Low-level, constant anxiety is so common right now – it’s a sick feeling in the stomach, a heavy feeling in the chest, often with heart-pounding, and fuzzy head that makes it impossible to concentrate on anything other than the powerful body feelings that the anxiety brings..
The fuzzy head is because stress hormones literally make us stupid. When we’re feeling anxious, stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, plus oxytocin in women, flood our bodies, direct most of our body’s energy and oxygen to our instinctive hind-brain, our heart, lungs, arms and legs (so we can defend ourselves or leave fast!), and away from the front brain where our logical and rational thinking resides. With all that moving-around of resources, it’s no wonder the heart pounds, and we get sick in the stomach – blood and energy is literally being forced into the systems that ensure our physical survival
That your body responds exactly this way to stress is good news in a backwards kind of way, because it means our bodies are actually functioning in an appropriate way – it just feels really bad!
And for most people, most of the time, the cause of the anxiety is not life threatening, but our survival-focussed hind brain doesn’t know the difference.
Tapping, of course, is a really quick way to immediately lessen that anxious feeling. But it’s not always convenient to tap – depending on who’s around, your sudden tapping on your body could cause people around you to react in a way you’d rather they didn’t! But you can get some immediate relief at any time by rubbing or even holding just two points.
The first point is immediately under the eye, on the stomach meridian. Adding energy into this point with tapping, rubbing, or holding, the stomach point often settles the stomach flutters.
The second point is on the back of the hand – the ‘gamut point’, or Triple Warmer. This point connects straight to the amygdala, the part of the brain that stores all the emotions we experience until age three, associates body sensations with reward or punishment, and is especially responsive to fear. Stimulating the gamut spot can sedate the amygdala, and reduce the body’s anxiety responses.
When I’m feeling anxious, I tap under my eye with the fingers of one hand, and with the fingers of the other, I tap on the gamut spot of the hand tapping under my eye. I know it sounds complicated but try it now – tap under your eye with two fingers of one hand, and while you’re doing that, tap on the back of that hand (under your pinkie finger)with the fingers of your other hand.
If you can’t tap because maybe there are people around and you don’t want to look demented, then try to decide which sensation is more uncomfortable – the stomach or the chest.
If it’s the stomach, rub under your eye. If it’s the chest, rub the gamut spot. When the feeling has settled a little, switch to rubbing the spot you haven’t worked with yet.
You will probably need to do some work with a therapist to get to the root of the anxiety, but in the moment, this technique is a sanity saver.
Tapping your body can help you change your life. My 96 page ebook, The Personal Peace Journal, steps you through a tapping and questioning process, to find the roots of your beliefs and change them – all in the privacy and comfort of your own home.
