True confession—this is what my outer chaos looks like most days.
Ever since I started this blog a year ago, I’ve been drowning in books, papers, and sticky notes. I find myself researching a wide array of sources and don’t want to lose track of important thoughts. My aim is to pull ideas together in new ways. That seems to mean I have to amass a of ideas before I can recombine and distill them. It’s a messy process, but that’s how I work.
Recently I became aware that the volume of idea clutter had become overwhelming. It was no longer helpful. It was causing me stress.
Relieving the stress of overwhelm
A couple weeks ago, Dr. Daniel Friedland spoke about transforming the stress of demands into challenges and finding resources to help you meet those challenges. One way to relieve stress is the energy psychology modality known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or Tapping. This easy process involves tapping a simple series of nine points that activate key body meridians. It’s been found very useful in reducing stress and anxiety. Anyone can do it.
Here’s a short and clear demonstration of the tapping process. As Jessica Ortner explains, you give a voice to the tape that’s already playing in your head while tapping specific points to release tension related to those repetitive thoughts.
If you’re curious to see how this technique can be applied, the next video deals with the stress caused by clutter. In this case, it’s the boxes not yet unpacked after moving to a new house. You can see Kim verbalize how she feels about the clutter and how things shift as she’s going through the process. As anxiety releases, she is able to reframe the issue, see it from a new perspective, and find an approach she can use to move forward rather than staying stuck and beating herself up.
You can do it too.
Clutter isn’t limited to a messy desk or unpacked boxes. We all have inner clutter—old tapes in our head that get in the way of being effective in our lives now. They might be limiting beliefs, ideas we picked up in childhood about how life works, attitudes we picked up from our families, or the echo of our mother’s voice telling us to be careful. All of these are mental clutter, and EFT can help clear it out so you can function effectively as an adult.
To explore further…
I’m all for self-empowerment. One thing I love about tapping is that it’s simple, easy to learn, and there is no shortage of good information if you want to learn and use EFT.
The Tapping Solution – Lots of information about tapping and what it can do. Nick and Jessica Ortner host a free on-line tapping summit each year. Sign up for their newsletter and you’ll hear about the next summit when the time comes.
EFT Universe – Psychologist Dawson Church is known for his extensive research into the efficacy of EFT. He offers a free manual you can download to get started.
Tap along with Brad Yates – Tapping along with someone is a good way to get a sense of the tapping process. Brad Yates has hundreds of tap-along videos on his YouTube channel, well organized into topic areas including emotional wellbeing, physical well-being, relationship and family, success and motivation.
Tapping is one modality in a field of knowledge known as Energy Psychology. For the bigger picture, here are my previous blogs on various aspects of energy psychology.