Tapping Exercise, Why and How-To

Our brain has the capability to filter out or ignore sensory input.  For example, when we get dressed we are initially aware of the ‘feel’ of our clothes but then our brain will ‘filter’ out those sensations for the rest of the day or keep them ‘in the background’ and ignore them.  In the same way our brain will often put ‘in the background’ both physical problems and emotional issues, and in a sense, filter them out and thus effectively ignore them.  (It also ignores or filters out information that is incongruous with information it has already stored.)

We all have observed people unconsciously tapping their head with their finger tips.  Tapping stimulates the brain’s awareness.  It is a way to unstick brain signals.  The brain needs to be engaged in the healing process but sometimes it filters out signals that are indicating imbalance somewhere in the tissue and thus a healing neurological response is not sent to the tissue.

Without some of this input, however, the brain’s natural healing/corrective response is also absent.  We can call this a state of ‘stuckness’ and we need to get the brain unstuck so it not only recognizes the sensory input that brings to it the messages of the imbalance, but also responds as it should with its preprogrammed healing program.

Applied Kinesiologists have found a way to turn off this filtering mechanism temporarily using a technique called ‘tapping’.  Tapping involves using the finger tips to give short firm taps to get the brain to pay attention to a certain effort or stimulus.  Thus, tapping enhances the overall integral functioning and intercommunication of the body.

The kinds of stimuli depend on whose protocols you are studying.  Some tapping protocols/therapies specify one or two areas on the body that need to be tapped; others, 7-8 specific points in a specific sequence.   This is therapeutic and with thought (and clinical experience) has been formalized into protocols like EFT, MFT or Body Talk and others. I have studied a number of these protocols and have distilled in this doc what I feel are the most effective applications of the tapping techniques.  I have found that the skull is the most productive responder to tapping and any place on the skull will do as the slight percussion in one area does transmit easily to others.