Wednesday, June 23, 2010

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.

Monday, June 21, 2010

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

Monday, June 14, 2010

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

Friday, June 11, 2010

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

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

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

Sunday, June 06, 2010

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

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Resilience

Article by: Dr. Suzanne LaCombe, June 8, 2006. Updated 3 April 2010. http://myshrink.com

Few people entering counseling would say "I want to be more resilient." However many people entering counseling might say, "I don't easily adapt to change." Resilience gives us that capacity to respond easily to the changes in our circumstances. It helps us to let things go and move on. Without resilience we tend to become entrenched in old patterns.

Most people think of resilience as a mental thing. They are strong thinkers and believe that their ability to bounce back from hardship is because they "will" themselves into it. However, being driven or pushing oneself through life is very different than "resilience". A truly resilient individual can flexibly respond to one's changing circumstances--not in a collapsed defeated way nor with a "I'll do it if it kills me" attitude. Resilience, on the other hand, is a body based state that largely depends on the health of your nervous system. A healthy, resilient nervous system moves easily and rhythmically between stimulation and discharge. In other words, the nervous system manages energy well.

We all experience stress and it is the health of our nervous system that determines whether we get freaked out or literally let it go. An individual with a resilient nervous system can contain the stress and not be adversely affected by it. Someone who has a "maxed out" nervous system experiences the stress more intensely and it takes him or her longer to come down from it. Continue reading