I’m going to make a pretty outrageous claim here. In twelve months of using a wacky, New Agey healing technique in a totally random, undisciplined way, I have become healthier, happier, and eliminated the need for medication to deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

No, I promise I haven’t gone nuts, run away to Sedona, Arizona and started meditating with my crystals for days on end! What I HAVE done is realized that, at least for me, some of this nutty sounding stuff seems to work. Read along and I’ll tell you my story.

What is Tapping?

Tapping, or Emotional Freedom Techniques, is a way of manipulating energy flows in your body by tapping on pressure points. It is similar to acupuncture, but without the needles. The basic technique of tapping is to identify a negative emotion that you are having, and where you feel it in your body (I feel just about everything in my stomach!). Then you go through a goofy-looking sequence of tapping various points on your body. Really, the whole thing is much easier demonstrated through video, so watch at least the first 5 minutes of this video to see what I’m talking about. [Note: if you're reading this in a feed reader, you may have to click through to see the video.]

Introduction to Tapping Video

Did you watch? If not, at least take a couple of minutes to skim my post: What is Tapping and How Can It Help You? I give a more thorough explanation there. Tapping can be used to deal with many different types of issues, ranging from anxiety and depression to physical pain. No one really understands why it works. To be honest, it could all be a placebo effect, or the benefits could from the fact that you focus your mind on the belief that you will fix the problem you’re tapping on. As I explained in my initial post, I was pretty skeptical about this stuff, but I decided that, aside from poking yourself in the eye, it can’t hurt! The only way to decide if it had any effect on me was to try it, which is exactly what I did.

Can EFT Cure Seasonal Affective Disorder?

Even though I was skeptical about tapping’s effectiveness, I decided to give it a try. One day I was feeling a lot of anxiety about a tough project at work, so I watched the intro video above and started my first round of tapping. I was pretty astonished by how effective it was at helping me ease my anxiety and get back to work. After that initial success, I started using tapping whenever I felt some stress or distress.

Wanting to know more about the process, I began working my way through the videos at Tapping.com. I read Tap Yourself Free (Read my review here. If you decide to buy the book through my link your purchase will help support the site.) and started working my way through some of the exercises. However, most of my tapping was reactive. I would feel something unpleasant, tap on it, and it would lessen or disappear entirely.

Gradually, I began to realize that I could tap proactively to deal with unhelpful thinking and emotional baggage I’ve been carrying around for a long time. One of the areas that I really worked on is my struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

I’ve been dealing with S.A.D. since I was a college student in Chicago. Unfortunately, I live in an area that gets less sunshine than Seattle, Washington, and the “winter blues” effect everyone to some extent, but I really suffered. Every year in early autumn I would begin to feel depressed and start to dread the coming fall and winter. Those negative feelings would soon be joined by all of the physical symptoms: low energy, no desire to exercise, no libido, and carbohydrate cravings. My symptoms got so bad that for the past 4 years I’ve taken anti-depressant medication for about 6 months out of the year to handle them.

When I realized how effective tapping is for me, I decided to do a lot of work on my S.A.D. I did a lot of tapping on the emotional aspects of the condition using phrases like, “Even though I dread winter, I deeply and completely accept myself.” I really tried to feel the feelings that I go through during the winter and tap those feelings away. Then, I waited for autumn to come and for the feelings of dread and depression to follow.

It didn’t happen.

All of September and October, I was symptom free. I didn’t develop the emotional baggage that I have carried around every winter for nearly ten years. Now it is late November and it’s been cloudy for about six days straight. I still have the physical symptoms of S.A.D., namely my energy is quite low and I want to eat every potato chip within a 20 mile radius! But I don’t feel depressed. I don’t feel dread. I don’t feel like the sun will never come out again.

And I haven’t taken a pill since last spring. I just have not felt the need.

Getting Started With EFT

Now, please don’t stop taking your medication just because I said that I’m feeling better than I was a year ago. As I said above, no one really knows why or even if EFT works. It may not work for you. However, it definitely will not hurt you to try it. If you’re at all curious about EFT or the tapping process, I recommend you try out the following resources:

• Tapping.com. This site is owned by Magnus, who has been a great resource on my journey in EFT. I have watched the videos here, participated in the forums, and exchanged email and IM communications with Magnus. He’s truly committed to helping people learn these skills and make improvements in their lives. Most of the resources on the site are completely free.
• Tap Yourself Free. If you’re ready to go a bit deeper than the free videos and resources, I definitely recommend Magnus’ ebook. It includes worksheets to help you tap through many different types of emotional issues and explains some the nuances of using tapping for different types of issues such as forgiveness. You can read my review for more details.
• Try it On Everything. Click through to watch the trailer to this amazing film. It shows the process of people working through many types of issues, both physical and emotional, and getting incredible results in a short period of time. If you purchase the film soon you will get a huge number of bonuses from some expert EFT teachers. (Plus, you’ll help support this site!)

I hope that by sharing my story, I’ve inspired you to explore EFT, or to at least think about ways that you can deal with some issues in your life. I felt trapped by S.A.D. for a long time, and I’m sure you have areas in your life where you feel stuck. Begin to think creatively about those issues. Are there ways of dealing with them that you haven’t tried?

If there are any problems that you need help with, please let me know in the comments, or through a confidential email to maria@neverthesamerivertwice.com, and I’ll do my best to help you out.

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