A few weeks ago, whilst swimming with my friend’s 8-year-old daughter, she got stung by a bee floating in the swimming pool. Her immediate reaction was to cry out in pain.
I sat her on the side of the pool and showed her where to tap on her body and to repeat after me, "Even though I have been stung by a bee, I love and accept myself." Moving through the 9 tapping points we repeated, "This pain in my arm, this horrible pain in my arm because a bee stung me. It hurts. This pain in my arm." We then moved on to, "This silly bee! Why did it have to sting me? This silly bee." With that she began to laugh and as we continued to tap, the pain and the swelling went down.
When it comes to kids, humor really is the best medicine. Tapping has the amazing ability to calm kids down. And kids are sponges! They take it all in and are so receptive to learning new skills.
What is EFT?
Emotional Freedom Techniques (known as EFT Tapping) calm our nervous systems when we are in a fight or flight state. Simply tapping on acupressure points on the body sends a signal via meridians to the amygdala (the emotional part of the brain) to calm down.
EFT has been around for many years and in the past decade has received so much attention through scientific research. Schools around the world are using it in the classrooms to help kids regulate their nervous systems, and the results are incredible. More importantly, the kids take to it ‘like a duck to water.’
In a classroom setting, the teacher taps with the kids. The beauty of it is that by tapping herself, the teacher can regulate herself at the same time. This is called "Borrowing Benefits". When you tap on a specific issue, and everyone taps along, everyone benefits. These specific problems are put into words whilst tapping on the acupressure points. As cognitive shifts are created, kids are better able to let go of the problem and maybe even have a realization that it could have been another way, or that they could have thought another way. Or, if words fail them, they can simply tap and breathe and receive similar benefits.
Limiting Beliefs
There is a saying in the healing industry, "we need to feel, in order to heal." It’s gaining momentum. In his book "The Body Keeps the Score" by Dr Bessel van der Kolk, the idea that we first have to feel what is going on inside of us is presented as a result of much research conducted around how our bodies store emotional trauma. He believes that our foundational years, ages 1 – 7, are when we create our beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. These beliefs get stored in our bodies. When we are triggered by an event or something someone says, our bodies react first before our minds react. In other words, we experience heart palpitations, sweaty palms, hot flashes etc., and then the traumatic memory surfaces. All of this happens in a split second.
As we reach our adulthood these beliefs can become limiting. For example, you may have been told by a parent, caregiver or teacher that "You will never amount to anything." As a child you remember how that made you feel. Now as an adult someone says to you, "You are useless at what you do!" and this comment triggers the belief you have about yourself that "I am not good enough, I am a failure and will never amount to anything." Your heart starts pounding, you struggle to breathe, and anger builds on a conscious level. Your subconscious mind fishes out the childhood memory and, "Bang!", you react! Limiting beliefs reduce your capacity to function normally.
Tapping through these beliefs and the felt body sensations helps you to shift the belief from your subconscious mind and allows you to create a different belief that nourishes and serves you.
Tapping for Kids
Tapping is an incredible tool for helping kids work through their emotional struggles. It’s simple, effective and can be easily taught to children of all ages. Exam pressure, peer pressure, stress, anxiety, depression, bullying and so much more are all benefited through tapping. It improves focus and behavior and promotes self-acceptance.
Here is a simple tapping script to help kids move from a stressed feeling to a calm feeling. Why not tap along with them?!
Tapping on the side of the hand: Even though I feel stressed, I choose to stop and breathe in this moment.
Beginning of the eyebrow: I know that I am a good kid.
Side of the eye: I am allowed to feel stressed from time to time.
Under the eye: And feeling stressed does not have to last forever.
Under the nose: So I am allowing myself to feel these feelings and let them go.
Under the mouth: With each breath I take, I release it more.
Just below the collarbone: Everything will be okay.
Under the arm: I choose to replace feeling stressed with feeling calm.
Top of the head: With each breath I take, I allow my body to feel calm.
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Karen Pringle is an Emotional Intelligence Life Coach & Accredited Certified Advanced EFT Practitioner based in South Africa.
Photo by Steven Libralon on Unsplash.
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