How Tapping Helps Your Brain
In our daily life, the stress center of our brain- comprised of the hippocampus and amygdala- are on overdrive. They're constantly scanning the environment for possible threats and deciding whether or not to go into a fight or flight reaction.
Even worse: the stress center of the brain often can't tell the difference between past and present, so past threats can feel like they just happened. Here's how EFT/tapping helps.
EFT/tapping (also called the Emotional Freedom Technique) is an evidence-based stress reduction modality that can be used for PTSD and trauma, phobias, uncomfortable emotions, processing breakups, relationships, grief, anxiety, depression, and anything else perceived as stressful.
It’s based on using acupressure (also called ‘tapping’) on various parts of the face and chest that are similar to the meridians (where the needles go) that are used in traditional Chinese medicine or acupuncture. In tapping, we use acupressure instead of needles.
As we're tapping on the tapping points, we actually say out loud the upsetting or triggering things that we’re feeling. The combination of tapping and saying these things out loud sends calming signals to the stress center of our brain, the hippocampus and the amygdala.
The hippocampus is responsible for detecting threat, and the amygdala is responsible for activating the fight or flight response in response to that threat. The hippocampus is always scanning the environment for something that is a potential threat, and it can’t tell the difference between past and present. So, anything that might have caused a temper tantrum or a fight or flight reaction when you were 5 years old could still be potentially perceived as a threat now, even though you’re now an adult! The hippocampus thinks that stressful events in your past just happened, and it wants to keep you safe and protect you from them happening again.
The hippocampus also functions as a gateway to tell the amygdala whether or not it should activate the fight or flight stress response, which would theoretically be protecting us against something life-threatening. Tapping can impact the connection between the hippocampus and the amygdala, telling the amygdala that we’re safe and keeping it from activating the stress response. So, when we're tapping, we're sending calming signals to the hippocampus and the amygdala that reframe the way our brain is processing that stressful stimulus. We're still going to have a fight or flight reaction when our life is actually being threatened, but it keeps things from our past or our present from being as upsetting and activating/triggering.
Tapping also activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is our ‘rest, digest, heal’ part of the nervous system, so it can be very calming, restful,and soothing.
To sum up: in addition to activating the ‘rest, digest, heal’ part of our nervous system, tapping works because we’re tapping on the tapping points and saying the distressing things out loud, and that sends calming signals to the brain that actually change the way our brain is processing stress.
If you’re interested in learning more about how and why tapping works, and how you can teach yourself and others, join me at my upcoming EFT/Tapping training! You can learn more details at www.jillwener.com/tappingtraining.