Tapping Q & A - Getting the most out of tapping and EFT

If you have been tapping for any length of time, you have probably asked yourself: when am I actually done? You get some relief, the intensity drops, but the issue is not completely gone. Knowing when to stop tapping on an issue is one of the most common questions I hear, and the answer is simpler than most people think. TL;DR: Key Takeaways Knowing when to stop tapping is not about reaching a SUDS (Subjective Unit of Distress) level of zero; it is about reaching the functional outcome you defined before you started. Before every round of EFT tapping, ask yourself one question: "What is the goal of this round of tapping?" and name a specific, measurable outcome. You do not need to eliminate fear or resistance completely to take action; you only need to reduce the emotional intensity enough to do what you need to do. For complex, layered issues like negative self-image, the same goal-and-metric framework applies across multiple tapping sessions over days or weeks. The three-step process for knowing when to move on is: name the outcome, name the metric, and stop when you reach it. Why Knowing When to Stop Tapping Matters Most people who learn EFT tapping go through a predictable arc. First comes the honeymoon phase where you want to tap on everything and you try to get everyone in your life to tap with you (I am speaking from lived experience here). Then the enthusiasm settles and you are left staring at a giant laundry list of things you could work on. That laundry list creates its own kind of overwhelm. What do I tap on first? How long do I stay with it? When is it "enough"? Without a clear framework for knowing when to move on, many people either keep grinding on one issue long past the point of diminishing returns or they hop between issues so quickly that nothing gets meaningful traction. Key Insight: "It's not about completely eliminating something. It's about putting ourselves in the position so we can think, feel, believe, and act in the ways that we want to." This reframe changes everything about how you approach your tapping practice. The finish line is not the absence of all discomfort. The finish line is functional freedom. What Is a SUDS Level and Why It Is Not the Finish Line SUDS stands for Subjective Unit of Distress, and it is a zero-to-ten scale used to measure emotional or physical intensity before and after tapping. If I have a pain in my shoulder, I rate it: zero to ten, how intense is this pain? I do a round of tapping, then I check again. If the number dropped from a seven to a five, I know the tapping is working. SUDS is an excellent tool for tracking your tapping progress. The problem is that most people were taught to treat zero as the only acceptable endpoint. And the reality is that some issues will never reach a zero. Even when they could, chasing zero is not always the best use of your time and energy. Key Insight: "There are some issues we are never going to get to a zero. And there are some issues where, even if we got it to a zero, it isn't necessarily the most useful thing for us to do." Think of SUDS as a speedometer, not a destination. It tells you how fast you are moving, but it does not tell you where to stop. The One Question to Ask Before Every Round of Tapping Before every round of tapping, I ask myself what I call Question One from my Tapping Mastery Blueprint: What is the goal of this round of tapping? Not "how much distress am I feeling" but "what is the outcome I want right now?" This single question transforms the entire tapping experience. Instead of an open-ended session with no clear endpoint, you have a specific target. The goal might be to reduce frustration enough to get back to work. It might be to lower resistance enough to send a difficult email. It might be to shift the internal story that runs through your head when you look in the mirror. When the goal is clear, you will recognize the moment you reach it. That recognition is how you know when to stop tapping and move on with your day. How to Set a Measurable Tapping Goal A useful tapping goal has three parts: the outcome you want, the metric you will use to measure it, and the action that proves you have arrived. Here is how this works in practice. Reducing frustration to refocus. If my frustration is sitting at a seven on the SUDS scale, I cannot concentrate. But if I can bring it down to a three, the moment I engage with my next task, I will be so focused on what is in front of me that I will forget what I was frustrated about. My metric is: can I clearly think about the work in front of me? When the answer is yes, I stop tapping. Clearing resistance to take an action. The goal is not to feel zero fear. The goal is to feel safe enough to take the action with the energy and engagement it requires. My metric is: am I actually doing the thing? I have had clients working through resistance who, 23 minutes into a 30-minute session, suddenly say "I need to get off this call because I need to go do the thing right now." That is success. The tapping round is done because the goal was the action, not the absence of fear. Key Insight: "The goal was not to get rid of the fear. The goal was not to get rid of the resistance. The goal was to take the action." You Do Not Need to Be Fearless to Take Action I want to share a story that illustrates this perfectly. About 16 or 17 years ago, I was making my very first real offer to my email list. I was asking for the princely sum of \(97 or \)147, which at that point in my life felt like asking for $100 million. I had the email written. I had it loaded into my email software. I was sitting in a Starbucks in Charles Village in Baltimore. And I hit send. The moment I hit send, I slammed my laptop shut and went for a 90-minute walk on a beautiful spring day because I was terrified of what was going to happen next. When I got home, one or two people had bought and one or two people had unsubscribed. That was the entire consequence. I did not need to be fearless. I just needed to reduce the fear enough to press the button. And here is the important part: even if the fear had come rushing back 20 minutes later, it would not have mattered because the action was already taken. This is why outcome-based tapping goals are so powerful. Once the email is sent, the conversation is started, or the decision is made, the fear and resistance become irrelevant to that particular action. What About Issues That Take More Than One Session? Not every issue resolves in a single round of tapping. Some struggles, like the story you tell yourself when you look in the mirror or a deep pattern of self-doubt, require sustained work across days, weeks, or even months. The framework stays exactly the same. You name the outcome: I want to change the internal narrative I hear when I see my reflection. You name a metric: what words do I hear in my head when I look in the mirror right now versus what I want to hear? You tap, check in, and notice whether you are closer to the outcome than you were before. If you are closer, that session was a success, even if you are not all the way there yet. If you are not closer, that is useful information too. It might mean you need to approach the issue from a different angle, address a deeper layer of resistance, or simply give yourself more time. The trap to avoid is treating these longer-term issues with the same urgency as an in-the-moment frustration. You would not expect one gym session to transform your body. Give your tapping practice the same patience. How to Know You Are Done Tapping on an Issue Here is the simple three-step framework you can use every time you sit down to tap. Name the outcome. What do I want to think, feel, believe, or do differently as a result of this tapping session? Name the metric. How will I know I have reached that outcome? What will I notice in my body, my thoughts, or my behavior? Check and move on. When you reach the metric, stop tapping on that issue. If you have not reached it and you have run out of time, note where you are and come back to it next session. This process works whether you are tapping for five minutes on midday frustration or working through a years-long pattern of self-criticism. The scale changes but the structure does not. Frequently Asked Questions Do I always need to get my SUDS level to zero? No. A SUDS level of zero is not required for a successful tapping session. The goal is to reach the functional outcome you set before you started, whether that is being able to concentrate, take a specific action, or shift an emotional pattern. Many highly effective sessions end at a three or four on the SUDS scale. How long should a single tapping session last? There is no fixed time requirement. Some sessions take five minutes and others take thirty. The length depends on the complexity of the issue and the specific outcome you are working toward. Focus on reaching your defined goal rather than watching the clock. What if the emotion comes back after I stop tapping? That depends on whether you completed the action you were tapping toward. If the goal was to send an email and you sent it, the fear returning does not undo the result. For longer-term patterns, returning emotions simply mean there is more work to do in future sessions. How do I choose what to tap on when I have a long list of issues? Start by asking which issue is most affecting your ability to function right now. Tap on the issue that is blocking the most important action or causing the most immediate distress. You do not need to resolve your entire list before you get relief. Can I tap on the same issue every day? Yes, especially for deep or layered issues like self-image, grief, or long-standing patterns. Use the same goal-and-metric framework each session and track your progress over time. You should notice gradual shifts even if individual sessions feel incremental. What is the Subjective Unit of Distress (SUDS) scale? SUDS is a zero-to-te

Fear is our most basic emotion. Simply put, fear is our internal guidance pointing out what might harm us so that we can stay safe. We commonly think of it in terms of fight, flight, or freeze. All three of these responses are designed to shield us from danger. We fight to defend ourselves, we run away (flight) to avoid it, and we freeze so that the threat can't see us. When tapping for fear, we usually use reframes around if something is truly dangerous to try to turn off the fear if there is no actual danger. This is a great start, but deciding whether or not something is really dangerous only scratches the surface. If we stop there with our tapping, we may be missing valuable detail. This week in the podcast, I explore the next level down: magnitude and probability.  By adding these ideas to how we assess our fears we can deepen the healing and transformation available to us through tapping. If you are experiencing fear, anxiety, or resistance to taking action, then you will love this approach. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone |  Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio   

Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio  | YouTube You sat down to tap and nothing changed. If tapping is not working for you right now, I want you to know two things: this is normal, and there is a specific process you can follow to break through. In my 18+ years as an tapping practitioner, I have walked hundreds of clients through exactly this moment, and what I have learned is that getting stuck is not a sign that tapping has failed you. It is information, and that information has a use. Key Takeaways Every round of tapping produces one of three outcomes: you feel better, the intensity increases, or nothing changes. Two of those three are direct signs of progress, and the third gives you useful information about what to do next. When tapping seems to make things worse, it means you are tuning in more accurately to what was already present beneath the surface, not that tapping caused new distress. A six-step process (tap on the frustration, release the all-or-nothing mindset, explore the downside of healing, find the upside of staying stuck, do one minute of wordless tapping, then return to the original issue) reliably breaks through stalled rounds. Hidden "secondary gains" from staying stuck are one of the most common reasons tapping stalls, and most people are completely unaware they exist until they ask the right questions. Even if the original issue does not resolve immediately, working through this process removes the stress and pressure of being stuck, which often creates the clarity needed for a breakthrough. Three Outcomes You Can Get from Any Round of Tapping Every round of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) produces exactly one of three results, and understanding all three changes how you respond when progress stalls. The first outcome is the one we all hope for: you tap and you feel better. Your distress drops, your body relaxes, and you are moving in the right direction. You can stop there or keep going to deepen the relief. The second outcome is that your distress actually increases. This feels like tapping is making things worse, but it is not. I will explain why in the next section. The third outcome is that nothing changes at all. The number does not move. This is the one that makes people question whether EFT works, whether it works for everyone else but not for them, or whether their particular issue is beyond tapping's reach. But "nothing changed" is not a dead end. It is a signpost, and the six-step process below is how you read it. Why Feeling Worse After Tapping Is Actually a Sign of Progress When intensity rises during a round of tapping, it means you are tuning in more sharply to what was already there, not that tapping created new pain. Think of it this way. You have a knee injury, and you go through your busy day barely noticing it. You get home, sit on the couch, exhale, and suddenly your knee is throbbing. Sitting down did not injure your knee. Resting gave your body the space to send you the pain signal it had been trying to deliver all day. Key insight: "Resting is not putting you in more pain. It is bringing attention to the issue that is already there. The same thing is true emotionally." The same thing happens when you retell a frustrating story to a friend and feel your anger rising with each sentence. Telling the story did not create the anger. It reconnected you with emotion that was already stored in your system. So if you tap and the intensity spikes, that is not pleasant, but it means you are closer to the real issue. And being closer to the real issue means you are closer to relief. If you have ever finished a session and felt unexpectedly sad or emotionally raw, that same principle applies. I explored exactly this in Episode 695: Why Do I Feel Sad After Tapping?, which walks through why post-session emotional shifts are signs of progress rather than problems. What Does It Mean When Tapping Produces No Change at All? When a round of tapping produces zero shift, it means something specific is blocking the path forward, and that block can be identified and addressed. In my experience, the block usually falls into one of two categories. Either a part of you has decided (outside your conscious awareness) that healing is risky and staying stuck is safer, or you have not yet tuned in with enough specificity to reach the real issue. Both of these are solvable. You do not need to know which one is operating before you begin. The six-step process below addresses both. The key reframe here is this: "nothing happened" is not the same as "tapping does not work." It is the same as "I need more information." And that information is available if you ask the right questions. If your sessions have been stalling for a longer stretch, Episode 648: What to Do When Your Tapping Transformation Feels Slow or Stuck goes deeper into diagnosing a tapping plateau when the stall has lasted weeks or months. Step 1: Tap on Your Frustration About Tapping Not Working The first step is to tap on how you feel about the fact that it did not work. This is the step most people skip, and skipping it keeps them stuck. You sat down with hope. You did the thing. It did not deliver. That produces real emotions: frustration, disappointment, embarrassment, maybe even a sense of betrayal if tapping has worked for you before and suddenly stopped. Those feelings are now sitting on top of whatever you originally wanted to address, and they will interfere with every subsequent round until you clear them. So before you go back to the original issue, do one round on the meta-experience. "Right now I feel...." This is not a detour. It is clearing the road. Step 2: Let Go of the All-or-Nothing Healing Mindset The second step is to acknowledge that healing is a process, not a single event, and to tap on the pressure you are putting on yourself to get it all done in one round. Key insight: "Healing is not all or nothing. It is a process, and it is okay that it is a process." When we unconsciously treat healing as a binary (either I am fixed or I have failed), a single round that produces no visible change feels like proof of failure. That framing creates enormous internal pressure. Tapping on "even though I want this to be done right now, and it is not done, and that feels like failure" releases the grip of that all-or-nothing thinking. It gives you permission to be mid-process. This expectation trap is one of the most common things I see derail people's tapping practice. I dedicated a full episode to it in Episode 674: The Myth of the One Big Tapping Breakthrough, which explores why expecting a single dramatic shift often prevents the steady progress that is actually happening. Step 3: Explore the Hidden Downside of Healing The third step is to ask yourself a question that sounds counterintuitive: what goes wrong if I actually heal this? This is one of the most powerful questions in all of EFT, and the answers can be startling. I was working with a client who had chronic physical pain, and we were making zero progress. When I asked her what would go wrong if the pain healed, her answer broke my heart. Key insight: "She said, 'Everybody who is in my life is in my life to take care of me because of my injury. If I heal, I am no longer injured, and they are all going to go away.'" Of course her system was blocking the healing. At an unconscious level, healing meant losing every meaningful relationship in her life. That is not irrational. That is protective. Once we tapped on that specific fear, the original pain began to shift. Your version of this might be less dramatic, but the principle is the same. If any part of you believes that healing carries a cost (lost identity, lost relationships, lost excuses, new responsibilities), that part will pump the brakes. Asking the question out loud brings the hidden cost into the open where you can tap on it directly. The fear that tapping might actually work is more common than people realize. Episode 668: When You're Afraid Tapping Might Work goes into depth on exactly this dynamic and how to address it. Step 4: Find the Hidden Upside of Staying Stuck The fourth step is the mirror image of Step 3: ask yourself what goes right if you do not heal. The downside of healing and the upside of staying stuck sound like the same question, but they surface different answers. The downside of healing focuses on what you lose. The upside of staying stuck focuses on what you get to keep. For example, maybe healing a pattern of procrastination means you would actually have to finish the project, put it into the world, and face potential criticism. The upside of staying stuck is that you never have to risk that exposure. You get to keep your free time, your safety, and your comfortable routine. This is not a moral judgment. These hidden benefits are real and they are human. Tapping on them directly ("even though part of me likes staying stuck because it means I do not have to put myself out there") is what allows the system to release its grip. Episode 664: Does Staying Stuck Keep You Safe? explores this exact territory in depth, including how the nervous system can interpret staying stuck as a form of protection worth defending. Step 5: Do One Minute of Wordless Tapping After completing the first four steps, set a timer for sixty seconds and tap from point to point without saying anything at all. Wordless tapping is a technique where you simply move through the EFT tapping points (top of head, eyebrow, side of eye, under eye, under nose, chin, collarbone, under arm) in sequence without any setup statement or reminder phrase. You have just given voice to a lot of material: frustration, all-or-nothing thinking, hidden costs, hidden benefits. Now you let your system process it without directing the conversation. Think of it as giving your nervous system a minute to sort through everything you just stirred up. In my experience, this br

One of the reasons we resist taking action is that some actions simply can't be taken back. Our subconscious mind keeps us stuck because it's trying to figure out the perfect thing to do, but because the future is unknown, it's impossible to be certain. This leads us from thinking about the best choice, to stalling on making a choice, to things getting worse because we aren't doing anything at all (which is itself a choice). This kind of cycle can happen with any decision, but it's particularly likely when you're facing a choice between two options that both have downsides. When you're in that situation, the resistance is going to be higher because it feels like no matter what you choose, you lose. This week on the podcast, I share a simple tapping process that will help you take action, especially when you're faced with two choices that both feel bad. If you use this approach, not only will you break through resistance, you'll also be much happier with the choices you make. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio  | YouTube

Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone |  Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio  If you have ever finished a round of EFT tapping and felt a wave of sadness wash over you, you are not alone. Feeling sad after tapping is one of the most common experiences people report, and it is also one of the most misunderstood. That sadness is not a sign that tapping failed or that something went wrong. It is actually a signal that genuine healing just took place. Gene Monterastelli, EFT practitioner and educator with over 17 years of experience and host of the Tapping Q&A Podcast (690+ episodes), explains exactly why this happens and what to do about it. Key Takeaways Post-session sadness after EFT tapping is a grief response triggered by the sudden recognition of time and opportunity lost to the issue you just healed. Sadness after tapping does not mean tapping is not working; it means a shift has occurred and your system is processing what could have been different. The most effective response to post-tapping sadness is to acknowledge and witness it with additional tapping rather than trying to push through it or reframe it away. Left unaddressed, this sadness can become a subconscious barrier that prevents you from tapping in the future because your system associates tapping with feeling bad. Understanding the mechanism behind post-session sadness removes its power to interrupt your healing practice and actually deepens your tapping work. Why Sadness After Tapping Catches People Off Guard Most people expect to feel better after tapping, not worse. When you sit down for a round of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques, a stress-reduction method that combines gentle tapping on acupressure points with focused statements), the reasonable expectation is relief. So when sadness shows up instead, it feels like a contradiction. This expectation gap is what makes post-tapping sadness so disorienting. You did the work. You followed the process. You may have even felt a real shift on the issue you were addressing. And then sadness arrives, seemingly out of nowhere, and the natural conclusion is that something went wrong. "It can feel like tapping's not working because you feel bad afterwards. The reality is that sadness is the sign of healing and transformation." Gene Monterastelli, EFT practitioner and host of the Tapping Q&A Podcast. The confusion deepens because most people categorize sadness as a negative emotion. If healing is supposed to feel good, then feeling sad must mean the healing did not happen. But that logic misses what the sadness is actually pointing to. What Causes Sadness After a Round of EFT Tapping? Post-tapping sadness is a grief response, and it follows a very specific and logical pattern. When you successfully clear a limiting belief, release a stored emotion, or heal something that has been holding you back, a new awareness opens up almost immediately. Your system recognizes that the thing you just transformed could have been transformed sooner. Here is how the sequence works. You tap on an issue. The issue shifts or clears. In that moment of clarity, you can suddenly see all the time, all the opportunities, and all the actions that were lost because you carried that issue for as long as you did. The sadness you feel is grief for that lost time. "What you immediately start to do is you immediately start to grieve all of the time, all of the opportunity, all of the action that was lost because you had been impacted by the thing that you had just tapped on." Gene Monterastelli. This is not a malfunction. It is a completely natural response to a real loss. The moment healing happens, the contrast between "life with this burden" and "life without it" becomes painfully clear. Is Sadness After Tapping a Sign That EFT Is Not Working? No. Sadness after tapping is evidence that something genuinely shifted. If nothing had changed, there would be nothing to grieve. The sadness exists precisely because healing occurred and your system can now see what that burden cost you. Think of it this way: if you had been carrying a heavy backpack for years without realizing it, the moment someone lifts it off your shoulders, you would feel the relief. But you might also feel a pang of frustration or sadness about all the miles you walked while unnecessarily weighed down. That frustration does not mean removing the backpack was a mistake. This distinction matters because misinterpreting post-tapping sadness can create a real obstacle. If you believe tapping made you sad, your subconscious mind files that away. The next time you consider tapping, a quiet resistance shows up: "Last time I tapped, I felt terrible. Why would I do that again?" Over time, this can erode your willingness to tap at all. Understanding the actual cause of the sadness, which is grief over lost time rather than a failure of the technique, breaks that cycle before it starts. How Post-Tapping Sadness Can Become a Barrier to Healing Left unexamined, post-session sadness creates a feedback loop that works against your tapping practice. The pattern looks like this: you tap, you feel sad, you associate tapping with feeling bad, you avoid tapping in the future. This is one of the more subtle ways people stop tapping without ever making a conscious decision to quit. It is not that they decided EFT does not work. It is that their system learned to avoid the discomfort that followed the last session. The avoidance is automatic, not deliberate, which makes it harder to catch. Gene describes this as a subconscious concern that builds quietly. You might not even articulate it as "tapping makes me sad." It might just show up as a vague reluctance, a sense that you do not feel like tapping today, or a pattern of finding reasons to skip sessions. If you have noticed your tapping practice fading without a clear reason, unprocessed sadness from previous sessions may be part of what is happening. How to Tap on Sadness After an EFT Session The most effective approach to post-tapping sadness is to address it directly with more tapping before moving on. Rather than pushing through it, ignoring it, or treating it as a problem, give the sadness its own round. Gene recommends a three-part process for working with this sadness: Acknowledge the emotion. Start tapping on the side of the hand and name what is happening out loud. "After doing that tapping, I feel a lot of sadness." Simple recognition without judgment. Acknowledge why the emotion exists. Connect the sadness to its actual source. "This sadness is here because my system recognizes that I could have healed this sooner. It is pointing to the time and opportunities that were lost." Expand the context without dismissing the feeling. This is not about talking yourself out of sadness. The loss is real. Instead, you are adding information. "Just because healing sooner could have been better, it does not mean healing now is bad. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today." If the sadness is still present after one round, simply return to the beginning of the sequence and work through it again. Each pass through tends to soften the intensity. Why You Should Witness Sadness Instead of Reframing It Sadness requires a different approach than many other emotions you might encounter during tapping. With anger, frustration, or fear, reframing and transformation are often appropriate. With sadness, the most powerful thing you can do is simply witness it. "Sadness is something that we don't reframe and transform. Sadness is something that we witness and we acknowledge, which expands the canvas, gives us more context, and helps us to move on." Gene Monterastelli. This distinction is important. Sadness, at its core, is the acknowledgment of something valuable that has been lost. When you try to reframe genuine grief, you are essentially telling yourself that the loss does not matter. But it does matter. The time you spent limited by old beliefs or stuck emotions was real. Honoring that reality is what allows you to move forward. Witnessing sadness means you hold space for it, tap through it, and let it run its course without trying to convince yourself that you should not feel it. The result is not that the sadness disappears instantly. The result is that the sadness no longer has the power to stop your healing process in its tracks. What Post-Tapping Sadness Tells You About Your Healing When you reframe post-tapping sadness as information rather than a problem, something shifts. That sadness is telling you two things: first, that real healing just happened, and second, that a part of you wants more healing and wants it sooner. "Even though it feels like sadness, which can feel bad and heavy and gross, it is a sign that the healing has worked. And it is a sign that there is a part of us that wants more healing and sooner healing." Gene Monterastelli. That is worth sitting with. The very part of you that feels sad is the part that recognizes the value of what just happened and wants to keep going. It is not a saboteur. It is an ally with an uncomfortable delivery method. When you clear the sadness with a round of tapping, two things happen. First, you create space to continue your session and work on what comes next rather than stopping mid-stream. Second, you dissolve the subconscious association between tapping and feeling bad, which protects your long-term willingness to keep tapping. If you want a daily practice that builds this kind of momentum, the 365 Tapping Lessons journal offers a bite-sized structure with a short teaching, one round of tapping, and a reflection question each day, designed to move you from knowing about tapping to actually tapping consistently. Frequently Asked Questions Is it normal to cry after tapping? Yes. Crying after EFT tapping is a common and healthy emotional release. It often signals that stored emotions are surfacing and moving through your system, wh

The perfect time to tap is in the moment, when you are overwhelmed with emotions…and it is also the hardest time to remember to tap. That's mainly because remembering to tap in the midst of strong emotions is difficult, but it is not the only reason. The second, powerful reason why you don't tap in the moment has everything to do with how you were taught to tap. When most of us learned to tap, we were told that we "need to be as specific as possible". This is excellent advice, so much so it is now scientifically valid advice . The problem is not the advice, it is how our subconscious hears this advice.  What we say is "be as specific as possible". What our subconscious hears is "tapping only works if I am specific." In the midst of overwhelming emotions it is hard to be specific, so the subconscious resists tapping at all because it doesn't think it will work. Listen to this week's podcast to learn exactly how I overcame this subconscious resistance, which was something I faced too. Implementing this one idea will not only get you to tap more in the moment, it will also super charge any other tapping you do. This concept transformed how I tap AND how I think about tapping. I know you will love it.  Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio  | YouTube

One of the conundrums of tapping is the fact that you tap because you want to feel better, but you aren't as good at tapping when you feel bad because you are in a lower resource state. To put it another way, when you need tapping the most, you are the least effective version of yourself as a tapper. But just because you aren't at the peak of your tapping abilities does not mean you are destined to fail when you sit down to tap. This week in the podcast, I share a simple game plan where I teach you: what you can do ahead of time to tap effectively when you feel bad the first thing you should tap on when you don't feel great the second thing you should tap on right after that how to continue your tapping session to get the most out of it Having a plan for those times when you're not at your best is key for getting help when you most need it. And the best time to learn this is right now! Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support   Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio  | YouTube  

It is all too common for tappers to look back at their path to healing and think, "What on earth was I doing? I know better than that! Why do I keep making bad choices when I know exactly what to do?" This comes up most often in my individual coaching sessions when my clients talk about reaching for distracting behaviors instead of tapping. They know at the moment that the best choice would be to tap, but instead they doomscroll social media, fall down YouTube rabbit holes, reorganize their spice rack (again), or mindlessly eat a bunch of unhealthy crap. Annoyingly, this does make sense, taken from the perspective of trying to keep themselves safe. Actor and writer Tom Lennon described it perfectly in an interview by Kevin Pollak on a book tour. When Kevin asked if he liked to write, Tom said something to the effect of, "You will know I have a writing deadline coming up because my kitchen floor will be so clean you could perform surgery on it." We do not choose distractions because we are weak, or because we believe they are the best choice. We choose them to feel more comfortable at the moment. The problem is that, in hindsight, we only see that we could have made a healthier choice. When I find myself in these moments, I don't tap to stop the unhealthy behavior. I actually do the opposite! I tap to do the unhealthy behavior, but the key distinction is I am choosing to do it consciously. When we move from being unconscious to a conscious awareness of our distracting behaviors, we regain control. And with control we can spend less (or even no) time on distracting behaviors and we don't beat ourselves up. In this week's podcast I am going to show you: How to catch yourself in the moment right before you unconsciously start doing the healthy action How to tap with compassion in the moment, without letting yourself off the hook How to tap so that you constrain (and often eliminate) the unhealthy behavior It is an unusual but incredibly powerful form of tapping. I know you will love it! Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support [player] Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio  | YouTube Watch a video version on YouTube

If you are tapping, it almost always means you are focusing on something negative, like challenging emotions, physical pain, difficult times from your past, or limiting beliefs. This makes a lot of sense because tapping is a powerful tool for bringing about change and transformation. But just because tapping is great at responding to life's difficulties does not mean it's the only way to tap. Tapping for celebration is another great use for tapping that most of us miss. As we celebrate seventeen years of the Tapping Q&A Podcast this week, I share with you why you are missing out if you are not tapping while celebrating. The podcast covers how tapping for celebration: Accelerates your healing Encourages you to tap more Changes the way you feel in the moment beyond just relieving pain or discomfort You may not have experienced this type of tapping before, but after this episode, you will want to use it much more often! Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support [player] Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | YouTube

When most of us first learned tapping we were taught to be "as specific as possible" when coming up with tapping phrases. This is sound advice, which is backed up by scientific research. But your success with tapping relies on more than just the words you say and what you focus on when you are tapping. How you feel in the moment has just as much impact on your tapping success. And when I say "how you feel" I don't mean the emotions you are feeling in the moment that you are tapping on. Rather, I am referring to every part of your resource state. Your resource state includes whether you are tired or rested, if you are sick, if you are in a quiet place where you can focus, if you are well hydrated, and when you last ate, to name just a few. It is something that most tappers miss and failing to take your resource state into account when you are tapping could be setting you up for disappointment and frustration. This week in the podcast we explore: How to assess your resource before you start to tap How to create realistic expectations for your tapping How to improve your resource state in the moment so you can get more out of your tapping Once you understand how your resource state impacts your tapping, it will be easy for you to transform both your expectations and your resource state. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | YouTube

One of the most powerful tools in the healing and transformational tool box is having clear goals. This is true in big picture ways, such as what I would like to achieve this year, and small picture ways, such as what I would like to get out of this next round of tapping. I believe in this idea so deeply that in my Tapping Mastery Blueprint I teach the first thing you should do before starting to tap is to ask yourself the question "What is the goal of this round of tapping?" Although goals are powerful, sometimes they can get in the way of your healing and transformation. This happens when your goals are too big for the moment. Too much pressure and expectation can become measuring sticks for failing, killing off your motivation. This week in the podcast I share: How goals and expectations can hinder our progress How to spot when this is happening to you How to tap to release feelings of frustration and failure This is not about radically transforming your tapping goals, but how to recalibrate them in such a way that you tap more and get more out of each round of tapping. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support= Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | YouTube

One of the concepts I talk about daily with my clients and students is that the goal of tapping is a proportionate well informed emotional response. In most cases this is a process of giving the emotions space to be heard and understood. Once we know where the emotional response is coming from it creates the space for use to heal, transform, and create a proportionate well informed emotional response. One of the reasons why we love tapping is because it is so good at helping us to do exactly that. With that being said, sometimes it is best for us to not feel our emotions. I know that might sound a little bit radical, but whole heartedly believe it. This week in the podcast I explore the times when it is healthy and useful to tap in a way in which we aren't clearing our emotions, but instead we are putting a lid on them (for now). Even if you are skeptical of this idea, I would encourage you to give this tapping a try and then decide if it is a good fit for your healing journey. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio

One of the most frustrating experiences around personal healing and transformation is when we know what we need to do, how to do it, have everything we need to take action (including time and energy), really want to take the action...and then we don't. When this happens, we feel we have failed and let ourselves down, and might even decide we are unworthy of healing and transformation because we have failed and "can't be trusted". There is a simple reason this pattern keeps appearing in your life: Your inner child is running the show. As a child you were not in control of what you did, when you did it, who you did it with, what you wore and ate, when you went to bed, and the list goes on. Today, when you decide you want to do something healthy, your inner child screams "I don't wannaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Now that you are an adult, supposedly in control of your actions, your inner child ends up in the driving seat and getting its way. This week in the podcast I will show you how to tap to get your inner child on board so that you can stop being your biggest obstacle to success. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | YouTube

Seeing others succeed can be a powerful source of inspiration. Once we know something is possible for others, then it also becomes possible for us. Take the sub-four-minute mile for example. At one point, it was thought impossible for a human to run a mile in less than four minutes and that pushing so hard would cause the runner's heart to explode. On May 6th, 1954 Roger Bannister was the first person to run a sub-four-minute mile. Less than six weeks later John Landy not only ran a sub-four-minute mile, he beat Bannister's time. Something went from being impossible, to being done, to having other people doing it. While it can be encouraging to see others enjoy success, sometimes that becomes a tool for us to beat ourselves up emotionally. We see that we are working as hard, if not harder, than others and yet we are not having success. This can lead us to question our effort, our ability, or whether success is even possible for us. Other people's success just highlights our own failure and we feel defeated rather than encouraged. This week in the podcast we tap for those times where we feel we have failed because we aren't having the same success as those we see around us. If you have ever felt like you are working as hard (if not harder) as the people around you and there must be something wrong with you because you are not getting the results you want, then this week's podcast was recorded just for you. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | YouTube

One of the most common teachings in healing and personal transformation is the value and importance of gratitude. So much so that the idea of establishing a "gratitude practice" for yourself feels commonplace. The power of experiencing thankfulness and gratitude is unquestionably powerful. It can impact the way we feel in the moment and it can transform the way we act. The problem is that most people don't talk about the dark side of practising gratitude. To be clear, I am not saying there is an issue with the feeling of gratitude, but instead that establishing a regular gratitude practice can bring up emotional distress that gets in the way of healing and transformation. This week in the podcast I share the hidden pitfalls of a gratitude practice and how you can move yours from feeling like a chore to something that nurtures your healing and growth. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | YouTube  

One of the most common reasons people do not tap more is because they don't know where to start. Feeling uncertain produces a subconscious hesitancy because our subconscious is worried that we will waste time and energy going in the wrong direction. This isn't a conscious thought, but a background resistance that creates two problems. First, we don't tap as often as we would like. Second, we then beat ourselves up for not tapping because there is no clear and obvious reason why we aren't tapping. This week in the podcast I share with you a simple two-step process that will take you less than 45 seconds. Try it out to get more out of each round of tapping and to help you to tap more. The process will: create focus for the round of tapping provide guidance on what to tap on next show you when you are done guide you in planning for future tapping rounds This is a transformative process and I feel confident that once you see its power, you will use it every time you tap in the future. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | YouTube

The start of a new year feels like the perfect time to reset and refocus. This often takes the form of New Year's resolutions. There is a great power in making a clear statement about what you want and why you want it. The problem is (and I'm sure you have experienced this yourself), simply making a resolution does not guarantee success. That's why the first Friday of January is often referred to as Quitter's Day because it is when most people ditch their resolutions. Making the decision for a fresh start is not the problem. Thinking a resolution is enough is the problem. To achieve positive change in the new year we need a structure that supports our growth and clears any emotional resistance in the way of our goals. This week in the podcast I share a simple process that will shift you from toothless New Year's resolutions into creating meaningful change. Listen to learn how to create a compelling goal that you can buy into emotionally AND a simple process to help you to tap for all the resistance that comes up. Ten minutes of tapping a day will create a whole new world for you. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio  

Join us for the 5 Day Limiting Belief Challenge: http://ClearLimitingBeliefsChallenge.com On January 1st, I went live on YouTube with some tapping to start the new year off on the best foot possible. We tapped for: releasing what no longer serves us being open to grace and opportunity in the new year staying grounded in the moment, without being in a rush opening ourselves up to inspiration and growth in the months ahead and so much more... I hope you enjoy this tapping as you begin 2026. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio Watch The YouTube Version

In what has become a holiday tradition at Tapping Q&A, each year during the holiday season I put together a cozy tapping video. There are no words and you don't need to focus on an issue. Instead, just sit back, watch the roaring fire, and tap along. We did this last year and I was surprised at how well it was received. I knew a few people would like it, but I had no clue how popular it would be. The link to the video is below. Click play and just from tapping point to tapping point at your own pace. It is really that simple. Happy holidays to you and yours. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | YouTube  

The "fear of missing out" (FOMO) isn't just some clever internet meme. FOMO is a real issue and it impacts most of us. Because of the internet and social media, we are constantly aware of what is going on everywhere. This creates a number of problems. First, it creates a sense of compare-anoia where we are judging ourselves against everyone else. Then, after we feel bad for not having what others have, we try to fill the gap in our own lives. Unfortunately, time is a zero-sum-game and means that if you are doing one thing, you can't be doing anything else. This leads us to adding so many things to our lives that we are stretched too thin, overwhelmed, and aren't enjoying anything we are doing. This week in the podcast, I share a simple framework to help you to tap for FOMO in a way that makes you feel better in the moment and prevents it from showing up in the future. Support the podcast! Http://tappingqanda.com/support Subscribe in: Apple Podcast | iPhone | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Music | iHeartRadio | YouTube