What I love about Yoga is that it is holistic. It brings the body, the mind and the soul together. Not looking at the parts, but the whole. There are lots of alternative therapies that can help us on this journey of self knowledge, this way to freedom from suffering. One such complementing technique that I came to love is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) otherwise known as Tapping.
How does it work? In a nutshell: you tap on certain points on the body while talking through your problems. Why does it work? There is plenty of material out there why it works, remember in the blog I always just give you my humble opinion and personal experience.
Here it comes. The head represents the Conscious Mind. The one we have control of. It is said to be about 3-5% of the mind. The Subconscious Mind is represented by the body. The one which is built up from all of our experiences, our learnt behaviours, our beliefs, our fears, our emotions - all the things that we want to control so badly, yet can't really access through the conscious mind. The subconscious mind is said to be around 95-97% of the mind. A bit like the proportion of the head to the body (okay, not exactly, but you get the picture). When we tap on these points in the body, which are in fact acupuncture/acupressure points, we connect the conscious and the subconscious mind. We release the suffering that is holding us back, generally as a result of the conscious mind and the subconscious mind going in completely opposite directions. The same thing happens in our Yoga practice. We align the body, the mind and the breath together with the soul.
I will include one of my favorite tapper's, Brad Yates', introduction video here to clarify a bit more about EFT/Tapping but here are the stages of tapping in summary:
1. On a scale of 1-10 give a number to how upset you are about the issue you are about to tap on.
2. Take responsibility for your well being and state that out loud - yes you are in charge!
3. Identify the problem, and start tapping it into the karate chop - finishing with 'Even though xxx is the situation at the moment I choose to love and accept myself deeply and completely, and anyone else who may be involved in this'.
4. Once the core issue is tapped into the karate chop move on to tapping your points. Tap along on the below points in the order specified. Rant along, say out loud what upsets you about the situation, go wild, say your deepest fears or upsets out loud, be bold, no-one is listening (you may want to turn Alexa off if you have one, as she may be listening)
1. Start of the eyebrow
2. Side of the eye
3. Under the eye
4. Under the nose
5. Chin
6. Collar bone
7. Under the arm
8. Top of the head
5. Once you said all you have to say about the problem, start tapping in the positive outcome. How you want it to be, how it is possible for you to have that. Tap at least several rounds through the 8 points. Tap along as long as you wish to go on. . When you come to the finish, at the top of the head, finish with 'In body, mind and soul' and exhale deeply.
6. On a scale of 1-10 give a number to how you feel about the issue now. You may go down a few numbers, or not, remember no expectations, just observation. And keep tapping!
The beauty of this technique is that you can use it for any issues and it just takes a few minutes, yet brings you instant relief!
Namaste
Dora