When Anxiety Leads to Overwhelm, Becomes Fear and is Headed for Panic …
How to Quickly Interrupt Negative Thought Patterns and Calm Yourself with Tapping.
Right now there is certainly plenty of reason for people to feel anxious and overwhelmed by circumstances. It can seem there is little within our control.
Those feelings can fairly quickly become very fearful and then start to descend into panic if we are not able to shift our focus.
I am only speaking from personal experience, and even though it can sometimes feel that my struggles are mine alone, I know there are others out there who are dealing with powerful feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.
Anxiety, fear and depression have been reoccurring in my adult life and unfortunately have become more challenging in the last 10 years.
I’ve seen professional people and been on medications over the years but I was never able to change my thinking so I kept ending up in my same negative loop.
A couple of years ago I was at a point where I was really suffering and I decided that I was going to take it upon me to help myself.
I started doing research online and signing up for whatever free information I could get.
One day I saw an email in my inbox. The subject line said something about relief from anxiety and depression.
That sounded good to me so I clicked the link. And that’s when I first discovered EFT — Emotional Freedom Technique — or Tapping as it’s commonly known.
Tapping is a healing modality where you literally tap with your fingers on various meridian points on your head and upper body. You do this while repeating phrases designed to shift energy and give you relief from the intensity of the thoughts causing you to suffer.
Typically, you are guided by a lead person who you repeat after. You sometimes are asked to rate your negative feelings on a scale of 1–10 so that you can compare your feelings when you finish tapping and see if the intensity of the feelings has gone down.
The process is easy to learn, takes only a few minutes and really does bring relief.
Some people may do a round or two of tapping and feel sufficient relief. Others may need to continue the process for a longer period before they get the relief they need.
One of my favorite tapper leaders is Brad Yates. Brad has created tons of free tapping meditations on YouTube on a variety of potential issues that people may be dealing with. He currently has a playlist called Tapping Through a Crisis with a lot of anxiety and fear reducing meditations included.
I just do a lookup for Brad and whatever I’d like some relief about and do one or more of his 5–10 minute meditations.
I really do find that I am able to shift some of my negatively focused energy and get to a better place mentally.
I have also used tapping with only a voice-guided meditation. I just tap through the points as I listen to the meditation or if I’m doing a meditation with affirmations I tap through the points as I’m repeating the affirmations.
Although I have read about people who have used tapping to completely free themselves of their anxiety or other issues, I have not yet been able to do so. But I am able to reduce the intensity of the negative feelings.
I have to take each day as it comes. Some days I feel blessed to start out with pretty good feelings. And some days it takes trying several different techniques I have learned to try and shift from suffering to the point of tears to having the ability to function on some level.
Tapping offers real and fast relief and helps disrupt the negative momentum that I know for me can keep me stuck in a downward spiral.
What I especially like about it is that it gives me an actual tool that I can physically use to help myself. That, in itself, has an empowering effect.
Below are some links to tapping resources. I have no affiliation other than I am a fan. Give tapping a try. Hopefully, it can be one more tool you can use to help take care of yourself.
