How does Meridian Tapping work?

​Today I listened to Dr. Dawson Church talk about how Tapping is literally changing the physiology of our brain. Wow! It was such an inspiring talk!
 
We know that Tapping works, thanks to over one hundred studies carried out on PTSD, phobias, depression, anxiety, etc., but until now we haven’t really known much or anything about how or why it works. In all honesty, while experiencing first-hand the positive effects EFT can bring about, I’ve never really bothered too much about HOW it works. I’m just very happy that it does! 

“We knew that Aspirin worked for more than a century before we knew how it worked…. Often it takes decades before we really discover how and why things work.”
- Dr. Dawson Church

​Now, however, we are beginning to find out a little more. We are able to take a look at what’s going on in the nervous system and in the brain during and after Tapping and the results are pretty amazing. The stress hormone cortisol is reduced, food cravings, pain, anxiety, depression, PTSD - all reduced, whereas happiness and immune system markers increased.

​Neuroplasticity

​In 1913, Santiago Ramòn y Cajal, considered by many to be the father of neuroscience, reported that nervous pathways in the brain are, “fixed, ended and immutable….everything may die, nothing may be regenerated.”
 
Luckily, we have come a long way since then and we know now that this is not true.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change and reorganise itself over time by forming new neural connections. The brain can literally change and build new pathways in an instant. This allows it to compensate for injury and in response to external changes. In a sense it rewires itself, activating new pathways.

​Stress is exhausting!

​Have you ever noticed how exhausted you feel after a stressful day, even though you haven’t really done anything, yet after a long walk in nature you feel less tired? Or how an argument leaves you feeling completely drained, but an evening out dancing is invigorating? Or how when you’re worrying excessively about something, you’re unable to do much else? That’s because you are using up precious energy with your thoughts. 

​The brain - a hub of energy

​Our brain might be a fairly small part of our body, but it takes up about 20% of the energy consumed. So when we are stressed our body’s natural abilities are compromised. Our brain is focused on ‘the problem’ and this can take up a lot of the energy reserves, leaving us exhausted, less able to function properly and possibly less able to heal. 
 
By regulating negative emotions and reducing anxiety and stress with Meridian Tapping, brain activity, energy and physiological resources are freed, allowing the body to put them to better use, balancing the body’s systems and doing its job the way it was meant to. Our body is inherently intelligent; we just have to give it a chance.

“All kinds of physiological things happen when our emotions are healed.”
- Dawson Church

​Epigenetics

“EFT actually has the ability to turn off or de-regulate up to six genes in our bodies that are responsible for the stress symptoms and syndrome.”
Dr. Peta Stapleton

​Dr. Bruce Lipton, PhD, cellular biologist and author of ‘The Wisdom of Your Cells’ and ‘The Biology of Belief’, states that the science of epigenetics (the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than of the genetic code itself) has shown that our genes are influenced by our minds and thoughts. This is a rather provocative statement, and since it is said that 5% or less of our thoughts are conscious and 95% are subconscious, we might want to take a little more care of that rather large hidden 95%....

Conscious thoughts versus subconscious