This Easy (And Free) Exercise Is The Stress Reliever Of Your Dreams
Millennials are stressed. Do you agree? The political climate is chaotic. The global climate is unstable and quickly declining. Your paycheck is two 0s too little. Your parents are getting older. Your rent is due like yesterday, and to top it all off, that hot guy from Bumble never messaged you back. This constant stimulation from the world, IRL and online, creates a seemingly never-ending stream of stress in your body and in your mind.
As a fellow millennial, I love biohacking and finding ways to reduce the stress I feel day to day. But even with all the Bulletproof coffee I have drank, nothing has ever left me feeling more bulletproof than tapping.
No — it’s not what you think. It has nothing to do with fedoras, sequins, or step-heel-heel-step-ball change combo. Tapping is the common name for Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). Tapping or EFT is a self-comforting, self-empowerment tool that is based on the ancient meridian energy system that acupuncture is based on. It is known as the emotional version of acupuncture, but instead of using needles, all you need is your fingertips!
To start the tapping process, you simply think of an issue that is causing you mental or physical stress or something you would like to feel a bit better about. Once you have done that, you then use your fingers and ‘tap’ gently on specific acupuncture points located on head, face, and upper body. While tapping and thinking about that issue, you simultaneously voice positive affirmations.
Tapping interacts directly with the body’s nervous system, and it has been shown to clinically reduce the amount of stress hormones (AKA cortisol) in the body. This modality helps you to literally tap into your nervous system and stop stress from wreaking havoc on your body.
Most people, and definitely most millennials, are beast mode engaged. This means that they are running on the sympathetic nervous system. From a physiological perspective, if you are constantly engaging your sympathetic nervous system, everything and everyone you encounter is perceived as a threat, leaving your body in fight or flight mode.
Give yourself the opportunity to slow down and recharge using tapping. The world needs the best version of you. Here are five reasons why you should #tapthat more often.
1. It is zero waste and minimal.
This technique requires nothing of you except that which you already have—your fingers!
2. It is very convenient.
Tapping is available to you at all times. Within minutes, tapping can help regulate your nervous system to help you calm down and show up as a better you.
3. It is multipurpose.
You can use it on any issue that is causing your mind or body stress, whether it be a negative experience, phobias, limiting beliefs you have about yourself, or negative thought patterns. Maybe you would like to feel better about a negative experience you had as a kid. Maybe you want to work on increasing your self-confidence. Maybe you want to fix your finances and do away with that scarcity mentality. Maybe you want to attract your soulmate but you just can’t seem to get over your trust issues. Tapping can help with all of the above!
4. It allows you to become more present.
Tapping makes you more aware of what you are feeling in that moment, whether it be emotionally or physically. This gentle modality creates a safe space to surrender and be curious about what is happening within yourself.
5. It makes you more magnetic.
The world you create is based on the thoughts you think, and thoughts are nothing more than energetic vibrations. Tapping is a great way of decreasing your stress levels, and in doing so, it increases your energetic vibration. So, if you are stressed out and emitting low vibration thoughts, your life will reflect low vibes right back. If you think better thoughts, your body will feel better, and you will emit a whole new energy that will absolutely and totally make you magnetic as fuck.