Stress and anxiety are a constant of life, even more so in this time of COVID. Bob Gilpatrick and Rollie Culp discuss the emotional freedom technique, also known as tapping and analyze the science behind this amazing mind-calming exercise. Rollie and Bob demonstrate how to use this technique and its many applications. Bob and Rollie also talk about how to develop you own affirmation to use while tapping away the stress and anxiety that is holding you back.

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Tap Away Stress And Anxiety

The Emotional Freedom Technique

I’m here with Rollie Culp. Rollie, welcome to the show. I see you have your Tampa Bay lightning shirt on.

That’s right. We’re getting ready for the playoffs.

They are going to win it again in 2021. We’ll have another celebration down at the Hillsborough River.

We’ll be taking another boat ride with Stanley raised over our head.

We won’t need the Emotional Freedom Technique for that because it’ll be a day of joy.

What Is The Emotional Freedom Technique?

We won’t have too much stress and anxiety, maybe I worry about them dropping it into the water.

We are going to talk about the Emotional Freedom Technique. It’s a very popular technique that people all over the world use. For many years, it started to gain popularity back then but more and more now every year. They call it the Emotional Freedom Technique because people, as they’re born, they absorb information from their parents and surroundings. As they grow and life happens, quite often, people develop psychological issues that hold them back whether they develop anxiety, depression or phobias. Traumatic events cause it. They can become paranoid and have neuroses. Instead of having to go to a Sigmund Freud-type therapist and lie on the couch once a week for many years, there is now a technique that people can learn to do for themselves.

This technique, a version of it came about many years ago. Roger Callahan was the psychotherapist that created the basis for it. Later, Gary Craig became aware of Callahan’s secret technique and was the one who pioneered it and developed courses to teach other people how to do it. That’s when it began to explode as a very effective brand new type of therapy that could be used by therapists to help their clients. Also, the clients themselves could learn how to do it. Back before this, people weren’t learning how to do Freudian therapy on themselves. It required you to keep going to the therapist. This changed things because now, people could begin to use this technique by themselves.

It made it more accessible. We use it a lot on the show. Frequently, we use it especially when we’re talking about dealing with anxiety and stress because it’s so effective at it. It’s another tool that you can use to keep your mind right especially in times like now where we’re finally getting past the curve with the pandemic. We got to go back out into society. Sometimes you get anxious. You’re a little bit nervous and some social anxiety. You can use these types of things to help you get through that. It’s an accessible tool. That was the breakthrough when they finally started to realize how effective it was. It could be used anywhere.

Using The Emotional Freedom Technique

We can do a demonstration of how to use the Emotional Freedom Technique specifically related to the pandemic. As we are coming out of the pandemic, people are now out and about. CDC has changed the guidelines on social distancing and masks. There’s still anxiety that’s lingering in the minds of some people. We can show people how to use this Emotional Freedom Technique to mitigate some of that. The Emotional Freedom Technique is also called Tapping. Tapping is literally tapping with one of your fingertips. On the fingers of your other hand, you’re tapping onto the side of your nail. You’re going to tap on each fingertip, about five times. When you get to the end of your five fingers, you can tap on your karate chop point. Some people also tap points on their faces. We’re not going to go into that part. You can tap on your fingertips if you want to. It’s highly effective just tapping on your fingertips.

The whole concept behind the tapping is you’re trying to tap on your meridian points. You’re trying to wake those up. You can tap into that energy flow that goes through your body. There’s always energy flowing from head to toe. One of the places you can access it at these points so you’re using the tap.

Emotional Freedom Technique: There’s always energy flowing from head to toe. One of the places you can access it at these points, you’re using the tap.

It’s the endpoint of your meridian. It is a line of energy that goes from the fingertips of your toes and goes into your internal organs and your brain. This is your lifeforce energy. It’s called Qi in Chinese medicine. That’s where acupuncture came from with the needle. That’s where a little pressure came from with pressing on certain points. This is a version of acupressure but it is a version specifically for working on yourself, your thoughts, beliefs, filters, conclusions, cognitive commitments and emotions that attend to that apparatus. The first part is to tap. You also need to be able to repeat certain phrases, which are going to help to reframe things in your mind. For example, if somebody is afraid of spiders. I had this case with a woman in our county that was deathly afraid of spiders. It was disturbing her family. In Florida, you see little spiders all the time.

Not only that, they never die here. It’s so hot. I could understand some phobia about it.

This lady, even the tiniest of spiders, what would happen is she would go into a panic attack. She would scream. She jumped up on top of the furniture to get away from the spiders. It would disturb her husband and her little daughter who was only a toddler. It needed to be attended. I went to her house one day. We did the tapping technique. The conclusion was after we finished tapping, she felt much more relaxed thinking about spiders. She called me the next day and said, “Bob, I think that tapping thing might work a little bit too well because I was in my laundry room and I saw a spider. I went to grab it with my bare hand in order to kill it and put it in the trash. I thought it might bite me even though I’m not afraid of it. I went, got a paper towel and killed the spider.” She was lost of all of her fears for a spider.

She told me she could also sit outside in her lanai in a lounge chair. There was a spider web up in the corner of the room. She could lie right or underneath it, look at it and her fear was gone. We’re going to do that tapping now. You can use it for other things that you might have a phobia whether it’s snakes.

Ron has a fear of snakes. Ron works here. He’s helped him with it.

Also, fear of enclosed spaces called claustrophobia, fear of the water, fear of heights, fear of driving over bridges. Some people are so afraid of driving over bridges. They contain themselves in a geographic area because they won’t go, say from St. Pete to Tampa because there’s no way to get there without crossing a bridge. This can become an issue. Here’s how we did with this woman on the spiders. We had her start tapping. We first said, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how afraid are you of spiders? How big of a problem is this for you in your life?” She says it was a ten. We tapped and she repeated after me. Rollie, repeat after me even though you’re not afraid of spiders. We’ll show people how to do it. Even though up until now.

Even though up until now.

I thought I had to continue to be afraid of spiders.

I thought I had to continue to be afraid of spiders.

I completely love and accept myself.

I completely love and accept myself.

I’m so grateful now that I realize.

I’m so grateful now that I realize.

That fear has dissipated.

The fear has dissipated.

I can be in their presence and have a reasonable amount of respect for the spiders.

I can be in their presence and have a reasonable amount of respect for the spiders.

Be at complete peace.

Be at complete peace.

In the end, cross your hands. Cross it on your chest and take a deep breath in. Let your breath out. Drop your hands down. Drop your chin down to your chest and breathe out. These phrases are structured. They’re engineered in order to help reframing. When you say, “Even though up until now,” you’re drawing a line in the sand. Your brain now is going, “Meridians are activated. Even though up until now, what’s new?” You say, “Even though up until now, I thought,” not that I was or I am but I thought that I had to be. It is relegated to a thought which is, “I am afraid of spiders, therefore I am.” You’ve relegated it to a thought which can be modified. You can change your thoughts. Even though up until now, I thought I had to continue to be afraid of spiders, I completely love and accept myself. No judgment. It’s the opposite of judgment.

Also, you’re moving from a place of anxiety, afraid of spiders, into a more kinesthetic softness of love and acceptance for yourself. That’s why you’re doing it that way. I’m so grateful now that I realize gratitude for what’s to come. The more you have gratitude for what’s to come, the easier it is to draw the new you to yourself so you express gratitude. “I’m grateful now that I realize.” This is where you put in your affirmation. “I can do this. I can be this. I am this.”

In the end, once you’ve set it all and you’re crossing your hands across your heart, this is a chance for you to create a peaceful feeling. If you said at the end, “I’m so grateful now that I realized I can have a reasonable respect for spiders and be at complete peace,” this motion makes you feel peaceful. You’re tapping your chin down to your chest. This is where Rollie’s brain meets Rollie’s heart. Your heart is the center of soft emotions, passion and kindness. You are creating a feeling of peacefulness that reinforces the spoken word, “I’m feeling that complete peace.” You speak, “I’m feeling a complete peace,” then you’re making yourself feel complete peace. Now you have this sequence of spoken words and actions while you’re tapping or activating your meridians. This gives you the chance to reframe whatever that was causing you this emotional upset rate. That’s now you have emotional freedom.

What you are doing here is you are using a combination of senses to tap into the energy that you already have pre-determined or the thought that you had in order to plug in a new one. By plugging in that new one, you can completely disconnect the old one, provide a new thought and then hopefully a response.

That’s the new you. When they are a child that begins to form beliefs, a lot of it is because of their mirror neurons where they have seen mom, dad, brother, sister and friends are doing certain things so they are like, “That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to learn this and that. I’m going to learn to walk. Everybody is walking, I’m going to do it too.” There are these mirror neurons that are trying to create this similarity. Children might grow up in a household where there are discord energy or traumatic event in the family and it creates an imprint that leads to their personality. As you get older and you begin to acknowledge that you don’t have to be exactly what you’re upbringing was because your upbringing is continuing in your adulthood, now, you’re bringing up to yourself. This is a technique that can go back and remodify things from your childhood that upset you that you can now be free from.

It almost gives you the opportunity to revisit something that you may not have got over. That way, you can try to get that.

Emotional Freedom Technique: You see something on the news. If those things come back up, you can tap on it. I thought I had to be upset because I heard negative stuff but now I realize that everything’s getting better. Like you said, it’s on the wane.

I’ll show you even though up until now, I thought that I had to continue to have this emotional upset because I felt that my father didn’t love me when I was a child. I completely love and accept myself. I’m so grateful now that I realize I’m a mature adult. I have worth and dignity like every other human. The kingdom of heaven is within me. I am very valuable. It makes no difference if my father loved me or not. I love myself. I’m feeling that complete peace. What will happen is if you look on a scale of 1 to 10, how do I feel about my father? Upset is an eight. Once you do this tapping, the upset’s going to reduce to maybe about a four.

There’s a little trick you can use after that. You can tap and go, “Even though I thought it was still a four, I completely love and accept myself. I’m so grateful now that I realize it’s calmed down even further, perhaps all the way to zero.” Breath in again. The next thing you know, you’re feeling very light and peaceful. It’s like, “How much does it bother you that you thought your dad didn’t love you?” It’s almost completely gone but I now realize there’s more to it than that and this came up. These are called aspects. People can then identify with that aspect. You can tap on the aspect. You can use a scale of 1 to 10. See if the aspect goes down. Things will pop up.

As you discover that, what you were feeling about whatever. You discover the particular thing that triggered that feeling. I could see how you might have to go back and revisit those specific aspects.

For example, when you were seven years old, you did something that disappointed your dad. You did something that he was very disappointed in and he scolded you. A seven-year-old is vulnerable. It could be that event so you could tap on that event. What people will do is they will generalize and distort things. Because of one thing I did when I was seven and my dad was disappointed, that means he didn’t love me. Maybe it’s not true. He did love you but your young seven-year-old mind was remembering that and distorting it into my dad didn’t love me. You can tap on that event. Even though up until now, I thought I had to continue to carry forward the upset from that event when I was seven, I completely love and accept myself. I’m grateful now that I realized it was just that and my dad did love me. I’m feeling that complete peace. That’s how the aspect part works.

That’s neat and helpful. A lot of people may have a general idea of why they’re upset but not the ability to focus on the event or the thing that might happen.

It could lead to something else. All of a sudden, they could say a thing about their mom. What about mom? What about my husband? What about my twenty-year-old child?

That’s all good because then you can use this technique to explore that.

Learning How To Use Tapping Yourself

You can keep tapping. If you can’t do it on your own and you need help, you can always get a professional tapping therapist to help you.

There’s a lot of stuff online too that you can always use as a resource. There are our videos, LiveForeverYoungRadio.com. There’s a lot of other stuff. We’ve got Gary Craig. All his information are all over the place. Nick Ortner is another one.

People can take classes and courses online. Rollie, you said we would talk a little bit about post-COVID. People still may be having some lingering fear or a residual upset about the whole thing. Some people may even have friends or relatives that died from COVID. People might even have friends or relatives that got sick from getting their vaccine. Some people may have lost their job or business. There’s a lot to tap on related to COVID. We’re going to pick one thing that we will relate to generalized anxiety about it. You want to ask yourself first related to this COVID thing. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much am I still upset about the whole situation? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 is the worst and 1 is hardly at all.

Each person picks their own. You can tap and say, “Even though up until now, I thought I had to continue to be upset about this COVID thing that’s been going on. I completely love and accept myself. I’m so grateful now that I realize it’s on the wane. Most people are going back to work. The vaccination program is going along nicely. I’m beginning to feel complete peace.” Cross your hands on your heart. This will discharge this cognitive commitment that you have framed in your mind. Things are bad. COVID is bad. I still need to be under this anxiety.

You see something on the news. If those things come back up, you can tap on them. I thought I had to be upset because I heard negative stuff but now I realize that everything is getting better. It’s on the wane. I completely love and accept myself and move on.

This is the general idea of tapping. Activate your meridians so that your lifeforce energy can participate and becomes activated. It will participate in the reframing and the emotional freedom that comes as a result.

It’s the reframing of the belief structure that we’ve been ingrained in from birth.

Rollie, thanks for joining us. Thank you for joining us on Live Forever Young Radio. We’ll see you next time.

Important Links:

• Emotional Freedom Technique
• Roger Callahan
• Tapping
• Nick Ortner
• Boomers Forever Young – Youtube