Meridian Tapping for Physical Issues

When you have a physical problem, chances are good there is some emotion connected to it.  And sometimes if you’re tapping on an emotional issue, you’ll feel pain or tension somewhere in your body.

So How Do I Tap?

Meridian tapping is very flexible.  You can focus on either the emotion or the physical sensation.  If one gives you faster results, you can stick with that.  Or switch back and forth between the body and the heart — the physical and the emotional.

You can also do a little detective work to find out the connection between the two.

Starting with the Physical

Sometimes you’re only aware of a physical problem.  Maybe it’s back pain.  Or tension in your shoulders.  Or congestion in your chest. Regardless of the apparent cause, you can use EFT to help yourself. Really!  That means it doesn’t matter if you caught a cold, have spinal stenosis, or your neck hurts because you slept wrong last night. You can still feel better by tapping.

You can start with tapping only on the symptom — the physical sensation. If you can clear the problem that way, great! But if you can’t get to zero, ask yourself a few questions:

• Was there a disturbing thing that happened shortly before this problem started? The emotional charge from that event may be tangled up in your energy system with your physical problem. So use tapping to clear the emotions of that event. See if your physical problem is reduced or gone.
• If this symptom could talk, what would it say to me? Just get quiet and tune in to the pain (or whatever) and ask that question. You may be very surprised with the answer. After you get over the surprise, use tapping on your answer.
• If the location of this problem could talk, what would it say?  For instance, ask your back or shoulder or head what it has to say. Then tap on that.
• Get literal. For example, if you have a pain in the neck, ask yourself who in your life is a pain in the neck. Then tap on your issues with that person. If your stuffed-up head feels like it’s going to explode, ask yourself what situation in your life makes you feel like like your head would explode when you think about it. Then use tapping on that issue. If your ears are plugged up, ask yourself what you don’t want to hear. See what I mean?

Starting with the Emotions

If you know you have strong feelings connected to the cause of the problem, you can start there. Those emotional blocks can keep that pain or cold hanging around. Did a trauma cause your back ache? Did you have surgery on your shoulder? Are you mad at the person who gave you the cold?

Tap away those emotions and you may get good relief from your physical problem. Even simple things like being frustrated because the cold is wearing you out can make it worse. So use EFT on any emotional component you can find.

Tap on the Physical to Avoid Emotional Pain

Sometimes a physical problem started from a really painful event. Tapping on a physical sensation is a great way to avoid re-traumatizing yourself. Just stay focused on the body symptom and tap it all the way down to zero. For instance, if your stomach tightens up just thinking about that awful accident, just tap on that stomach tightness. Stay with it and tap it down to a zero intensity level. 

It may not completely clear the all the emotions from that event. But it will reduce the emotional charge on it. Then when you go to focus directly on that event, you’ll be starting at a much lower intensity level, and it will clear quickly.

Physical Symptoms Changing During Tapping

It’s really common for physical feelings to move around — right while you’re tapping. Maybe a frontal headache moves to the base of your skull. Or your shoulder pain moves to your mid-back. Or the right side of your nose was stuffed up, and now it’s clear. But your ear is stopped up.

Another thing that can happen is that the quality of the sensation changes. Pain might turn to tingling. A focused stabbing pain may change to a spread-out dull ache. Tension might turn to itching. It’s pretty wild how your sytem morphs one thing into another.

It’s a good sign! Those changes are proof that you are shifting the energy. It’s on its way out. Whether the symptom is moving or changing, just keep tapping. The Tapperati (my name for the EFT Masters, Gary Craig, and high-profile EFT teachers) call it “Chasing The Pain.”

Just stay with your tapping all the down to a zero intensity level.