Do you sleep well? Or do your thoughts or baby keep you up at night? EFT Tapping might be able to help. Tamara Donn tells us more.

Photo by William Farlow on Unsplash

Tamara Donn at Frazzled To Fabulous is helping stressed, overwhelmed and exhausted single parents to regain their calm, get more done and ace the school run without losing it and feeling guilty. Here, she gives us her guide to EFT Tapping for single parents.

Join Tamara’s Frolo Meetup on Monday March 20th at 8pm. Sign up on the Frolo app Meetups section.

EFT Tapping For Single Parents

What is EFT?

EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), also known as Tapping is:

• A simple, yet powerful tool to help you release negative beliefs and emotions
• An empowering DIY self-help technique
• It originates from the Traditional Chinese Medicine system and is like acupuncture without the use of needles. It involves tapping on the acupuncture points to release negative emotions
• Can also be used with an EFT practitioner to support you in releasing the root causes of your challenges
• It is like talk therapy with a physical component
• Has been shown to reduce cortisol levels. Read here for details of EFT research

Benefits of using EFT

• Freedom from negative emotions
• A side effect of tapping is that often physical symptoms improve too
• Better sleep
• Happier
• More energy
• Support your children release negative emotions eg sadness, jealousy, anger etc
• Tool for your children so they can help themselves feel better
• And so much more…

7 Ways To Deal With Single Parent Stress

The Problem For Single Parents

• Do you think about all the things on your to-do list?
  Do you worry about not being able to get back to sleep and being tired and grumpy in the morning?
• Do you worry about all the things you shouldn’t have said or done?
• And then do you oversleep or wake up exhausted and grumpy and need your caffeine or sugar hit before you can function?

The Solution

If you can relate here are 3 EFT tapping tips to start changing that pattern.

1) Tap for at least 5 minutes before you go to sleep. What should I tap on you ask? Tap on releasing the stresses of the day or/ and on having a great night sleep.

2) If you wake up in the night and can’t get back to sleep, tap again. If literal tapping wakes you up too much, touch each point and take a deep breath  to send you back to sleep. You don’t even have to use any words unless you are very awake or aggravated in some way.

3) Set the alarm at least 5 minutes earlier and tap to release exhaustion or to have a great day. If you can’t tap because your baby or children need you, find a moment as soon after waking to tap. For some mums this isn’t until after drop off which is better than not tapping at all.

Photo by Yoann Boyer on Unsplash

Parents who tap every day for 5 minutes a day report:

• Feeling calmer
• Being more productive
• Being more present with their kids
• Stop needing that glass of wine or chocolate at the end of the day
• Stop spending money on themselves to make them feel better because they feel so good
• Others asking what they’ve been doing because they seem so happy!

EFT Tapping Instructions

• Choose a problem to work on (eg stress)
• Rate the level of intensity of the problem on a scale from 0 (least) to 10 (most)
• Optional step for better result: Notice where you feel the problem in your body and what the sensation is there eg achy shoulders, tightness in my stomach etc
• Tap on the side of your hand while repeating the setup statement 1-3 times eg “Even though I have this stress and tightness in my stomach, I deeply and completely accept myself”
• Tap through each of the points repeating a reminder phrase eg “stress and tightness in my stomach”
• Repeat the above step
• Rate the intensity of the problem on a scale from 0 to 10
• If the level has gone down – great, repeat the process to reduce it further
• If the level has gone up, don’t worry! It is probably because this problem has been supressed and is not coming to your conscious awareness.
• DON’T STOP TAPPING! Do another round to start bringing the intensity down.
• If the level has stayed the same, bring in more details so for example “Even though I am stressed about making Christmas dinner and I can feel it on the right side of my stomach which feels like a tight knot the size of an orange, I deeply and completely accept myself”. If this doesn’t help, read this troubleshooting page for more tips: rebrand.ly/troubleshoot
• Keep going until the intensity has gone
• For 1-2-1 sessions or EFT workshops go here: tamaradonn.com
• Happy Tapping!

EFT Tapping: How-To Guide

How to get started

• Choose the tip that seems easiest to implement to start with. Commit to doing it every day for a week. Tweak it as necessary. Once you feel ready, incorporate the next tip that seems possible. Choose any or all of the following to help you keep going:
• Put post-its around your home or alarms on your phone to remind you
• Ask a friend to be your accountability partner to remind each other
• Get your kids/ partner on board and do it with them

Check out Tamara’s YouTube channel youtube.com/@TamaraDonnEFT

For more information about EFT and how it can help you and for information about the book Frazzled to Fabulous in 5 Minutes a Day, go to frazzledtofabulous.com.

Join Tamara’s Frolo Meetup on Monday March 20th at 8pm. Sign up on the Frolo app Meetups section.

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