The Vagus Nerve Part 6: by Wendy Hayden
Emotional freedom technique (EFT) is a form of energy psychology that uses a combination of tapping on acupressure points, affirmations, and visualization to help release trapped emotions and energy, allowing you to heal and find relief from physical and emotional issues. By tapping on specific points on the body, individuals can help to reduce their symptoms and experience improved wellbeing. One way to use EFT or the vagus nerve is to tap on the nerve itself. There are several points on the body that correspond to the vagus nerve. Tapping works similarly to acupuncture, but without needles. You tap on energy pathways and meridians to get energy moving in the body. Stuck pain and emotions move, sending a message to the amygdala that everything is ok and calm. The signals tell your body that you are safe. Along with the physical act of tapping, you follow a verbal script to work on a specific emotion that you want to release. EFT is a combination of ancient Chinese medicine, tapping on the meridians of the body, along with modern psychology, the statements while tapping. EFT uses a standard sequence of tapping on certain acupressure points near the surface of the skin. Many of these acupressure points coincide with the vagus nerve. The first step is to identify what to work on. Can you think of some stress? Where do you feel it in your body? What is the emotion that you want to release? The more specific you are with identifying the emotion, the more effective the tapping will be. This is an enormous step and can be difficult for some people as we often have a hard time admitting to struggling with pain or emotions. We might believe that it shows weakness to acknowledge something we are struggling with, but this is the first step in healing and releasing that issue. Identify on a scale of 1-10 how strongly you felt that emotion. Don't worry about tapping the perfect spots and EFT is very flexible.Start tapping on the fleshy side of your hand by your pinky, while tapping repeat your setup statement: “even though I have this emotion or pain (state your specific issue), I deeply and completely accept myself”. Repeat this statement three times. Now you go through the acupressure points on your body and tap while repeating the “reminder phrase”. Your reminder phrase is the emotion or pain you want to release. Tap the top of your head, the edges of your eyebrows near your nose, the bones on the outside of your eye, the bone below your eye, the indentation below your nose, the indentation between your mouth and your chin and tap these points while repeating your reminder phrase. Find your collarbone and go down an inch and then out an inch. Tap this spot. Lift your arm and tap on your side about three inches below your armpit (about where your bra band is) and repeat your reminder phrase. Take a deep breath, breathing out longer than you breathe in. You can set up a practice to tap once a day, or multiple times a day. Some find it helpful to tap in the morning to start their day relaxed and calm and some use it at night to wind down from the day's events. If you feel tension in your body, take a few minutes to tap. If the body tension jumps up, then there is more to explore. The increase in tension is a message from your body, telling you that you have more to explore and work on.
