A deeper look into how and why EFT is so effective.
Tapping sends a calming signal to the brain which cancels out the previously stored signal of threat and reduces emotional distress.
In groundbreaking research conducted over a period of 10 years at Harvard Medical School using functional MRI and PET studies, Hui, et al (2005) found that stimulating specific acupoints decreased arousal in the amygdala (the area in the brain that is responsible for the flight/flight stress response), virtually instantaneously.
Normally when we focus on a stressful or negative thought or idea we can feel a whole range of negative emotions (see picture for some examples). Researchers have now discovered however, if while thinking about that issue, you simultaneously stimulate the acupressure points using the EFT tapping points, you are introducing a calming and conflicting signal to the amygdala in the brain (the area in the brain that is responsible for the flight/flight response) and the hippocampus (the brain’s memory centre). This helps to decrease the physiological stress response in the body and alter the previously stored signals of threat/emotional learning in the brain. Whilst the memory is still there, EFT rapidly reduces the emotional impact of those memories, the link to the threat is broken and you experience a decrease in the negative feeling/emotional distress you initially tapped for. It takes just a minute or two to complete each set of tapping points and it’s unusually quick and easy. It also lasts overtime, so you don’t have to keep repeating the tapping for the same issue.
After EFT tapping, clients usually experience “the memory, cue, or context that had previously evoked a strong and unwanted emotional or behavioral reaction no longer triggers that reaction. The change is brought about rapidly, with precision, and it is lasting” (Feinstein, 2015, p. 48).