Energising Self-Tapping

What it is

You tap yourself, briskly and rhythmically, moving over the body.

An important clarification up front: this is not EFT, and it is not about acupressure points or meridians. Soma Circuit's version is a sensory and rhythmic practice, and the claims made for it here are correspondingly narrower.

What it is doing in your nervous system

Two straightforward mechanisms.

Tactile input and body mapping. The brain maintains a map of the body built from continuous sensory input. In shutdown, dissociation or prolonged stillness, parts of that map become functionally quiet — the common report is "I can't feel my legs properly" or "my arms don't feel like mine". Brisk tactile stimulation over a region restores input to it, and the sensation of the region usually returns fairly quickly. This is uncontroversial neurophysiology, and it is most of what the practice does.

Rhythm. Regular, predictable input is organising, for the reasons described under stomping and swaying. Tapping supplies it with almost no physical demand.

On EFT. Emotional Freedom Techniques combine tapping on specified acupressure points with cognitive and exposure elements. Some trials report benefits, and dismantling studies — which compare the full protocol against versions with the tapping removed or the points relocated — generally suggest that the active ingredients are the exposure, cognitive and attentional components rather than the point locations. If you find tapping useful, the useful part is most likely the sensory and attentional effect. That is a real effect. It just is not the one advertised.

In the Flat module the aim is straightforwardly to increase sensation and arousal. In the Overwhelmed module it is used differently: to channel activation into a rhythmic, contained action rather than letting it escalate.

When to use it

• When parts of your body feel numb, absent or not yours
• When you are flat and want stimulation without exertion
• Mid-morning or mid-afternoon, instead of another coffee
• When you are agitated and want rhythm rather than discharge
• When you are cold, still and dulled
• Before something requiring presence, when you have gone vague

When it is not the right practice

Avoid tapping over injury, inflammation, recent surgery or areas of skin sensitivity, and keep it gentle if you bruise easily or take anticoagulants. Some people with sensory sensitivity find brisk tapping aversive — use slow havening touch instead. And if you are severely activated, brisk input can add to the load rather than organise it; slow down or switch practices.

Where it sits in Soma Circuit

Level 8 of the Overwhelmed module, and Levels 8 and 10 of the Flat module. Streaming audio. In both journeys it sits alongside the butterfly hug and somatic swaying in the rhythm-based level.