8 Health Benefits of Tapping

What does Tapping actually do? Happily, just as scientists have been unlocking many of the mysteries of the natural world, so too researchers have been unlocking the mysteries of tapping.  

I confess my eyes glaze over with academic papers, but I do love the brain scans we now have where you can see the before and after shots of the brain, and see that tapping actually makes a discernible difference in how the neurones in the brain are firing.

Because tapping can seem so weird it can feel easier to have the motivation to do it when you know what is actually happening, so here are some of the exciting things we know about what tapping actually does.

1. EFT impacts hormone production.  The flight/fight stress response happens in the amygdala in the mid-brain and stimulates the production of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Tapping sends deactivating signals to the brain which decreases the circulating levels of cortisol bringing about feelings of calm – and don’t we all want that!
2. Because high cortisol levels can lead to problems in concentration, blood sugar imbalances, sleep issues, decreased muscle mass, higher blood pressure, increased inflammation, decreased immune function and increased abdominal fat, it follows that tapping can help all these side effects of stress as it has such a rapid impact on deactivating the stress response.
3. Other stress related physical sensations such as back or chest pain, heart palpitations, stomach upsets and headaches can also be resolved, sometimes in a matter of minutes. 
4. In cases of traumatic memories (and we all have those to varying degrees), pairing them with the rapidly decreased threat response in the brain that the tapping gives removes the emotional response, contradicting the emotional helplessness and physical paralysis that may have occurred. It also increases the ability to process or communicate. 
5. Initial research has found that EFT also has physiological effects at the gene level – genes involved in such things as the suppression of cancer tumours, regulation of type 2 diabetes insulin resistance, immunity from opportunistic infections and so on. This is profoundly exciting and is another indicator of just how much EFT can impact physical health on a long term basis.  
6. EFT changes brain wave patterns (electrical patters which can be picked up by an EEG – electroencephalograph) bringing elevated waves down to normal.  We’ve also seen in brain scans how the areas of the brain which are activated in food cravings, (which “light up” on the scans), become less activated in tapping or the activation actually disappears altogether.  
7. One study showed substantial decreases in anxiety, depression, PTSD, pain and food cravings, plus an increase in the functioning of the immune system.  
8. And because EFT is remarkably rapid, treatments achieve similar or identical outcomes to other therapies in fewer sessions. 

All good reasons for getting stuck into some more tapping!