Tap to release

Anxiety arrived before I had a name for what was happening to me in perimenopause.

Before I connected the dots between changing hormones and a changing sense of myself. Before I understood why situations I could once take in my stride suddenly felt harder to navigate.

And from the symptoms you’ve shared with us recently, I know I’m in good company.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about how much of that anxiety belongs to this life stage. How much belongs to my particular life. And how much comes from simply paying attention to the world.

Perhaps every generation has these conversations.

I remember talking to my mother about nuclear disarmament and war in the ’80s. To my grandparents about 'youth culture' (my culture!), the erosion of workers’ rights, animal welfare and arts funding disappearing from schools.

Different decades. Familiar fears.

What will be left for our children? What can we meaningfully change?

I feel those questions keenly at the moment. My younger son is finding his footing miles from home. And I’m finding mine in the space he’s left behind.

There is more room to think when other people’s needs no longer fill every corner of the day.

Sometimes, more room to worry too.

It’s prompted me to revisit what I’ve learned from the experts we’ve worked with over the last six-plus years. Particularly the practices that are easy to overlook because they seem too simple. Or unfamiliar. Or slightly outside our idea of what “proper” support should look like.

A different way into the feeling

EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. You may know it as tapping.

It combines tapping with your fingertips on specific points on the face and upper body with bringing attention to a feeling, thought or experience, often putting it into words.

If you’ve never tried it, I appreciate that the description might raise an eyebrow.

But there is research worth being curious about.

A 2025 systematic review brought together seven randomised trials involving 506 participants. The findings suggested EFT could help reduce anxiety, particularly compared with no intervention. The researchers also highlighted limitations in the studies that mean we still need stronger evidence. Promising, with more to understand.¹

We don’t yet have a settled explanation for how much of any benefit comes from tapping itself, and how much comes from the attention, language and other therapeutic elements involved.

For me, that makes it a practice to explore with curiosity, without asking it to be the answer to everything.

An opportunity to notice what happens when we give a feeling some attention, rather than spending another hour arguing with it.

The breath we forget we have

Breathwork can sound like another thing that requires a class, equipment or a clear hour in the diary.

Yet research has explored much smaller commitments.

In a randomised study published in Cell Reports Medicine, participants practised five minutes of structured breathing or mindfulness meditation daily for a month. Breathing exercises, particularly an approach emphasising longer out-breaths called cyclic sighing, led to greater improvements in positive mood and reductions in breathing rate than the meditation comparison.²

Five minutes. That feels like something we might find room for.

But remembering is often the difficult bit.

Which is why I love the founder of de Mamiel skincare, Annee de Mamiel's suggestion of placing little red dots around your home and in your bag.

Somewhere you’ll encounter one in the middle of an ordinary day.

The dot becomes a reminder: pause. Take a slow, comfortable breath. Let it out without rushing straight into the next thing.

Thank you. Thank you.

At our Hormone House Party in London this time last year, Melissa Hemsley shared a morning ritual that has stayed with me.

As she gets out of bed, placing one foot and then the other on the floor, she says: “Thank you.”

No elaborate routine. No requirement to wake up feeling wonderfully grateful. Just a moment to recognise the brilliance of our bodies before the day begins.

And then, looking out again

I don’t want my concern for the next generation to obscure my optimism about them.

Because they are incredible.

Look at Marcus Rashford’s campaigning on child food poverty. At Stormzy's commitment to lift up other artists, to make education accessible. At Dua Lipa’s work through the Sunny Hill Foundation, supporting opportunities for young people in Kosovo - her book clubs, her literary festival... Different platforms, different communities. All show how cultural influence can become a means of making change.

I see people reclaiming their stories. Investing in the places that shaped them. Finding ways to direct attention and resources towards things they believe deserve more of both.

That feels like the beginnings of new systems of power.

And beyond the famous names, I see a generation questioning what work, community, success and responsibility might look like.

I know they will build things we haven’t yet imagined. Things that nourish the world and help bring it back into balance.

That gives me a little more room to breathe.

Perhaps that’s where these small practices can help too. By making enough space for us to feel what we feel, look up again and recognise where we still have the capacity to act.

If you’re curious about tapping, come and explore it with us.

Our Rapid Tapping® masterclass takes place on Tuesday 17 November at 7:30pm UK time.

A chance to discover the practice and consider how it might support you alongside the other things you turn to for your wellbeing.

Sign up for the Rapid Tapping® masterclass

References

1. Choi, Sung and Lee. Emotional Freedom Techniques for anxiety disorders: a systematic review. Healthcare, 2025.
   https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13172180
2. Balban and colleagues. Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 2023.
   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895