The Therapy Edit - One Thing with Poppy Delbridge on the transformative power of tapping

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

In this Friday guest episode of The Therapy Edit, Anna chats to Poppy Delbridge about the power of tapping and how it can bring your mind and body together and serve you in so many ways.Changing lives as a manifestation coach, speaker, author and tapping expert known as “the go to for public figures” (VOGUE) when it comes to personal development using energy psychology, Poppy has combined her 15 + year career as ‘one of the most powerful women in TV’ (Glamour) working with networks such as BBC, MTV, Netflix, ITV and Channel 4 as a Creative Executive with Pivot Into Power - her own 90 day creative process to unlock full potential, manifesting ‘all-round’ life success and wellbeing.You can learn more about Pivot into Power here.You can buy Poppy's book 'Tapping In, Manifest the life you want with the transformative power of tapping.' here.You can follow Poppy on Instagram here

Hello and welcome to The Therapy Edit with me, psychotherapist, mum of three and author Anna Martha. Every Friday, I invite one guest to tell me the one thing they would most like to share with mums everywhere. So join with me as we hear this dose of wisdom. I hope you enjoy it. Hi, everyone. Welcome to today's guest episode of the Therapy Adet. I'm really excited about today because I'm. I met Poppy Delbridge.

I already found her on Instagram and I was following her. I already felt like I knew her a little bit. And then I met her. We were on a panel together for hello. And right at the beginning of this amazing session, this panel session that we did, she stood up and she led us through a tapping session. And I have tried it before, but not done it religiously.

And I knew it was an amazing tool. But just witnessing the way that Poppy led us through this, what do you call it, Poppy? is it routine is it what is it what word do I use yeah routine or class right she let us through this routine she led us through this class and not only did I feel different I started with this kind of like anxious buzzy it's like socially anxious kind of you know adrenaline filled bod and ended up just feeling excited but kind of a little bit more still in myself and a bit more present and I could see that in the room anyway Poppy is the renowned thought leader in

well-being and rapid personal development. Loads of us like things done quick because we want to wedge it in and we want to get the results. So Poppy's right up the street if that resonates. Poppy is, as Elle magazine says, the tapping queen. Alongside her buzzy corporate tapping workshops and motivational speaking, she runs a 90-day program to manifest the life you want and it's called Pivot into Power. She combines tapping for raising limiting beliefs and coaching for creating results.

now you can delve into her book tapping in manifest the life you want with the transformative power of tapping which is on my reading list after meeting her at that event so yeah you can find her on instagram poppy delbridge and also at rapid tapping where you'll find lots of videos to enjoy and try but in the meantime we've got poppy with us so hi how are you doing hi how you doing thank you Anna that's all right how are you doing today pretty good yeah Good. Have you tapped today? I've tapped every day, you see. I'm a real, like, tap up. So I tap before I get out of bed. Okay. You're all about it. I would love you to just give us a tiny little lowdown before I ask you what your one thing is. For those listening who, and actually I think it has been in the press a bit more, thanks to you. And I think even someone was seen tapping in the jungle. Am I right? Yeah, Boy George is doing it in the jungle. Boy, George's tapping in the jungle. But for those listening, going, what are you talking about? What are you talking about?

What is it? So it's a mind-body technique. So how it works, I suppose, is it working with your mind because you're evoking feelings that are real that you feel. But at the same time as feeling those or saying words, which is the cognitive side of you, you tap on particular points, which are ends of the meridian. minds, which has its sort of roots back in acupuncture, acupressure. But essentially, you're dealing with getting emotion out of your body. Because when you go through life and things happen, as you know, you kind of lodge them. And very often we think it's just like, you know,

in our mind. But actually, what I have found is that it's also in your body. Your body is holding that information whether that's like a constant anxious feeling or not so so that is a technique that you use that's been around since 1980s and my way of using it is to use it to make us feel better really quickly so like how you use it every single day to get through all those moments

yeah and actually I think it's come at such a good time we've been through a real careful in our family is a lot of grief I'm experiencing and I'm feeling that often as very physically in my chest, like in the waves. So I definitely feel like the emotion is very much within my body at the minute. So I'm looking forward to kind of, yeah, thinking more about how I might help that through these tools. So with that in mind, with that little bit more insight into what tapping is, what's the one thing that you would love to share with all the moms, listen to this podcast?

Well, I reckon you can guess. tell us anyway I reckon I can guess yeah well as a mom and my son is pretty old now but I had him all the way through my previous career I used to do like creative process work for lots of big networks and TV stations

I always needed just a quick way to feel better really quickly because I was very in my head and I'm a real sinker so it was very hard for me to kind of like quickly get present and tapping of course, was the thing that really helped me.

So my one thing is like, please use rapid tapping as a tool. Don't think that you have to like deny all your emotions as they come up. The really brilliant thing about rapid tapping is that when you do have a feeling, you don't have to avoid it because the whole idea within minutes is that you can express that feeling like really safely and you know there's lots of clinical research around it it allows you to be present in the moment to deal with whatever you're dealing with and just by saying a few simple words and doing a few simple energy actions right which is tapping or doing a few others then you allow yourself to express that emotion as energy because that's what it is you know holding energy we are

energy. And that allows you to kind of go, okay, I can breathe. I'm a bit more present. I can do this. And then you can be. And so, you know, one of the things that I found tough being a mom, especially a single mom, a lot of his life, was that I didn't really have enough of those tools because I was really busy. I couldn't stop and meditate. I couldn't really go to the gym or do. I didn't have any time. So I would, you know, the reason I put my heart and soul into this rapid tapping, as an approach to tapping, don't necessarily need to come to me as a practitioner. Please just use your fingers, use your emotions and re-channel them so that you can really, really deal with emotions as they come up and then move into the things that you want to feel

in life a bit more. I love this. I love it. And I think creating tapping, like just, yeah, giving us a tool that is something that is massively accessible, even when we're kind of time-p pressured. something to add to our toolbox we always need more we always need more options so how can we then how can we integrate this into our lives what does it look like what does it mean to tap yeah so it's pretty it's pretty it's simple as a solution as a concept because what you can do is any point in your day like let's say you have a morning routine do you have a morning routine yeah yeah So you can sneak in a few minutes of tapping into that morning routine. And the way you would do that is there's a few things laid out my book,

so you can obviously get that and start going. But essentially, when you wake up, you can just start to acknowledge the way that you feel. So the first thing I do when I wake up, I call it like a morning flush, is like, how do I feel? Sometimes I wake up feeling good. Sometimes I wake up feeling really groggy. Or like, oh, I've got a lot to do today. And so I will take a moment, I'll put my hand over my chest, my heart centre.

I'll take a breath and then I'll move out to what we call the sore spots. And we'll self-massage there, like basically you butterfly your hands out and you push into what I call the sore spots. And what that does, is you're actually already regulating your nervous system. Because actually I'm doing it now, it does actually feel sore? Yeah, that's right. So you've got it. So you want it to feel sore and tender. I mean, in a good way.

You're kind of sore, but yeah, you know, when you're getting a massage and it's like in a sore spot, but you know you're doing something good, it feels like that. Yeah. Yeah. So when you're here, you can do what we call the three step. So you'd say, I feel. So in the morning, you know, let's say I feel groggy. Yeah. And then you'd say because. So a really important word because I think so often you kind of need to get a logical mind and gear of like what we're dealing with. know, so because I've got, even if it's as simple as I've got a hell of a lot to do today, you know, I'm dealing with stuff, and say it out loud. It's very important to say out loud to acknowledge, you. And then the third part of this is, while you're keeping on doing this self-massage, is you're doing it to then move yourself into possibility.

So you're moving your brain and your whole being into what could be possible for you. So I like to do this and say, but it is. possible for me to feel calm. And there's sort of a power in it. Yeah. And that's just the very first step. And then you would go through and you would tap to clear, first of all, so clear things that are coming up. So let's say, I'm feeling really tired. So you're tapping on your forehead right now with your, just with your fingers, kind of above, just above your nodes with both hands. That's what we're doing at the moment. Yeah. And then you'd move around to the different points. So the idea is you're saying a different particular statement at each

point. So you might say, I'm feeling really groggy. And then you move along, right? So this is what you can have a look at, you know, my Instagram has loads of them, but you kind of go through this quick clearing process in your day. But you don't, you don't forget that, you don't, you don't forget that you can sort of like flip yourself quickly using affirmations into something that feels a bit better for you. So for example, I'd say, right. And I can feel grateful for today. And it could be something really small, which I know you like, like small things are really important. And it's like, well, I can feel really good today because I'm having some nice breakfast. I'm going to take myself off on a walk today. I've got a really lovely pet. So it's just like, it's putting it into your body

that but often they'll be grateful when you sort of list it without any emotion to it. But this is about just taking that present moment, takes minutes, and then you feel good. It's resetting you. You could do that. I mean, even whilst you're just boiling the kettle. And I love, I love that three steps, that kind of that massage. So what you were doing is you're like crossing your arms over for those that aren't maybe watching a clip on Instagram. You've crossed your hands over and just kind of, where would you explain it to be? It's kind of like the sides of your sternum, isn't it? Those sore spots. like in your chest above your boobs and you're just doing some massage and you can feel where

those spots are. So the step one was I feel and naming a feeling so I feel groggy or I feel I feel heavy and then the because it's the second right. So then naming the why because I think you're so right. Sometimes we actually just need to like validate our feelings by just naming them and the reason, you know, I feel heavy because I'm feeling sad. And then the third step, as you continue to massage, you said, is adding some intention, adding some possibility, adding some hope.

And it might be, but I'm going to have a good chat for the friend's day and chat it through, like someone that comforts me, or I'm going to do something nurturing, and I'm going to just kind of name it out. So those three little steps are really helpful, actually. And then, yeah, you can do that anywhere. I'm doing it right now, and it feels really good. And then you're, and then you'd move into the tapping. Yes.

just tapping what you're doing now is just yeah yeah i mean there's a few different cool techniques you can do energy techniques really you know you do a bit of this we just rubbing hands together yes we did this at the we did this at the panel didn't we so we're just rubbing our hands together just to bring a little bit of warmth and then kind of like hugging your head so putting one hand on your forehead and the other hand at the back of your skull and just feeling that kind of connection it kind of makes you feel held doesn't it just yeah so what does this do for you we're both sitting here with our hands one hand on our forehead and one on the back of our head if you can't see so what what does this do for you when you do this yeah for me this is at the

point within a routine um where you're almost absorbing all of the good i call it above the line um emotions you're allowing yourself to be present in those emotions. For me, I'm big on intentionality. So what we say, I always say our words are really important because we can use them as a weapon or we can use them as a wand. And it's really important in this head hug for me to just quickly realign if I've gone off. You know, if I'm focusing too much on what's bad and what isn't to be, then it allows me to just be present in my body ground down and go do you know what i'm here and breathing i'm happy i remember these feelings i'm signaling to my brain to bring up the memory of those feelings again

and i'm all right yeah just kind of bringing yourself back into alignment when you realize that you've kind of hopped into that negative space which you can so easily do but yeah it's a it's possible just to as we start naming some of those things that we're grateful for even if it is you know, our pet, it's a cup of tea, the sun, like coming through my window, you know, we're drawing our attention. And sometimes we do need to do that intentionally, don't we? Because unconsciously, we don't really realise that when we're slipping into that place, how able we are to nudge ourselves out of it again. Just bring a bit of balance into those feelings.

So how has tapping helped? you and those you work with and those who are touched by your work? What's some of the feedback that you get to encourage people to give it a try? Well, it kind of has two sides to it. So one is the one that we just did. So everyday S-O-S, just getting yourself to a frequency or baseline where you're like, bouncing back pretty quick. I'm doing okay. Feeling better, little bit more every day is important. And if you go down, just, it's okay, just know you can come back up. So there's that and that's really transformational for people. The other side of it, which I love, is that kind of part where you get strategic with it. This is the life coach part

of me coming out and this is about manifesting what you want by really literally reaffirming what you want a zone at a time in your life. So that's, that's really cool. I've done it myself and I call that zoning and you can start to use tapping at that point when you're feeling better to really think about what do I really want like what's my life vision what's my purpose like what is it that I would really want and then I'm really interested in how you use it to recode old beliefs so my big thing is that and I had to do it myself with lots of elements in my life usually one that's a bit of an Achilles heel I found with all clients and people that used it you know mine was love it was just you know just i couldn't trust

that i could be in a relationship after having a pretty rubbish one um you know and you know is it was it you know so that for me was a lifesaver in what it could offer me in my nervous system and just my well-being mental health emotional health but yeah i always say when you've got that in a decent place and you've got that tool, then start to really think about the wildness of life while we're here. What is really going to make your heart sing the desires? That's pivot into power. So use it to get yourself back to that base level and use it when you notice yourself dipping and be empowered to see how it can start shifting how you're feeling and your general well-being and then start just branching out and thinking what else might I use this for? What's the power of this

and how can I, how can I dream for myself? Because I think we're in survival mode. We're not really looking at the bigger picture. We're not really kind of thinking about what we're seeking, what makes us feel alive and what is using our gifts and our skills. And so, yeah, it's really good when you get to that point, you start thinking, oh, that's a head. What do I want to be ahead?

What can I dream about? And then using the tapping to kind of reaffirm those messages. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah, well, neuroplasticity, really, which is, you know, our brain's ability to rearrange itself, to create new beliefs. That's so hopeful, isn't it? Yeah, it's great.

There's so much hope in this, because if you feel stuck and I've worked with so many people that are like, I'm just an anxious person, this is just part of who I am, I struggle with this, I just have to deal with it. And I always want to say, no, there's so much more for you. And that's the amazing thing about neuroplasticity is that we can change our brains. And this is an amazing way to facilitate that. So thank you so much. I encourage everyone to go and find your book. And I think I'm going to listen to it on my walk. So I'm going to use my audible credit.

And it's called Tapping In, manifest the life you want with the transformative power of tapping. But also go on to Poppy's pages, especially the rapid tapping page, where she's just got so many kind of guided little classes that you can do or she'll just help you out with the words so that you can start kind of getting confident in the words that you want to say for yourself as you tap and just to learn a little bit more about it and you will catch the fire because Poppy is she's the queen of it and she she's just so passionate and yeah you'll start seeing that it could be an incredible tool for your toolbox so thank you very much thank you I've got a couple of quick fire questions for you before you go. Do it. So what's a motherhood high for you, Poppy? Oh. Carrying my baby to pick up my degree, which was a shocker for most, but I did well in that degree and I worked and I defied everyone saying, don't do that, you cannot have a baby. And I did. And I did. I like that because it shows amazing yeah oh what a day yeah and that was as you say a while ago now and that stayed with you that's yeah yeah amazing and besides tapping what's something that

makes you feel good music oh yeah i'm a big music frequency music audio music fan so is there something you always lean to us or is it just totally mood dependent or have you got playlist or what what do you listen to now? Yeah. So I would use different types of music for different emotions that I'd want to evoke or work with. So for example, I might use binaural beats if I'm getting really focused or writing or do something. And then I might, I've always got a playlist on the go and I like to dance. Like I really like a little bit of movement, you know. Going back in your body. And I think I don't know about you about for a long, long time and probably still the dregs of that very much. So I used to feel like I was ahead and that was me and my body was just something carried it around.

And I think in our, you know, in our culture often we, our body, we see it more of as a tool rather than we are our body. We are our mind. We are this is, you know, we are all of this. And actually so much emotion is stored in our body. And actually our bodies are often far less, if not undefended against our emotions than our brains are. we've built up all of these different defense mechanisms in our mind. So sometimes our bodies feel things before we even recognize that we feel them. So things like dance and movement and tapping are just ways to start saying, I am a body too. This is all of me.

Yes. My feelings are everywhere. How can I honor them and release them and work with them? So thank you. Thank you for this tool. Maybe I'll have a dance. Yeah. But yeah, everyone going ahead over to Poppy and her amazing resource.

maybe you want to do the 90-day program to manifest the life you want called Pivot into Power. But grab her book, try out some of her videos and be absolutely inspired and empowered as you add and tapping and rapid tapping to your toolbox. So thanks, Poppy. Yay. Thank you, Anna. Lones of love. Thank you so much for listening. Please do take a moment to subscribe, rate and review as it really helps get these words out to benefit more juggling parents like us and head to annamartha.com to find my resources on everything from health anxiety to people pleasing starting at only 20 pounds and finally don't forget to pre-order my new book raising a happier mother how to find balance feel good and see your children flourish as a result

I can't wait for you to have that take care and we'll chat soon