belief. After reading The Tapping Solution on this exact practice, I have learned that moving through layers of stress is what reaps the most rewards!
So with my client, we map out our Emotional Freedom Tree before we actually tap just to get the juice flowing. Then I have them tap with me or they tap as homework and see what else comes up! In the book, they discuss the parts of the freedom tree and how each element takes you deeper into the root cause of your symptoms (and therefore your current reality).
You can do this at home too! Start by writing out what comes up for you in each layer. I will help you!
Layer 1: Symptoms (& current reality)
You start off by listing out what you’re experiencing in this very moment and ending the statement with “I deeply love and accept myself.”
Here’s my recent example focused on shifting my money beliefs:
Even though I have no idea how I’m going to pay this crazy bill 👉🏻 I deeply love and accept myself.
My surface level symptom is: experiencing dread about money
Layer 2: Emotions
Now write out what emotions come up around this topic? How do you feel when you wake up and think about it?
Angry?
Sick?
Worried?
Overwhelmed?
Guilty?
For me this was: Even though I feel sick to my stomach and anxious about this bill I got in the mail, I deeply love and trust myself.
What was interesting was that just out of the blue my hand wrote the words: “trust myself” instead of “accept myself” and I thought woof… that’s something I need to dig into.
Layer 3: Events
It’s time to go even deeper.
What are the events that have lead to this feeling either recently or in the past?
Something that happened with your parents?
Something someone said to you once?
An uncomfortable confrontation or situation?
For me it was: My mom would always get so anxious and furious when unexpected bills would come…I deeply love and accept myself.
Layer 4: Limiting Beliefs
This one is always the hardest! But what I’ve found is that when you get into a rhythm of doing this, moving through all the layers, you’ll just start sayin shit that will BLOW your own mind. You can uncover where some of your true limiting beliefs really are.
Start this one with whatever limiting belief is on the surface and then let yourself evolve the statements.
This is what it sounded like for me:
Even though my entire family has struggled with money my whole life, I deeply love and accept myself.
Even though I feel like I’m destined to be bad with money, I deeply love and accept myself.
Even though I’m scared to manage money, I deeply love and accept myself.
Even though I don’t think I’m smart enough to handle large amounts of money, I deeply love and accept myself.
It was sad and beautiful all at once!!
If you would like to do this together in a safe space, I’d love to support you!
Repeat the process with openness and a little bit of hope.
After you work through some of the hard stuff, you move into a round of reframing because at this point you have got a lot of emotional junk lose and floating around! We now want to dust it away and replace it with something better. And it could be a range of starting points like “I choose to belief, I am in progress, I decide that, I am willing to believe, I know that…”
This is how mine went:
I choose to believe that I am smart enough to handle money, I deeply love and trust myself.
I am going to be open to people helping me learn to handle money, I deeply love and trust myself,
I choose to give myself a change to be smart enough to handle anything, I deeply love and trust myself.
I am smart enough to handle anything, I deeply love and accept myself.
Let me know how this goes for you!!
With all my love,
Paris