24 February, 2022
Tap away your stress!
You can do a simple Google search on ‘how to avoid heart disease’ and one key factor that will always come up, is to reduce your stress levels but many of us completely bypass this. Instead changing our diet, start exercising, lose weight and even quit smoking. Now don’t get me wrong, these are all amazing things to do and your heart thank you for it but in today’s world we are living in a constant state of stress and this is having devastating impacts on our physical bodies and our mental health.
When we are in a state of stress, we can have more than 1,400 biochemical responses to that perceived stress, this can include an increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol released through the body. If this is happening consistently it can increase the risk for hypertension, heart attack and stroke along with many other dis-eases (American Heart Association News, 2020).
Thanks to the ever-evolving technologies, we are required to always be ‘on’. Available constantly to anyone that wants to contact us, day or night. We stress about money, careers, relationships, family and, lets just throw in there, a pandemic - because it’s not like we had anything else to worry about.
It’s important to remember that everyone’s stress is unique to them and something that I perceive as stressful is not necessarily stressful for the person sitting next to me. It is also interesting to note that it is not the stressor (i.e., the fight you had with your partner) that is the problem to your health but the way we are perceiving that stressor and how we choose to respond to it.
The amazing thing about this then is that we are in complete control of our stress levels and with a bit of self-awareness and some great tools we can quickly and easily lower our own stress levels whenever and wherever we need to.
How can I reduce stress?
Introducing EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, or often known as tapping. EFT is a stress reduction technique that you can perform on yourself whenever you feel stress creeping in. The process of tapping your fingers on acupuncture points on the face and body has been around for more than 40 years and the 250+ published journal articles show it affects a range of biochemistry in the body (e.g., Blood pressure, brain activity, cortisol and DNA expression) therefore having a positive impact on our physical health (Stapleton, 2019).
We tap with our fingertips on specific points on the face and upper body whilst focussing on a problem, event, emotion, physical pain or phobia. While tapping, we voice the negative emotions that we are feeling about the issue for a few rounds and once the intensity has come down, we then switch the statements to be positive and what we want to feel instead.
The combination of tapping whilst voicing the negative aspects instead of avoiding them works to clear the emotional block and its’ energy system that is your body, thus removing the negative impact it has on your life.
Emotional Freedom Technique supports the body in healing itself from the multitude of big and small traumas that we face every day.
EFT is now commonly used as a stand-alone therapy, treating issues such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, phobias, addictions, relationship issues, chronic pain, sports performance and so much more.
The best thing about this tool though is that it is accessible to you at any point in your day. Empowering you to take back your life and take control of your own stress.
Look out for my short video on ‘Tapping your stress away’ coming soon!
Appointments available in Moonee Ponds or online.
About the Author
Kathleen Ford - Counsellor
Kathleen is a Bachelor-qualified counsellor who incorporates talk therapy, tapping, meditation and other therapies according to your needs. She finds this combination gets quicker and more profound results.
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References:
American Heart Association News, 2020, accessed via https://www.heart.org/en/news/2020/02/04/chronic-stress-can-cause-heart-trouble, sited 10th February 2022
Stapleton, P., 2020, The Science Behind EFT Tapping A Proven Stress Management Technique for the Mind and Body. Hay House, 2019.
