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From the archived Rick and Carol EFT podcast series. The series is complete.
Episode #26 – Body-Mind Pain Relief with Tapping
If using energy tapping on the physical symptoms alone is not bringing you relief, it’s time to ask yourself a few key questions:
- How do these symptoms make me feel emotionally?
- Where else in my life, past or present, have I felt the same way?
Emotional reasons complicate and even block the healing of physical pain. Listen as Carol Look and Rick Wilkes ask key questions to help you connect the dots and make any emotional connections conscious. Once an emotional connection is conscious, it makes it far easier to use tapping to clear the distress and bring yourself relief.
Companion Guide
When tapping only on a physical symptom does not bring relief, another approach is to ask what the pain makes you feel emotionally and where else that feeling appears in your life. Pain that feels constricting might echo a relationship where you feel trapped. A symptom that leaves you feeling weak and small might resonate with an old or current experience of being diminished.
This does not prove that an emotion caused a medical condition. It uses the body’s language as a doorway into distress that may deserve attention alongside appropriate medical care.
This Guide Helps With
- finding emotional specificity when physical-symptom tapping feels stuck
- connecting a bodily experience with a relationship or event
- distinguishing useful clues from claims about medical causation
- choosing a specific tapping target
- recognizing when another person’s perspective may help
Ask What the Pain Makes You Feel Like
Begin with the felt experience rather than the diagnosis:
- What does this pain make me feel like?
- Do I feel weak, small, trapped, burdened, attacked, unsupported, or unable to move?
- Where else in my present life do I feel that way?
- When have I felt this before?
- Who comes to mind?
The first answer may be the most recent situation, not the strongest one. Ask “who else?” or “where else?” and note the two or three connections that carry the most intensity.
Look for a Specific Event
“My boss makes me feel small” is a useful theme. A specific meeting, facial expression, sentence, or decision is a better tapping target. Picture the person, tell the story, and notice where the emotional intensity rises.
Timing can also be a clue. Did the relationship stress and the symptom change occur near each other? You are not constructing a diagnosis. You are looking for emotionally charged material that your system may be holding.
Let Curiosity Lead
Metaphors such as “a pain in the neck,” “carrying the weight,” or “unable to stomach it” can open a door. Treat them as invitations, not universal formulas. If a metaphor does not resonate, discard it.
You can tap while reading or telling the story aloud. If first-person language is too intense, describe yourself in the third person for a while. If the material becomes overwhelming or involves trauma, work with a trauma-informed professional rather than pushing through alone.
Tapping: From “Weak and Small” Toward Strength
Replace “weak and small” with the emotional words your body gave you.
Side of the Hand: Even though this pain in my body makes me feel weak and small, and it reminds me of that relationship, I choose to meet myself with care.
Even though I have felt weak and small at other times, I deeply and completely accept who I am.
Even though I hate this feeling in my body and in my life, I accept what I am noticing right now.
Top of the Head: This pain makes me feel weak and small.
Eyebrow: Just like that relationship.
Side of the Eye: They carry a similar feeling for me.
Under the Eye: I remember that specific moment.
Under the Nose: I felt so diminished then.
Chin: My body brings me back to the same feeling.
Collarbone: I can listen without deciding what caused what.
Under the Arm: I am tending to the distress that is here.
Top of the Head: I want to feel stronger.
Eyebrow: I want to feel more choice.
Side of the Eye: I can imagine the support I needed then.
Under the Eye: I can set a boundary or ask for help now.
Under the Nose: I can let my body and mind be on the same team.
Chin: I do not have to force a result.
Collarbone: I welcome whatever honest relief is available.
Under the Arm: I can care for both the physical and emotional experience.
Take a breath. Recheck the physical sensation and the remembered event separately. Notice what changed and what new detail wants attention.
When You Need Another Vantage Point
We cannot always see our own strongest associations. A trusted practitioner, therapist, or coach may notice a doorway that is difficult to reach alone. Medical symptoms should also be evaluated and treated by qualified clinicians.
This body-mind inquiry is not a substitute for either kind of care. It is a way to bring unconscious emotional material into a compassionate, workable conversation.
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