Remember that old saying that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words?’ Well, it turns out EFT Picture Tapping embodies that old wisdom.
Where did that old saying originally come from? Who knows…
But I’ve found it to be astonishingly true when it comes to tapping. Sometimes when we’re dealing with some stubborn habit, stressful belief, thought or feeling, we can feel like there’s just no way to clear it. That’s when picture tapping can help (it also helps when you’re not feeling utterly desperate too).
How does it work? First, let’s briefly unpack the mechanics of it. Then I’ll share my most recent experience with it.
How Does it Work?
The human brain really doesn’t understand verbal language very well. Especially when we’re talking about the survival centers in the brain. They’re the oldest parts of the brain, and they are wired to protect us from harm. It’s what the sympathetic part of our central nervous system responds to.
And that part of our brain was wired into us a very long time before we developed verbal language. So it really doesn’t understand talking-language all that easily. (That’s why talk-therapy for trauma survivors is pretty ineffective, usually with only limited success).
So what does the survival centre of our brain understand?
Images. Sensory information from our five senses. Any information from any of these sensory channels can trigger our survival response, if there’s a possible or perceived threat.
Think about how powerful a specific scent… or seeing… or hearing something that reminds you of an earlier experience can be. It can be extraordinarily visceral. If it’s a wonderful past experience, this can be such a beautiful reminder.
But if it’s connected to an earlier trauma, it can thrust us unwillingly into a full-blown flashback or a panic attack. (In Hacking Reality, these flashbacks and panic attacks are the breaching of an earlier trauma capsule. And when that happens, it’s an opportunity to heal, to bring into completion, the suffering of a Younger Self).
Either way, our senses provide our brains with powerful stimuli that gets processed first and foremost through the survival centers in our brain. It has to be that way, since survival trumps everything.
What’s this got to do with tapping?
Well, in a very general sense, when we tap on anything, it works most effectively when we use specific sensory information. Our sensory information (what we’re seeing, hearing, feeling/touching, smelling, and/or tasting) are like clues that help us access our subconscious layers that are connected to whatever is happening in the Now.
Think of our sensory information as keys, that can help us spring open the door into our subconscious, where we can then clean out some old ‘unfinished business.’
Sometimes, even when we’re using sensory information and clearing out smaller aspects of a ‘big problem’ we are facing, it’s still not enough. What can we do then?
A picture is worth a thousand words…
Sometimes it’s far more valuable than just 1,000 words. Here’s an example from my own life. And how powerful picture tapping has been for me.
Almost a full year ago, something really horrendous happened in my life. It was staggering. Really unimaginably awful. And quite unexpected for me.
It had to do with a relationship in my family. Without describing the details (I could write an entire book about it!), I’ll just say that when it happened, I felt like Humpty Dumpty, being almost violently shoved off my wall and smashed into smithereens at the bottom. There was absolutely no way of putting myself back together. I knew that.
From a Human Design perspective, I had just been shoved by my vehicle (my body) into awareness of many aspects of living in my not-self. All at once.
From a Hacking Reality perspective, a whole bunch of my trauma capsules had just been unceremoniously smashed. And there were so many Younger Selves who were now all simultaneously clamouring for attention. Demanding my attention.
Recognizing an opportunity – to grow through my pain
To say I was overwhelmed really doesn’t capture what it felt like.
It felt like I had ‘no choice.’ I could not look away, given the intensity. It felt impossible to ignore, minimize or pretend they weren’t there. I was emotionally tripping over them, multiple times every day… and having dreams (when I could manage to sleep) every night.
So, as you might imagine, I felt extremely motivated to tap. Consequently, for this past year, I have been tapping almost every day, sometimes for a couple of hours at a time. Talking about what I was experiencing as I tapped furiously.
It might have been able to happen more quickly had I been tapping with a practitioner. But that’s hindsight. And speed isn’t everything. Sometimes (for me anyway) speed means I end up missing some important details and need to retrace my steps.
It worked anyway, given my ongoing persistence (read need there – in my Human Design I am motivated by need).
The many, many layers of my old traumas began to transform, to come into a new completion. My Younger Selves were extremely helpful. They were also motivated by their relentless experience of unending suffering. They couldn’t resolve their experience of trauma without me helping them with tapping.
Nonetheless, even after all that tapping, there was a core of the onion that still seemed resistant to tapping. What to try next?
The power of images…
I’m working with a new client, who’s an artist. She’s very visual, including in her tapping sessions. Just like me, she ‘sees’ things. Images.
When we paid attention to the images, and tapped with them, she began to experience the transformation of what she had been struggling with.
In thinking about our next session together, my guides suggested picture tapping.
It made sense. I’ve done picture tapping a handful of times – and it’s always been extremely rewarding. Fun. Creative. And powerful, in transforming whatever I was working on.
So, I began reviewing and preparing for the session. I thought, I need to try it again myself, to get my body awareness awakened to it again.
My recent experiment with how EFT Picture Tapping is ‘worth a thousand words’: the nuts ‘n bolts of it
Immediately I thought of that family relationship issue I’ve struggled with for the past year. So, my first picture was about my anxiety about the situation. That gave my subconscious an opportunity to engage in the conversation with my conscious mind.
Here’s how that looked – with a description of each step in the EFT Picture Tapping process.
Step One of EFT Picture Tapping – 2 or 3 minutes only
Identify the feeling and rate it on a scale of 0 to 10 – how much are you feeling the intensity of this feeling.
Then GO. Pick up your pen/pencil (whatever) and just allow your subconscious to show you something.
My subconscious provided the image. I just drew whatever. It’s quite spontaneous.
It has nothing to do with being an artist, or performing, or for making something pretty, or artistic. Or any of the things we think about from our mind’s eye, about creating a picture.
No. This step is purely about listening and doing. We are following the guidance of our subconscious.
Remember, our subconscious, our body, has its own language. And it has nothing to do with words. It’s images, primal shapes. Primal scribbles. It might have colours. It might be just one colour, like a pen or pencil.
Here’s my first image. Thank you subconscious!
This was so helpful, seeing what I’d been feeling inside me for so long. It won’t make ‘sense’ to you – but it made a ton of sense to me. That’s ‘coz it came from my own personal subconscious, specifically for me.
Step 2 of EFT Picture Tapping
Then, I tapped on what I saw, in the physical shapes… on the emotions I felt looking at it… on my mental thoughts and beliefs… on the spiritual aspects that came through.
I just talked and tapped on whatever came through. My conscious mind responded to my unconscious mind’s picture communication. I just tapped and ‘translated’ (talked) about whatever I noticed.
After I felt my intensity had reduced to 0 – notice that on the picture above, I added my scores – initially 8/10 reactive to my anxiety about the situation. Then tapping. Then 0 (although anywhere from 0 to 2 is good to move to the next step). Time to shift into the next step.
Step 3 of EFT Picture Tapping – 3 to 5 minutes only
I like to tap on my collarbone point and ask my subconscious self – “What’s something that would help in this situation?” It could be an emotion or a remedy of some sort. It’s something that will help you shift into a new energy. And it’s not about what your conscious mind thinks.
This new picture comes from your subconscious.
So, allow your subconscious mind to share another image with you.
It’s always been surprising to me, the elegant and deep wisdom of what our deeper layer, our sub and unconscious minds, comes up with.
I’m including mine from yesterday.
I want you to notice that it’s messy. That it looks raw and imperfect. And that’s part of the perfection of it. It’s not meant to look like a ‘piece of art’ (although sometimes it might – but that’s not the point of this).
Step 4 of EFT Picture Tapping
This is the final step in the picture tapping process. There are a couple of variations on the theme here.
- You can put your earlier pictures together on your drawing surface. And ask your subconscious to create a new picture that includes elements of both the ‘problem’ and the ‘solution.’ Then use tapping and talking, to gain deeper clarity about the synthesis offered by your subconscious, about how the problem and solution bring you into a new realm of moving forward.
- Or, you can begin to integrate what you see in your second picture. Use tapping and talking as you look more deeply into that 2nd picture.
Either way, as you talk and tap about what you’re noticing, new aspects in the picture may come through (from your subconscious) that clarify something further through your conversation. Go ahead and add those aspects if you’d like. There’s no right and wrong in this. Follow your own inner intuition.
For me, yesterday – I added words in fuchsia ink to remind me of what the messages of the symbols hold for me.
Fascinatingly to me, what emerged had very much to do with deconditioning my root chakra… and leaning into the wisdom offered by my three defined but hanging gates, coming off my root chakra, pointing towards my sacral (which is entirely open). I hadn’t expected that.
Leaning into receiving self-love (held in the Algiz Rune on the upper left) and transforming into sharing peace (in the upper right) out into the world and to the others involved in this scenario, were part of the gifts offered to me by my subconscious.
There’s lots more – it’s all in the details… the colors used, the labyrinth pattern used. So much wisdom – all held in this one small and pretty simple image. A picture really is worth (at least) a thousand words!
When I tapped on what this image held for me, I stepped into more of my personal authenticity, my greater potential. It. Was. Awesome.
The Final Final Step of Picture Tapping
This is arguably the final, final step – it’s integrating what you’ve discovered into your life.
Pay attention to how your process of perceiving ‘what’s happening’ in your reality has shifted, as a result of your picture tapping. This step happens afterwards, in the coming days.
Notice what else happens now that you’ve released the emotional charge in that first image and replaced it with new energy. This is like over-writing an old script. The original is still ‘there’, but it no longer carries a charge. The new image now carries new energy.
For me (hilariously), this morning I got up way earlier than usual and quite spontaneously cleaned out my fridge. You may think that’s weird to connect cleaning my fridge with my picture tapping yesterday.
But here’s what I felt: I had new energy to do something I usually avoid. And it was very much connected to clearing out what was old and is no longer needed. My fridge is clean now (yay), with new space (both physically and symbolically) to nourish me with new, fresh and yummy food. Amazing.
My heart feels so much lighter today. I had such a wonderful night’s sleep last night, with new dreams showing me that transformation is happening in me – at both my subconscious and conscious levels. How great is that?
Some suggestions: potential ‘issues’ as you prepare for EFT picture tapping
- EFT Picture Tapping is NOT intended ‘just for artists.’
In fact, artists may have more challenges getting themselves (their conscious self) out of the way, to allow their subconscious mind to communicate with them.
- Similarly, if you have ‘control issues’ or ‘trust issues,’ it may be challenging to just open space to witness what the deeper layers of you want to share with you, to assist you in your journey. I suggest you tap on those aspects.
You can make a picture tapping picture about that – use it as your focus point for change.
- This is not about your mind creating a beautiful picture. Sometimes it’s just a scribble. Sometimes, it looks quite juvenile. (I have wondered if it’s sometimes a Younger Self from somewhere deep in our unconscious who’s sharing their young-self images with us). It’s not meant to look lovely. Or skillful as art goes.
4. It’s meant to communicate something powerfully. And when we take a deep breath, and slip into a mindful state, that meaning will appear. And that’s the gold nugget. We just need to be willing to follow and listen.
More tips on using EFT Picture Tapping to deepen with your picture message
- Whatever appears – a thought, word, image, belief, idea, sound – whatever it is, follow it.
- And keep tapping as you do this. Tap as you talk – about whatever you notice.
- Trust yourself. The meaning is already inside you.
- So, no matter what, hang in there. Be kind to yourself. Just allow you to witness something new, that could utterly change how you experience life. It’s worth any initial discomfort.
You can try this on your own. You can learn how your picture really is worth a thousand (or more!) words. And you can learn to ally yourself with your deeper body wisdom – your conscious self (“ego”) aligned with your unconscious self (body). Because that’s when life gets much easier.
Remember, you are the best resource you have. And you can do this! Think of it as an experiment – with zero expectations. That’s actually quite helpful in trying this out.
Or, if you’d prefer to work with someone else, just reach out to set up a session with me. I’d really love to support you on your journey in this way.
Want to read more about how Hacking Reality has helped me transform my life? Tap here.
