TAPPING FOR TEENS

Your teenage years are a HUGE time in brain development and for many adolescents (and caregivers) it can be a tough time to navigate.

Brain changes during the early teen years set up four qualities of our minds during adolescence: novelty seeking, social engagement, increased emotional intensity, and creative exploration. There are changes in the fundamental circuits of the brain that make the adolescent period different from childhood. Each of these changes is necessary to create the important shifts that happen in our thinking, feeling, interacting, and decision-making during adolescence.

This video by Dr Dan Siegel explains exactly what happens to the brain:

For any teen these changes are a big transition to go through so it's normal to experience worries, anxiety or negative thinking. Tapping is a powerful tool to help process your emptions and overcome your anxious, negative thoughts - perfect for teens! Watch the video below to see how easy it is to nurture your wellbeing.

If you’re a teenager, parent or caregiver and would like some more support please get in touch kim@happyheads.me I would love to help xx

WHAT IS TAPPING AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

What is tapping and how does it work? This is a question I get asked a lot and something i'm always very passionate about answering. I've been an Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping) practitioner for nearly 7 years now and the results I see with my clients never fails to amaze me. Seeing the huge realisations and shifts that they have is always so inspiring. Even during group workshops and retreats when I have no idea what anyone is personally working on tapping has powerful results.

WHAT IS TAPPING?

Your body is filled with a very complex nervous system that is connected to your brain my something called the vagus nerve - your mind and body are completely interconnected. Where these energy (meridian) lines begin and end they are closer to the surface of your skin so you can physically tap on them to release the negative tension that you're holding in both your body and your mind.

Tapping is based on the combined principles of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology. It's also part neuro linguistic programming (using your voice to rewire your brain) which is why it is so powerful at helping you overcome your anxious, negative thoughts and it's amazing at helping you get to the core route of a problem. You're bringing your nervous system back into balance by physically tapping on your body while enabling your brain to process whatever it is that you are working on. You're healing the body AND the mind at the same time, which is why it's so effective.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The basic Tapping technique requires you to focus on a negative emotion or specific problem at hand. This could be an anxiety, negative belief, fear, phobia, grief, worry or any difficult emotion or situation that you want to work on. While maintaining your mental focus on this issue, you then use your fingertips to tap 5-7 times on 9 specific meridian points of the body.

THE PROCESS

Identify the issue you want to work on

• Rate the emotional intensity of the feeling on a scale of 0 - 10

• Tap on your karate chop and repeat the statements...

• "Even though I have this (insert problem here)______________ , I love and accept myself anyway"

• "Even though I have this (insert problem here)______________ , that's ok, i'm human"

• "Even though I have this (insert problem here)______________ , I love my body and I love my mind"

• Then move around the points of the body using language connected to the issue (e.g "this anxiety, this tension in my body, it's exhausting, its holds me back..."

• After two rounds take a deep breath (in through nose out through mouth) and rate the intensity of the emotion

• Keep doing the rounds until your number has reduced. Use language that directly targets the problem and only move to positive affirmations when it has reduced.

If you’re interesting in doing tapping and would like a 1:1 session please get in touch kim@happyheads.me xx

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HOW WE CAN HELP OUR KIDS POST PANDEMIC

I wrote an article for the brillaint Parentfolk about how we can support children and teens mental health and wellbeing post pandemic. You can check out the full article HERE on page 48-49.

TEACHING CHILDREN MEDITATION

There is nothing normal about the world we live in right now so it’s no surprise that lots of children and parents are feeling anxious, stressed and overwhelmed. Happy Heads teaches people how to stop, pause and breathe - empowering you with simple tools and techniques that reduce anxiety, build confidence and help to release worries.

The 30 minute workshop below includes breathing techniques, guided meditation and Emotional Freedom Technique (also know as Tapping). EFT is a powerful way to help release tension held in both body and mind and overcome any negative thoughts that children or parents may be having right now…

TEACH CHILDREN COMPASSION

If we want to create real change in the world, it is the duty of all parents to teach children compassion towards their fellow humans who have a different colour skin to theirs (especially if you are a white parent). Children are so quick to learn, they are born with an abundance of love and acceptance and they are always curious. It’s important to feed this curiosity so that they learn about other cultures and most importantly how all humans are equal. 

A really lovely meditation to do with children to boost their compassion towards others is called 'Beam of Love’. They can sit or lie down then gently ask them to close their eyes (don’t worry if they don’t children are amazing at using their imagination even with eyes open). Then get them to place both hands on their chest and gently guide them to take a few deep breathes (in through nose out through mouth) imagining that their out breath is like the wind blowing through the leaves.

Guide them to imagine their is a golden ball of light under their hands and this ball of light is filled with love. Ask them to think of someone they think might need some love right now. Ask them to think about why this person might need some love and then slowly guide them to imagine the ball of light is beaming from their heart centre and travelling over to the person they’re thinking of. Get them to imagine the light completely surrounding that person making them feel loved, special and reminding them how amazing they are.

Finish by saying that when we share our love for others, it also makes us feel good so get them to imagine the loving beam of light is now making them feel happy and calm. This is a really lovely meditation for any child to do and afterwards you can talk about who they were thinking about. 

Here are some great resources for books that help teach your child about diversity:

7 Books to Help Talk to Your Kids About Racism, as Recommended by Black Authors

Follow https://www.instagram.com/marklemonofficial/

Follow https://www.instagram.com/multiculturalkidsbooks/

https://www.citykidsmagazine.co.uk/2020/06/03/anti-racist-books-for-kids/

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