Anxiety

Chronic Stress is Killing you, but EFT Can Help

Written by: Nick Ortner

All stress (and stress relief) is not created equal.

Did you know that some stress is actually good for you? In small amounts, stress can improve brain function, make you more creative, help you get fit, lower your risk of breast cancer, Alzheimer’s, and lots more.

It’s chronic stress—the “stress overload” you feel day in, day out—that’s silently but systematically sabotaging your health and well-being.

Here’s the thing, though. You’re smart. You exercise, get your 7 hours of sleep, do deep breathing, yoga, meditation… You’ve even logged hours on the couch (the therapist’s couch!) trying to get to the “root” of your stress.

woman tapping over chronic stressBut still, you feel its effects. Even worse, this stress-related disease shows up everywhere you look.

So what gives?

The Answer: Like stress, not all stress relief is created equal.

Stress isn’t just in your head. Stress is also physical. (There’s loads of scientific research proving this, by the way.)

Until stress is fully released, it stays lodged in your body and in your cells, running rampant, putting your health at risk.

Still unconvinced? The health-damaging effects of chronic stress are scientific fact.

Here’s how stress damages your health (and your life, relationships, waistline, and more) in 13 sad steps

1. You think about something stressful—work, money, relationships, family, whatever’s bothering you.

2. Your amygdala (in your mid-brain) senses danger.

3. Your amygdala helps to initiate your body’s fight-or-flight response to stress.

4. In “fight or flight,” your body releases adrenaline and the “stress hormone” cortisol, diverts blood away from your digestive tract, leaving you less able to digest food and absorb nutrients AND more likely to gain weight.

5. In this physiological “crisis mode,” you’re more vulnerable to pain—from chronic illness, arthritis, fibromyalgia, migraines, stomach upset, and more.

6. In this state of heightened physiological “alert”, your brain’s creative center is deemed “non-essential” and shuts down. Down goes your problem solving, your creative skills, your intuition.

7. You feel increasingly irritable, isolated, and impatient. Your relationships suffer.

8. Stress affects your sleep. Your metabolism slows.

9. Your body secretes even more cortisol, wreaking more havoc on your digestion (and waistline), increasing your blood pressure, and lowering your immune response.

10. After releasing too much cortisol for too long, your body goes into “adrenal fatigue.” You feel depleted, exhausted, and depressed.

11. You no longer have the energy to adhere to your exercise routine, your healthy eating, meditation, yoga. Migraines, insomnia, stress-related hair loss, chronic pain, and any number of other issues become regular parts of your life.

12. Battling low energy, you can hardly focus at work, and elsewhere. Your relationships suffer.

13. Your depression deepens. You (and your body) are STRESSED OUT.

Typical “Quick-Fix” Stress Relievers

  • Alcohol
  • Food
  • Television
  • Shopping

And while you may feel better, it’s often only until the next morning or credit card statement.

What about aerobic exercise, yoga, or meditation?

Relieving Chronic Stress with Yoga40% of the population exercises for 30 minutes, 1-4 days per week.

NO debate here. Exercise is crucial for a healthy lifestyle. Physical activity promotes the release of endorphins, known as the “feel-good” neurotransmitters. These make you “smarter” and more creative by increasing blood flow (and oxygen) to your brain and acts as “meditation in motion,” providing mental and physical stress relief.

The reality: However critical, it’s hours, even days after that stressful meeting with the boss or that fight with your spouse before you can seek out the solace of your running shoes. (If you have that healthy habit…)

38% of Americans use “complementary and alternative medicine,” which includes yoga, meditation, and other natural stress relief.

Again, NO debate here. These practices provide powerful stress relief, increased focus, creativity, and lots more.

The reality: Yoga and meditation provide significant stress relief and other benefits that yield significant results in weeks or months with regular, frequent practice. Many who try meditation give up too soon because they feel it’s “not working.”

What about psychotherapy? Does “talk” therapy provide lasting stress relief?

A study performed by Dr. Dawson Church, Ph.D. and Dr. David Feinstein, Ph.D., measured cortisol levels before and after treatment.

Research on Chronic Stress83 participants were divided into 3 groups: the 1st group received an hour of Tapping, a practice that combines “talk” therapy with acupressure treatments; the 2nd group received an hour of psychotherapy (“talk” therapy); the 3rd group (control group) received no treatment.

Results: The 1st group demonstrated a 24% decrease in cortisol levels; the 2nd and 3rd groups showed no change in cortisol levels.

The reality: Psychotherapy alone relieves stress, but over a long period of time. The immediate benefits of psychotherapy don’t register in your body, where excessive amounts of the “stress hormone” cortisol still run rampant, putting your health at risk.

Where’s the REAL stress relief?

Tapping, the practice that produced a 24% decrease in cortisol after just one hour, blends Western psychotherapy or “talk” therapy with Eastern wisdom about “meridian points” or acupressure.

It acts fast and you can use it anytime, anywhere. It only takes 5 – 20 minutes.

Because it accesses your emotions and body simultaneously, it provides powerful stress relief, lowering cortisol levels faster than most traditional and alternative stress relief methods.

Study findings show that Tapping balances activity between the sympathetic and parasympathetic regions of your brain, producing “a neutral emotional state,” the gold standard of health and wellness.


“Tapping gives you the best of both worlds, body, and mind, like getting a massage during a psychotherapy session.” – Dr. Dawson Church


The science behind it:

The sympathetic region of your brain

Prepares your body for vigorous physical activity, speeding your heart, dilating pupils, contracting blood vessels, reducing digestive secretions.

In a perpetually active “stressed out” state, you’re more vulnerable to heart disease, high blood pressure, insomnia, weight gain, irritability, and impatience. This is what chronic stress looks like in the early stages.

The parasympathetic region of your brain

How Chronis Stress Effects the BrainPrepares your body for relaxation, cell regeneration, and digestion by slowing the heart, constricting the pupils, stimulating digestive secretions, and dilating blood vessels.

In an overactive state, you suffer from depression, weakened immune response, fatigue, and diminished motivation. This is what chronic stress looks like over time.

Your Takeaway

“High sympathetic/low parasympathetic ratios have been linked to both psychological and physiological disorders and may, in fact, “be the final pathway linking negative states and conditions to ill health.’” CREDIT: Dr. Dawson Church, Ph.D. and Dr. David Feinstein, Ph.D., “Modulating Gene Expression Through Psychotherapy: The Contribution of Non-Invasive Somatic Interventions”

EFT Tapping regulates activity between these regions to achieve balanced activity and optimal health.

Study findings show that EFT Tapping is “substantially more powerful” than diaphragmatic breathing at lowering cortisol.

Extra Benefit #1: Relief from the excessive cortisol and adrenal fatigue – your body and mind re-balance. Your energy is restored, you sleep better, feel healthy again. This revitalizes your metabolism and your body is again able to heal itself.

Extra Benefit #2: The rapid and comprehensive body/mind stress relief you get from Tapping normally takes hours, weeks, or months to achieve with meditation, yoga, “talk” therapy, and other treatments.

Extra Benefit #3: If you already practice meditation, yoga, affirmations, and others, Tapping can enhance the benefits of those other practices by lowering your cortisol levels much quicker, promoting even deeper relaxation “on the cushion” and beyond.

So, what does it all mean?

Chronic stress is sabotaging your health and well-being, making you more vulnerable to depression, disease, and worse.

EFT Tapping quickly relieves chronic stress on physical and mental/emotional levels.

One of the easiest ways to get the relief you’re looking for is with The Tapping Solution App!

With over 100 Tapping Meditations readily available on your mobile device whenever you need it, it’s like carrying a personal Tapping Professional around with you wherever you go. 🙂

Until next time…

Keep Tapping!

Nick Ortner

Download The Tapping Solution App today!


What did you learn in the post above? Is chronic stress affecting you? What stresses you out the most? Are you committed to changing this?



Blog Comments

Leave a Comment

Your Comment

369 Comments on this post

  1. karla meursing says:

    hi Nick! i see and hear you so often that you feel like a friend (; and so does Jessica. i find tapping very helpful for so many things.
    i have one question. Nick says here, and i’ve seen it elsewhere too, that there are “hundreds of meditations” available via the app. But i can “only” find twenty or so. Am i missing out?

  2. Natalina says:

    Hi Tracey. I would like to know if the App is free also on Android? it will be very interesting if I can use it for now free and upgrade later. Thank you for letting me know. Geetings.

  3. Tracey says:

    Is there a cost to download the tapping app?

    • Nick Ortner says:

      Hi Tracey! The app is free to download and also includes free tapping meditations for you to use in every category. The optional paid upgrade allows access to all of the meditations in the app along with some additional special features. 🙂

  4. Nina says:

    I hesitate to write because everyone says what you focus on increases.

    How do you then do anything.

    I’m frightened BT my situation.
    I was coorced to go back to my mother, I want to geycaway , have my own life again.

    What words should I use.
    I left my farm and life because she kept telling me it was all wrong.

    help…..

  5. Joy says:

    I had EFT done many years ago and it worked! I got so excited that I was tapping a lot. I had a licensed EFT practitioner helping me over the phone. Nevertheless, I’m a highly sensitive person and I guess I tapped too much because my blood pressure spiked and my heart rate went high and the doctor had to put me on medication and I haven’t been able to get off it since. My EFT practitioner told me that there are reversal type of tapping but I was so scared of tapping by then that I lost interest completely. Plus she’d never heard of this happening before and that scared me even more. Anyway, now I have what is called Hyperarousal Awakening. The blood pressure spikes during the night because the meds are suppressing it during the day. It’s all emotional, I’m sure. Now I seriously don’t know what to do. What would you suggest or who to trust? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Joy

    • Nick Ortner says:

      Hi Joy. We would recommend working one-on-one with a practitioner again as you continue with the treatment recommended by your doctor. If the practitioner you were working with doesn’t feel like the right match to you, here is a link to practitioners listed on our site: https://thetappingsolution.com/eft-practitioners. You can search by keywords and take a look at specialties as most practitioners do phone and Skype sessions so you don’t have to work only with someone near you. We wish you all the best. 🙂

  6. Raymond Cassar says:

    Can EFT ever get rid of a problem for good or just relieve it?

    • Nick Ortner says:

      Hi Raymond. With tapping, you can remove the negative charge on a memory or limiting belief and by clearing it and getting it to neutral, even though you still have the memory itself, you will no longer be negatively affected by it. Some issues taking tapping on many different aspects in order to clear and some things are cleared faster. Hope that helps!

  7. Sacheen Mobley says:

    Starting a business, newly divorced, single mom of one amazing toddler who is not getting the best mom he can due to how stressed my life feels. Thanks for the reminder that some of my body symptoms are from CHRONIC stress. I am going to try Tapping.

  8. dolores says:

    Very good reading, now practice!

  9. Chris says:

    GREAT–I understand–I agree. Thanks Nick

  10. Ron says:

    I enjoy tapping, when I do it faithfully I feel so much better, Lately I’ve been depressed with lack of ambition and no self confidence — tapping really helps! I’ve been looking for a job and no one has hired me at 64 years of age, it’s difficult -tapping helps me

  11. Ms Navaz Aspen says:

    Your material is excellent Nick, and Jessica. Your both down to earth, insightful, supportive, helpful.
    Please keep spreading your message and information that touches millions and millions of lives, using the tools and methods and your delivery and style of information.
    Please continue the great work you do.

    Many Many Thanks

  12. theresa says:

    The audio tapping session on releasing the frustration of chronic pain was great. I can’t wait to use it with friend in desperate need tomorrow.
    Being able for someone who needs this healing but is closed to try is another challenge.

  13. Lynn says:

    Nick,

    I sincerely appreciated this information. It gives me the confudence to move forward and incorporate tapping in my life more consistently to alleviate the stress I’ve been under for years and bring my cortisol levels down.

Over 20 Million Tapping Meditations Played in Our App! Get Instant Access to our "Releasing Anxiety" and "Sleep Support: Quiet The Racing Mind" Tapping meditations.
Yes, I agree to receive email messages from The Tapping Solution & understand that I can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy.

Recent Posts
3 Things I Learned from Zach Braff
3 Things I Learned from Zach Braff Written by: Jessica Ortner
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Little Shifts
Don’t Underestimate the Power of Little Shifts Written by: Nick Ortner
Tapping World Summit 2024
Tapping World Summit 2024 Written by: Nick Ortner

Connect With Us on Social Media

Follow The Tapping Solution on Facebook or Instagram!


Follow the producer of the Tapping World Summit Nick Ortner on Facebook or Instagram!


Follow the host of the Tapping World Summit Jessica Ortner on Facebook or Instagram!


Follow the producer of the Annual Tapping World Summit Alex Ortner on Facebook or Instagram!


Close ×
Over 17 Million Tapping Meditations Played in Our App!
Get Instant Access to our "Releasing Anxiety" and "Sleep Support: Quiet The Racing Mind" Tapping meditations.
Yes, I agree to receive email messages from The Tapping Solution & understand that I can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy.