Breathing and Stress

"Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts" ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Excerpt below from Notes on the Spiritual Basis of Therapy - Dr John Diamond:

One of the first things that happens when we are confronted with any sort of stress is that we stop breathing. Yell "boo!" at someone and almost invariably he will jam his breath. His hemispheres become unbalanced, and his thymus and life energy are weakened. When this happens the stress becomes even more stressful.

Of course the ideal situation is to continue to breathe naturally in the face of stress. But this is difficult for most people. At least we can be aware of jamming our breath and then correct the situation whenever it occurs.

If we could keep our breath going all the time, we would rarely be sick. The resonance effect of radiation, long lines at the bank, politician's voices, etc., would not affect us. Our breath would keep us above all this. Breath is what keeps us healthy. When it falters, as it often does, that's when we start to get sick. That becomes the start of illness.

Do everything with coordinated breathing and you will strengthen your whole body. Your body will be resistant to stress and disease.

Learn the EFT constricted breathing technique.

The Biology of Perception - Bruce Lipton PhD

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

EFT and Matrix Reimprinting

To find out more about matrix reimprinting go here. Learn about the movie technique too.

Boosting your immune system, vitality and life force

One of the most simple steps you can take for boosting your immune system, vitality and health is to tap on your thymus gland every day with your fingertips. The following excerpt is from the book Notes on the Spiritual Basis of Therapy by Dr John Diamond

The thymus is the school and factory for lymphocytes - the white blood cells responsible for the body's immunological reactions. Immature lymphocytes come to the thymus from the bone marrow. Under the influence of thymus hormones, the cells mature, and then settle in the lymph nodes and the spleen, where they give rise to T cells (T for thymus derived). T cells are vital to our health. They seek out, recognise, and destroy foreign cells. Without T cells the body would have no resistance to disease.

Activating the thymus makes the body less susceptible to disease in the first place, and also better able to combat illness.

In addition the thymus gland monitors and regulates energy flow throughout the body. Whenever an imbalance occurs, it rebalances the energy.

Thus the thymus is the first organ to be affected by stress, whether it is physical stress - infection, disease - or mental stress. It is the link between mind and body.

The thymus is influenced by an individual's physical environment, social environment, food, posture, and emotional attitudes. Thus, thinking about something unpleasant will weaken the thymus, while thinking about someone you love will strengthen it. The negative emotional - weakening - states are hate, envy, suspicion, and fear. The positive emotional states are love, faith, trust, courage and gratitude. We call these latter states thymus qualities.

Using EFT for self acceptance

Although individually manifested, there is only one diagnosis for each and every being—the anguish of the human condition arising from the inability to find our souls, the love that we each are ~ Dr John Diamond

Watch this excellent series of 7 short videos from Robery Najemy, the first one is on the consequences of a lack of self acceptance. You can tap along while you watch and borrow benefits.

Conditions we place on our self worth.

Dealing with criticism.

Overcoming guilt and shame.

Efforts, results and self worth.

Truths about our self worth.

Clarity about our self worth.

Trauma, Somatic Experiencing and Peter Levine PhD

"If you bring forth what is within you
what you bring forth will save you.
If you do not bring forth what is in you,
what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

Take a look at this chart http://www.traumahealing.com/images/pptSlide01.gif which illustrates the symptoms of undischarged traumatic stress.

Who is your inner child?

How you feel about children and your 'inner child' tells you so much about how you feel about yourself. It is an opportunity for healing if your feelings feel uncomfortable. Do you deny, repress or disown how you feel? Is it safe to express how you feel? Do you feel loved, good enough or accepted just for being you? Healing our sense of self is one of the best gifts we can give to our self and there really is no better place to start than healing whatever hurts our inner child may be holding.

This is an excerpt from an article by Silvia Hartmann, Using EFT from Prebirth to Present:

It is the sad truth that many deep underlying beliefs we now have as adults about how children should be treated have been formed by the way WE were treated. Oh, indeed, we make decisions to "do much better than that" and many of us do when we are dealing with *other* children or our own; however, how we deal with *ourselves* remains often very much just like our caretakers did.
So, we might begin with asking some very basic questions about your feelings regarding "children" in total.

How do you feel about children?
Do you like them?
Do you find them annoying, irritating, attention seeking, limiting to your own endeavours?
Do you like *some kinds of children* better than others? If so, why?
What *kind* of children do you find particularly annoying? What age, type, gender, race, upbringing, looks?
How do you feel about an adult's responsibility for the upbringing of children?
Do you have any particularly strong views about what should or should not be done with, to or by children?

The questions above will begin to make you aware of some emotions and memories regarding children in general [and yourself], including the recoil decision to "not to go there at all" or "not being interested in children", for example. 

Some resources
http://silviahartmann.com/eft-article-inner-child-healing.php
http://joincathryntaylor.com/
http://creativeeft.com/ClassHealingInnerChild.php
http://www.forthelittleonesinside.com/
http://alice-miller.com/index_en.php
http://www.holisticharmony.com/ezines/child2.asp
http://www.johnbradshaw.com/creatinglove-1-1.aspx
http://www.traumahealing.com/
http://www.traumasoma.com/

Tail Ender Exercise

A Tail Ender is your initial (uncensored) response to a 'positive' affirmation ~ Gary Craig. Tail Enders are an excellent way to find core issues and beliefs whether an affirmation is negative or positive. Sometimes we get to a core issue and belief faster when we state the positive (whether we believe it or not) rather than the negative.

Whatever our beliefs, we have the 'evidence' to support them - 'the evidence and proof' are the specific events that occurred in your life. You took on that belief or came to that conclusion about your self, life and others as a result of a particular event. Tap on these events one by one so the corresponding beliefs collapse and dissolve.

Write down your first response to the following positive affirmations:

1. I am lovable
2. I accept myself exactly as I am
3. I deserve the best life has to offer
4. I am abundant
5. I am ready to be true to myself
5. It is safe to be me
6. It is safe to express my feelings
7. I am heard
8. I am important and I count
9. I belong
10. I trust myself

Now, list all the experiences in your life that support your true beliefs (your responses to the list) and start tapping. Just because you believe something to be true, doesn't mean it is true. You might have the belief that you are unlovable because you have lots of 'evidence' to back it up, but when you tap on those experiences, you find that belief falling away and you realise that you are in fact lovable.

A Mother's Love

What is attachment? It is an emotional bond and connection to another person. One of the most important and formative bonds we will ever have is with our mothers.

The central theme of attachment theory is that mothers who are available and responsive to their infant's needs establish a sense of security. The infant knows that the caregiver is dependable, which creates a secure base for the child to then explore the world. Excerpted from http://psychology.about.com/od/loveandattraction/a/attachment01.htm

Characteristics of Attachment

• Safe Haven: When the child feels threatened or afraid, he or she can return to the caregiver for comfort and soothing.
• Secure Base: The caregiver provides a secure and dependable base for the child to explore the world.
• Proximity Maintenance: The child strives to stay near the caregiver, thus keeping the child safe.
• Separation Distress: When separated from the caregiver, the child will become upset and distressed.

As Dr John Diamond, states:

“The more loved we feel, the higher our Life Energy and the more truly healthy we become. This inability to feel loved relates at an unconscious level to all our relationships, but that with our mothers is the most important. The mother-child relationship is the fundamental human relationship: She was our whole world when we were young, and she is, in a metaphorical sense, our whole world now. It is our lack of belief in her ever-constant love, her pure maternal instinct that is the root cause of our anguish—the universal anguish of the human condition. This feeling of ever-constant love, I have termed Belovedness.

While Belovedness is the feeling of feeling loved, Cantillation is the response to this feeling – life as a song of love for her love. In a sense, Cantillation is simply a state of very high Life Energy, but it has a specific psychological connection with the mother. Cantillation, therefore, is the ultimate goal of therapy, that which lies underneath the more superficial symptom relief”.

Do you feel good enough?

Watch the video below and use the positive statements in your set up. Stating the positive but not really believing it, is a powerful way to discover what you truly believe. If your mind 'objects' in any way whatsoever, use these objections in your tapping statements. You've most likely discovered a core belief that you can dissolve with EFT. List all the events that hold this belief up and tap on them so that belief no longer has 'legs' and falls down ;-)

Daisy chaining events together and the true cause is revealed

Have a look at this video by Robert Smith and see how the natural unfolding of the events (the daisy chain) leads to the realisation of the true cause behind them all. When you are triggered by a present event, look closely at what triggers you, there is always an opportunity for the true cause to be revealed when you do so.

You can learn more about daisy chaining here and you can also tap along to this video (or any EFT video) and borrow benefits.

Your approach to tapping

Why do you tap? To get rid of something? To tap away something? Because you are sick to death of feeling the way you do? Because you want it gone? Because you're ready to scream?

Just imagine that a pain or dis-ease is the only way your body can get your attention. It is your body's way of communicating with you. The more you do not pay attention to you and your body, the louder, more progressive and chronic the pain becomes. Now, just imagine that pain is a feeling you had as a three year old. Imagine you felt rejected or unwanted because of something. Imagine that you as a three year old just did not have the ability to process - in other words, feel - that feeling, as you just did not know how to feel it. You did not have the skills or knowledge yet, or maybe something terrible happened and you went into shock. Imagine your body loving you so much that your body 'says' to you, "you're too young, sweet and lovable for these feelings and experience, I'll hold them for you so you don't have to feel them right now, but at some stage when you're older and more able can you please feel them and let them go so I can let them go too? That way I can hold more feelings for you because if you ever feel hurt again or just feel that things are too much for you, you can give your pain to me and we'll keep helping each other by letting it all go?"

Do you feel differently now about a pain (emotional or physical) that you may have after seeing it in a different light? Can you give it the attention it needs? Just imagine tapping as a form of noticing and giving attention to what is there, a way of processing what needs to be processed so it can resume its natural flow. See if you can tap with attention and curiosity and not with the intent of tapping it away or wanting to get rid of it. Just imagine how a three year old would feel if someone she loved wanted to get rid of her? Wouldn't she cling on for dear life? Wouldn't she feel rejected and unwanted all over again? Pay attention to what is behind your pain, you might be surprised at the results! If you find yourself judging, criticising or getting frustrated, pay attention to these feelings too and tap on them because they are there and came up. They too deserve your attention.

Using EFT for perfectionism

Tap along with Dr Carol Look