Boy George Tapping in the Jungle - What is EFT Tapping + how to do it?

Boy George Tapping in the Jungle - What is EFT Tapping + how to do it?

Last Wednesday my phone started hopping. I was getting lots of messages letting me know that Boy George was filmed Tapping repeatedly in the jungle on 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here'. I was on my way to Ireland for EFT Practitioner Training where I was teaching 20 women how to be practitioners. The timing was uncanny.

The interest has only grown since and I thought I'd share my views on why he is doing this, how it's helping him and how we can all make use of this amazing self-regulating somatic technique.

Why is he Tapping?

EFT Tapping relieves anxiety, stress, overwhelm and much more. As you can imagine, being in the jungle would cause various emotions - many of them negative. It is very likely he's learnt the technique prior to going into the jungle. It has been documented that he has suffered from panic attacks in the past, so perhaps that’s what led him to discover this self-regulation tool. Who knows, maybe we can ask him when he gets out?!

Negative and stressful situations (i.e. a threat to our physical safety, or a threat to our sense-of-self) cause our nervous system to react by flooding the body with cortisol and adrenaline. It is called the Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn (people pleasing) response or the 'Sympathetic' response, governed by the amygdala.

The challenges Boy George is facing in the jungle are likely making him feel anxious and scared for his physical safety, as well as threatening his perception of self from the ongoing voting nature of the show.

How EFT Tapping is helping him?

EFT Tapping is the ultimate brain hack. It sends a calming signal back up to the amygdala which overrides the sympathetic response, telling the brain ‘I’m safe’ and switches off the cortisol and adrenaline production. This works particularly well in a panic attack situation, where we start to feel the panic rising within us before it becomes a full-blown panic attack, that is the perfect time to start sending those signals to the brain. Overriding the natural response to panic allows the body to feel safe and can stop a panic attack in its tracks.

Boy George is most likely using Tapping to calm himself and to reduce the stress hormones in his body. This will allow him to have greater clarity, make better decisions, and keep his cool under the pressure of the show.

Tapping is a great way to manage your daily emotions but for deeper work, I do recommend working with an EFT Practitioner for breakthroughs and transformations. 

How to Tap?

Tapping works by physically tapping on specific parts of the body (linked to acupressure or acupuncture points) while talking about the negative emotion you are feeling at that time. You can tap in three simple steps:

1. Rate how you feel

You start by rating how you are feeling on a scale of discomfort from 0-10; 10 feeling that emotion really intensely. As you tap, you check in with yourself as you tap to see if this rating comes down, and the goal is to get yourself as close to 0 as you can with the time you have to Tap.

2. Start with a set-up statement

Tap on the side of your hand while saying how you are feeling in this simple way; "Even though I feel this red anger in my throat, I choose to forgive, love and accept myself anyway". Substitute in how you are feeling, what emotion is it, what colour would it be and where in the body is it. You can say this one to three times. Tap using one hand, or both hands. Tap on either side of the body, don't worry if you skip a point it is a very forgiving tool.

3. Tap the points and check-in

Now start tapping the top-down sequence, starting at the top of your head, focusing in on the emotion, colour and location so "this red anger in my throat", "this red anger", "I'm so mad", "I feel enraged", etc. tap through a few of the points until you start to naturally want to talk about why you feel angry. Imagine a friend is in front of you and you are telling them about what's caused this anger. Tap and check in, rate yourself again, and tap until you start to feel better.

How to know if it's working?

Everyone reacts differently to releasing energy through tapping. I personally yawn and often burp when I'm letting the energy go. This is a great signal to me that I've shifted the energy and often stop tapping after I have that reaction. Others may feel physical sensations in their body like hot and cold, tingles, or shaking (if this happens I encourage you to stand up and dance it off - put on your favourite song). Your shoulders might drop, your facial expression might change, or you may start to see a different perspective on the situation that caused the emotion in the first place. Pay attention to how you release and soon you'll be able to stop rating yourself, you'll just intuitively know when you feel better.

How do I start using it?

Start today! This technique has saved my life on numerous occasions, so don't delay in getting started. If you feel a bit overwhelmed to tap using your own words to start with then jump over to YouTube and check out my channel and find a video you feel drawn to tapping along to. Tap along with my words and over time you can become more confident to swap in your own words and then start to use your own words from the start.

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If you’ve any questions about tapping please email me: [email protected] or for deeper releasing work I can help you on a 1-2-1 basis, find out more here>

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