Why Emotional Responses to Tapping Can Shift From Crying to Calm to Nothing
What your nervous system is doing when EFT changes your emotions
If you’ve ever tried tapping before, you’ve probably noticed some sort of physiological response when you did it.
Maybe you found yourself tearing up - even sobbing. Or maybe you yawned like a goblin (me, too 🙋🏻♀️). Or maybe your stomach gurgles, your shoulders drop, or you feel a big exhale move through your chest.
But then you come back to the same tapping exercise on a different day and feel… nothing. You came with the same script, the same emotional story, the same good intentions — and you feel nothing.
At that point, you might start wondering…
“Where did all that emotion go?
“Did I mess something up?”
“Did the tapping fix me?”
“Or did I actually break it?”
Good news: that shift in your emotional state is a sign that something is working. It means your nervous system is processing, in real time.
Let’s get into why — what’s happening inside your brain and body when your emotional response changes so dramatically.
🌊 First, your body releases what’s been held
When you’re first starting out with a new tapping practice — assuming you’re coming to something that’s emotionally charged, tender, or heavy — the body can respond like it’s finally getting a chance to release what it’s been holding on to.
Likely, it’s a release both you AND your body have lonnnng been waiting for… to let go of fears, memories, beliefs, physical or emotional pain, old stories from voices that aren’t yours.
{ big sigh }
When the body reacts, we call this a “somatic release.” Those can look lots of different ways, but here’s a few common ones:
tears, big or small
shaking or vibration
a wave of sadness or fear
a rush of heat
a deep (or startled) sigh
a grunt or wobble in your voice
This is your sympathetic nervous system (your “fight or flight” response) completing something it never got to finish back then.
In those times when something felt too scary, too fast, or too risky to express, your body stored that activation for later — hoping for a moment when you’d finally be safe enough to let go…
Tapping provides that moment: a structured, grounded way for your body to release what it once had to hold in.
Tapping tells the brain: the danger has passed now. And releasing the fear allows that stored stress response to unwind instead of remaining stuck in your muscles, your mind, or your breath.
Crying isn’t a sign of weakness — it’s a sign of stress leaving the body.
🌊 Then, your nervous system recalibrates into safety
My clients often describe to me feeling a sense of release or relief after tapping. Like they just lifted a weight off their shoulders. Or like they’re cloaked in a soft cape of alive, buzzy energy.
What you’re feeling in those moments is your body completing a stress cycle — something it didn’t get to finish before. When that happens, the system doesn’t need to hold the same charge anymore.
This makes sense when we think about tapping as a way for your body to release what it’s been holding. Then, the next times we come to a similar practice (e.g., same topic, same guided practice), and our system is in a completely different state. Which is a good thing…
That shift is your body saying, “We don’t have to carry this like that anymore.”
So instead of another big somatic release, your body might meet you with:
calm
stillness
flatness
“no emotion”
exhaustion
neutrality
This isn’t “nothing.” It’s your parasympathetic system (or the relaxation part) coming online.
Hot tip about a healthy nervous system:
It adapts and shifts to the environment — its cues and stressors — all the time.
“Different day, different state” is exactly how a living, adaptive nervous system is supposed to work. Each session meets you where you are now.
Not where you were yesterday.
This is the beauty of slow healing:
your body gets to decide how much and how fast it releases.
It may feel strange to go from crying to nothing, but it’s actually your body integrating the shift.
🌊 “Nothing” isn’t numbness — it’s integration
Again, what’s happening when your emotional and physiological response “settle” with a tapping practice is that your brain and body are no longer interpreting “stress” from the situation you were tapping on.
The limbic system (especially the amygdala) quiets down, and the parts of your brain responsible for safety, meaning-making, and regulation begin to take the lead. So those very intense feelings (a sign of stress release from stored protection) doesn’t need to be there anymore. An alarm has been turned off.
What we often call “nothing” is actually several physiological shifts happening at once:
the nervous system is resting now that it doesn’t need to mobilize big emotion
the brain is updating its prediction about this feeling (“I’m safe now… this isn’t danger”)
sensations are being reinterpreted as non-threatening
memory reconsolidation is happening, integrating the new safety response
That quiet moment is your brain and body shifting from protection mode to integration. It’s not an absence of something; it’s absorption of the changes.
Your system is saying:
“Something just changed. Let’s let this in.”
🌊 Healing is like a spiral staircase
I love the analogy of a spiral staircase. It might seem like you’re looking “at the same thing” or feeling like “oh man, I’m here again?!I” But the truth is that every time you take a step, yes sometimes you loop around, but you’re always seeing things from a new place. A new level, a new perspective.
So with tapping, you’re moving through layers just the same. You might come back to a similar emotion, situation, or memory to move through. But each time you tap, you’re meeting it at a new level. You’re not arriving in the same place you were before…
You’re coming back with:
more capacity
more distance
more safety in your system
So sometimes tapping brings a strong emotional wave. And other times it can bring a quieting, space for a pause. Because a layer has already shifted and your body doesn’t need to sound that alarm again.
It’s not that the emotion is gone. It’s that your relationship to it has changed.
Just like a staircase that loops back past some of the same “landmarks,” you’re passing familiar terrain. But this time you’re at a higher viewpoint, with more room to breathe and less bracing in your nervous system.
Same staircase.
Different altitude.
So tapping might bring up…
grief → tears → calm
fear → panic → neutrality
anger → shaking → quiet
Each arc is your nervous system finding its balance again. Letting a little more safety in each time. And if a new layer of emotion needs attention, it will naturally surface the next time your system feels safe enough to meet it.
🌊 Your system protects you from overwhelm
Another reason tapping can feel different from one day to the next is that your body is tracking capacity in the background. If a previous session brought a big emotional wave, your nervous system might dial things down the next time — not to block healing, but to protect your system from overload.
Your body might create some distance to keep you safe:
a sense of blankness
feeling far away from the emotion
a moment of numbness or fog
difficulty connecting with the target at all
Not because you’re doing it wrong — but because your nervous system is wise.
It’s quietly saying:
Safety first.
Processing second.
Sometimes the body says, “That’s enough for now.” And it’s okay to let your system be right. You can always come back to that emotion later — with more support, in smaller doses, or through a gentler doorway your nervous system may be more ready for.
🌱 The bigger picture: your body is learning safety again
When your emotional wave changes during tapping, it means:
The brain is rewriting an old story
A threat signal is becoming a safety signal
The body is releasing instead of holding
Your nervous system is building flexibility
That is healing.
You are teaching your brain:
“I can feel this… and I can be okay.”
What Happens When You Write the Script
Guided tapping videos are a great place to start. But something lovely happens when you let your inner wisdom lead the process of “what to tap on.”
When you create your own tapping script, you begin to:
honor what your nervous system is ready for
slow down enough to feel what’s underneath the overthinking
notice subtle changes without judging them
build trust in your inner knowing — one phrase at a time
If you’re curious to try tapping in a way that actually fits you, I made a short video that teaches you how to create your own intuitive tapping script — so you can support yourself gently, at your own pace.
Want to follow along with the PDF? Get access here.
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