Why Neurodivergent Thinkers Need EFT in Their Manifestation Toolbox

Manifestation isn’t just a mindset shift—it’s a full-body experience. In this episode, we’re diving deep into Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), also known as tapping, and why it’s an essential tool for neurodivergent manifestors.

When I first learned about EFT, no one really explained why we tap where we tap or how it actually works. I used to think manifestation was all about mentally attuning my energy, but that completely ignored one of the most powerful components of manifestation—our body.

Dr. Joe Dispenza teaches that our brain is the electro part of our electromagnetic field, while our heart—the true magnet—is deeply rooted in our body. If we want to manifest effectively, we need to move our emotions, release stored tension, and bring our entire system online.

In this episode, I’ll break down:
✨ The science behind EFT and why it regulates your nervous system
✨ How each tapping point is connected to emotions and energy shifts
✨ Why neurodivergent thinkers especially need this tool in their manifestational toolbox
✨ My personal experience with EFT and how it’s helping me release layers of stress and trauma

Plus, I have a FREE EFT Tapping Script for you! The Abundance Reset: A Tapping Script to Release Lack and Manifest More is available now. Download it here.

If you’ve been struggling with emotional blocks, overthinking, or feeling stuck in your manifestation journey, this episode is for you. Tune in, tap along, and start manifesting differently today!

🎧 Listen now and let’s shift your energy together!

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What if manifestation wasn’t about hustle or high vibes only — but about working with your neurodivergent brain, not against it? Enter Write Your Reality — a quantum, nervous-system-friendly guide (written for authors but 🔥 for ND creators and entrepreneurs, too). We’re launching it through Kickstarter April 14–May 11.
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Traditional manifestation advice wasn’t made for neurodivergent minds. Inside Manifest Differently on Substack, I share exclusive insights, nonlinear success strategies, and deep-dive content designed for ND thinkers. Plus, get access to Manifest Differently: The Deep End, my private podcast for paid subscribers. Follow now: 👉 manifestdifferently.com/substack

Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Manifest Differently Podcast. I hope today’s story inspired you to trust the process and manifest in a way that feels aligned with your unique energy.

If you’re ready to dive deeper into neurodivergent-friendly manifestation techniques, head over to ManifestDifferently.com for resources, tools, and more. Want even more insights? Subscribe to my Substack at manifestdifferently.substack.com/subscribe for weekly inspiration straight to your inbox.

And let’s connect on TikTok! Follow me at @ManifestDifferently for behind-the-scenes tips, quick mindset shifts, and so much more.

Until next time, remember: you have the power to manifest differently—and the universe is waiting to conspire in your favor. See you next week!

Chapters

• 1:02 Neurodivergent Manifestation
• 8:06 Tapping Points in Psychotherapy
• 16:30 Embodiment Through EFT Tapping

Transcript

Carissa Andrews: 1:02

Welcome to Manifest Differently, the podcast for neurodivergent thinkers and anyone looking to approach manifestation in a way that truly works for them. I'm your host, carissa Andrews, here to explore the science, energy and strategies that will help you create the life you love. Let's dive in and Manifest Differently.

Carissa Andrews: 1:29

Well, hey there, welcome back to Manifest Differently, the podcast where we explore manifestation in a way that actually works for neurodivergent minds. I'm your host, carissa Andrews, and today we're diving deep into a game-changing works for neurodivergent minds. I'm your host, carissa Andrews, and today we're diving deep into a game-changing tool for neurodivergent manifestors EFT, or emotional freedom techniques, or tapping. I'll be honest, when I first learned about EFT, it wasn't explained very well. I took a course from Denise Duffield-Thomas and, as much as I love her, she didn't really explain at least not to my level of desire, my neurodivergent level of desire how revolutionary, how important it is, and I didn't understand the why we tap where we tap. I didn't even really understand what was actually happening in the body, nor did I understand the script and why we were saying things the way they were saying them. So if you've ever wondered, like I did, why tapping works, how it ties to manifestation and why neurodivergent thinkers especially need it, then stick with me. Plus, I have a free EFT tapping script for you. It's called the Abundance Reset, a tapping script to release lack and manifest more, and you can grab that over at manifestdifferentlycom. Forward slash eight to start shifting your energy today. But before we get into the science and practice of EFT, let's take a moment to ground ourselves. I'd love for you to take a deep breath in and exhale, and exhale. Now place a hand on your heart and take another deep breath in, feeling the rise and fall of your chest, and exhale. Just allow yourself to settle in, get present with your body, because today we're talking about how manifestation isn't just a mental practice, it's a full body experience. So let's dive into why EFT is essential for neurodivergent manifestors.

Carissa Andrews: 3:41

When I personally first got into manifestation, I thought it was all this mental game like this mentally attuning my energy to what I want, being in that high vibrational state by making sure that my subconscious mind was completely and totally in alignment, because I knew, on a intellectual level at least, that our mind is like gatekeeper number one. If we hold the vibrational thoughts of good things, it impacts the rest of our life. It impacts everything else because our thoughts trigger our emotions. I was too focused, though, I think, on visualizations, affirmations and then shifting my mindset, which are, like I said, all of those things are powerful, but I was missing a huge piece of that puzzle my body, okay, and the truth is, we're electromagnetic beings. As Dr Joe Dispenza explains, our brain is the electro part of our electromagnetic field, but our heart our heart is the magnet. And where is the heart located? That's right, it's deeply rooted in our body. This means that to fully align with what we want to manifest, we have to integrate our entire system, mind and body. Here's where EFT becomes a non-negotiable for neurodivergent thinkers.

Carissa Andrews: 5:01

Many of us have highly sensitive nervous systems. Whether it's from past trauma, chronic stress or simply the way our brains are wired, we often carry unresolved tension in our bodies. This is definitely, definitely the case for me. For years, I had TMJ issues and it all started when I was trying to rapid release my first series and I kept thinking I'm not that stressed, I'm not that stressed, it's fine, everything's fine. But of course, it wasn't fine.

Carissa Andrews: 5:29

It was me holding on to all the tension and unresolved stress sitting there in my jaw, in my neck, in my shoulders. It's all connected. It went right up over the top of my scalp and it caused TMJ issues for a long time. And even now, years later, this all started in like 2017. Years later, I'm still working with somatic exercises to unhinge my jaw, to get my nervous system back online, to be able to calm myself down when I get stressed out, because for years, I wasn't using a very supportive methodology. So EFT, though, helps us to regulate our nervous system, which, if you've listened to some of the other podcast episodes, you know is super important, right, but it helps to regulate our nervous system by sending calming signals through acupressure points, reducing the fight or flight response, and it makes it so much easier to receive what we're calling in when we're in that state of relaxation of flow, of having our nervous system being tuned into just like homeostasis, rather than I need to run from this bear right the fuck now right Now.

Carissa Andrews: 6:39

We can mentally shift our thoughts all day long, but if our body is still holding on to the stress, the doubts and the fears, our manifestations won't fully land and this was something that really hit hard for me last year. So 2024, if you're listening to this recording later on, so in 2024, I was really doing. I did so much work, I did so much mental clearing, I was doing all the inner child work, I was doing the shadow work, I was doing everything I could to just get every like last little bit of stuff out and some of the manifestations I was calling in were still not working and I was so frustrated because I was like I teach this stuff, why is this not working? Of course that mentality alone is keeping me stuck right and it's funny to talk about now. But, like as a manifestation teacher, when you're in the thick of it and you're having a human experience, it's not so funny. You're like why am I having this sort of situation, like what is going on here? Of course we can't escape the system from that place, right? We have to escape from a higher level of consciousness and really what ended up happening for me was intuitively, through my meditations. Thankfully, I was still doing those, I was guided into more heart coherence and nervous system regulation work, which has been super fascinating. So let's break down some of the science behind the process here so that you can understand why this is so beneficial.

Carissa Andrews: 8:06

So EFT combines Chinese acupressure points, like we just said, with modern psychology to release trapped emotions, shift limiting beliefs and regulate the nervous system. That's how it's designed, it's what it's meant for, and it works by tapping on specific meridian points on your body, while voicing out loud our current thoughts and then transitioning them to more empowering beliefs. It's super interesting, I know when I first listened to Denise, she was just like, okay, talk about the thing that you really are afraid of, the thing that you're not liking, all of the things, and then start talking about why you're going to get it anyway. And to me at the time, maybe it was just because of where I was at in my manifestation and understanding manifestation journey, but it just didn't make full sense to me. So I ended up having to do much more research on my own end in order to dive into it. I have many books on the subject now. I love learning, so to me it's just I had to go down the deep dive and become a generalist, right?

Carissa Andrews: 9:05

So here's the breakdown of the tapping points and why they matter. For those of you who have ever, like, seen someone do tapping, it looks a little bit wonky, I'm not gonna lie. So if you're a little self-conscious or if you don't want to be, you know, tapping away in front of, like, your spouse or your kids or something like that, I just go into the bathroom honestly and run through the tapping points Takes about five minutes from start to finish and you feel so much better when you're done. Okay, so just a little side note tip.

Carissa Andrews: 9:35

So the first point that I wanna talk about is the karate chop. So this is the side of the hand, and when you tap on this point, it addresses subconscious resistance and helps you to set up your script. So it's really beneficial. Like you just tap your hands together, like make the two karate chop hands and literally just tap them together, okay. The second point is your eyebrow point and that's the place right in between your two eyebrows. This, when you tap, is releasing trauma, fear and anxiety stored in the amygdala. It's super helpful. It just kind of gets you into that like zone. I think some of us, even without realizing it, like when we're trying to remember, we tap there.

Carissa Andrews: 10:15

Like we're trying to like get out of our own way, we're trying to remember things, and that's why it's a super critical point. The third one is the side of the eye, so like kind of right where your eye creases, next to your temple. There, when you tap there it's a little bit annoying for me I have glasses so I have to take my glasses off but when you tap here it helps process and release emotional overwhelm Super beneficial for those of us who overthink, right, or we get a little nervous system dysregulated, aka a lot. But you know what I'm saying, all right. The next tapping point is right underneath the eye, so kind of like on the ridge of where your cheekbone is, right underneath your eye, and when you tap here it addresses fear and lack-based thinking. It allows you to acknowledge them and kind of just let them go. Next up is tapping right underneath the nose. So in that space between your lips and your nose you're tapping there and it connects to the nervous system and releases. The next one is your chin and this, when you tap, releases feelings of guilt and shame which obviously a lot of us need to offload if we've come from any kind of familial trauma or, you know, pass down generational thought forms, right. So getting rid of all that. Then there's the collarbone. Right on the collarbone you're going to tap. You can do both sides if you want, or you can just tap on one side. It really in my experience doesn't. So you tap on your collarbones and this helps to dissolve your fight or flight response and shifts you into a place of safety. Like you just kind of feel calm when you're tapping this point Next up is right underneath the arm, kind of think or visualize like a monkey, you know that sort of thing. You're like literally tapping right underneath your arm, kind of where your side is, like where your bra strap would be if you're a woman. You're going to tap right there and it clears deep-seated fear and resistance and lets that all go. And then finally you're going to go to the top of the head, and this point here integrates new beliefs and reinforces positive energy flow. So what ends up happening is you start with the karate chop and you'll run through a couple of scripts. Sometimes the way that I like to do it is I'll do like three rounds of the karate chop, whatever my setup is, my script setup is, and then I will run through the entire script, and so when you're starting, you go through the whole process once, from the eyebrow point all the way back to the top of the head, and then you do it again, but with your reframed story, if that makes sense.

Carissa Andrews: 12:43

So why do we say what we say during EFT? This was the part that really kind of tripped me up, because I didn't understand it and I wanted to understand it, and so then I felt like I was being hokey or I don't know. It was like I just didn't understand it and I needed to. A lot of manifestation is like that for us neurodivergence Like it just feels like wishful thinking or it feels like why am I even doing this? And when you introduce that kind of energy into your manifestation, it doesn't work, obviously. Well, it can work, but it just has a less potent vibration when we're questioning whether or not it's going to work, because we introduce that energy into our field, right? So why do we say what we say? Well, number one, we first acknowledge the negative feelings so that we can bring them to the surface, you know, put a little bit of light on them. What we're trying to do is not stuff them back down into the body. We're not trying to make them not be there, we're trying to give them space. We're trying to give them light. Make them not be there, we're trying to give them space. We're trying to give them light, we're trying to give them a voice so that we can then shift from a place of true knowing, of acknowledgement, versus trying to make those feelings be bad.

Carissa Andrews: 13:50

I think often we as humans, and definitely as neurodivergents, we kind of vilify our feelings, especially if we are manifestors or spiritually inclined, anything that is, you know, a lower vibration. We tend to feel like, oh crap, I shouldn't be here, I need to get back up into a higher vibration. But you're a human, you're a human having a human experience, even if you're spiritual, even if you understand egoic natures, even if you understand manifestation. Sometimes we just have to acknowledge our feelings, whether that's judgment, whether that's judgment of our judgment, whether it is jealousy or insecurity or disappointment or anger or rage or grief, like all of those things. We have these emotions for a reason and they are vital and important, and most of them only last 90 seconds. Did you know? If you let a full emotion play out, it's like 90 seconds. But so often they stick around because we stuff them down and we tell ourselves we can't feel that thing, when in actuality we need to just release them, like tears. When you cry, you are literally releasing toxins from your body. And when you stuff that down, when you cry, you are literally releasing toxins from your body. And when you stuff that down, when you don't allow yourself to cry, oh, all of the trauma stays in your body and it becomes so much harder to live that joyful, wonderful life.

Carissa Andrews: 15:10

So with the script why we say what we say we first acknowledge that negative feeling as we bring it to the surface, as we just said then we introduce acceptance and a new way of thinking. So it's almost framed in a way of like okay, even though I feel like I am not as far along as I should be, even though I feel like I'm not earning as much money as I should be, at this point I deeply and completely love and accept myself. And then you continue talking about all the things throughout the different tapping points. But as you get to the end, all of a sudden you're going but what if this isn't true? What if I'm looking at this in a way that is not helpful to me? What if, instead of you know not being enough or not having enough money or all those things. What if I'm exactly where I'm meant to be? What if everything is working out in my favor? What if I'm on my way and I just didn't realize it yet? What if tomorrow, everything becomes completely locked in? So you introduce acceptance and that new way of thinking, and this process actually rewires neural pathways and helps us to shift from scarcity back into abundance or from fear into acceptance, whatever it might be that you're trying to tap on. A lot of us have a scarcity mindset that we're trying to overcome, and so I like to use that kind of as a frame of reference, because so many of us understand that one.

Carissa Andrews: 16:31

So EFT for me in my journey, it's really been a crucial part of my manifestation process. But I'll be honest, like I said, it took me a while to really get it. At first I struggled because I thought I could just think my way into manifestation and I'm a double Virgo, so it's kind of funny now looking back at it because obviously Earth is my element, the body is of the Earth, and I noticed that my most potent manifestations typically come when I add movement into my manifestation process, so like doing a mental loop while mowing the lawn, for instance, or painting a room or something where you're involving your body at the same time. It's super interesting. But I literally did.

Carissa Andrews: 17:14

I thought I could think my way into it and as I worked with EFT and other somatic exercises, I realized that I had stored so many layers of tension and stress and unresolved emotions and that they were blocking my manifestations because I didn't have the capacity to bring in what I wanted.

Carissa Andrews: 17:33

Like my energetic system was literally bombarded and overloaded to the point where bringing in anything else didn't feel safe, and so my nervous system was like nope, nope, not going to happen.

Carissa Andrews: 17:48

And I'm still working through it. Right, each round of tapping releases another layer, helping me to embody my future self more fully, and it's so fascinating to encounter each one as it lifts or to feel into, like this deeper sense of how do I want to describe it? This deeper sense of like just piece in my bones, like it's super interesting because I used to like, back in the day, think about and talk about to my audience that I am like that object that is in motion and stays in motion, and you know how people are always like oh, if you need something done, ask a busy person. That was literally me, right, and so I would take on and take on, and take on all the things and do all the things, and I could handle it all. I am one of those high functioning autistics and so for me I can do things way quicker than, in my personal opinion, most people.

Carissa Andrews: 18:40

And that didn't mean that I technically should have right, and so I bombarded my nervous systems to the point where I couldn't bring in what I wanted, and so it's time to then start shedding it. So are trauma, stress and stored emotions the same thing, maybe? Either way, they keep us stuck in old stories until we consciously release them, and so that's really our job, right, it's our job to get into somatic exercises, to get into EFT tapping, to be able to be the embodiment of who we are, and if we are looking to call in more money, for instance, or more success, we have to get to a place where our body feels safe calling that in, and it's. It's that kind of concept where, if you are so busy that you can't even take time out to, you know, chill out, have a day off or relax. You're not going to call in your millionaire, you know destiny or your incredible success, especially if you think that it's going to mean more workload or more responsibility put on top of you. So if this resonates with you, like I said, I have a free gift to get you started. It's called the Abund. Like I said, I have a free gift to get you started. It's called the Abundance Reset. It's a tapping script to release lack and manifest more. You can download it now at manifestdifferentlycom. Forward slash eight and try it today, totally free. And if you're new to tapping, commit to doing just one round. See how it feels in your body and notice what shifts I go through and tell you what you're supposed to be tapping, what you're supposed to be saying, and it's very user-friendly.

Carissa Andrews: 20:20

The more you integrate EFT tapping into your practice, the more you're going to start seeing its power in your manifestational journey. You might even see or realize that you're doing too much, that you are expelling too much energy and there's not enough space to be able to call in what you want right. And when that happens, that's a great realization because it means now you get to shift. You get to make a choice that allows you to either expand your container or to be able to expand your capacity to relax and let ease bring it to you. It allows you to face those limiting beliefs just a little bit and move forward right. So let's recap EFT is a powerful tool for neurodivergent manifestors because it helps you regulate your nervous system, release stored tension and integrate new beliefs, which is what we're constantly in the process of doing when it comes to manifestation.

Carissa Andrews: 21:17

Right, but manifestation isn't just your thoughts. It's about bringing your whole system online. You can start using the EFT tapping script today that I created for you. Head over to manifestdifferentlycom forward, slash eight, or you can check out the transcript there as well, and please, if this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend or tag me on social media. I would love to hear what your thoughts are on EFT tapping and the embodiment of your future self and the version of you that is trying to call in all the wonderful magic that you know you are capable of. And remember manifestation is a full body experience. Give yourself grace as you navigate this journey. You're exactly where you need to be All right. Until next time, my friend, keep manifesting differently.