Helen Keller

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.

Once I knew only darkness and stillness... my life was without past or future... but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living ~ Helen Keller

Telling the Secret

When you plant a tree
every leaf that grows will tell you,
what you sow will bear fruit.
So if you have any sense, my friend
don't plant anything but love,
you show your worth by what you seek.
Water flows to those who want purity
wash your hands of all desires and
come to the table of Love.

Do you want me to tell you a secret?
The flowers attract the most beautiful lover
with their sweet smile and scent.
If you let God weave the verse in your poem
people will read it forever.

Rumi

Undigested experiences

We ingest everything, not just food. We ingest experiences, people, emotions, our environment, etcetera. Have you ever had the feeling of the straw that broke the camel's back? It's usually a sign that we are 'full up'. There is no room for any more and we can't take any more! This is because we have not properly digested previous experiences along with their accompanying emotions. The emotions and experiences have frozen in our bodies, for later retrieval and digestion. This overflow effect can lead to dis-ease in the body and mind. We need to learn to feel our feelings at some stage in our lives. We need to give ourselves permission to do that.

When a feeling comes up, pay attention. It is there for a reason. We usually resist the feelings that, in particular, make us feel afraid or even terrified. Usually these feelings are not triggered by a present event but by a past traumatic event in which we reacted, for the very first time, in that way. The way we have been reacting since. It is like a knee jerk reaction. What we sometimes don't realise is that the feeling is coming up for recognition and acknowledgement and not necessarily to put us through the event again. We often need help with this, a friend or a counsellor. EFT is a fantastic help because when you react or have strong uncomfortable emotions, you can just tap, you don't even need to say anything as you are 'tuned in'. The karate chop point is the small intestine meridian, which is where we assimilate all ingested material (including experiences and emotions). The fact that this point corrects psychological reversal is significant. Maybe it also helps us to digest and assimilate what we previously found 'hard to take' or did not believe.

Pay attention to your feelings and emotions, they represent the child in you and all that child wants is love.

meditate

How you view yourself

How you view yourself (what you believe about yourself) is the filter through which you live your life, view your life and how you interact with and view others. The truth is you are worthy, lovable and a divine child of God. If you have been told otherwise or you believe otherwise, change how you see yourself. As Kahlil Gibran says "children are life's longing for itself ", which means life wanted you here, even if you hold the belief that no one else did.

William Blake writes "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is: Infinite ".

If anything comes up as you read these words, use EFT to dissolve anything that no longer serves you.

Your body speaks your mind

How would you describe what you are experiencing to someone else?

What words would you use to describe your headache, back pain, arthritis or depression? Using these same words in the set up statement in EFT can be invaluable to dissolving the cause of the ailment. For example if you use the word claustrophobic to describe a headache, it may lead you to a formative experience where you felt claustrophobic and so on.

Usually we describe what is going on in our lives when we do this exercise.

So describe how you are feeling to someone else (or to yourself, writing this down may be better) and use those adjectives/words in your EFT set up and rounds.

Your body loves you

All the messages from your body are messages of love.

Listen to them.

This above all: TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE. And it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

William Shakespeare

Rumi

I was going to tell you my story
but waves of pain drowned my voice.
I tried to utter a word but my thoughts
became fragile and shattered like glass.
Even the largest ship can capsize
in the stormy sea of love,
let alone my feeble boat
which shattered to pieces leaving me nothing
but a strip of wood to hold on to.
Small and helpless, rising to heaven
on one wave of love and falling with the next
I don't even know if I am or I am not.
When I think I am, I find myself worthless,
when I think I am not, I find my value.
Like my thoughts, I die and rise again each day
so how can I doubt the resurrection?
Tired of hunting for love in this world,
at last I surrender in the valley of love
and become free.

Feel what you feel

Give yourself permission to feel what you feel. You don't have to say anything to anyone or act on what you feel. Giving yourself permission to feel what you feel, without any judgement, is an act of respect for what you feel, an act of respect for yourself and an act of respect for the piece of God that you are. If what you feel causes you fear, or you are afraid of 'going there' tap on that fear until it dissolves with EFT.

You will be amazed at how calm and peaceful you will feel if you allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling without judgement. This allows us to 'process' our feelings so they don't bury themselves in our bodies, hearts and minds in dis-ease.

Energy follows thought

Listen to your body and hear what it is trying to tell you. If you have pains and aches what are they trying to tell you? What part of your body is affected? What is the function of that body part? Is there a metaphor there? For example the back gives us support, so if you are having back pain, where in your life do you not feel supported? When did the pains start? Was there something going on in your life at the time the back pain started?

Paying attention to your body and communicating with it is exactly what it wants! The act of paying attention (sending energy in the form of thoughts) is very powerful, whether that energy is positive or negative. We usually get frustrated and angry with our bodies when they don't do what we think they 'should'. We rarely show kindness to the body part "acting up" and ask it, what are you trying to tell me?

If you are not listening to your body, firstly it will whisper, then talk and if you are still not listening it will shout! The body communicates in all sorts of ways, discomfort, gut feelings, fear etc. Symptoms usually appear to get your attention. If you listen you will hear them and be able to do something about them before they "worsen". Treat your body with kindness and send any symptoms understanding and love. Ask the symptoms what they want and then give it to them.

Preserve the strength of your heart by following its guidance

- Iyanla Vanzant

Mirror work

When you are applying EFT to yourself, looking into your own eyes in a mirror while tapping is very powerful and effective. There is something about looking into your eyes and seeing their expression that touches you and helps you to really feel and tune into the issue you are tapping on.

Particularly when you say the words in the set-up 'I deeply and completely accept myself" and look into your own eyes, you will see if there is any resistance to this statement such as 'No I don't!'. You can then tap on that lack of self acceptance and ask yourself what specific events led to you feeling that way. Or indeed whether it was a decision you made about yourself due to something someone said or did.

An excellent question to find core issues

In the above article found on http://www.emofree.com, Kathy Atkinson uses the question “What decision about myself or the world would I have made at the time?” to uncover core decisions we have made about ourselves and who we think we are because of events that have been traumatic and painful for us. This question is very useful when used with the personal peace procedure.

When something traumatic happens to us, we not only have to deal with the trauma and hurt and the event itself but usually we also make a decision about who we are as a result. For example a child is hit by a parent and has to deal with the trauma and hurt that that causes. But often that child will also make a decision about him or herself that will 'colour' the way they live their lives and how they view themselves and subsequently how others treat them. For example the child could make the decision as a result of being hit that:

1. I must be bad (why else would I be hit?)
2. I am unlovable
3. I have to be a good girl (so I don't get hit again)
4. It is my fault, I am to blame (and take on too much responsibility in their lives as a result)
5. It is not safe to be me

The child (and later the adult) will live from these decisions as well as having the trauma of the incident that caused them to make these decisions in the first place. Asking this question is invaluable in addition to dealing with painful events, because once these decisions are realised and brought into conscious awareness you can use EFT to dissolve these false ideas of who you are. I believe asking this question will really help to completely collapse and dissolve the emotional charge we have around certain events so we can be free of them.

Resistance

Resistance is any thought (or belief) that is in the way of you living the life you want to live. When you are not living the life you want to live, you can be sure there is resistance in you to your good. All of these thoughts and beliefs are tappable with EFT.

How do we find these resistant thoughts? The personal peace procedure by Gary Craig, found on http://www.emofree.com is an excellent way to find thoughts and beliefs that are creating resistance to our success, peace and happiness. Tapping on these core beliefs will dissolve any resistance you may have. Feeling 'deserving' is probably one of the most common resistant thoughts we have. Other common resistant thoughts are not being good enough (i.e. bad) and a sense of not belonging.

Another thought on resistance that Wayne Dyer makes is: Any thought that is not in alignment with the seven faces of intention (Creativity, Kindness, Love, Beauty, Expansion, Abundance and Receptivity) is a resistant thought.

From http://www.emofree.com

Children Learn What They Live

If a child lives with criticism, she learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, she learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilt.
If a child lives with tolerance, she learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, she learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, she learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he or she learns to find love in the world.

by Dorothy Law Knolte