Two Points for Sick Anxiety

A Quick and Easy Coping Strategy

By Sandra Kumskov, Dip HSc (Holistic Counselling), CEC, NLP, EFT Adv

(Add or view comments at the bottom of the page.)

Many many people suffer from low-level, constant anxiety – a sick feeling in the stomach, a heavy feeling in the chest, often with heart pounding and a fuzzy head.

The fuzzy head is because stress hormones make us stupid. And when are feeling anxious, the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, plus oxytocin in women, flood our bodies.

It’s good news in a backwards kind of way, because that means our bodies are actually functioning in an appropriate way – it just feels really bad!

A really quick way to immediately lessen that anxious feeling is to tap, of course. It’s not always convenient to do so of course, but you can get some immediately relief in any circumstances by selecting just two points, and rubbing them.

One point is immediately under the eye, on the stomach meridian. Tapping - or rubbing if tapping is not appropriate – or even just holding) the stomach point settles the nervous flutters in the stomach.

The second point is the ‘gamut point’ on the back of the hand, or Triple Warmer. It connects straight to the amygdala, the part of the brain that associates sensation with reward or punishment, stores all the emotions we experience until age three, and is particularly responsive to fear. Tapping or rubbing the gamut spot sedates the amygdala, and reduces the body’s anxiety responses.

When I’m feeling anxious, I tap under my eye with the fingers of one hand, and with the fingers of the other, I tap on the gamut spot of the hand tapping under my eye. I know it sounds complicated but it works ?

If you can’t tap because maybe there are people around and you don’t want to look demented, then try to decide which sensation is more uncomfortable – the stomach or the chest.

If it’s the stomach, rub under your eye. If it’s the chest, rub the gamut spot. When the feeling has settled a little, switch to rubbing the spot you haven’t worked with yet.

Remember though that it can take up to six hours for the body to clean up stress hormones, so this is a short-term fix. You will probably need to do some work with a therapist to get to the root of ongoing anxiety so that it's no longer an automatic response for you, but in the moment, this technique can be a sanity saver :)

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Author's Bio:

Sandra Kumskov helps women find the peace in their lives, so they can use all their energy for creating the life they want!

2 Comments

Nidhu
Posted April 11, 2011 09:41 AM

Dear Sandra,
Thankyou so much for sharing this - biig hug!
love,
Nidhu

ps. if we do this long enough, will it be a long term fix?

Sandy
Posted April 11, 2011 04:27 PM

Nidhu, it's not so much that you do it for a long time, as that you also use a full round of EFT to clear up the long term causes of the anxiety - and that is permanent, and quick!

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While EFT has produced remarkable clinical results, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage and thus practitioners and the public must take complete responsibility for their use of it.

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