What is a setup statement (and how do I create one)?

Tapping is very easy to learn, and it can be very easy to do once you understand the basics. But to people who don't know anything about it, tapping can look kind of confusing: you're tapping on your hands and your face, you're saying things out loud, and there are different components of the tapping sequence that don’t always make sense right at the start. The first component of the tapping sequence is called the setup statement, and the 2nd part is the rest of the tapping sequence. 

In this post, I’ll discuss what a set up statement is, how it’s used, and how you can create one when you’re tapping on your own. 

The set up statement is the thing you say at the beginning of your tapping sequence, or when you're tapping on a new topic or a new emotion. You tap on the pinky side of your hand, and you say something like “even though I” and then you fill in the blank with your issue that you're tapping on, and then you say something like “I love and accept myself”. 

The “I love and accept myself” is aspirational, so even if you don’t fully believe it, you’re invited to say it anyway! It’s common for some emotions to come up around saying it, which can be an important part of the tapping process. 

That said, it can feel difficult to say “I love and accept myself” if you’ve never allowed yourself to feel that way, or if your life experiences have made you feel otherwise. So, if it’s too activating or feels unsafe to say it, here are some other options:

“I accept and forgive myself” 

“I'm open to loving and accepting myself”

“I'm a really good person” 

So, a basic setup statement goes like this: 

Start: “Even though I…” 

Middle: then fill in the middle with whatever it is that you're tapping on

End: “I love and accept myself”

As an example, if you’re having anxiety about a presentation for work the next day, you’d say:

“Even though I’m anxious about the presentation I have to give at work tomorrow, I love and accept myself”

Repeat the setup statement two or three times. You repeat the same words each time, but it's okay if you change it up a little bit.  

There are a couple of other components that you can include in your set up statement to make it even more powerful. 

In general when we tap, we measure the intensity of what we're tapping on from zero (no intensity) to ten (the most intense possible). In addition, if it’s something we connect to, we also name and monitor where we feel that particular emotion or stress in our body (lots of people don’t connect to feeling physical/body sensations with their emotions, so they’d just leave this part out).  To incorporate those two components into the setup statement, add in the intensity of what you're feeling and where you feel that emotion or that stress in your body:

“Even though I have this 7 out of 10 anxiety that I feel in my chest about the presentation I have to give for work tomorrow, I love and accept myself”  

To summarize, here are the basic components of a set up statement:

1. The “even though” 

2. The issue that you're tapping on 

3. +/- the intensity of what you're tapping on 

4. +/- where you're feeling it in your body

5. An affirming statement at the end (i.e. “I love and accept myself”) 

After you do the set up statement, you go into the rest of the tapping sequence, which is covered in a different post. 

You don’t need a setup statement at the beginning of every tapping sequence, but you’ll want to do a new setup statement anytime you're tapping on something new. For example, if your anxiety goes from a 7 to 4, but you're still tapping on the anxiety and nothing new has come up, you can just start right back in with the rest of the tapping sequence without repeating the setup statement again. 

Any time you're starting with a new concept, emotion, or topic, you should create a new setup statement. For example, if you're tapping on anxiety, and all of a sudden you feel really sad and you want to start tapping on that sadness, then you want to start again with a new statement:

“Even though I'm feeling this 8 out of 10 sadness (about whatever it is that you're sad about), I love and accept myself”

The more you practice, the easier it gets. When in doubt, keep it simple. 

I’m leading an upcoming tapping ‘Train the Trainer’ training, where you’ll learn more about using tapping yourself and you’ll also learn how to teach other people about tapping. You can learn more and register at www.jillwener.com/tappingtraining.