Book Review: Rewired

The Breakthrough Tapping Method to Stop Overthinking, Calm Your Body, and Finally Feel at Ease

by Nick, Jessica, and Alex Ortner

Disclosure: This book was provided to me by Hay House.

I've been tapping off and on for years, and I've spent quite a bit of time using the Ortner app. But here's the thing: I was always following somebody else's script. I knew how to tap along with them, but I never really understood how to sit down and create my own tapping sequence for whatever the hell was going on with me that particular day.

Rewired changed that.

If you have no idea what tapping is, here's the quick version.

Tapping - also called EFT, or Emotional Freedom Techniques - is a practice where you gently tap with your fingertips on specific points on your face and body while focusing on whatever you're feeling or dealing with.

It might sound a little weird if you've never done it before - I thought so too - but the idea is to help calm your body's stress response while you work through the thoughts and emotions that are keeping you wound up.

One of the things I really love about this book is that it doesn't just tell you tapping works. It explains why it works.

The Ortners explain what's actually happening in your body and nervous system when you tap, and suddenly the whole thing makes so much more sense.

And once I understood the why, figuring out the how became a whole lot easier.

The way the book is organized is probably one of my favorite things about it. Instead of a bunch of vague topics, the chapters are based on the stuff we're actually dealing with:

·       When your mind won't shut up

·       When you're frustrated

·       When fear stops you

·       When the past won't stay in the past

·       When you can't find motivation

·       When you're just so tired

·       When money makes you panic

And that's only part of the list.

This isn't really the kind of book I think you read once, put on the shelf, and say, "Well, that was interesting." It's a book you keep around and go back to.

I've actually been using it that way.

Whatever is chewing on me that day, I find the section that fits and use it to guide my tapping. I don't have to remember what somebody said in the app or try to figure out which tapping routine I'm supposed to use. I can work with what's happening with me right now.

Now, I originally had one complaint about this book.

This sucker is BIG.

The copy Hay House sent me is a big hardcover, and you aren't going to comfortably hold it in one hand while you're eating lunch or prop it open on the kitchen counter and expect it to stay there. This book wants a table and both hands.

But then I discovered something that pretty much takes care of that complaint: you don't have to buy the giant hardcover.

Rewired is also available as an ebook and an audiobook.

So if you're like me and you'd rather not wrestle a hardcover while you're trying to actually do the tapping, you've got options. Personally, I think that's especially nice with a book like this because it's something you're going to want to come back to depending on what you're dealing with that day.

And yes, I'm going to say something pretty big here:

I think this book can be life-changing.

I felt strongly enough about it that I recommended it to my son. He's been using it too - and he agrees.

Bottom line: If you've tried tapping before but always felt like you needed somebody else to tell you what to say, Rewired may be the piece you've been missing.

And if you've never tapped in your life but you're tired of overthinking, feeling stressed out, getting stuck in old crap, or just feeling like your nervous system never gets a freaking day off, I think this book is a pretty damn good place to start.

It gave me the why behind tapping and finally taught me how to create something for myself instead of just following along with somebody else's script.

And for me, that made all the difference.