Tapping Through Transition: How to Create a Consistent Practice When Life Is Changing Fast

I recently received this heartfelt message from Sara that I wanted to share with you:

“I used tapping for the first time a couple of months ago after hearing about it from Kris Carr/Gabrielle Bernstein/Marie Forleo. I tried it for some lower back pain that I have been dealing with for years…and guess what?! No pain since! I can tell that this is something special, something I want to be a part of. Right now I am making some large, somewhat difficult life choices (moving across the country to be closer to my family, leaving my boyfriend until he can save enough to come out, and turning down an amazing job opportunity so that I can make the move). I have been extremely stressed and homesick for a long while and don’t feel that I am my healthiest here, which is why I have decided to make the move. I am anxious about the whole situation and how it will turn out — I need help finding some peace. My difficulty with tapping only stems from my not committing to doing it regularly. I do believe it could help me release this anxiety if I could only make it happen daily! Help! (And thanks so much.)”

Sara, first of all, congratulations on your incredible results with Tapping for your back pain! These kinds of “one and done” experiences are more common than people realize, and they’re often what first convinces people of Tapping’s power. You’ve experienced firsthand what happens when your nervous system gets a chance to reset and release a pattern that’s been running for years.

Now you’re facing something equally challenging but quite different—major life transitions that come with a complex mix of emotions: excitement about returning home, guilt about the job opportunity, worry about your relationship, and anxiety about the unknown. And you’ve recognized something profoundly important: Tapping could help you navigate this transition with greater peace and clarity if you could just make it a consistent practice.

Let’s talk about why establishing this habit feels challenging right now, and how to make it happen, especially during this time of significant transition in your life.

Why Habits Are Hardest to Form During Transitions (When We Need Them Most)

The irony doesn’t escape me: the very times we most need supportive practices like Tapping are often the exact moments when establishing those habits feels nearly impossible.

There’s actually a neurological reason for this. When we’re going through major life transitions, our nervous systems are already functioning at capacity. The brain is working overtime to:

• Process the emotions associated with big changes
• Navigate practical logistics (like moving arrangements)
• Adjust to the uncertainty of what’s ahead
• Maintain current responsibilities while preparing for future ones

It’s as if your brain’s bandwidth is completely maxed out, making it difficult to incorporate anything new—even something helpful. This is why many people abandon self-care practices precisely when they need them most.

The good news? Understanding this pattern is the first step to overcoming it. And Tapping is uniquely equipped to help because it works directly with your nervous system, creating more capacity right from the start.

The Transition Threshold: Why Your Brain Resists New Habits Now

Think of your capacity to handle stress like a cup. During major life transitions, that cup is already nearly full. The thought of adding one more thing—even something beneficial like daily Tapping—can feel like the drop that will cause everything to spill over.

This resistance isn’t a sign of weakness or lack of commitment. It’s actually your brain trying to protect you by conserving energy during a demanding time. When your nervous system is in a state of high activation (which happens during significant life changes), it automatically prioritizes what it perceives as essential for survival and deprioritizes everything else.

The challenge is that your brain, particularly the primitive part responsible for your stress response, can’t distinguish between:

• Tasks that will drain you further (like endlessly scrolling social media to avoid your feelings)
• Practices that will actually create more capacity (like Tapping)

This is where the wisdom of your higher brain needs to override the protective but sometimes misguided impulses of your primitive brain.

From “One More Thing” to “The First Thing”: Reframing Tapping

The key breakthrough comes when we stop seeing Tapping as “one more thing to fit in” and start recognizing it as “the thing that creates space for everything else.”

Think about your experience with back pain. You didn’t just experience physical relief—you likely also had more energy, better sleep, and improved mood once that persistent pain was gone. That extra capacity didn’t come from working harder; it came from removing a persistent drain on your system.

The same principle applies to emotional stress. Tapping isn’t just another task on your to-do list; it’s the practice that can free up substantial mental and emotional bandwidth by releasing anxiety, worry, and overwhelm.

When you Tap to release the stress about your move, you’re not just feeling better momentarily. You’re actually:

• Improving your decision-making abilities
• Enhancing your capacity to be present with loved ones
• Creating space for creativity and problem-solving
• Supporting your physical health and immune system
• Increasing your resilience for whatever challenges arise

Let’s use Tapping right now to begin shifting this perspective:

The “Micro-Moment” Method: Making Tapping Happen Even During Overwhelm

When we’re going through transitions, trying to carve out 20-30 minutes for a long Tapping session can feel impossible. The good news is that you don’t need to. Research on habit formation shows that consistency matters more than duration, especially in the beginning.

I’d like to introduce you to what we might call the “Micro-Moment Method” for establishing a Tapping practice during transitions. The idea is simple: instead of trying to find a large chunk of time, look for natural “cracks” in your day where you can insert tiny Tapping sessions.

Here’s how it works:

1. Identify Your Transition Triggers

These are moments in your day that are already transitions between activities. They’re perfect opportunities for micro-Tapping because they’re already breaking points in your attention. Some examples include:

• The moment you turn off your alarm in the morning
• While waiting for your coffee to brew or tea to steep
• Right after you get in your car, before starting the engine
• While waiting for your computer to boot up
• Right before or after a meal
• Before you turn out the light at night

2. Start With Just 30 Seconds

Yes, 30 seconds! That’s all it takes to begin rewiring your nervous system. You can do a quick round through all the points, or even just tap on one point while taking a few deep breaths. Even a minimal intervention sends powerful signals to your brain that it’s safe to relax.

3. Use “Portable Points” When Necessary

When you can’t do the full sequence, focus on these highly accessible points that you can tap discreetly almost anywhere. You can also simply press on the points:

• The side of the hand
• The collarbone point
• The under the arm point (when your arms are crossed this point can be easy to tap or press)

4. Connect Tapping to Existing Habits

Habit researchers call this “habit stacking” — connecting a new habit to an established one. For example:

• “After I brush my teeth, I will tap for 30 seconds.”
• “Before I check my phone in the morning, I will tap for one minute.”
• “While my coffee is brewing, I will tap through one round.”

5. Lower the Bar to “Ridiculously Easy”

Make your initial Tapping goal so easy it feels almost silly. Maybe it’s just tapping on a few points while taking a deep breath. When you set the bar this low, you remove the internal resistance that comes with feeling overwhelmed.

The beauty of this approach is that once you start, you’ll often want to continue for longer than your minimum commitment. But on the hardest days, you still meet your goal with just a few seconds, and you’ll keep the momentum of the daily habit.

Tapping Specifically for Transition Anxiety

Now let’s use Tapping to address the specific anxiety you’re feeling about your move, relationship, and career decisions. I’ve designed this sequence to help you process the complex emotions that come with major life transitions.

From One-Time Relief to Ongoing Resilience: Understanding the Two Types of Tapping Results

Your experience with back pain is the “one and done” kind of result — where a single session resolves an issue completely. These dramatic results happen most often with:

• Physical pain with an emotional component
• Specific phobias or fears
• Single traumatic memories

But many of life’s challenges, especially complex transitions with multiple moving parts, benefit more from ongoing Tapping — where regular practice builds capacity over time. Think of it like the difference between:

• Taking antibiotics for an infection (one course, then done)
• Regular exercise for cardiovascular health (ongoing practice for sustained results)

Your transition requires the ongoing, layered approach, where each Tapping session builds on the previous one, gradually upgrading your nervous system’s ability to handle change and uncertainty with more ease.

When Life Feels Like Tetris: The Last Block Principle

One final concept that might help: I think of managing major life transitions like playing Tetris. Just when the screen is nearly full and it seems impossible to fit another piece, that’s precisely when you need to be most strategic about where and how you place the next block.

In Tetris, sometimes adding just the right piece in just the right place causes multiple rows to clear simultaneously, creating space and relieving pressure throughout the system.

Tapping can be that piece.

When strategically applied at key moments in your transition, a brief Tapping session can clear multiple “rows” of stress simultaneously, creating space you didn’t know was possible.

The trick is seeing Tapping not as another block to fit in, but as the piece that helps clear the board.

A Commitment You Can Keep: The Two-Minute Promise

Rather than trying to commit to extended daily Tapping sessions right now, I’d like to suggest what I call the “Two-Minute Promise.” It works like this:

1. Commit to just two minutes of Tapping each day — that’s all
2. If you want to do more after those two minutes, wonderful
3. If not, you’ve still kept your commitment
4. Do this for just one week initially

What makes this approach so powerful is that it’s sustainable even during the most chaotic times, and it builds the neural pathways that make Tapping a natural response to stress.

Your two daily minutes of Tapping are literally rewiring your brain’s stress response, one tap at a time.

A Final Thought: Peace Isn’t the Absence of Transition

As you navigate this significant life change, remember that the goal isn’t to eliminate all stress or anxiety. Some stress is a natural part of growth and transition. The goal is to process that stress efficiently so it doesn’t accumulate in your nervous system.

Tapping gives you a powerful tool to discharge stress in real-time, preventing it from building up and affecting your health, decision-making, and relationships.

Your initial experience with back pain shows that your body and mind are already responsive to Tapping. That same capacity for healing and release is available to you as you navigate this transition — not just as a one-time intervention, but as an ongoing resource for resilience.

Resources to Support Your Tapping Practice During Transition

• The Tapping Solution App — Offers guided sessions specifically for anxiety, major life changes, and finding peace during transitions. I’d recommend starting with these meditations:
  • I’m Stressed About Change
  • I’m Stressed About Uncertainty
  • Help Me Trust My Decisions
  • Releasing Self-Doubt
  • From Fear and Worry to Peace

We also have lots of 2 minute long sessions, called Quick Taps. These sessions are great to help build the habit of Tapping into your life! Here are some that could be particularly helpful during this time of big changes:

• • I Take This One Step at a Time
  • I Trust Myself to Handle Things as They Come
  • I Allow Myself to Explore What Could Go Right
  • I Have the Confidence I Need to Get Started
  • I Am Clever and Resourceful
  • Release Overwhelm
  • Safe and Grounded

Note: You can access these meditations by clicking the links above using your mobile device, or type the name of the meditation into The Tapping Solution App’s search function.

• Find a Certified EFT Practitioner — If you’d like personalized support during this transition, working with a certified practitioner can be incredibly helpful, especially for navigating complex life changes.

I’d love to hear how these tips work for you during this transition. And for other readers, do you have any similar experiences or advice to share? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Until next time… Keep Tapping!
Nick Ortner