A Technique to Eliminate Math Anxiety | Dr. Katie Nall | TEDxOcala

like many other couples my prom date and I stayed out late that night to fool around and you know I mean by solving math equations since I was a small child I have always loved counting things finding patterns solving problems I love math from research and analysis to finding the solutions to most importantly sharing my newfound knowledge with anyone who'll listen I teach college math many of my students don't appreciate math like I do and sometimes that math can be a roadblock to their future some of the students have failed the class many of them have felt it more than once these same students have earned A's in other rigorous college classes they didn't fail because the work was difficult they all had one trait in common they hate math they hated math so badly that they wouldn't even want to take a class I was wondering could I help them can I help them be successful in math by overcoming their anxiety about math hmm a word problem solving a word problem like this is going to require a different kind of research for you see all the research I had said that to be successful in math you had to have study tips study tips were not going to help students who were crying in my office or vomiting in the trashcan just at the mention of math I had to find something different for them I had to find something that would help them overcome their anxieties after months and months of research nothing was going to solve this until I finally decided what if I was asking the wrong question instead of asking how to help students overcome anxiety about math I had to step outside the boundaries of math and ask how do people overcome anxieties about anything it's ironic how a small change like that can make a big difference for me it was three three little letters EFT EFT stands for emotional freedom technique or tapping the students were going to need something different I wonder was this going to be different enough well it was going to be worth the risk they all had to have the class to graduate I looked and found some research on it and it turns out the EFT had a 30 year history starting with Stanford educated engineer Gary Craig he understood electrical circus and using this knowledge of circuitry he streamlined the work of psychologist dr. Roger Callahan who made use immersions to help his patients Meridian's are twelve pathways in our body that are defined by traditional Chinese medicine and commonly used by acupuncturist what do meridians have to do with and anxiety well it turns out that Auburn University Research has recently released a study showing that there are micro structures in our body that mirror the pathways of the meridians these micro structures may provide an answer on the connection between the meridians and reducing stress and anxiety it was worth a chance to find out if this would work or not I mean if I was willing to risk appearing a little odd to the students if they were willing to risk trying something out like tapping so what does tapping consist of basically tapping on different pressure points on your body while repeating statements usually negative phrases studies have shown that one or the other is not as effective as a combination research and this has been done worldwide there is over 40 outcome studies showing ninety-eight percent effectiveness using EFT to reduce stress and anxiety so I offered this to my students those who are open to tapping and will agreed to tap went move forward some of different students with different emotions required a different number of sessions but I bet you you're dying to know what this looks like right so I'm going to invite you to tap along with me and we're gonna pretend like you're a math student so start on your side of your hand and repeat even though I have this fear about math right here right now I feel safe even though I have this fear about math and I feel it my stomach right here right now I feel safe even though I have this fear about math and I don't want to take this math class right here right now I feel safe top of the head this fear and the edge of the eyebrow this fear about math inside of the eye this fear and then under the eye this fear in my stomach and then under the nose this fear I never lips this fear and then on the shoulder blades this fear about math and then about four inches under your arms this fear take a deep breath in then we waited finally the grades started rolling in for students who had failed the class in the past all past - or in degrade ac1 earn to be and one came the closest to an a she's ever been in math they all had smiles a relief for students who had once thought that math was difficult and they were able to continue on one student who had continued on came back and dropped by my office unannounced it was Scott he was as tall and as wide as the doorway I I could feel his energy as he entered as he came in before I knew it he had swooped down grabbed me in a bear hug and said if it hadn't been for that voodoo stuff you taught me I never would have gotten my bachelor's degree many students were able to continue on because of tapping I'm going to invite my students from here on out to continue tapping as they go through math I have found the students who are open to tapping and tap about their emotions about math are way more successful than the students who struggle with math and avoid tapping one student in particular came up to me a chance encounter and a restaurant after the class had been finished she timidly admitted to me you know I get it now EFT not only helped me get through your math class it helped me in other areas of my life for you see I found that EFT has been practiced worldwide not only does the Duchess of Cornwall tap for her fear of flying attorneys tap for clarity and some Olympic athlete stop before their event eft practitioner steve wells in perth western australia reports transformational changes in his business clients an australian managing partner of a top ten law practice recently admitted after tapping with Steve I could feel the knots in my chest and the worries just dissolve as we tapped entire schools have adopted tapping Pacific Grove middle school in California teachers and students tapped for six minutes a day to relieve tests and stress anxiety they have found that behavioral issues have decreased tests and test scores have increased and even they've noticed that special-needs children are self-regulating better so you see anxiety isn't an isolated issue anxiety affects not only our ability to learn but also our ability to work to relate and our health study site eighty percent of medical visits are stress-related imagine what a difference this little three-letter EFT can make has already made on a four letter word of ma th math can you imagine that a three letter word of EFT what an impact it could be on a four letter word of fear I'm going to invite you to find out more about EFT you see when I became a certified practitioner I found all the mistakes I had made as a self-taught one it turns out that EFT is way more effective working with one person on a specific event and much more effective with a certified practitioner now as I continue my journey to become a trainer I had to deal with some of my own fears it was hard to choose just one but I decided on one that had plagued me for years and annoyed my family immensely it was my deep paralyzing fear of housework after a full day of tapping I found the source of my anxiety turns out as the eldest child of a single mother who moved every six months I was in charge of cleaning cleaning meant we were moving at least in my subconscious today I no longer have fear or anxiety about cleaning I still don't clean I just don't worry about it anymore so you see my math truck doesn't have anything at all to do with mathematics but I do have this three-letter solution for you for each one of your four-letter fears I'm going to invite you to tell everyone you know about this amazing amazing technique emotional freedom technique and I'm going to invite you to take control of each of your fears EFT

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 129,588

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Education, Change, Fear, Passion

Id: KZNdBxdNGIE

Length: 13min 12sec (792 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 08 2017