Tap and Shake Technique
for Stress, Anxiety and Overwhelm
Use this technique whenever you are feeling stressed, anxious or overwhelmed. It’s helpful to be in a space where you can be alone and have freedom to move your entire body.
Start by tuning into your body and just notice on a scale from zero (none at all) to 10 (extremely high) how strong your anxiety, stress, anger, overwhelm are feeling right now.
Now let yourself feel this feeling in your body. Feel the stress. Feel the anxiety. Feel the overwhelm. Feel it all.
Think about some of the things that are causing you to feel even more stressed. Bring all of that up right now. Be as specific with events as you can.
And then, start by shaking your body - move your head, shake your arms, shake your legs. Really just move through your entire body shaking it all out. Shaking all that anxiety out. Just give it a good 30 seconds or so to just really shake it all out.
You can even incorporate sound if you want… sighing or moaning or growling… whatever sound feels natural to you to help get everything out.
Now we’re going to alternate that with Tapping on your body.
As you tap each point slowly (about 7-9 times or whatever feels good), focus on feeling your body and think about the things that have been causing you stress. Go back to those original thoughts. You want to make yourself feel anxious again. Keep tapping as you do this. Going through all of the points.
Keep going and you’ll notice the feelings starting to come up again. Notice when it starts to bubble up again.
Then return to shaking… shaking your arms, your head, your legs, your body… adding the sounds that feel natural to you if you’d like. Keep shaking.
Now go back and start Tapping again. Moving slowly through the points. Notice your body, feel the energy, see what’s coming up for you. Think about the stressors. Try to bring that anxiety back up again. Notice the anxiety and stress bubble again, like another layer. You may even have new events surface to your awareness.
Go back and shake it out again. Do what feels natural for you. Your body’s going to know how best to move this through your body. Trust that and do whatever feels right, that could be shaking, laying on the floor, punching a pillow… whatever your body wants to do. Do this for another 30 seconds.
Then take another nice, deep breath and go back to Tapping.
Shake, make sounds and then Tap.
You want to alternate this 3 to 4 times. You’ll know you’re done when you feel a shift, there may be tears, you may feel really tired, or you may just feel like you’ve dumped a lot. This exercise can help you feel a profound sense of relief.
Tune into your body again and just notice on a scale from zero to 10 how strong your anxiety, stress, anger, overwhelm are feeling now.
Tiffany King, CCHT
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