Season 1: Ep. 7 - Get Centered
(00:28)
Hello, welcome back to Graceful Rulebreakers. Today, I'm coming to you with my second bite-sized tip to bring more self-care into your day, and I am super excited. There is one non-negotiable that I have with myself every day, and I've had it for… gosh, a lot of years, at least seven, if not more. This non-negotiable, is the one thing that I do every single morning. Okay, occasionally I do it later in the day, perhaps around lunchtime if something goes really haywire and I have zero minutes before my morning meetings. This is the one, that's right, only one thing that I do every day to take care of myself and feel better. It is an instant mood shifter for me. Enough hype? It is tapping. You may have heard it referred to as EFT or emotional freedom technique. But I think technically that requires a bit more certification and rigidity, and we know how I feel about that.
(01:28)
Anyhow, tapping is literally like tapping with your fingers on different places on your body. If you want to get technical, different energy meridians, while reciting affirmational statements. The key to tapping is to tell yourself that no matter how you're feeling, you deeply and completely, love and accept yourself. What I love about tapping is it gets me into a meditative state. Honestly, for me, it feels a lot like meditation, but without the stress of wondering if I'm doing a good job. Tapping gets me into a blissful trance-like state because I'm laser-focused. I'm tapping on, you know, my hand, I'm tapping on my collar bone, I'm tapping the top of my head. I have words to say out loud to affirm things that I want to happen that day, to let go of things that no longer serve me. I have words to say to forgive myself, for being hard on myself, or for feeling certain ways. In other words, there are things to keep my mind busy.
(02:28)
Tapping doesn't take a lot of time. You can tap for just a few minutes and still see huge results. Honestly, it just works really well for me. I've been using free YouTube videos from a guy named Brad Yates. I actually got to go to a live class with him in New Orleans a couple of years ago, and it was amazing. I could hardly believe that Brad Gates, who had been tapping with for over five years, was in this conference room with like nine people and me doing a tapping session. I think Brad Gates is phenomenal, but there are lots of other people who do tapping. So find who works for you or read a book about it and make up your own little scripts to use.
(03:08)
What I do is in the morning, I'll open up YouTube and type in Brad Gates and then the plus sign, and then a word for however I want to feel or whatever I'm struggling with. Or some mornings, I just type in the word 'quick' because I only have a few minutes, and I just want a really short and sweet tapping session. Then, I do the tapping session. Sometimes it's two minutes, sometimes three minutes. There are tapping sessions that are 20 minutes, half hour, all shapes and sizes; you can definitely find what works for you. I really can't underscore this enough. I always, always, always feel better after tapping. And I'm going to be honest, I don't really know the science behind it. It's on my list of things that I would love to learn more about, but haven't had the time to devote to yet.
(03:57)
So instead I just feel really grateful that it works for me and that I love it, and that it makes me feel good. And so that is my one non-negotiable. I tap every single day, at least once a day, sometimes in really bizarre places; this is what happens when you have a non-negotiable. I definitely have tapped in a bathroom stall, a number of times when a commute or a day just really gets away from me and I'm feeling uncentered. I like to think of tapping as my way of breaking the meditation role. I know meditation is good for me. There is so much science to back it up. And I also am familiar with the saying that if you can't meditate for five minutes, then you need to meditate for an hour. But hey, I also know where I'm at. Meditation is a bonus for me. Tapping is my Graceful Rulebreaking, non-negotiable alternative. Like, over these bite-size episodes, is to offer you a practice to try on for size. If tapping resonates with you and sounds good; give it a go. If not, no worries. You can just leave it. If you do give, tapping to go, I would absolutely love to hear about your experience with it. You can connect with me over on Instagram at Graceful Rulebreakers.
