E068 - Stressed in a Group Setting: Use Tapping to Feel Better

What do we do when we are triggered (or even trauma) arises in a group setting?

Say you're at work, and someone does something that's triggering: you start to go into a freeze or you start to head towards rage and explode… Whatever this reaction pattern is, it’s not optimal.

You can either slide into default or you can wake up other ways of being in the world and other ways of being around other people.

Watch this episode for the why and how to deal with big emotions in a group setting, using tapping EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). 

So today you want to process this event and not get hijacked by your old ways of being. You want to do it better.

A really effective mechanism for this is the emotional freedom technique, or tapping EFT. It's very well researched and has a very solid body of science behind it. No single technique is perfect, but many quality psychotherapists and mentors I've worked with swap between EFT and EMDR (eye movement desensitization).

These are the top-drawer trauma-processing deconditioning tools.

Sometimes when I'm leading groups we work with mantras—repeated phrases that you sing over and over again—because we already have mantras inside our head, but they’re mostly telling us that we’re not enough. We have these negative mantras cycling around our heads, and we repeat them endlessly and unconsciously to ourselves. The whole world is possessed by these memes or negative mantras of not-enoughness.

EFT involves tapping on various acupressure points or meridian points while repeating cognitions or thoughts. Choosing to put a positive imprint through the system is beautiful. Our challenge is to live a kind of illuminated life, where there's joy and playfulness and the freedom to do stupid things without needing to be rigid and perfect. It requires a bit of work, but it's a lovely, joyful path.