In my daily work as a FT columnist, I cast a skeptical, often dishonest eye on the world around me. I tend to be someone who challenges everything – not for the sake of it, but because I’m suspicious when a whole group of people believe the same thing. I have often been labeled as a “con”. I once hosted a podcast series called A Skeptic’s Guide to Crypto. I have the word “snark” in my bio X. You get the idea.
So you might be surprised to hear about some of the things I do in my spare time. I use the word “synchronism” without any sense of irony. I swear by mine definitely psychic kinesiologist. I’m a member of a coven called the Sisters of the Sanitary Cloth (both the descriptor and our name are a bit odd, though the latter more so than the former). I’ve become obsessed with Co-Star, an app that claims to use Nasa data to give you “super accurate” AI-generated horoscopes, duh. (It was recommended to me by an old colleague. I won’t name names.) I write morning pages, as advocated by Julia Cameron, author of the creativity bible The Artist’s Way. I’m, you know, “doing the work.”
But how can someone who is so wary of consensus views and so passionate about the importance of truth and objectivity be so into what many of you might consider a joke? I think it’s very simple: I have an open mind. And while I believe in the value of reason and empiricism, I would also argue that it actually is rational to explore alternative approaches to science, medicine and life.
So I find myself standing beneath a chandelier in a plush, Edwardian suite at the Savoy Hotel, using my fingertips to gently stroke my “eyebrow points” as silent tears roll down my cheeks. “I feel like I’m on a hamster wheel with no end of dates,” I repeat after my instructor as I tap (we’ve already discussed how I feel; she’s not just guessing). “I’m fed up” – I move my fingertips down to tap just beside my eyes. “Eurgh” – under my eyes. “Bleurgh” – under my nose. “So many dates” – under my lower lip. “So many dates!” – clavicle. “But I am prepared to remain open to love” – at the top of the head. “And I trust my intuition more and more every day” – back to my eyebrow points. And others.
My instructor is Poppy Delbridge, a former Warner Brothers executive who left the world of entertainment television in 2018 to devote herself full-time to tapping, a largely self-administered form of therapy that combines modern psychology and medicine. ancient chinese. I met him a few months ago, after I decided it was time to meet the love of my life. I went into a “taster session” feeling rather dubious, spent most of our hour together in a deeply cathartic weepy state (she’s had this effect on me in all of our one-on-one sessions), and I felt like I was floating on air.
Now I knock every day. I’m a tapoholic. Guided by Delbridge’s Rapid Tapping app as well as her book, Touch InI knocked on park benches, in saunas, on a Greek island, in baths. I have completed her personal empowerment program Pivot into Power (fellow graduates include British Fashion Council chief executive Caroline Rush and The Royle family co-writer Phil Mealey). I’ve been on one of her “fast retreats” (our group of five included a Delevingne sister and a superfan who had flown in from the Caribbean). And now I’m doing her 30-Day Love Cleanse, which, like all Delbridge programs, involves not only tapping, but also some pretty intense soul-searching and personal development work.
How to do a two minute tap
Poppy Delbridge’s Guide to Rapid Tapping
starting
Sit or stay comfortable.
Set your goal: decide how you would like to feel right now (calm, energized, focused).
check out your frequency level: place both hands on your chest and notice your current feeling. Rate yourself from +10 (high joy) to -10 (low energy or stress).
Take it a breath.
Flick your hands: slide them a few inches down from your collarbones and firmly massage the “hurt spots” to balance and grind.
Set your goal:
1. “I feel…” identify your current emotion.
2. “Because…” admit why you feel this way.
3. “But it’s possible that I…”
Quick tapping sequence
Using two fingers on each hand, touch these points as you repeat your three-step answers.
1. Between the eyebrows
2. The sides of the eyes
3. Under the eyes
4. Under the nose
5. Beard
6. Clavicle and heart area
7. Top of the head
Wrapped with a hug and shake of the head: rub your hands together, put one hand on the forehead, the other on the back of the head and hold for 10 seconds. Hold it and smile. Then shake your hands and body to recalibrate and refresh.
The 7-day fast reset is available in the free app as a video demonstration
Tapping is a so-called “somatic” therapy, meaning it focuses on the connection between mind and body. It has its roots in ancient Chinese medicine, but was invented by an American psychologist in the 1980s and then simplified by one of his students in the 90s to become the Emotional Freedom Technique. With EFT, you tap nine key “meridian points”—pressure points that are also used for acupuncture—in order to release blocked energy from traumatic experiences stored in the body. While some have dismissed it as pseudoscience – Gary Bakker, a clinical psychologist and lecturer at the University of Tasmania, calls touch a “purple hat therapy” and tells me “there’s no evidence that tapping your imaginary meridians does anything for a clinical. psychological problem” – there are studies that argue that tapping can be a way to treat depression, anxiety, food cravings, and even physical pain and symptoms of autoimmune conditions.
And the more I’ve tapped, the more issues I’ve found it helps – especially around stress, lack of motivation and self-doubt.
Delbridge’s version, “Rapid Tapping,” focuses on the seven meridian points that EFT uses and also typically includes an initial massage of the “sore spots”—the pieces of flesh about an inch below the collarbones that feel tender to the touch—as well as a “head hug” at the end (her app includes a video of how to do it). She wants to use tapping to focus less on letting go of bad things in the past, like with EFT traditional, and more towards good things in the future, by “resetting our neural pathways.” In other words: to “manifest” the things you want in your life.
If this sounds strange, rest assured that there is none of that obvious false brand of toxic positivity. The fact that each session begins by saying out loud how you really feel and, if it’s negative, repeating it until the feeling starts to become less acute is part of what I think makes the practice so helpful. Not only does it feel like you’re releasing tension when you say your negative feelings out loud, but some of them start to feel a little funny once you do.
Most taps begin by asking you to write down how you feel—either in general or about a particular issue—and end by asking you to write it down again. Some days my emotions only increase; Other days my mood is totally transformed in minutes. Whatever you’re doing, it feels like something is working. I also sigh when I knock, a lot. Other people yawn. “I joke that I’m the only public speaker who, when the whole audience is yawning, I don’t get offended,” says Nick Ortner, who has more than 100,000 subscribers to his app The Tapping Solution.
“At a minimum, you’re resetting your nervous system to an arasympathetic state — from fight-or-flight to rest and relaxation,” says Dr Tara Swart, a neuroscientist and one of Delbridge’s clients, who now taps most days. “People who are not used to being in a state of relaxed alertness can end up feeling drowsy.”
For my part, while I may not have met the love of my life yet, sigh, I feel like I’ve broken through a number of barriers – or “love blocks” – since my first session with Delbridge in May. I also seem to spend a lot less time self-sabotaging and I’m managing my emotions more successfully. I now use tapping as part of my morning routine, and sometimes at other points in the day, and I find it similar to meditation in the way it grounds me, though it’s usually more uplifting, motivating, and can be more focused. if you want it to be.
I can assure you I felt like a fool – a fool! — The first time I did it, but these days touching my face and chest with your fingertips feels surprisingly natural. Try it, I say. What’s the worst that could happen?
