Calm Your Nervous System with Tapping
- Jenna Binkle
- Jun 10
- 3 min read
In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to feel just… off. Many of us live in a near-constant state of stress, without realizing how much this impacts our mood, digestion, skin, sleep, and overall health. One simple and powerful tool I always recommend to my clients is tapping—also known as Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). This free, accessible practice is a gentle way to help regulate your nervous system and tone your vagus nerve.
What Is Tapping?
Tapping is a self-regulation tool that combines acupressure points with verbal affirmation or focus. By rhythmically tapping specific points on the body, you send calming signals to the brain and body. It’s often used for stress relief, trauma healing, emotional processing, and even chronic pain.
The tapping points used in this technique include:
Top of the head
Forehead (third eye area)
Under the eyes
Philtrum (the groove above the upper lip)
Chin
Chest (center or thymus area)
In front of the underarms (about four inches below the armpit)
Stomach (solar plexus area)
Back of the hands (between the pinky and ring finger area)
Each of these points is believed to correspond with energetic meridians used in traditional Chinese medicine. By tapping them in sequence, you’re signalling to the body: “You’re safe.”
The Vagus Nerve and Why It Matters
The vagus nerve is the main highway of communication between your brain and your body. It helps regulate your heart rate, digestion, immune response, and emotional state. When your vagus nerve is well-toned, you bounce back from stress more easily and feel calmer, clearer, and more connected.
The Three Branches of the Vagus Nerve:
Dorsal Vagal Branch – The oldest evolutionary branch, connected to the freeze response. It's part of the central nervous system and plays a role in shutting things down when you’re overwhelmed.
Sympathetic Nervous System – Not a branch of the vagus nerve, but closely linked. This is your fight or flight state.
Ventral Vagal Branch – The newest part of the vagus nerve, involved in rest, digest, and social connection. This is where we want to be most of the time.
Tapping works by gently nudging the body out of fight or flight (sympathetic dominance) and into ventral vagal safety, where healing, digestion, and clear thinking can occur.
Why Tapping Helps
When you tap regularly, you're essentially training your nervous system to respond to stress differently. Over time, you may notice:
Reduced anxiety and overwhelm
Better digestion
Improved sleep
More emotional resilience
Clearer skin (yes, your nervous system impacts that too!)
It’s not about silencing your stress, but about repatterning your response to it.
Other Lifestyle Tips to Tone Your Vagus Nerve
While tapping is one of the most effective free tools I recommend, here are other science-backed ways to support your vagus nerve:
Cold exposure (like a splash of cold water on the face or a cold shower)
Humming, chanting, or singing
Gargling (stimulates the vagus through the throat muscles)
Deep diaphragmatic breathing
Walking in nature or grounding with bare feet
Gentle touch or massage around the neck and shoulders
Laughter and connection with loved ones
These small lifestyle shifts help your body remember what it feels like to be safe—truly safe—and operate from a place of balance.
Final Thoughts
Tapping is something I always recommend to my clients because it’s simple, free, and effective. You can do it anywhere, anytime, and over time it helps rewire your nervous system for calm. Whether you're working on skin conditions, stress, digestion, or energy, tapping is a beautiful way to build a sense of safety in the body.
Want to try it? Just place your hands on your chest, take a breath, and start tapping gently on the top of your head. Say to yourself: “Even though I feel overwhelmed, I am safe.” Then move through the other points with kindness and intention.
Your nervous system is listening.
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