Tapping “In The Moment”

I was on an evening Virgin flight from Boston, MA to London, UK in August this year with my husband and teenage son when a baby started crying really loudly. As all mums will know, even if it's not your own child, you seem to tune into the distress of the cry of any baby. This baby's cry was way off the scale of anxiety.

The baby's parents on the plane seemed to be in great distress and the Dad was pacing up and down the aisle, shouting "My baby is possessed!"

The Steward asked the man to take his seat as the plane was ready for take off. It was then I realised he and his baby were occupying the seats right in from of me.

It was only a few minutes until we were airborne and the seat belt lights went out so I took the opportunity to talk to the baby's parents.

Crouching in the narrow aisle, with the Dad in the aisle seat with their baby on his knee, I explained that I knew of a simple technique that may help calm their baby and would he mind if I showed him.

The Dad, in particular, was looking so desperate. He said, "Yes, please try, I've never seen her like this before." The mum was sat two seats along next to her older child (about 3 years old) and I said, "Mum, you watch and copy me." I started tapping around all of the points starting at the eyebrow. "Dad, you watch me too." I wanted them to start tapping as they were both distressed about the baby, so I tapped with one hand round the points on me while my other hand tapped gently on the baby girl (who was about 11 months old) while I said things like, "You're probably tired little one; You're in an airplane with lots of strangers; it's past your bedtime (it was about 8pm); all these people looking at you; your mum and dad are here; you're safe etc. . . ."

It only took about 2 or 3 rounds of tapping before she was completely calm. The Mum and Dad looked visibly more relaxed too. Also, I had to stop tapping because the Steward was in the aisle asking me to move out of the way because he had the dinner trolley and was keen to get the meals served!

When I sat down behind the baby, she popped her head round the seat and was looking at me with such a lovely, curious expression so I carried on tapping on me, surrogately for her, while softly talking to the baby as before, for only a couple of rounds.

After a few of minutes I looked over the seat to see how they were getting on and the Dad and baby were fast asleep and the Mum mouthed, "Thanks so much."

They slept the whole flight and when we landed the Dad said, "I've never heard her scream like that before. It was amazing, like you switched her 'off' button, she was so calm, it was a miracle, I can't thank you enough."

There wasn't time to explain about EFT, how it works etc. as people were starting to pull down their bags from the overhead lockers and form queues in the aisles. I thanked the parents for trusting me with their baby and wished them a successful trip in the UK while we alighted the plane.

It was lovely to see the parents now calm and their baby happy, giggling and content. A classic case of tapping 'in the moment.'

Debs Sutton

From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on Nov 23, 2013.