Even Flow

Article by Silvia Hartmann, energymagic.com

The Even Flow is the name given in EmoTrance to describe a condition of the energy system when it works EXACTLY AS IT SHOULD.

In the energy world, there are certain prime laws that energy obey.

For anything to be experienced as "right" or "pleasant," things have to be IN THEIR RIGHTFUL PLACE IN TIME AND SPACE.

That is the first law of energy but also a general law of the Universe that works on all levels and in all ways.

In EmoTrance we ask the core question, "Where does this energy need to go?" to restore something to its rightful place in time and space. With energy forms such as memories for example, even THE most traumatic memories, if they find their rightful place in time and space, become a RESOURCE rather than a life killer.

The second law of energy is that ENERGY MUST FLOW. Read on

Download a free copy of the Enchanted World by Silvia Hartmann

Appreciation for your body

Tapping on the karate chop (side of hand) or rubbing the sore spot continuously, say the following set up statements out loud. Be sure to customise this script for you and how you feel EFT Shortcut diagram Even if this script doesn't feel true for you right now, listen out for any objections you may hear, saying "that's not true" or "appreciate my body??? are you joking?" and tap on them until it does feel true for you.

Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense ~ Henry Miller

Even though I feel … about my body sometimes, I choose to recognise all that it has held for me

Even though it is difficult to appreciate my body because … I acknowledge my body and all it does for me

Even though sometimes I feel … with my body, I really do love my body

Top of the head: I really appreciate my body
Eyebrow: And all it does
Side of eye: My body is just fantastic
Under the eye: It is such a friend to me
Under the nose: It has taken on all the things that I couldn't
Under the chin: Because it loves me so much
Collar bone: I feel so grateful to my body for doing that!
Under the arm: I love and appreciate you body

Top of the head: Sometimes though I feel angry with my body
Eyebrow: And betrayed
Side of eye: It doesn't always do what I want it to do
Under the eye: It doesn't always look the way I want it to look
Under the nose: What if I expressed how I felt
Under the chin: Instead of stuffing it into my body
Collar bone: My poor body is stuffed with unfelt, undigested emotions and experiences
Under the arm: No wonder it feels …

Top of the head: Whatever I can't digest or haven't fully experienced
Eyebrow: Goes into my body
Side of eye: But my body finds it hard to digest and assimilate that stuff too
Under the eye: And it's nearly impossible to eliminate what hasn't been digested
Under the nose: Because it's stuck
Under the chin: And that makes me feel ...
Collar bone: How can we help each other?
Under the arm: To let go?

Top of the head: When I think of all my body does for me and has done for me
Eyebrow: Tears come to my eyes
Side of eye: Tears of appreciation
Under the eye: My heart swells
Under the nose: With appreciation
Under the chin: For my beautiful body
Collar bone: I can honestly say, with my hand on my heart
Under the arm: I love my body

Emotion always has its roots in the unconscious and manifests itself in the body ~ Irene Claremont de Castil

Tapping script for depression

His high endeavors are an inward light

That makes the path before him always bright

~ William Wordsworth 

Tapping on the karate chop (side of hand) or rubbing the sore spot, say the following set up statements. Be sure to customise this script for you and how you feel. Listen and tap along to the audio on depression.
EFT Shortcut diagram.

Even though everything is such an effort, I acknowledge how I feel

Even though … feels like it's pressing down on me, I acknowledge how it makes me feel

Even though … feels hopeless, I acknowledge how I feel

Top of the head: This feeling
Eyebrow: It feels …
Side of the eye: It's heavy
Under the eye: It weighs a ton
Under the nose: It's weighing me down
Under the chin: … is pressing down on me
Collar bone: I feel …
Under the arm: And that makes me feel …

Top of the head: This heaviness
Eyebrow: This effort
Side of the eye: This weight
Under the eye: ... takes so much effort
Under the nose: … takes all my energy
Under the chin: … is sapping my energy
Collar bone: And zest for life
Under the arm: I've no zest for life

Top of the head: And that feels …
Eyebrow: I'd love to feel light
Side of eye: I'd love to feel buoyant
Under the eye: But don't know if it's possible
Under the nose: Because there's too much weighing me down
Under the chin: I can't get rid of this weight
Collar bone: That's weighing me down
Under the arm: And sapping my energy

Top of the head: What exactly is weighing me down?
Eyebrow: What's making me feel this way?
Side of the eye: I'm open to knowing
Under the eye: I'm open to feeling
Under the nose: I'm open to allowing
Under the chin: I'm open to healing
Collar bone: This depression
Under the arm: I'm willing to feel

Top of the head: And sort through
Eyebrow: What's depressing me
Side of the eye: I'm willing to get clear
Under the eye: On what it is
Under the nose: That's pressing down on me
Under the chin: So I can feel light again
Collar bone: So I can feel free
Under the arm: Of this weight

Top of the head: I'm willing
Eyebrow: To express
Side of eye: How I feel
Under the eye: Even if only to myself
Under the nose: I'm willing to feel
Under the chin: All of my feelings
Collar bone: I'm willing to accept
Under the arm: All of my feelings

Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and then we'll need no other light ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

The Rush to Reframe

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world 

~ George Bernard Shaw

I believe we need to be aware of where we find it difficult to accept where we or others are in any given moment. In the rush to make ourself or others feel better, we can rush into reframing a situation and how we feel about it, too early. And we lose a healing opportunity as a result.

Rushing to reframe can have the effect of feeling like we're being shut up, once again. Even worse, is the intimation that these feelings are somehow unacceptable, ugly, or horrible and therefore that makes us unacceptable, ugly or horrible for having them, never mind expressing them. Two of the most damaging ways people can be shut up or shut down is to be shamed for feeling a certain way and/or to have their feelings and experiences minimised. Very often, if not always, the resulting beliefs are:
Shaming: I am wrong.
Minimising: I don't count.

The holy grail in the reframing world seems to be forgiveness. There is a lot of emphasis placed on forgiveness, so if you don't or won't forgive, what does that make you? An angry person? A resentful person? An unforgiving person? Or maybe, just maybe, it makes you a person that hasn't yet healed their hurts. If we put the cart before the horse, we're creating yet another shaming or minimising device with which to punish ourself. Guilt always seeks punishment. My preferred reframe for forgiveness is acceptance, and acceptance is a process or state of mind, it's not a step or steps we have to take to get somewhere or become something to be more acceptable or pleasing to others, or to ourself for that matter. When we can honestly say that we accept ourselves, others and life exactly as we and they are, we probably won't even need to forgive.

I have found from working with people that the very best reframes always come from them, when they are ready. My role is not to push or force them. When their experiences, beliefs and feelings have been witnessed, validated and heard they will start making shifts in how they perceive themselves, others and life. These are deep, lasting and authentic changes from the inside out.

Tapping script for sinus issues/irritation

Do you have bunged up sinuses? Do you have a post nasal drip causing you to cough? Do you feel irritated a lot of the time? Try this script to free up your sinuses and your irritation. In my experience congested sinuses and post nasal drip are very often caused by irritation and anger. What do you think is underneath the irritation? Tap along to the mp3 recording or read the script below.

Even though I feel irritated at/by ... I accept myself

Even though ... is really getting up my nose, I accept myself

Even though my sinuses are all bunged up, I accept how I and they feel

Top of the head: This irritation
Eyebrow: Is really irritating
Side of eye: I'm irritated
Under eye: I feel irritated
Under nose: And it's showing up in my body
Under chin: My body is speaking my mind
Collar bone: Because I feel irritated
Under arm: And my sinuses are expressing that irritation

Top of the head: I can let go of this irritation at ...
Eyebrow: Can I?
Side of eye: Do I want to?
Under eye: If they'd only stop irritating me!
Under nose: Or If I chose not to let them irritate me ...
Under chin: Do I have a choice?
Collar bone: Yes
Under arm: No!

Top of head: I'll feel the irritation
Eyebrow: So my sinuses don't have to express the irritation for me
Side of eye: Why do they get under my skin?
Under eye: And up my nose?
Under nose: The irritation is not flowing
Under chin: It's getting stuck
Collar bone: In my sinuses
Under arm: I can let it flow

Top of head: Literally!
Eyebrow: I can let it all out
Side of eye: I can eliminate all this crap
Under eye: That I don't need
Under nose: I can let it all flow out
Under chin: Of my sinuses
Collar bone: That feels better
Under arm: That feels more freeing

The Art of Attention

If you pay attention, you're always learning. And if you're always learning, you're always in grace, and grace will fill in the cracks in your understanding ~ Richard Bartlett

This is a lovely interview by Dr Mercola with Richard Bartlett, creator of Matrix Energetics, on the art of paying attention.

We are basically just patterns of light and energy ~ Richard Bartlett

Tell the Truth

Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth ~ Sheryl Louise Moller

Have you ever found yourself “performing” in a session when you're the client? Have you ever downplayed how you feel or found yourself trying to gain approval? Some part of you senses and knows that the therapist/practitioner wants you to make THEM feel good about their skills, or whatever else, and you go along with it out of fear. Fear that if they really knew your true circumstances or how you really really felt, they'd disapprove in some way or another?

Unless it's completely safe to open up in an authentic way, and to be able and to be free to express exactly how we feel, the therapy is an absolute waste of time in my opinion. The practitioner gives tacit permission for us to do this, it's unspoken but we know when we don't have that permission. All we have to do is trust that knowing. What I find sad is that many of us will blame our self, we don't trust that if the therapist cannot handle our emotions in all their multi-coloured glory, it says more about them than it does about us. So it comes down to trusting our self and our inner knowing. We know, so pretending that we don't know, doesn't serve us well and neither does it serve the therapist or practitioner. Wherever we find our self reveals a healing opportunity for us and for the other person if they wish to accept it. 

Unwanted moments introduce us to parts of ourselves that would otherwise never get healed were it not for the difficulties that first reveal them and that lead us to release their pain ~ Guy Finley

The theatre of the body

Emotions play out in the theatre of the body, feelings play out in the theatre of the mind ~ Antonio Damasio

This is an excerpt from the brilliantly written book by Peter Levine, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma: The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experiences. This book is a must read for anyone who has been traumatised.

Arousal becomes chronic as a result of overwhelming sensations and emotions that have an internal source. This is the reason that trauma can and must be transformed by working with it internally. In re-enactment the world may be our stage. In remaining external, it also remains unchanged. Hence, re-enactment rarely accomplishes its intended task.

It is to our detriment that we live in a culture that does not honour the internal world. In many cultures, the internal world of dreams, feelings, images, and sensations is sacred. Yet, most of us are only peripherally aware of its existence. We have little or no experience of finding our way around in this internal landscape. Consequently, when our experience demands it, we are unprepared. Rather than negotiating it skillfully, if we attempt it all, we are more likely to re-enact it.

With patience and attention, however, the patterns that drive traumatic re-enactment can be dismantled so that we again access the infinite, feeling tones and behavioural responses that we are capable of executing. Once we understand how trauma begins and develops, we must then learn to know ourselves through the felt sense. All the information that we need to begin renegotiating trauma is available to us. Our bodies (instincts) will tell us where the blockages are and when we are moving too fast. Our intellects can tell us how to regulate the experience so that we are not overwhelmed. When these brain functions work as one, we can establish a special relationship between the mainstream for our internal experience and the turmoil of trauma. Moving slowly and allowing the experience to unfold at each step allows us to digest the unassimilated aspects of the traumatic experience at a rate that we are able to tolerate. (Irish psychiatrist Ivor Browne calls trauma: unexperienced experience).

In the theatre of the body, trauma can be transformed. The fragmented elements that perpetuate traumatic emotion and behaviour can be completed, integrated, and made whole again. Along with this wholeness comes a sense of mastery and resolution.

Every trauma provides an opportunity for authentic transformation ~ Peter Levine 

Creativity

What does it mean to be creative? To create means to make something new, to bring something into existence or to cause something to happen. Doesn't it follow then that we're all creative? Many people infer creativity to mean being artistic or musical and while it is very easy to see the energy of creativity in these activities, we don't tend to think of creating a nice atmosphere at home or making a lovely dinner as being creative. The truth is we're (co)creating our lives every moment of every single day, so it's very important to get clear and create the life that we truly want and desire. Say, out loud:

I create

I am creative

I am creativity

Notice how you feel when you say them and where you feel these sentiments in your body. Write down what comes to mind and tap on anything that you feel may be blocking or shielding you from really connecting to and embodying the energy of creativity.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will ~ George Bernard Shaw

Energy and Intention

In the universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamans call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link 

~ Carlos Castaneda 

Wayne Dyer calls these seven faces of intention; Creativity, Kindness, Love, Beauty, Expansion, Abundance and Receptivity. We are a part of the energy that is called intention, when we feel connected to these energies we feel bright, we feel in the flow. Say the following sentences out loud and notice how you feel when you say them. Where do you feel the energy of these statements in your body? Maybe you can take the statement that appeals to you the most and tap on how it makes you feel. Notice if you have any blocks or shields around really embodying these seven energies of intention. When you're ready, you can move on to the next one that feels right, follow your intuition.

Intention is the perfect match for the energy system, it is the "energy screwdriver" ~ Silvia Hartmann

Deepak Chopra on the Law of Attraction

Energy Nutrition

One of the most important concepts I learned when doing my training in EmoTrance was the idea of energy nutrition. In practical terms, what that means is to be able to open ourselves up, without blocks or shields, to every energy and to allow that energy to charge and brighten us up, so we can evolve, learn, grow, be nourished by it and realise our full potential. To be able and to have the skills and resources to allow any energy to flow in, through and out and to have that same energy nourish you, is life changing and really powerful.

I don't believe that there is any such thing as a positive or negative emotion. Many of us haven't yet learned to move energy properly so we're emotionally and energetically constipated. Energy can feel dense or it can feel light. Feeling lighter feels good. Feeling dense energy because it's slow, thick and sluggish makes us feel stuck, it feels uncomfortable because we can't handle it! That's because we're afraid of it or we've judged it as "bad" or "shameful" so we deny it, bury it and most of all, hold onto it. Which of course is the last thing we say we want to do!  So, dense energy can't move and stays stuck.

We're doing the opposite of what we were designed to do; allow energy to flow in, through and out of our energy systems. How many people hang onto the so-called "positive" emotions for dear life and for fear of losing them, and don't allow new stuff to flow in as a result? And how many want to get rid of the "negative" stuff? Instead of thinking in terms of high/up and low/down, as in the popular emotional guidance scale, I prefer to think of energy in terms of being dense or light. It makes a lot of sense to me, energy is designed to move, moving energy is light, slow energy or energy that has come to a standstill is dense. Learning how to allow any energy to move in, through and out will make us lighter so we can really shine as we're designed to do! http://emotrance.com/

How can we heal what we're trying so hard to avoid?

How about we reframe "negative" emotions and feelings into feelings and emotions we can't handle YET.

We tend to label what feels uncomfortable as "negative". But imagine becoming comfortable with feeling all of your feelings? Wouldn't that be great?! Imagine if feeling your feelings, is what helps you digest them, assimilate them and discharge them so they don't become STUCK? Allowing them to flow in, through and out of our bodies and minds ...

Make a list of the feelings that are really uncomfortable for you to feel, the ones you want to avoid like the plague. And start tapping on allowing yourself to feel them.

Even though I can't handle feeling hopeless, maybe I can allow myself to feel 10% of that feeling and it'll get easier and easier to feel it


Even though I can't feel ... YET, I accept myself anyway


Even though I'm afraid to feel ... because ... I accept myself anyway

EFT tapping script for feeling stuck

Even though I feel stuck, this stuck energy doesn't move no matter what I do and I'm tired of it, I love and accept myself anyway

Even though everything seems to be sticking to this stuck energy and it makes me feel ...I'm trying to accept how I feel about this

Even though this energy feels as hard as a rock, it's like as if it's been stuck there forever, I don't think it's possible that it will ever move, but I'm open to the possibility that I can move this energy with all the resources available to me right now

Even though it feels difficult to change my mind about this and how I see it, it feels like I can't find the solution no matter how hard I look, that's okay EFT Short cut diagram

Photo by Mike Lutz

TH I feel stuck

EB I feel stuck

SE It won't budge

UE No matter what I do

UN It's useless

UC It's hopeless

CB This energy just won't move

UA It's going to be here forever

TH No it isn't

EB Yes it is

SE No it isn't

UE Yes, it is!!

UN No it isn't!!

UC YES IT IS!!

CB When did it get stuck?

UA I don't know

TH If I did it wouldn't be stuck!!

EB Some part of me knows

SE All I have to do is help this energy move

UE And I can do that with my intention

UN Am I willing?

UC It feels really uncomfortable

UN Because it wants to move and can't

UA What's holding it there?

TH Maybe a conflict?

EB Maybe a belief?

SE A block?

UE A shield?

UN It must be subconscious

UC Because if I knew

CB I'd do something about it

UA Or would I?

TH Maybe some part of me doesn't want to let this go

EB Maybe it doesn't feel safe

SE Maybe there's some reason for holding onto this stuck energy

UE I'm open to knowing the answer

UN I'm open to receiving

UC Whatever it is I'm ready

CB Whatever it is I'm willing

UA I'm willing to heal

Discharging tension from the body exercise

I have been using this exercise from the book Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul by Deepak Chopra with great success. It really works in discharging (or releasing, letting go of) body tension. I've found that the more I can help my body to release tension with easy exercises like this, the easier it becomes for me to do energy work with myself and others because I've loosened up or released old stuck energy. This is a transcription of the exercise from the book:

Discharge tension

Awareness, like water, is meant to flow easily, without interruption. When awareness becomes stuck, tension is created in the body. Cramps, pain, tightness, and stiffness are the most obvious symptoms of this, but at a deeper level your body is storing the memory of old stress. Yoga or deep energy work are great ways to release these body memories. Yet everyone's body has a natural mechanism for discharging tension, and you can take advantage of it immediately. 

Lie down before you go to sleep at night. Assume a position flat on your back without a pillow; spread your arms and legs at your side. Draw in a deep, slow breath, then release it through your mouth in a sigh, as freely and naturally as your body wants. Some sighs may be quick, almost like a gasp; others may be as deep as a sob. You may feel a sense of relief, sadness, grief, elation, or any other emotion. Be aware of the emotions as they arise; you are not just releasing physical tension; you are accessing bodily memories at the same time. The natural discharge of tension bundles thoughts, feelings, and sensations together, so let them all go at once. Do this exercise for no more than ten minutes, because it can be intense; allow yourself to fall asleep if your body wants to. That is also part of the discharge process. 

Intuition

I had the most wonderful EFT session today with a fantastic and compassionate EFT practitioner, Ruth Maier. I had a huge 'AHA' moment, the kind I've been hoping for, for a long time! I read a quote by Neale Donald Walsch yesterday on facebook, “The more that you act on your intuition fearlessly, the more your intuition will serve you. Intuition is the ear of the soul”. This quote really really resonated with me. I have felt the times I haven't listened to my intuition, or my gut, have been the times when I've been too afraid to do so, and as a result chaos and confusion ensued in my life. I was conflicted about listening to my inner voice, particularly in my own life, because at times it felt like the scariest thing to do and I didn't feel confident enough to follow through on it. When we're not clear and congruent, it shows up in the people and situations that come into our lives.

The implications of me not listening to my intuition and following it, have had quite a big impact on my life. I would get angry with others for “walking all over me” or taking advantage of me or my kindness and then I'd get angry with myself for having allowed it when I knew better. This is quite ironic as one of the biggest patterns and themes in my life has been not feeling heard or listened to, by others! It was easy for me to listen to my gut when it came to others, in fact I'd feel unkind if I didn't, but I found it difficult to act on it for myself, selfish even. I'd hear what it was saying but I would often override its message, so my body had to do my talking for me instead. The person that I was being unkind to was myself.

This is what I wanted to work on today with Ruth, listening to and following my intuition, all the time. All sorts of stuff came up, but the biggest blinker lifter for me (which might sound obvious to everyone else) was my intuition IS my power. I've heard how important it is to take your power back in the healing process, but I was abdicating my power many times by feeling too afraid to listen to my gut and act on it. I've had health issues with my gut and solar plexus areas in the last few years, indigestion, bloating, a general feeling of discomfort, symptoms very like IBS. My body was speaking my mind, but guess what, I wasn't listening or I wasn't hearing the messages clearly, because I wasn't clear. I really do believe that our intuition or inner voice is how God communicates with us. It is our direct connection to the power of God. Many times I have felt power-less and dis-connected, and the person I was most disconnected from was myself. Very often I wasn't listening to me or my gut. I wasn't plugging into my power source; my intuition, which is really just another way of saying how God, Source, The Soul, The Universe, talks to us. I'm definitely listening now!

Thanks for your kindness, compassion and allowing Ruth!

I digest life easily, effortlessly and joyously

How easy is it for you to fully take in what is happening, or what happened in your life? What signs are you getting that some experiences and feelings just haven't been digested, assimilated and eliminated by you? Are you feeling stuck, blocked, overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, angry? Do you have IBS, Fibromyalgia or are you overweight? Try tapping on these statements, make sure to customise them for you. Tapping diagram.

Even though I can't stomach what's going on/went on (detail it and be specific) I completely accept how I feel about this

Even though it's all stuck and I just can't seem to let it go, I love and accept myself anyway

Even though I just can't take it in, it sticks in my gullet, I love and accept myself

TH I can't take it
EB It's too much
SE To feel
UE Or understand
UN Or accept
UC It's stuck (are you getting any emotional/physical signs, such as indigestion or repressed rage?)
CB I wish it would just go away
UA But I can't make it!!

TH It's really hard to accept …
EB I don't see how I can
SE It's just not fair!
UE It's easy to accept that it wasn't fair
UN I can sort of accept how I feel about that
UC Though I don't know what to do about it
CB That's why I feel stuck
UA And angry!

TH I'd love to let all of this go
EB But I just don't know how
SE I can breathe
UE And tap
UN And become aware
UC Of how I'm feeling
CB What I'm experiencing
UA And stop denying it in all the ways that I do

TH So I can feel it
EB And take it in
SE And digest it
UE And let go of what I don't want or need
UN I can trust myself to know what to keep and what to let go of
UC Because I know
CB I just need to listen
UA To how I feel

To be free, you must find a way to let go of all the stuck energy that keeps sending out the same old messages ~ Deepak Chopra

The most important aspect

For me, the most important aspect in a memory is the associated feeling, or feelings. As Antonio Damasio writes in The Feeling of What Happens, “we experience because we have the ability to feel”. That's how important emotions and feelings are. The feeling(s) we experienced, or not, as the case may be, when something happened in our lives, laid the foundation of how that memory became imprinted in our brain, body and beyond. Whenever that feeling arises at a later stage, certain memories can be triggered.

If the feelings we felt at the time of the event were too overwhelming, we may have dissociated from them, or stuffed them, or buried them. Or maybe we were able to feel the feeling but when we expressed how we felt to others, we were shamed, so whenever we feel the beginnings of that feeling again, feelings of shame take its place instead. We may develop the belief that we are a bad person for feeling that way.

That's another thing about having the ability to feel and experience, we come to conclusions about our self, life and others as a result of these experiences, and these conclusions or beliefs become the foundation of how we live our life and experience life from then on. I believe that unless and until we connect to the original feeling, however painful (and this is why we usually avoid feeling the feeling at all costs, because we are too frightened to feel it again, so it's very important to work on uncoupling the feeling of fear from the original feeling) we won't be able to fully dissolve the charge on a memory or belief. Tapping diagram.

Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in the world as an event ~ Carl Jung

EFT tapping scripts for safety

Every exit is an entry somewhere ~ Tom Stoppard 

Try the following set up statements for tapping on safety, then use whatever reminder phrase that feels right for you on the points. Tapping diagram.

Even though it's not safe to feel this feeling, I'm afraid … will happen, I love and accept myself anyway

Even though it's not safe to express how I really feel, even to myself, I might have to do something about it then and I'm just not ready to act, I accept myself anyway

Even though some part of me believes it's not safe to let this go, I accept how this part feels

Even though I've had this … for so long, I can now safely release it and let it go (watch for any tailenders -objections- here and tap on them if they come up)

Even though this part(s) has kept me safe for so long by not feeling … I now choose to lift the burden from this part and help her/him feel the hurt and pain

Even though some part of me feels safer hanging on to …I love and accept this part

Even though I feel protected and at the same time unsafe, I accept how all parts of me feel

Even though I feel stuck because I'm afraid to move, I love and accept myself anyway

Every breath is an opportunity to receive and let go. I receive love and I let go of pain ~ Brenda MacIntyre 

Willingness and Safety

All you need is your will to even flow ~ Silvia Hartmann

If someone were to ask me what are the most important themes to tap on, I'd say willingness and safety. Not being willing will sabotage any effort to love and accept our self, life and others, exactly as we and they are and if we don't feel safe or feel that we belong in this world, it will be difficult to realise our inherent and infinite potential. State, out loud:

I am willing

I am/feel safe

Rate the truth of these statements from 0 to 10, 10 being true and 0 being false. Tap on the 'evidence' you have of these not feeling true for you.Tapping diagram.

Even if ...

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change ~ Carl Rogers

I came across this song by Alanis Morisette and thought it was made for tapping along to!



One way to find core beliefs/issues is to ask your self what do you feel you have to get rid of or make go away in order for you to accept and love your self? Can you love and accept your self exactly as you are right now, even if nothing changed? If not, why not? Then, tap on your answers. Tapping diagram.

Even if

… I never lose weight, I can still love and accept myself

… this … never goes away, I'll still be able to accept and love myself exactly as I am

… I remain sick, I'm a good and lovable person

… I can't/won't accept myself exactly as I am, I am still ok

In the film, The Living Matrix, Arielle Essex talks about developing a brain tumour, and after 8 years of doing all she could to make it go away, she finally gave the tumour permission to stay, and when she did that, it disappeared. She says:

“When I finally let go of needing my tumour to disappear, when I finally accepted its presence and gave it permission to be with me to the end of my days, when I recognised it as my friend, guide and teacher, when I felt gratitude for the motivation it had given me to change my life and my thinking, when I had forgiven all the people I had grudges with, my tumour no longer had a purpose and it melted away!"

Panic, Biology, and Reason: Giving the Body Its Due

Article by Peter A. Levine, Ph.D., Director of the Foundation for Human Enrichment, www.traumahealing.com

The Substitute Tiger

My interest in the essential role played by bodily responses in the genesis and treatment of panic anxiety began quite accidentally in 1969. A psychiatrist, knowing of my interest in “mind/body healing”-a fledging arena at the time, had referred a young woman to see me. Nancy had been suffering from panic attacks for about two years. She had not responded to psychotherapy, while tranquilizers and antidepressant drugs gave her only minimal relief. The referring psychiatrist asked me to do some “relaxation training” with her. My attempts were equally unsuccessful. She resisted; I tried harder. We got nowhere. Since I knew almost nothing about panic attacks at the time, I asked her for more detailed information about the ‘how and when’ of her attacks. Nancy revealed that the onset of her first attack occurred while she, along with a group of other students, was taking the Graduate Record Examination. She remembers breaking out in a cold sweat and beginning to shake. Forcing herself to complete the test, Nancy then ran out, frantically pacing the streets for hours, afraid to enter a bus or taxi. Fortunately, she met a friend who took her home. During the following two years her symptoms worsened and became more frequent. Eventually she was unable to leave her house alone and could not follow through with graduate school even though she had passed the exam and was accepted by a major university.

In our conversation, Nancy recollected the following sequence of events: Arriving early, she went to the cafe to have a coffee and smoke a cigarette. A group of students were already there, talking about how difficult the test was. Nancy, overhearing this, became agitated, lit another cigarette, and gulped a second coffee. She remembered feeling quite jittery upon entering the room. She recalled that the exams and marking pencils were passed out and that she wrote vigorously. She became almost breathless at this point and quite agitated--I noticed that her carotid (neck) pulse was increasing rapidly. I asked Nancy to lie down and I tried to get her to relax. Relaxation was not the answer. As I naively, and with the best of intentions, attempted to help her relax, she went into a full-blown anxiety attack. Her heartbeat accelerated further to about 150 beats per minute. Her breathing and pulse rate then started to decrease. I was relieved, but only momentarily. Her pulse continued to drop, precipitously to around 50 beats per minute; she became still. Her face paled and her hands begin to tremble: “I’m real scared…stiff all over…I’m dying…I can’t move…I don’t want to die…help me…don’t let my die.” She continued to stiffen, her throat becoming so tight that she could barely speak. Nancy forced the words, “Why can’t I understand this…I feel so inferior, like I’m being punished…there’s something wrong with me…I feel like I’m going to be killed… there’s nothing…it’s just blank.” (We had rather unfortunately co-discovered, some years before it was reported in the literature, “relaxation-induced panic syndrome.”) Read on

EFT and Safety

We must not forget that what Emotional Freedom Techniques does, is to discharge a short circuit in our energy systems. How we call up or evoke that energetic disturbance so it can be released, varies, we can do it with imagery, smells, sounds, music, metaphors, body sensations or some other representation of the disturbance. To dissolve the disruption effectively and thoroughly we need to be tuned into it as best we can. Being tuned in means to be associated with or to feel the energy of the feeling that caused the initial energetic disturbance in the first place. It's always about how we feel about "X" that causes our energy to short circuit. While sometimes it is necessary to go gently, the most important ingredient for someone to be able to tune in and fully associate with their feelings, is to feel safe enough to do so. We will not tune in or we will refuse to feel feelings that cause huge disruptions in our energy systems if we don't feel safe. So, if our feelings are causing the short circuit, let's use our feelings in a safe way to dissolve the short circuit.

What creates the safety that we need to feel those feelings? Someone being fully present with us, which has the effect of us feeling heard, understood and accepted and also having our feelings and experiences witnessed and validated. This experience is something we can fully place our trust in because it just cannot be faked. We will know whether or not we feel safe with a therapist or practitioner even though we might question our self, we'll know whether the person has created a safe place for us to open up and connect with our hurt and vulnerability.

The solution to the problem of the day is the awakening of the consciousness of humanity to the divinity within ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

Getting all parts on board

All YOU need to do is to have the WILL to Even Flow 
~ Silvia Hartmann

You can make life a lot easier for your self if you're willing. Willingness is probably the most important ingredient when you embark on a healing journey. You can do a lot when you're willing. Being willing means wanting to do something, not forcing yourself to do something, that's willpower, not willingness. Willpower takes effort, a lot of effort, it's sort of like swimming upstream, against the current with a big sack on your back, it's exhausting! And that struggle and effort are some of the most important reasons why we don't follow through on a lot of things that we say we want. When all parts of us aren't willing, we'll do all sorts of things to sabotage our healing efforts. Not being willing will manifest as:

~ Procrastination
~ Self sabotage
~ Conflict, particularly conflicted parts that want different things
~ Avoidance (denial, burying, stuffing, distraction, dissociation, suppression, shutting down) of the issue and the related feelings
~ Not feeling safe. Safety is one of the most important core issues to tap on, it underlies many if not all issues and is a primary reason for not being willing to heal

One of the most important things to tap on therefore, is being willing or wanting to heal. Try some of the following set up statements. Tapping diagram.

Even though I'm not willing to heal because … I completely accept how I feel right now

Even though a part of me is not willing because … I accept and understand how that part feels

Even though I'm not willing to feel … I accept how I feel about that

Even though one part is willing and another part isn't because … I completely accept and understand this conflict

Even though all of this feels forced, maybe because it's not what I truly want, I am now open to what my heart truly desires because I know it will be effortless

Even though I just don't want to make the effort, I accept how I feel right now

Even though I don't feel safe moving forward, I accept how I feel at this moment

Two sides of the same coin

golden waterfall, originally uploaded by paul (dex).

Resistance and Willingness are two sides of the same coin. Willingness will help you heal, resistance will stop any healing in its tracks. Willingness is an essential, and probably the most important, ingredient in the healing process. There's no bargaining to be done here, if you're not willing, you're going to find it exhausting struggling to do what you say you want to do. It will be uphill all the way. You will resist and fight every hurdle and obstacle you encounter which will drain your energy. You will hide, avoid, refuse to take responsibility, refuse to feel, want to be right all the time, project your stuff on to others, you'll do anything and everything rather than just start!

Do your self a favour at the start of the healing process, ask your self how willing you are to heal. Rate the truth of how willing you are from 0 to 10. Be completely honest. You can tap on all the reasons as to why you're not willing which will make your healing journey a lot easier and less painful. You might be surprised at the answers you come up with.

To heal we need to be willing to:
1 Look at something
2 Acknowledge it and
3 Feel it.

Willingness is not the same as willpower. Willingness is being open, being receptive and aware of what needs to be done. Willingness is effortless when all parts of you are on board.

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life

 ~ Leo Buscaglia

Emotional Flashback Management in the Treatment of Complex PTSD

This is a fantastic article by Pete Walker from http://www.psychotherapy.net

Early in my career I worked with David,* a handsome, intelligent client who was a professional actor. One day David came to see me after an unsuccessful audition. Beside himself, he burst out: "I never let on to anyone, but I know that I'm really very ugly; it's so stupid that I'm trying to be an actor when I'm so painful to look at."

David's childhood was characterized by emotional abuse, neglect and abandonment. The last and unwanted child of a large family, his alcoholic father repeatedly terrorized him. To make matters worse, his family frequently humiliated him by reacting to him with exaggerated looks of disgust. His older brother's favorite gibe, accompanied by a nauseated grimace, was, "I can't stand looking at you. The sight of you makes me sick!" David was so traumatized by the contempt with which his family had treated him that he was easily triggered by anything but the most benign expression on my face. If he came into session already triggered, he would often project disgust onto me, no matter how much genuine goodwill and regard I felt for him at the time.

I have come to call these reactions, typical of David and of many other clients over the years, emotional flashbacks—sudden and often prolonged regressions ("amygdala hijackings") to the frightening and abandoned feeling-states of childhood. They are accompanied by inappropriate and intense arousal of the fight/flight instinct and the sympathetic nervous system. Typically, they manifest as intense and confusing episodes of fear, toxic shame, and/or despair, which often beget angry reactions against the self or others. When fear is the dominant emotion in an emotional flashback, the individual feels overwhelmed, panicky or even suicidal. When despair predominates, it creates a sense of profound numbness, paralysis and an urgent need to hide. Feeling small, young, fragile, powerless and helpless is also common in emotional flashbacks. Such experiences are typically overlaid with toxic shame, which, as described in John Bradshaw's Healing The Shame That Binds, obliterates an individual's self-esteem with an overpowering sense that she is as worthless, stupid, contemptible or fatally flawed, as she was viewed by her original caregivers. Toxic shame inhibits the individual from seeking comfort and support, and in a reenactment of the childhood abandonment she is flashing back to, isolates her in an overwhelming and humiliating sense of defectiveness. Clients who view themselves as worthless, defective, ugly or despicable are showing signs of being lost in an emotional flashback. When stuck in this state, they often polarize affectively into intense self-hate and self-disgust, and cognitively into extreme and virulent self-criticism.

Numerous clients tell me that the concept of an emotional flashback brings them a great sense of relief. They report that for the first time they are able to make some sense of their extremely troubled lives. Some get that their addictions are misguided attempts to self-medicate. Some understand the inefficacy of the myriad psychological and spiritual answers they pursued, and are in turn feel liberated from a shaming plethora of misdiagnoses. Some can now frame their extreme episodes of risk taking and self-destructiveness as desperate attempts to distract themselves from their pain. Many experience hope that they can rid themselves of the habit of amassing evidence of defectiveness or craziness. Many report a budding recognition that they can challenge the self-hate and self-disgust that typically thwarts their progress in therapy. Read on.

Repairing injuries

Making friends with a condition or issue is the same as making friends with your self. It might be easier for us to believe, and more true, that instead of having created these issues, they are the manifestations of how we reacted and responded to life events that we had no control over. I don't believe we have 100% control over life's events, what we can control and choose is our ability to respond. 

But don't we need the resources to be able to do that? Does a three year old have the resources to choose her reaction or response to her father sexually abusing her? I don't believe so, she can't do anything about it except to cut off her pain in whatever way she can so she doesn't feel it, because it's too overwhelming. This cutting off or shutting down, can take the form of dissociating, acting out, becoming subdued and compliant and so on. I like the way traumas and conditions are described in Emotrance as “injuries to our spiritual or energetic body”, because that is exactly what they are. They hurt just like an injury hurts, but often these hurts are hidden and invisible. These Injuries need to be repaired so our energy can flow again. We can't repair what we are fighting and resisting, we are just making our injury bigger and sorer. We think we are resisting what happened or what was done to us, but in actual fact, mostly we are resisting feeling our own pain. We are fighting our self and our pain. Feeling our pain, making friends with it, is the way to repairing these old injuries.

That idea is fundamental ~ to feel pain and not to resist; to go towards it. It is an incredibly spiritual practice ~ Christy Turlington  

Why do we find it so difficult to feel certain feelings?

It is not enough to think about feelings. It is essential to feel them so as to gain the ability to feel. Feelings are our humanity ~ Arthur Janov

Why do we find it so difficult to feel certain feelings? We hang onto the “good” ones for dear life and avoid the “bad” ones for dear life!! Neither approach creates ease and flow, the first creates stagnation and the latter, blockages. When we feel good, others usually don't have an issue with it, but if we feel less than good, others can find it hard to handle and we can feel judged or criticised. We think this is about us because of our baggage, but most likely they are being triggered by our feelings, usually because they have disowned those very feelings. We, on the other hand are triggered by their judgements and criticisms and feel bad and wrong for feeling the way we do, which most likely is a pattern that we keep repeating. We will try and distance our self from feelings that feel bad and uncomfortable and feelings that seem to invite criticism from others. What this adds up to is a denial of our humanity and our ability and gift to be able to feel anything and everything.

If, when we were young, certain feelings were not accepted, criticised and shamed, we will suppress them, we will do anything to feel safe within our family so as not to feel/be rejected or abandoned. Many of us carry these fears of feeling certain feelings into adulthood, associating them with the danger of not being loved, accepted or safe. We will find it really hard, if not impossible, to give a voice to these feelings, we'll deny them, bury them, avoid them, distract our self from them, do whatever we have to do to not feel them. But life won't let us get away with this, we'll eventually be called upon to make our true feelings known, even if only to our self. If we refuse to feel our feelings, our bodies will do the talking and feeling for us, our bodies never lie. That unfelt energy has to go somewhere and it's our bodies who usually take it on for us. Without the priceless feedback from our emotions and feelings we would find it very difficult to navigate through life. We wouldn't be able to feel touched by beautiful music and we wouldn't fear going near the edge of a cliff. Feelings give our life meaning and context, how could we attribute meaning to anything without being able to feel?

In his book Ageless Body Timeless Mind, Deepak Chopra describes hurt “as the most basic negative feeling”. He goes on to say that:

Coming to the moment by putting your attention on the pain allows you to release the pain as soon as it occurs. This release occurs naturally- it is what the body wants to do- and attention is the healing power that triggers it. Putting attention on your feelings gets you closer to the state of witnessing; you observe the pain without getting wrapped up in all the secondary blame, avoidance, and denial that usually follows. As you learn to say, "I feel hurt", and really be with that feeling, more openness will develop. the emotions that frighten us are the complex ones, because they overwhelm the natural release mechanism. You cannot simply release guilt or depression. They are secondary formations that arose once you forgot how to release hurt. The more hurt you honestly feel, the more comfortable you will be with pain, because the ability to release it will grow. As this happens, you will feel easier about all your other emotions. (To a blocked mind, feeling 'positive' emotions such as love and trust is often just as difficult as feeling 'negative' emotions such as hate and distrust. Both are elauded by old unresolved hurts). Feeling easy with your emotions means that you won't get entangled in other people's. 

Another fantastic read on the subject of feelings is, Biology of Love, by Arthur Janov, he writes:

Ideas cannot change feelings. Only feelings can. This seemingly simple notion has profound implications. For if we are trying to regain our humanity, we need to regain our feelings; and we cannot do that through the mode of ideas alone. To regain feeling one must fully experience all the hurt blocking it, and bring the pain to conscious awareness. Then an "idea" can make changes, when it flows out of feelings. Conscious awareness strips the unconscious of its power to direct behaviour. Ideas and feelings reside in different places in the brain. We must not try to make one level do the work of another level. We must not attempt to use ideas to replace feelings. The feeling of feeling involves specific structures in the brain such as the hippocampus and amygdala. Ideas about those feelings are processed in the top-level cortex, specifically the left hemisphere, forward part of the brain. If we use the frontal cortex alone to feel, we are in trouble. The most we can expect is a crying "about", an adult looking back at childhood, instead of a child actually feeling her hurts.

Reacting and Responding

When we react we are not in the present moment. We are re-acting/acting again/back or against something. As Albert Einstein said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." We react when we're triggered, and very often it's a knee jerk reaction where we return to an old conditioned state which needs healing and resolving.

The first step is to be aware. When you're mindful you notice, in the moment, that you are re-acting, which is when you move into responding instead. This brings you immediately into the present moment, where you can act from a position of clarity and authentic power.

A feeling about a feeling

dominos, originally uploaded by greg westfall..

When you have a feeling that leads to another feeling, that leads to another feeling and maybe even another feeling, tap on the feeling(s) you have about the original feelings first. In practice this might look like you experience anger, the minute you feel angry you start to feel guilty and then you start to feel disloyal. This can lead to confusion, overwhelm and not knowing where to start so we end up not tapping at all!!

The feeling to start with, is the last feeling, in this case, disloyalty. Disloyalty will act like a block or a fence around the original feeling that is causing you disturbance. You'll find tapping on disloyalty, and all its aspects, will naturally lead you, like dominoes falling against one another, to the next feeling and the next and so on. This way, you'll be able to collapse and dissolve the energetic charges certain feelings cause you, much more easily.Tapping diagram

Emotional Honesty

Excerpted from In the Meantime by Iyanla Vanzant:

Emotional honesty begins with being able to acknowledge what you feel. It is the way by which we honour the fact that we are emotional beings and that we do have feelings. This is something adults often fail to realise about children, that they are emotional beings. Consequently, as adults, we fail to recognise it about ourselves. It is not always necessary for you to announce to others what you feel. You must, however, allow yourself to feel it. Only through the experience of what you feel are you able to stay in touch with your inner self. Once you are in touch you will realise that all feelings are neutral, and that they derive their meaning from the energy that we give them. In essence, there are no good or bad feelings unless we tell ourselves they are good or bad. The actual conflict or confusion we experience is knowing the difference between acknowledging what we feel and the appropriate expression of that knowledge. Being able to identify and acknowledge what you feel is a sign of emotional health and stability. It empowers you to choose the appropriate response. When, on the other hand, you get stuck judging the right and wrong of your emotional experiences, to the degree that you deny having them, you are painting yourself into a very tight corner, an emotional tight spot that can often lead to inappropriate expressions.

Whether or not you are involved in a love relationship, emotional suppression, which is a form of self-deception, does not honour you, nor does it honour those with whom you interact in any way. Self-deception is failure to acknowledge the truth about yourself or others. If you cannot accept truth, you are in denial. When you are involved in something as powerful as loving yourself and others, the attempt to deny the depths of your experience creates what you know as pain. In the meantime, while you don't have this figured out, you are prone to do everything in your power to deny what you feel, believing that denial will keep you from speaking the painful truth. Important love rule here: acknowledgement and expression are not the same thing! Acknowledgement means having the courage to admit to yourself what you are feeling. Expression means having the presence of mind and the courage to let someone else know. They are two active reminders that love does not strip you of your decision-making faculties or the power to make a choice.

Say the unsayable ...

... even if only to yourself. The very thing you don't want to say, admit to, or face, is one of your greatest healing opportunities. By naming it and tapping on it, you will dissolve the huge disruption it is causing in your energy system. Tapping diagram.

Inside my empty bottle I was constructing a lighthouse while all the others were making ships ~ Charles Simic

Momentum

We can lose momentum easily if we don't feed our spirits as well as we feed our bodies. We need to look after what is important to us. Try the tapping script below to keep you connected and tuned in. Tapping diagram.

Enthusiasm is the energy and force that builds literal momentum of the human soul and mind ~ Bryant H. McGill

Even though I lose momentum, I accept myself

Even though I can't seem to stick to things that I really like, I accept where I am

Even though I sometimes forget what's really important to me, I accept myself

TH I'm losing momentum
EB With important things
SE Why?
UE I don't know
UN I need to keep feeding my spirit
UC With things that matter
CB I need to surround myself
UA With reminders

TH Of what's important to me
EB I want to dissolve
SE All resistance
UE To my good
UN I know it's there
UC I just need to connect
CB And stay connected
UA To my source

TH Of energy
EB Because it's who I am
SE I am that
UE I know it
UN I feel it
UC It is me
CB We're connected
UA Even if I forget sometimes

Hear

Excerpted from Until Today by Iyanla Vanzant

If you really want to hear someone when they trust you enough to talk to you, don't listen to the words, hear how the words are spoken. All too often, we cannot hear the words because we come to the conversation with our own ideas about who people are. At the same time, we are determined not to let them see who we are. In order for effective and valued communication to occur, you must believe that you are safe, and you must offer that same safety to the other person.

If you want to communicate with another person, you must hear their fear and not dismiss it. You must hear a person's pain and not overlook it. It is important to hear a person's guilt and not buy into it. You must be ready to hear a person's anger and not fuel it. Most people need to know that they have been heard. Listen to their body. Listen to their eyes. Listen to colours they are wearing, they way they touch their hair. Listen to the volume. Listen to the tempo. If you really want to hear someone, open your heart and listen to their soul.

Until today, you may not have been able to hear what people are saying to you. Just for today, close your eyes when you are in a conversation. Hear every word that is spoken through the centre of your heart.

Conflicted parts

A conflict begins and ends in the hearts and minds of people, not in the hilltops ~ Amos Oz

Conflict is very often at the core of an issue. One part of you wants, feels or does something and another part is in conflict about that. Any conflict has the effect of stalling any progress or resolution of an issue, so it's very useful to ask yourself whether you have any conflict about the issue and tap on the conflict itself. For example, if you learned at 4 years of age that not only was it not acceptable to express anger, but you did not even have the right to feel angry in the first place, you most likely will have conflict about anger later on in life. As a result, you may suppress anger, feel guilty when anger arises which compounds an initially simple issue of being able to feel anger and express it. Learning how to fully feel and express a feeling, engages our natural release mechanism for resolving painful emotions.

Some sample set up statements you could try are:

Even though a part of me feels angry about ... another part feels disloyal for feeling angry and I completely accept how both parts feel

Even though I feel conflicted about ... I accept that's how I feel right now

Even though I don't like the part that feels this way, I choose to understand what is behind that feeling

Constriction and Expansion

There's no limit possible to the expansion of each one of us ~ Charles M Schwab

Scan your body for signs of constriction and tap on the constriction. Notice if the contriction changes in quality as you tap, pay attention to the smallest and biggest of signs. If your breath becomes constricted if you meet with resistance to feeling any constriction, breathe through it and keep tapping. Tapping diagram.

Using EFT with the body and breath

We can feel and process through the body and breath. Becoming aware of our body, its sensations and our breath, helps us engage our natural release mechanism for stress. If we begin to feel frightened and want to avoid or distract our self, EFT helps dissolve any energy disturbances so we can continue our release work.


Further resources
Somatic experiencing
Body psychotherapy
Constricted breathing technique
German New Medicine
John Diamond M.D., Your Body Doesn't Lie: Unlock the Power of Your Natural Energy!
Robert Scaer M.D., The Body Bears the Burden, Trauma Dissociation and Disease

What do you avoid?

The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt

~ Thomas Merton

Avoiding, denying, suppressing, or the urgency to get rid of something, are all conscious ways we use to avoid pain. Because it takes so much energy to avoid, the act of avoiding creates a strong energetic pull of the very thing we're trying so hard to avoid, into our life. We usually want to avoid because of fear but paradoxically, we will attract what we are most afraid of. Not to prove anything about us, but primarily because our focus is on the thing we're avoiding. We also know on some level that there is an opportunity to bring healing and resolution to a lifelong pattern by turning towards what we're most afraid of, instead of turning away from it.

What are you most afraid of? Do you avoid it? How do you avoid it? Make a list of how, why and what you avoid. There are steps that you can take, to disarm the charge on what you don't want and want to get rid of. When EFT is used along with the various steps below, it really helps us to dissolve the charge we have on the situations, feelings or people that we want to avoid and are afraid of.

Step 1 Identify how, why and what you avoid.
Step 2 Acknowledge how, why and what you avoid or want to get rid of.
Step 3 Accept how, why and what you avoid without judging, blaming, projecting it onto others or criticising your self or others.
Step 4 Pay attention to whatever surfaces and write it down.
Step 5 Become aware of the deeper message by asking how this issue or pattern serves your healing.

Look into the depths of your own soul and learn first to know yourself, then you will understand why this illness was bound to come upon you and perhaps you will thenceforth avoid falling ill

~ Sigmund Freud

The power of human emotion

By Gregg Braden

Feelings are not supposed to be logical. Dangerous is the man who has rationalized his emotions ~ David Borenstein

Your relationship with your Self

You are searching the world for treasure but the real treasure is yourself ~ Rumi

How do you relate to your Self? With love and kindness or with judgement and criticism? Try the following script for self acceptance, please customise it to how you feel and your personal circumstances. Tapping diagram

Even though I don't accept myself, I accept how I feel
Even though I can't accept myself because ...(detail your answers, this is your "evidence" so to speak) I accept how I feel
Even though I have never accepted myself, I accept myself and all my feelings

Top of the head: I don't accept myself
Eyebrow: I can't
Side of eye: I won't
Under eye: Because ...
Under nose: I'm not accepted by others either
Under chin: I crave acceptance
Collar bone: But it never comes
Under arm: Why?

Top of head: Because I don't deserve acceptance
Eyebrow: There are so many reasons why I don't deserve to be accepted
Side of eye: For who I am
Under eye: For what I feel
Under nose: For what I've done
Under chin: For what I could have done
Collar bone: For what I do
Under arm: For what I don't do

Top of head: I have too many faults to be accepted
Eyebrow: So there are good reasons for others not to accept me and for me not to accept myself
Side of eye: But I still want acceptance
Under eye: I still need acceptance
Under nose: How can I get acceptance?
Under chin: How can I make myself more acceptable?
Collar bone: By pleasing others
Under arm: But that only works for a short while

Top of head: And then I feel resentful
Eyebrow: And don't want to do it any more
Side of eye: But I don't know what else to do
Under eye: What about pleasing myself?
Under nose: At least I'll be happy!
Under chin: But others won't
Collar bone: And that makes me feel ...
Under arm: Can I handle it if others are upset with me?

Top of head: Maybe
Eyebrow: Maybe not
Side of eye: Maybe it doesn't matter
Under eye: Maybe the important thing here is acceptance
Under nose: Of everything
Under chin: Including me
Collar bone: So I can stop struggling
Under arm: To be accepted

Top of head: Because it doesn't work anyway!
Eyebrow: I'm doing what isn't working
Side of eye: So I choose to change my mind
Under eye: And do something different
Under nose: So I have different results
Under chin: The results I want!
Collar bone: Which is self acceptance
Under arm: That feels more empowering

The curious paradox is that when I accept my Self, just as I am, then I can change ~ Carl Rogers

EFT tapping script for anxiety

Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time ~ C. S. Lewis

Even though I’ve felt nervous and anxious my entire life, I accept how I feel

Even though it’s really difficult to remain calm, I acknowledge how I feel

Even though I don’t know why I’m like this, I just can’t seem to get it together and others are always ... me, I honour how difficult it is for me

Top of the Head: These anxious feelings

Eyebrow: They are so hard to live with

Side of Eye: I’d love some peace

Under Eye: From this

Under Nose: I just don’t feel safe

Under Chin: Or secure

Collar Bone: I’m always watching

Under Arm: For . . .

Top of the Head: I keep thinking

Eyebrow: That I should be over this!

Side of Eye: But I can’t get over these feelings

Under Eye: Of anxiety

Under Nose: And nerves

Under Chin: What’s wrong with me?

Collar Bone: I’m exhausted

Under Arm: I feel . . .

Top of the Head: I’m going to breathe deeply

Eyebrow: I choose to breathe deeply

Side of Eye: And tap

Under Eye: On this anxiety in my body

Under Nose: So it feels better

Under Chin: I want my anxiety and me to feel better

Collar Bone: And at peace

Under Arm: Together

Top of the Head: I want to feel safe in my own body

Eyebrow: I don’t want to keep running away

Side of Eye: From these feelings

Under Eye: And me

Under Nose: And my body

Under Chin: Breathing helps me feel my body

Collar Bone: Breathing helps calm me

Under Arm: And brings me back into my body

Top of the Head: Where I choose to feel safe

Eyebrow: And protected

Side of Eye: I choose to inhabit my body fully

Under Eye: And completely

Under Nose: And feel good

Under Chin: And light

Collar Bone: And joyous

Under Arm: And just be me!!

Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit ~ William James