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Where the Tapping Points Are · Lydia Nicole's Acting Smarter Now Podcast

• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: The the points that we use in in emotional frame technique are we start with the eyebrow point, right at the beginning of the eyebrow, and that's uh the bladder, and it's generally associated with sadness or trauma.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: I need that, Brett.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: I need that.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Then the uh the the gallbladder associated with anger or resentment.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right under the eye is the stomach merdian associated with fear.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Under the nose is what's called the uh governing merdian, and it runs over this way, and it's often associated with it with embarrassment or humiliation.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Under the mouth is the central uh merdian, and this is associated with guilt and shame.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So these two are pretty intense for actors, I would say.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we we hang out with uh humiliation, we uh shame, more so than anger, we're stuck here a lot of time.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh am I making that up?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Am I making that up?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's that makes sense.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and and right around our mouth, which is one of our primary tools.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, unless you're a mime, that's as an actor, your mouth is pretty important.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Very important for some.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Those are those mouth actors who do a lot with their mouths.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Then there's the uh collarbone point, which is along the kidney meridian, and this is again associated with fear.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And ultimately, all of the uncomfortable emotions have fear underneath them.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, ultimately there's there's there's love and there's fear.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what doesn't feel like love has fear related, but you know, as actors, we use the whole spectrum of emotions that that are all of those other manifestations of fear.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then under the arm and uh this is the spleen, and it's associated with low self-esteem.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Another good one for actors to get that stuff out!
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then finally the top of the head, which is uh a meeting point for a lot of the meridians.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Just a lot, a lot of the meridians cross over the top of the head.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a lot of great.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: I use all of my fingertips and tap around in around the crown of the head and just sort of cover that whole area.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the top is for tell me what is it it's associated with all kinds of different things because it's several different meridians.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it is so there's no it's not one specific uh emotion that that that's now when Dr.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Callahan first came up with thought field therapy, he would try to figure out which specific Meridian points should be used and uh for the presenting issue of the patient.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: So he would tap maybe two or three points in different sequences to do that.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then when Gary Craig came along, he had his training as an engineer.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: And thinking like an engineer, he said, How do we simplify this?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: And let's just tap all of the points instead instead of wasting time trying to figure out which three points to tap in which particular sequence.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: What happens if we tap all the points just in a row?
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And he found he was getting the same great uh results.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that simplified version was called emotional freedom techniques.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, this is amazing.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I I'm just gonna veer off for a second because this year I've been really dealing with stuck emotion and learning how to let go of those emotions that you've been holding on because of trauma, childhood stuff.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: It started with, I think it's called fascia, where they just start touching, like not touching you, but they're like over their hands are over your body and they can tell where your energy is stuck.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's another technique called the emotion code, which deals with again the emotions.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as actors, this is so important that we can we can be free enough to tap into whatever emotions we need to deliver the performances that we need.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we hold all of that, we finish the job, but we're still keeping that stuff in.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: In an ideal world, there would be uh a tapping practitioner on every set so that an actor could feel free to really go into a scene knowing that they won't have to take it with them afterwards.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: That they can, okay, okay, great take, great.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, everybody, let's just let's just shake that out.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Let's let it go.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's why when I created a program for actors called Fearless Acting.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the idea was that to be able to act fearlessly, knowing I can let go of those, the different fears that hold me back.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: I partially because I know as at when I was an actor, I had a lot of fear holding me back, uh personally and uh creatively and professionally.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Stopped myself in all kinds of different ways.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so to be able to use this technique to one, clear the fear of making bold choices as an actor.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's we don't as an actor, we want to be able to make bold choices and experiment.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: We may find, okay, that was way over the top.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's not right at all, but I want to give myself the freedom.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to say, uh, you know, if I'm gonna play a song, write a song on a piano, I may only use one octave, but I don't want to start off saying, I that's all I've got is eight keys.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: I want to, I want to have all 88, you know, and and be able to explore that and then find, okay, but for this performance, for this, the the this is where I'm gonna hone in.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't want to narrow my options in case there's something there.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: So the tapping helps us clear out those past reasons, the past hurts, the embarrassment about where we might have looked foolish.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And we thought, okay, okay, I can't, I can't I have to play it safe.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: I can't look foolish.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And uh one of the great um stoic philosophers, Abaktitas, said, if you would be successful, be willing to look foolish.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And nowhere is that more true than as an actor.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: As we clear that fear of looking foolish, then we give ourselves permission to find, okay, where do I really want to go in this moment?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk a little bit more about your program that you had, Fearless Acting.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: How did you start the actor off in that program?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I I'd done a few workshops.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: After I learned EFT, I wanted to take this to actors because actors are my tribe.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: These are my people.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: So uh, and knowing wow, this would have really helped me when I was still an actor.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I did a couple of workshops.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then years later, I uh a woman who was a fan of my work uh was a member of the actors' studio in New York.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: And she actually arranged for me to come in and teach a class at the actors' studio.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: So this was like, you know, as a as an acting student, this is Mecca.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: And and and Ellen Burston was in the audience uh as I as I taught this.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: So that was amazing.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then what happened, how we formulated the program was she uh uh she's also an acting teacher, uh Dina Tyler.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: She came up with uh about 31 different issues that come up for an actor, like you know, fear of rejection, uh fear of not getting the job, all kinds of different things.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I then created a tapping round for each of those.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a daily thing.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we released it originally live on in a Facebook group.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: So each day there was a new tapping round, and at the end of each week, we would come together with the student live and uh and do QA and a little bit of tapping on that.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that was how this particular uh fearless acting program was uh was created, and now it's just recorded and available.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say the top five issues for actors are?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have I have my little list, but I'm curious to know what you think.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to say because it it differs for different folks.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: There are some people who have as human beings, I think the number one issue is not being good enough, feeling unworthy.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: And certainly as an actor, that that can be you know devastating for a career because I'm not worthy of the job, I'm not worthy of being seen, I'm not worthy of success, whatever it might be.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: And yet still there's something inside of it.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: And there are some people who get into acting because, yeah, I'm not worthy, so I want to pretend to be somebody who is.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's a way for me to be someone other than my miserable self.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And ideally, we want to get past that because our true selves are awesome.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And as we allow ourselves to know that, then we can share that in all kinds of different ways.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, but it manifests in different ways for different people.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: There, there are some people who the biggest thing is I I just can't audition.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm just terrible with auditions.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And other people, it's like that's my favorite part.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: I love auditioning.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: So um fear of being seen is is a major one.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, even though it's like, oh, I'm an actor.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: I that's being seen is the job.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's still a huge fear for uh for actors as just as it is for any human being.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: It has never occurred to me that actors would be afraid of being seen.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: They're afraid of not being seen, but it never would occur to me that they are afraid of being seen.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Early on as an actor, I I hid behind a role because I was afraid of being seen.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't afraid of, you know, the character Bob that I was playing.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: He can be seen, but Brad can't be seen.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: And as an actor, if you not can't allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to be seen like that, it's gonna, you know, you're you're operating with at least one hand tied behind your back.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Can we do a few exercises, a few tapping things?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start with worthiness.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what can we do to get ourselves in state to be worthy?
• 11:44
  unknown: Yeah.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or feel worthy, not be.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because we are worthy.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because we are, yeah.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: We are, but feeling the feeling of being.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: If you are here, that is because the universe, God, source, creator, however you identify that, has put its stamp of approval on you, you're already worthy.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the rest is just misunderstandings.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: So uh let me first I'll I'll show you the basics of EFT.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because when I introduce EFT, if I do it the way I do it, it's a very free-form improvisational kind of thing.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: And folks will say, Wow, how do you come up with the wording?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: EFT is really complicated.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's just the way that I do it.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: The very basic EFT is you look at whatever the issue is.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: So let's say you have an audition coming up tomorrow and you're feeling really nervous.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm really nervous.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then I would say on a scale of zero to ten, uh, wow, I'm I'm pretty nervous.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's an eight.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And ideally, notice what the physical sensations are.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my heart is pounding, uh, my palms are sweaty, whatever it might be.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we then start the process by taking the uh fingertips of our index and middle finger on our dominant hand and then tapping on the side of our opposite hand.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: And we'd say, even though I'm nervous, I choose to love and accept myself.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: I choose to love and accept myself.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: So with the tapping, I'm also speaking.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not just, it's not just a tap, tap, but although the tapping by itself is helpful because this process of tapping is sending these calming signals to the brain.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're if you're ever experiencing some kind of nerve, uh nervousness or fear or discomfort or whatever it might be, just tapping will help to calm that down.