When pressure and stressors make you want to rush, do this.
(read time = 2 min)
The steps needed to get our hardwood floor refinished are making me manic. The never-ending DIY project has me jacked up, hands shaking, compulsively listing the steps out. I just want it done and the pressure gone.
Sound familiar?
YOUR BOOST
The next time a project with many steps causes you to feel stress and the need to rush, increasing the likelyhood of costly mistakes, try Tapping. Take your index finger and tap the 10 acupoint places listed below in order 5-10 times while repeating this phrase, “Even though I feel stress and pressure, I accept myself.”
Top of Head
Inside Edge of Eyebrow
Outside Edge of Eye
Under Eye (Center)
Under Nose
Chin (Under Bottom Lip)
Collarbone
Side of Hand
Underarm
Wrist
THE SCIENCE
When you are stressed, your autonomic nervous system, think fight or flight, dumps norepinephrine into your body. This brain chemical then wreaks havoc, interfering with focus, memory formation and cranking up your blood pressure (hence the hand shaking).
So enter Tapping. The scientific jury is out on this one, so it’s not as straightforward scientifically as my boosts usually are. The fact is that there are two warring, no seriously, warring groups where tapping is concerned. On one hand, the folks behind Tapping (also called Emotional Freedom Technique/Theory) have published data to show that acupoint stimulation calms the amygdala (part of the limbic system, and a player in fight or flight). On the other hand, a separate group reanalyzed the data and concluded it inconclusive. So what’s new? Spoiler alert, scientists never agree. It’s actually a key reason why science keeps moving forward, criticism and conflict breed the need for more experiments to be done, and all in all it leads to better science being done.
TAKE HOME
Like I always say, you are the scientist of you, so experiment. There’s no harm in giving Tapping a whirl to see if it works to calm you down when you feel the need to rush rush rush through life. Bonus, by not rushing you are probably actually saving time, because rushing almost always makes for costly and time-consuming mistakes.
No shame, no guilt, just more good days,
Nicole