Feeling Anxious?

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Many teens and tweens who are trying to navigate our unchartered territory of "normal" have been really struggling with feeling anxious and with constant stress.  The young adults I work with often have a baseline of feeling anxious as their "norm". They struggle to get through the school day without having to go to the nurse for headaches and stomach aches.  They have serious fears around driving, running errands, social situations and more. The young adults I work with are experiencing this anxious feeling to the point of it preventing them from being successful in their life.  It has actually evolved to the level of debilitating and hindering their happiness. 

Lori has had great success with young adults who are struggling with daily stress that is debilitating their lives.  Lori has a success formula that allows the young adult to: 

One of Lori's favorite things is to teach young adults who are feeling anxious how to overcome the stress in the moment, to give them real strategies that they can use (even in social situations) to overcome the anxious feelings.

Usually there is a lot more to feeling anxious on a regular basis.  This could be linked to any number of beliefs, memories, traumas or any other unresolved issue. BY getting to the root of the problem, the frequent triggering anxious feelings are naturally released. 

Lori has 2 children in their 20's, one teen and one tween.  She gets it. She never rushes anyone and always meets them where they are creating a strong relationship that allows the young adult to feel comfortable and safe in the process. 

EFT has been scientifically proven to reduce cortisol by over 40%.  Cortisol is the stress hormone that gets released when you are feeling anxious and having a fight/flight/freeze response to a situation. 

By using EFT in the moment when you are feeling anxious, you send a calming signal to the brain.  This sends the signal to reduce the cortisol levels as well.  

Chances are you didn't just wake up one day feeling anxious about nothing.  From my work with countless young adults, I have found that there is usually a root cause to the stress and anxious feelings.  It could have been a sudden death, a move to a new town, an unresolved trauma and the anxious feeling is when the subconscious is triggered. Bottom line, there is likely SOMETHING under the surface that needs to be resolved. EFT with a skilled practitioner is an excellent solution to relieve stress and empower the client. 

There isn't much better than getting a message from a young adult who just realized that she drove on the highway and ran errands for her mother without thinking twice about it.  The moment when the young adult realized that the anxious feeling isn't running the show anymore.  THAT is why I do this.  I am constantly hearing from past clients who are still floored by their ability to overcome adversity and really step into their power. They are able to move into adulthood feeling safe and confident in themselves. They are confident that they have the skills to relieve stress and overcome the anxious feelings. 

The simplicity of children is what makes them such perfect candidates for EFT.  When asking an adult for emotions, we often get a wide variety along with their beliefs on what each emotion means.  Children on the other hand, are feeling what they are feeling and that's it.  They are able to really tune into their feelings without attaching any baggage to the emotions.  Determining the SUDS (Subjective Units of Distress) with a child is simple by having them show you with their hands.
Hands totally together is having zero distress, fear, anger, etc. and hands totally spread open is the absolute most distress or a ten. ​​ 

Children enjoy the fact that they are really being heard.   With all EFT, the practitioner's job is to listen intently and then feed those thoughts and emotions back creating a safe and validating experience. Children respond especially well because EFT is empowering in a way that children are not often accustomed to. 
For example, I recently tapped with my daughter who was very frustrated with her math homework.  She didn't want to tap at first but once I said "Even though my mom really stinks at helping with my math homework, I'm an awesome kid" I had her hooked! When she repeated after me, there was a giggle in her voice and a smile that showed me she was finally feeling validated.  This was a major shift in just a minute. There were other issues that we were able to tap on as well, but we needed to start with the most obvious frustration.  She wasn't getting the support she needed and she didn't feel comfortable telling me that. When you tap with children, you give them a voice and the power to say what they are really thinking.  This allows them to experience true healing.  

Basically you use the same principals with children as you do with adults.  There are a few differences though: 
~Keep it simple
Children don't have all the baggage that adults have attached to each emotion and they are not interested in reading too far into a memory or emotion.  It simply is what it is.  So when they feel sad, that's what they are feeling. 
When using the set up statement use "Even though___, I'm an awesome kid" or  "I know I'm great, funny, smart, etc."
~Use humor
Both children and adults respond so well to humor.  Saying something that may appear to be ridiculous while tapping will often times remove the emotional charge without even really trying. If a child is afraid of dogs, we may say that "all dogs have it out for me"  and that belief would feel very true to the child so we would take it to the next level "in fact, the dogs are having a meeting right now on how they can get me next" giggle giggle "they even have a picture of me at their meeting"  giggle giggle.  As we tap and get more silly on the topic the child is able to release the fear and anxiety. ~Make it into a fun game
When a child is having a tough time with something very often times the last thing they want to do is tap on it.  So turning the tapping into a game is a very simple and easy way to get the child on board with tapping.  Top of the head point becomes "The King's Crown"
The eyebrow points become "The Soldier Saluting"
The collarbone points become "Tarzan"
Under the arm points become "Monkey- Oooo Oooo Ahhh Ahhh"
Karate chop points become just that "Hai-Yah! Karate Chopping"~Tap on the child
Sometimes the child feels better and safer if you do the tapping on them.  My experience is that children from age 6 and up are capable of tapping on themselves.  But every now and again, my children enjoy the comfort of me tapping on them.  Just follow your intuition.