As those of you close to me know, I've been suffering from ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) since I contracted Glandular Fever late in 2009. The first 4 years were pretty hell-ish to be honest, with no noticeable improvement. To be fair, up until this point I refused to accept the illness and I was living in a constant state of stress about my symptoms, which ranged from extreme brain-fog and light sensitivity to sore, painful muscles and constant flu-like symptoms. If anything this simply perpetuated the illness. I had no idea what was happening to me and why it was happening...it was a scary place. At points I have to be honest, I could get extremely depressed and was having thoughts about ending my situation. Anyone who has been through this condition will know what I mean.
Fortunately after almost 4 years, I came across the Optimum Health Clinic, based in London, who specialise in treating ME, and take an integrative, holistic approach (I had discovered that Western Medicine was pretty useless at treating this condition by this point!) I'm also seeing a Physiotherapist who specialises in the condition to help me build up my exercise and daily activities.
A year and 4 months later (now!) I'm exercising (walking) 5-6 days a week, I'm doing some work 5-6 days a week, studying for my NLP, Hypnotherapy, Life Coaching, & EFT qualifications, and I'm doing some volunteering for the clinic. I'm not fully recovered, and there's still a fair bit of work to do to get me there, but I'm feeling generally quite positive.
Ok that's that little bit done..now to explain the title of this blog post!
Tapping (otherwise known as EFT) is a form of counselling intervention that draws on various theories of alternative medicine including acupuncture, neuro-linguistic programming, energy medicine, and Thought Field Therapy (TFT).
From here
Skeptical? Sound a bit confusing? That's how I approached it initially...how can tapping on certain parts of your body whilst saying certain phrases release this anxiety I've been feeling for years?
It's certainly encouraged me to be more open-minded when trying new things or modalities. It's quite hard to explain how this works without showing you a video demo, so click below to identify how and where to tap :
I know it looks a little weird, but I dare you to give it a go and see if you notice any changes.
This is a relatively new form of therapy which is pretty exciting. The great thing about EFT is that you can use it on virtually anything - from fear, to stress, it's very flexible. It can even get results with pain. What I really like about this modality is that you can use it on yourself, whenever you need - you don't need someone there to guide you or walk you through the steps.
The most useful resource I found on this is a book by Nick Ortner called The Tapping Solution. I got through this in 2 days..it was too good to put down. There's also a film Nick Ortner made of the same name, which follows 10 individuals with various ailments (some severe) being taught EFT. Some of the results are simply astounding. I'll leave it up to you to find out what they were!
I've added in a tapping session here about anxiety, which you can have a go with if you wish :
If you've got this far, thanks for reading, and if you have any comments, feel free to leave in the box below :-)
Adam
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