We were on holiday in Albania and had been looking forward to this particular day.

My husband wanted to fulfil a small dream: to rent a boat that we could drive ourselves without a boating licence. Just the five of us as a family on board. We could stop wherever we liked, swim in a quiet bay and enjoy the freedom of not being tied to a fixed schedule or sharing an excursion boat with lots of other people.

The boat rental company had explained the route to us. Even so, it all felt unfamiliar.

We did not know the area. There were rocks in the water that we had to watch out for. And, of course, thoughts began to come up: What if something goes wrong with the boat? What if we miss something? What if we hit something and damage the boat?

I even woke up once during the night before and spent a long time thinking about it all.

Then we set off.

Excitement – and suddenly feeling sick

After just a few minutes on the boat, I started to feel really sick.

I had not expected it at all. We had been on boats many times before. Even on a faster guided boat trip in Turkey, I had been completely fine.

This time, the nausea was very strong. And fear quickly joined in:

What if I feel like this for the whole trip?
Will I be unable to enjoy the day?
Will I be able to cope with this?
What if I have to be sick?

Perhaps it was the movement of the boat. Perhaps it was the excitement. Perhaps it was all of it together: the unfamiliar situation, the worries from the night before and the feeling that something could go wrong.

In that moment, I did not need to find out exactly what had caused it. First, I simply wanted to get through that moment as well as I could.

I am not helpless

So I began tapping.

I moved through the tapping points without thinking too much about it. I tapped particularly often under my eye and on my collarbone.

I was not looking for the perfect words. The nausea was clear enough. I simply noticed what was there:

I feel sick.
I am afraid it will get worse.
Perhaps I am excited.
Perhaps I am worried about whether everything will go well.
What if we have problems with the boat?

I do not remember whether I tapped for fifteen minutes or thirty.

But at some point, I began to feel better.

Not because I suddenly knew for certain that nothing would happen. I simply felt a little calmer again. I was able to enjoy the day, swim, look at the landscape and feel happy about this special family outing.

What was most valuable for me was this:

I was not completely at the mercy of the feeling.

I had something I could do for myself in that moment.

Because tapping is a familiar practice for me, my body has come to associate it with a moment of attention and calming. This is not a guarantee that nausea will always go away. But in that situation, tapping helped me come back to myself.

A short tapping round for a moment that feels too much

You do not have to know why your body is reacting the way it is.

Perhaps you are excited. Perhaps something is worrying you. Or perhaps there is simply an uncomfortable feeling taking up a lot of space right now.

Tap slowly through the points you know – or stay with one point that feels right for you.

You can gently connect with whatever is present:

This feels uncomfortable right now.
My body is reacting.
There is this feeling of unease.
There are all these thoughts about what could happen.
I do not have to solve everything right now.
I can simply stay with myself for a moment.
I can give myself a small impulse of safety.

If words do not help, leave them out.

Simply notice the feeling in your body. Tap. Breathe. And observe what changes.

Sometimes you do not need an answer to everything straight away.

Sometimes it is already a lot to know, in a moment of unease:

I can do something kind for myself right now.

Note: This was my personal experience on that day. It is not a guarantee of any particular result.