As a former Behavioral Health Officer in the U.S. Army, watching the US withdraw from Afghanistan this week is a painful, and emotionally devastating experience. I know I am not alone in this experience, as many veterans who served in Afghanistan and lost friends are going through their own deeply emotional experience. 

Even though we can’t take away the horror of what’s happening there, we can reduce the emotional burden for ourselves. I like to use a technique called Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT. EFT combines tapping on energy meridian points commonly used in modalities like acupuncture and acupressure, except EFT is self-administered, giving you a useful tool literally at your fingertips that you can use on your own to calm your nervous system. 

Traditional EFT combines putting your attention on the truth of how you feel about an experience, result, or current issue/person with an affirmation of acceptance of self even with the painful or stressful thought, feeling, or action while tapping through the points. By doing this, you are sending a calming signal to the amygdala, the part of your brain where your flight/flight response is housed and able to achieve a reduction in symptoms or a sense of peace and/or clarity.

Below is a video containing an example of how I used tapping to help navigate the complicated emotions I was feeling. If you are familiar with the use of EFT, it might not look like exactly what you are used to, as I had to stop several times and just tap through the points until I could get my tears under control and gather enough clarity to form a setup statement. That’s okay; sometimes putting your attention on the pain while tapping through the points is enough to find a release until you can regain control of your thoughts and begin to craft your setup statement.

Watch the video here