The "temporal tap" is an ancient technique that recently has been rediscovered. It originally was used for pain control in the Orient, but it is also enormously effective for breaking old habits and simultaneously establishing new ones.

Tapping around the temporal bone—beginning at the temples and traveling around the back side of the ear—makes the brain more receptive to learning while temporarily suspending other sensory input. It also sedates triple warmer because you are tapping in the opposite direction of its natural flow, and it is triple warmer that most decisively governs your body’s habits. By calming the part of the nervous system that fights to maintain your habits, you can more easily slip in a new habit.

In the 1970s, the founder of applied kinesiology, George Goodheart, discovered that by tapping along the cranial suture line that starts between the temporal and sphenoid bones, you can temporarily shift the mechanisms that filter sensory input. If you introduce a self-suggestion or spoken affirmation while you are tapping, your mind will be particularly receptive to it.

The temporal tap is also attuned to the differences between the left and right hemispheres of the cerebral cortex. Because the brain’s left hemisphere is in most people more critical and skeptical, statements made with a negative wording are in closer accord with the way it functions and are more likely to be assimilated. Such statements are tapped into the left side of the head. Likewise, because the right hemisphere is highly receptive to favorable input, statements that are worded positively are tapped into the right side.

Begin by identifying a habit, an attitude, an automatic emotional response, or a health condition you would like to change. Describe the change you would like to bring about in a single sentence, stated as an affirmation in present time, that is, as if the desired condition already exists. It does not have to be a truth yet, but rather a statement that you would like to be a truth in the future. For instance, you might say, "Under pressure, I stay calm and centered." It usually helps to write your statement.

Then restate it, keeping the same meaning, but with a negative wording (i.e., "no," "not," "never," "don’t," "won’t," etc.). Thus the "calm and centered" statement may be worded negatively as "I no longer get stressed under pressure." Notice that the meaning is still positive, even with the negative wording. Another example: "I eat for health and fitness and I enjoy my food" can be negatively worded as "I don’t eat from anxiety or compulsion." "My fingernails are growing long and healthy" can be negatively worded as "I no longer bite my nails."

1. Starting at the temple, tap the left side of your head from front to back with the fingers of your right hand. State the negatively worded version of your statement in rhythm as you tap. Tap hard enough to feel a firm contact and a bit of a bounce. Tap from the front to the back about five times, making your statement with each pass.
    

2. Repeat the technique on the right side, tapping with your left hand, but this time using your statement in its positively worded form.
    

3. Repeat the procedure several times per day. The more you tap in the affirmation, the quicker and stronger the effect on your nervous system and your field of habit.