Tapping for Confidence: From Self-Doubt to Self-Assurance with EFT Tapping

Self-confidence isn’t just a nice-to-have: it’s a crucial ingredient for success and fulfillment in all areas of life. Our level of confidence influences our careers, our relationships, our body image, and our big life decisions. Yet for many, it remains elusive. We all have those moments when our confidence wavers, whether it’s before a big presentation, during a social gathering, or simply when looking in the mirror. If you’ve tried affirmations, self-help books, or other methods without lasting results, it’s time to explore EFT Tapping for confidence. 

This unique technique offers a path to rewiring your brain for greater self-assurance, so you can live a big, full life where you go after what you want.

And the best part? It’s something you can learn and apply right now.

How does EFT Tapping help with self-confidence?

EFT Tapping is a powerful mind-body technique that draws on the principles of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology. It has been shown to reduce cortisol levels, calm the nervous system, and reduce strong emotions like fear and anxiety. 

When it comes to confidence, Tapping can help you:

1. Release limiting beliefs about yourself: Tapping helps you identify and release deep-rooted beliefs that hold you back, such as "I'm not good enough" or "I'll never succeed." By addressing these beliefs directly, you can start to replace them with more empowering thoughts.
2. Reduce anxiety in challenging situations: When facing nerve-wracking scenarios like public speaking or job interviews, Tapping can quickly calm your nervous system, allowing you to approach these situations with greater ease and confidence, so you can show up as your authentic self. 
3. Quiet your inner critic: We all have that nagging voice that questions and judges us, and does it’s best to limit our potential. Tapping provides a powerful tool to acknowledge and then quiet this inner critic, allowing your authentic, confident self to shine through.
4. Increase feelings of self-worth and self-acceptance: Through consistent Tapping, you can cultivate a deeper sense of self-love and acceptance. This forms the foundation of lasting confidence.
5. Address past events: Often, low self-esteem stems from negative past experiences. Tapping provides a gentle way to process these experiences, reducing their emotional charge and freeing you to build new, confident beliefs about yourself.
6. Release resistance to taking action: Fear of failure often holds us back from trying new things or taking the next step. Tapping can help you release this fear, making it easier to take the actions that build confidence.
7. Boost overall emotional resilience: By regularly practicing Tapping, you develop greater emotional flexibility. This means you can bounce back more quickly from setbacks, maintaining your confidence even in challenging times.
8. Rewire neural pathways: Tapping helps create new, positive neural connections in the brain. Over time, this can shift your default state away from years of negative programming to a state of greater confidence and self-assurance.

By addressing the root causes of low self-confidence, EFT Tapping for confidence can help you build a stronger, more positive sense of self from the inside out.

It's not about forcing yourself to be confident or faking it, but rather removing the blocks that have been holding your natural authentic, full self from shining through.

EFT Tapping sequence for confidence

Completely new to Tapping? Go here to learn the Tapping basics and familiarize yourself with the Tapping points here. 

Here’s a basic Tapping sequence to boost confidence in an area of your life where self-doubt is showing up:

Step 1: Identify the issue

Think of a specific situation where you lack confidence or notice self-doubt showing up. Be as precise as possible when identifying the area you’d like to work on.

Step 2: Assess how you feel

When you think about the situation, how much self-doubt or anxiety shows up? Rate the intensity of your self-doubt on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being you feel completely unsure of yourself and not at all confident, and 0 being you feel totally confident and at ease. 

Step 3: Compose a setup statement

Form a setup statement that acknowledges the issue while accepting yourself. For example:

“Even though I don’t feel confident about the presentation at work, I deeply and completely accept myself.” or “Even though my inner voice is saying I’m not good enough to do this, I am safe and okay in this moment.”

Step 4: Move through the Tapping sequence

While repeating your setup statement three times, tap on the Side of the Hand point. Then, tap through the following points in order while focusing on your feelings about the situation. You can also speak out loud about the issue while you tap through the points. 

• Eyebrow
• Side of the Eye
• Under the Eye
• Under the Nose
• Under the mouth
• Collarbone
• Under the Arm
• Top of the Head

Phrases you might repeat to yourself as you tap might include: 

• “This lack of confidence” 
• “I don’t feel good enough”
• “What if I fail?”
• “I’m so nervous about this”
• “I wish I felt more confident”

Step 5: Reassess and repeat

After completing one round of Tapping, take a deep breath and reassess your intensity level using the 0 to 10 scale. If you feel more confident and self-assured, your new number will be lower. Repeat step 4, Tapping through the points while thinking about the issue, as many times as needed until you feel a shift. 

Step 6: Tap through the points again while moving towards the positive

Once you’ve released some of the self-doubt and resistance to confidence, you can do a final round of Tapping while encouraging your confidence to grow. 

As you tap through the points in the same order as listed above, repeat empowering statements to yourself, or even imagine yourself in the situation feeling confident, assured, and at ease. 

Phrases you might repeat to yourself this time might include: 

• “I choose to believe in myself”
• “I’m open to feeling more confident”
• “I’m stronger than I think”
• “I’m learning to trust myself”
• “I can handle whatever comes my way”
• “It’s safe to feel confident”
• “I’m building my confidence every day”

Step 7: Take a deep breath and stop Tapping

Congratulations, you’ve done it! You can repeat as necessary, adjusting the wording and length of Tapping to address your current needs in the moment. 

Be patient and kind with yourself as you begin practicing Tapping for confidence. Take it at your own pace, and know that any Tapping you do, even just a few minutes per day, is making a difference. 

Get Started For Free

Try the Tapping Solution App and lower stress in under 10 minutes

• Instantly reduce anxiety and stress
• Fall asleep faster and sleep better
• Boost productivity, stay motivated
• Relieve chronic or occasional pain
• Release anger, find peace

Get Started For Free

Try the Tapping Solution App and lower stress in under 10 minutes

• Instantly reduce anxiety and stress
• Fall asleep faster and sleep better
• Boost productivity, stay motivated
• Relieve chronic or occasional pain
• Release anger, find peace

Guided Tapping for self-esteem and confidence 

My brother Alex guides a really amazing Tapping sequence in the video below to help you raise confidence and feel more self-assured. If you watch, you’ll also learn 6 things you can do to build self-esteem and confidence in any or all areas of your life:

You will also find tons of guided Tapping meditations for confidence and self-esteem in The Tapping Solution App. 

Here are just a few of the session titles you can choose from when you download the app: 

• 5-Day Confidence Series
• Workplace Confidence
• Instant Boost of Courage
• I Have the Confidence I Need to Get Started Quick Tap
• My Confidence Grows Every Day Quick Tap
• You Are Enough
• Quieting the Critical Voice
• Building Confidence Affirmations
• Increase Self-Confidence Sleep Programming
• Confidence for Kids
• Weight Loss & Body Confidence Category

Our 5-Day Confidence Challenge in The Tapping Solution App has made a huge difference for so many people. 

On average, previous challenge participants felt 50% better when it came to being confident in their lives, taking action, stepping outside of their comfort zone, quieting their inner critic, and more! 

True stories of Tapping for self-confidence

Tapping has proven time and time again to be a powerful tool for releasing limiting beliefs and helping people step into their true potential. 

Here is just a small sample of the stories we hear every single day about Tapping for confidence: 

“I’m beginning to stand in my power. Finally! Confidence rising.” 

-Gillies

“Tapping has changed my life by giving me an amazing tool to help rediscover and realign with who I am meant to be by providing me with confidence and clarity. Allowing flow and ease to my day!” 

-Rachelle

“I have made decisions that I had put off for 8 years. Ended a difficult relationship, moved, started a new career. All without anxiety, less stress, more self confidence, less procrastination and so much more energy and happiness. Seriously, this has been nothing less than a miracle.” 

-Jan

“Tapping is the ultimate in self care. I can not recommend it enough based on my own experience of managing anxiety, self-image, confidence, and more.” 

-Jodi

“I’ve been doing increasing self confidence every night before bed and wake up feeling more refreshed, in a better mood and a general sense of well-being despite any outside circumstances. LOVE it!”

-Eva

“I am feeling confident and calm in my body. I am empowered to face what lies ahead with confidence.” 

-Frances

“Years of therapy couldn’t get me to the root of my problem, my feelings of inadequacy. 3 days of tapping and I’ve isolated the issue. I have every confidence that Tapping is going to help me solve this issue.” 

-Suzanne

Why confidence is a nervous-system thing

Low confidence usually isn't a character flaw. It's often a protective pattern your nervous system built a long time ago, back when staying quiet, playing it safe, or not taking up space actually kept you safer. In REWIRED, I call this kind of stuck stress Nervous System Debt: your body keeps bracing against a threat that isn't in the room anymore, and that bracing shows up as self-doubt, a harsh inner critic, or a voice that talks you out of raising your hand. You can't think your way out of that with logic alone, because your conscious mind knows you're capable, but your nervous system is still running old software. Tapping works on the body side of that equation, sending your nervous system a signal of safety while you think about the exact thing that shakes your confidence, so the old pattern has less to hold onto.

A few common ways low confidence shows up: an inner critic that never clocks out, apologizing for things that aren't your fault, rehearsing conversations before and after they happen, comparing yourself to everyone in the room, or feeling like an imposter no matter what you've accomplished. None of that means something is wrong with you. It usually means your nervous system learned, at some point, that playing small was the safer bet.

A 3-minute round for "I'm not enough"

Use this whenever that specific thought shows up, before a hard conversation, after a mistake, or right before you're about to try something new. Rate the intensity of the thought from 0 to 10 first.

1. Setup (repeat three times, tapping the side of your hand): "Even though part of me believes I'm not enough, I deeply and completely accept myself."
2. Eyebrow: "This feeling that I'm not enough."
3. Side of Eye: "Not smart enough, not ready enough, not enough, period."
4. Under Eye: "Where did I first learn to believe this about myself?"
5. Under Nose: "This old belief that's been running the show."
6. Under Mouth: "It's okay that this belief is here."
7. Collarbone: "I'm willing to consider that it might not be true."
8. Under Arm: "I'm allowed to take up space, even without being perfect."
9. Top of Head: "Choosing to believe I am enough, exactly as I am right now."

Reassess your number. If "I'm not enough" is still loud, do another round, getting as specific as you can about where that thought showed up today.

Tapping phrases for confidence, by moment

Confidence doesn't show up or disappear the same way twice. Here's language matched to the moment you're actually in.

What our data shows

Inside The Tapping Solution App, our You Are Enough session has been completed 644,067 times, with users rating their intensity 6.3 before and 3.2 after, on average, a 49% drop. Across our full You Are Enough category (3 sessions), that pattern holds: 687,969 completions, 6.3 down to 3.2. Our wider 58-session Emotional Freedom category, built for processing stuck stress and emotion generally, has been completed over 4 million times, moving people from an average of 7.0 to 4.1.

In a peer-reviewed study of 270,461 App users published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (Church & Stapleton, 2020), a single guided tapping session brought self-rated anxiety down 44% and stress down 45% on average, the same nervous-system shift the numbers above are tracking.

This is self-report app data, not a clinical trial.

What people say

Anne, on lifetime self-worth, rated herself a 10 before, a 0 after

Fausta, on You Are Enough, rated herself a 10 before, a 0 after

Go deeper

• Tapping for self-worth, a companion guide focused specifically on self-worth and how it's different from confidence.
• EFT tapping phrases and EFT tapping scripts, for more ways to word a round.
• The 9 tapping points, with a printable chart.
• Try You Are Enough free in The Tapping Solution App.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does tapping help with confidence?

Many people find it does. Tapping doesn't add confidence from the outside, it works on the fear, self-doubt, and old beliefs that are in the way of the confidence you already have underneath. Our You Are Enough session alone has been completed over 644,000 times, with users rating their intensity 6.3 before and 3.2 after, on average.

How do you tap for self-confidence?

Start by naming the specific situation where your confidence wavers, a presentation, a hard conversation, trying something new. Rate how intense the self-doubt feels from 0 to 10, then tap through the points while naming the feeling directly, followed by a round focused on the belief you'd rather have instead. The 3-minute round above is a good place to start.

What do you say when you tap for confidence?

Start with an honest setup statement, like "Even though I don't feel confident about this, I deeply and completely accept myself," then move through the points naming the specific self-doubt: "this fear of failing," "what if I'm not good enough." Once that eases, do a second round with more empowering language, like "I'm allowed to take up space" or "I'm learning to trust myself."

Can tapping help with self-love too?

Yes, confidence and self-love are closely linked in most people's experience. Our You Are Enough category was built around exactly that connection, and its sessions show the same pattern: intensity dropping from an average of 6.3 to 3.2 across 687,969 completions. The phrases table above includes language for the specific moments, like comparing yourself to others, where self-love tends to take the biggest hit.

How long until I feel different?

Some people notice a shift in a single round, others need several sessions on the same issue before it eases. In the JMIR study of 270,461 App users (Church & Stapleton, 2020), a single guided session brought self-rated anxiety down 44% and stress down 45% on average, but confidence built over years usually responds best to consistent practice, not one round.

Is there a free session I can try?

Yes. You Are Enough is free to try in The Tapping Solution App: start it here.

Ready to start your journey to self-confidence? Tapping resources to guide your way

Learning how to build ourselves up, treat ourselves with kindness, and believe in ourselves is a key skill to learn. 

With Tapping, you have a tool to help you learn that skill and practice it every single day, so you can walk through life feeling more confident and at ease. 

With consistent practice, you’ll likely find yourself feeling more confident and empowered in all areas of your life.

Download The Tapping Solution App today to find all sorts of resources to support you on your confidence journey. 

And be sure to check out these additional resources:

• 10 Affirmations to Boost Self-Worth: Complement your Tapping practice with these powerful affirmations designed to strengthen your sense of self-worth.
• Tapping into Your Strong, Sexy, and Confident Self: This Tapping script will help you step into your own power
• The Tapping Solution for Weight Loss & Body Confidence: For those struggling with weight loss or body confidence, this program combines Tapping with other techniques to boost body confidence.

Until next time… Keep Tapping! 

Nick Ortner