As we talked about in the history section on tapping, there are many approaches and points of view in how we tap. My approach is very straightforward, I use the following formula:

Tapping + Tuning into issue = Relief

The tapping part is simple. We will use 9 points on the body.

SoH (Side of Hand): This point is on the side of the hand, the part that you would use if you were going to break a board in a martial arts move. Use the fingertips of all four fingers of one hand to tap on the fleshy part of the side of the other hand.

TH (Top of the Head): This is located on the very tippy top of your head. The place to tap is the space where the piece of metal hits the top of your head when the doctor is measuring your height. Please note that this point can be very tender because you are tapping right on top of your brain. If it hurts to tap here just tap a few inches above the head without making contact.

EB (Eyebrow): When you tap on the eyebrow tap as far to the inside of the eyebrow without falling down onto the nose, using two fingers.

SE (Side of the Eye): This tapping point is located on the edge of your eye socket. Make sure you are on the ridge outside the eye, without touching your eyeball or eyelid. Use two fingers on this tapping point.

UE (Under the Eye): This point is on your cheek, directly below the iris of your eye. Use two fingers to tap on this point. There is a sinus cavity directly under this point so if you find it too tender to tap you can lightly touch the point and rub in small circles.

UN (Under the Nose): Use two fingers on this point which is located directly below the nose and above the upper lip.

C (Chin): The tapping point is located halfway between the point of your chin and your lower lip. Use two fingers on this tapping point.

CB (Collar Bone): This tapping point is located just under the collar bone near the center of the chest. To tap on this point use your whole hand. You can use either hand. I am going to use the right hand for the explanation, but you can use either. Open your right hand so you are looking at the palm of a flat hand. As you lay your hand flat on your chest place your right thumb along the right collar bone and lay your right index finger on the left collar bone. Use the whole hand and pat your chest like you were burping a baby.

UA (Under the Arm): Use all four fingertips to tap on the point located under your arm, located in the middle, as you move from front to back on your side. The point is about bra strap height. The place you tap will feel a bit like a bruise. You can tap on this point by reaching across your body or you can tap under the arm you are using to tap. If you don’t feel confident that you are tapping on the right spot, just tap the entire area.

Notes on tapping:
When you are tapping you will simply move from tapping point to tapping point as you tune into your issue. Here are some of the basics.

As we move through the process this is going to make more sense, but for now here are the basics.

How many times do I tap?
Tap on each spot six to eight times. Often you will be tapping while you are reading a script. If you are doing this you will tap on each point while you read one sentence. When you reach the end of sentence, move on to the next tapping point.

Which hand should I tap with?
It doesn’t matter which hand you use to tap. You will also notice that many of the tapping points can be found on both sides of the body. You can tap on either point with either hand. For example, you can use your right hand and tap on the right or left eyebrow and receive the same benefit. Some people like to use both hands when tapping, for example tapping with the right hand on the right eyebrow and the left hand of the left eyebrow.

Should I tap in a specific order?
The order you tap in is not important. The points above were explained in the order that the points line up neatly on the body. You can tap on the points in any order you want. It is most common to tap through them in the order above, but do what is most comfortable.

What if I am not sure if I am getting the right spot?
The nice thing about tapping is that it is a very forgiving tool. You just need it to be close. If you don’t feel you are getting the point exactly right just tap in a small circle covering as much of the area as possible. Nothing bad can happen if you tap on the wrong spot (assuming you are not poking your eyes out).

What happens if it hurts when I tap somewhere?
STOP! Tapping should not be painful. You need to take total responsibility for yourself when tapping. If it hurts beyond mild tenderness, don’t do it. If one of the tapping points hurts then just rub it. If it hurts to rub it, just touch the point and take deep breaths.

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Now that you have some sense of how to tap on your body, the second and most important part of tapping is the tuning in or paying attention to the issue at hand. The more detail we have and the more focused we are on an issue, the more effective tapping will be.

When I say “tuning in” all I mean is giving your conscious attention to something. For example, I want you to think about your shoes and how they are touching your feet. As you read that line and gave your feet some thought you had one of two experiences. Either you are wearing shoes and/or socks and you felt them touching your feet, or you aren’t wearing anything on your feet and you noticed how free your feet feel.

Either way, before reading the line of instructions you weren’t thinking about your feet at all. When you thought of your feet you could feel whatever was on them. Socks didn’t magically appear on your feet when you thought of them, you were just tuning that piece of information out. By giving them a little attention you noticed what was always there.

We are able to tune in and out of most things. You could have a sore knee which you don’t notice during the day, but when you sit down, take a deep breath and relax, all of sudden you start to notice the aching. Your knee didn’t begin to ache when you sat down, but you tuned it out during the day and now that you are not doing anything else you tune back into the pain.

We are able to tune in and out of things besides physical sensations. When we are sitting in the middle of a busy restaurant with lots of people talking we are able tune out everyone else and focus on the person we are talking to. We can watch a sporting event or movie and completely lose connection with everything else in the world.

When we are tapping we want to give as much attention as possible to the issue at hand. The more focused we are on what is going on, the more powerful the tapping will be. To show you how easy it is to tune into something in a more specific way there are a series of statements below. I don’t want to you read them all once. Read the first statement and take a moment to do what it says. After you have given it 10 to 15 seconds move on to the next statement.

• Imagine one of the classrooms you attended in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grade
• Imagine what your teacher looked like
• Imagine what your desk looked like
• Imagine some of the kids who sat around you or were friends at the time
• Imagine what is on the walls of the classroom

As you read some of the statements you remembered lots of details while it might have been harder to get an image for others. As you moved from statement to statement the classroom became increasingly clear. After the first statement you were tuned into the classroom, but by the fifth statement you were even more focused.

Whatever you are tapping on, the more tuned into the issue you want to address, the more effective the tapping will be.

I know this sounds like a lot to begin with. This guide is written so that you don’t have to worry about any of this. All you need to do is know where the tapping points are, follow the instructions for each of the tools, and tap. If you do that, even if you don’t understand a single thing about the tapping itself, you will find relief.

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It looks weird! It feels weird!
Yes, tapping looks very weird. Yes, tapping feels very weird. There are lots of things that we do today that would have seem very strange to generations that came before us. At a certain point getting better becomes more important than how it looks or feels. In the next section I will talk about how to tap in a discrete way so that other people don’t see you doing it. In the meantime, it is OK to accept the fact that it is odd.

I don’t believe it will work!
I know. It seems unbelievable that you should be able to tap on your body in this seemingly random way and find some relief. I feel that way sometimes myself. I have done this professionally for years and there are things that I have experienced that still seem impossible.

One of the best parts about tapping is that you don’t need to believe that it will work for it to work.

If you carefully follow the steps in the guide it will make a big difference. It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. The important thing is you have to give it an honest effort. Step into tapping with an open mind. If you give this an honest try it will make a difference.

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As an introduction to using tapping we will start by giving it a try by tapping on a physical ache or pain. We are going to do this for two reasons.

First, it will be a simple introduction to the technique, with the added benefit of showing you how to take care of physical pain with tapping. Second, physical pain can impact our emotional state. When we are in pain (like when we have a headache) we can be much crankier and much more likely to get angry. When we tap for physical aches and pains we help ourselves to make fewer emotional choices.

To do this we are going to follow three simple steps.

1) Choose a physical pain to tap for. If nothing comes to mind right away, take a deep breath and scan your body for something. For each of the following questions I want you to write down your answer as we are going to use your answers in the next step.

• Where is the pain located? Be as specific as possible when describing the location. For example don’t write “my right knee” but “on the front of my right knee on the knee cap.” The more specific the better.
• What type of pain is it? Is it dull, sharp, achy, pulsing, itchy, or hot? The more detailed the description the better.
• What is the Subject Unit of Distress lever? This is a rating from 0–10 of the pain. 0 is no pain at all and 10 is the worst pain you have ever felt. Don’t get too hung up on coming up with exactly the right number.
• What is the 3D shape of the pain? Is it flat on the surface of the skin, does it feel like a ball of pain, is it a long strip of tightness that runs the length of the muscle, or does it have a round center with tentacles of pain spreading out in all directions? Again, the more detail you can provide the better.
• Is there an epicenter to the pain and where is it located? Is the pain evenly distributed? Does it have more than one center with the rest fanning out?
• How much does the pain weigh? If you were to guess and pretend that you could hold the pain in your hand, how much would it weigh? You don’t need to know exact pounds, but does it weigh as much as a grapefruit, a steel rod, or is it as light as a feather?
• If you were to paint a picture of the pain to show to someone else what color or colors would you use? Be specific. Don’t just write red. Is it fire truck red or rust red? Is it red in the middle and fading to light blues as you get to edge of the pain? Describe the color in as much detail as possible.
• If you were to make a model of this pain what material would you use to make it? Would it be a ball of hard rubber, burning lava, metal wire, or does it feel like a mass of cotton candy?
• Image a little cartoon face on the front of the pain. If it could talk, what would it say? It might say something specific, it might scream in pain, or it might just stick its tongue out at you. Give it a voice and what would it say?
• What does the pain remind you of? Just write the first thing that comes to mind. It could be a person, a place, or a situation.
• What emotion is associated with the pain? Again, don’t give this a lot of thought, just the first thing that comes to mind.
• What memory is associated with the pain? There may not be one, but when you read that question, what is the first thing that came to mind?
• Is the pain associated with someone? Don’t think about this too much, but who comes to mind and why?
• What does the pain need? Does it need to be heard? Does it need you to do something? Just ask the pain, what does it need, and write the answer down.
• What does the pain want you to learn? It might not want you to learn anything, but ask the pain what it needs.

2) Tap for the pain.
Take all the answers you have written down and tap through them. With each new sentence move to a new tapping point. To do this start tapping on the first tapping point. Read the first question and as you read the answer concentrate on it. Once you have done this move to the second tapping point and repeat the process with the second question. When you have used up all the tapping points simply return to the first tapping point and work through them all again until you are out of questions.

3) Re-rate the pain level.
After tapping though the list above rate the pain again on a scale of 0–10. If the pain has not reduced to a level that you are happy with, tap through steps 2 and 3 again.

It is really that simple. Before you move on I would encourage you to try tapping for something physical a few more times. This is give you a little more practice and a few different experiences of what tapping is like, making it easier as we add new things to the process.

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Now that you have had a chance to try tapping on something physical we are going to try tapping on something emotional. Tapping is a great tool to use for any emotion that we are feeling.

Once again to make it easy I have created a simple step-by-step process for you to follow. As you are doing this make you have a piece of paper and write down the answer to each of the questions because we will use your answers in later steps.

1) Name The Emotion
This is very easy to do. I want you to think of an emotion that you have that you don’t enjoy. This could be anger, sadness, overwhelm, stress, or frustration.

2) Name A Specific Instance
In as much detail as you can come up with describe one specific instance of when you felt this emotion. Talk about who was there, what was said, what you were thinking, what you are thinking now as you remember it, and all the outcomes of the situation. Imagine you are sitting across from me in a coffee shop and telling me exactly what happened as if I know none of the details.

3) Rate The Emotion
As you tune back into the story how big does the emotion feel? On a scale of 0–10 rate how strong the emotion is right now. 0 would be no emotion and 10 would be that you are totally consumed by the emotion.

4) Describe The Physical Sensations
In as much detail as possible describe the physical sensation(s) that go along with the emotion. In which part (or parts) of the body do you feel it? Is it hot, tight, heavy, itchy, stiff, or some other feeling? Does your face feel flushed, does your chest feel tight, or do you feel butterflies in your stomach? Do you feel it in more than one part of the body? Describe each part separately. Is there some sort of mental dialogue going on as you feel the emotion? What is the internal voice saying? Who does the voice sound like? Who does it remind you of?

5) List 3 Things That Went Wrong
Because of the instance you describe above what are (at least) three things that went wrong and how were/are you impacted by these outcomes? Sometimes one moment can impact later events and moments. Don’t just think of what went wrong in the moment, but also how it impacted you later. Again, the more detail the better.

6) List 3 Outcomes You Would Like To Have Happened Instead
After something goes wrong there are ways we would have liked to have seen it turn out better. What are (at least) three hopes you have for the future? Is there a relationship you would like to mend? Is there something you would like someone to do? Is there a lesson you would like to learn? It is helpful to name how we would like things to turn out.

7) Re-rate The Level
After doing these steps I always like to re-rate the level of emotion. One of three outcomes are possible. First, the number could go up. This is because you have now spent time thinking about the issue in detail. Often this tunes us into the issue more sharply so that we notice it more, making it feel bigger.

Second, you may notice that the number goes down. Many times simply getting something out of your head will take the power out of it. Our minds can be relentless echo chambers, taking negative thoughts or emotions and just bouncing them around over and over again. When we drag them into the light of day they lose their intensity.

Finally, there might be no change at all. This simply means that more tapping is needed to shift the emotion.

8) Start To Tap
Go back to the top of your page and just start reading out loud what you have written. At the end of each sentence move to the next tapping point. This is not a race. There is no reason to rush. As you read the words out loud pay close attention to what you are saying. If you are describing what happened, re-live what you are saying. If you are talking about how you would like to see things turn out in the future really tune into the emotion of having the new and better outcome.

9) Take Notes While You Are Tapping
As you re-read what you have written it is possible that new details will come into focus. You might also notice new and even better possible outcomes around this issue for the future. If these things come to mind it is worthwhile taking the time to write them down. Not only will you learn things about this particular issue, but you will also learn things about yourself and the larger scope of this emotion.

10) Re-Rate One More Time
After you have read through what you have written and have tapped along, re-rate the issue to see where it is now. If you are down to a zero you are finished, if you are not (which is more likely) then you have the chance to move back to the top of page and tap again.

Hopefully you feel a little bit (or a lot) better. And yes, it feels really weird to tap on your body and have emotion release like that. Don’t worry about what just happened or why it worked. Just trust the process.

This article is part of TappingQ&A’s Learn Tapping Guide. Full Guide | Previous Article | Next Article