Dr. Leonard Felder
-Photo By: Juli Armitage WhatLeonard Felder, Ph.D. are "THE TEN CHALLENGES?" |
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Odes to the Sea.....
I appreciated these from an acquaintance's site. He's at davidengel.biz.
It is always fair sailing when you escape evil.
Sophocles (497-406/5 B.C.)
The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.
Isak Dinesen (1885-1962)
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it’s always ourselves we find in the sea.”
E. E. Cummings
Coming back to Source
A While ago I ran across Julia Rogers Hamrick. When I first found her it was through her site: http://www.iliveineasyworld.com/
I'm getting onto a call of hers tonight called Being of Authentic Spiritual Help to Others. We'll see how it goes. I appreciate her desire to help people like myself, people in the healing/health professions, to get a better grip on our place in this world, and our role in other people's lives. Having been a massage therapist for 16 years, and now a counselor/life coach, I have on countless occasions come up against situations that have left me wondering things like, "Does this person really want any help or support? Is it possible to really help anyone? How much of an effect do I really have on someone else's well-being? And how should I ideally behave and act in order to have the most significant effect on someone else's growth?
Today I journeyed from one of her sites to another, and found this article (it's actually the introduction to her book). I like how she describes why it is that we feel 'addicted' to the variety of things that compel us. Here are a couple paragraphs from it:
Why do we crave intimacy and closeness? Because at our core, we know what real oneness is and we are programmed to seek it. Why do we strive for money and status? And why do we steal from others in large ways and in small, or dis-empower others with our thoughts, words and deeds? Because we yearn to feel truly empowered and have forgotten where true power comes from and how to receive it. Why do we seek to get high from drugs? Because we know deep down what true ecstasy is and we’re trying to achieve it—but in a fashion that will never provide it for us in any authentic or sustainable way. Why do we try to escape from stress by numbing ourselves with alcohol or food or television? Because we were not designed to live in stress and we are trying to recreate the state of no pain and no stress we are so desperately missing. Why are we lazy—or tempted to be—expecting something for nothing? Because we know at a very deep level that we are, simply by the fact of our existence, supposed to be perfectly provided for without struggle the way we were in the Garden and we have forgotten how that really works.
We have forgotten that we can only experience what we are truly longing for by aligning ourselves with Source the way we were designed to be, and were in the beginning, so that we can have it all. Continue reading....
From Recreating Eden: The exquisitely simple, divinely ordained plan for transforming your life and your planet by Julia Rogers Hamrick
©2004 New Realities Publishing
To read the whole introduction go Julia Rogers Hamrick's site at: http://www.juliarogershamrick.com/RecreatingEdenIntroduction.html
EFT/Tapping to Anchor Self-Forgiveness
Currently I am completing a Master’s program in Spiritual Psychology. They have a site you can look at. The curriculum for this program was developed and refined over the years by Drs. Mary and Ron Hulnick. One of the main tenants of the program involves the idea that we can heal our past, and that we do so by, as they say, by “bringing love and healing to the places inside of us that hurt.” They have developed a step-by-step process that one follows when he/she wants to attend to a certain memory or relationship that they have found, or are currently finding, upsetting. When a student is going through this step-by-step process, we say that she is ‘working her process.’
One of the steps in this process involves Compassionate Self-Forgiveness of Judgments. The theory goes, I believe, that we maintain or hold onto our pains from the past because we are somehow still judging ourselves in some way now in relationship to that situation or relationship. After doing this work for 1½ years, I’ve found that this theory definitely holds true for me. Whenever I have ‘worked my process’ around anything at all, I have eventually found feelings and beliefs that are somehow judgmental of myself. Until we uncover and acknowledge those judgments, there will be something still holding us there in the past. Another way of saying this is: As long as we don’t acknowledge what’s really still there in our consciousness around the situation, then we are somewhat in the dark in our attempts to heal and let go and move on.
I continue to appreciate how EFT fits in so well with this whole idea of Self-Forgiveness. Roger Callahan and Gary Craig, the originators of EFT, knew that an integral part of any true healing involves an acknowledgment of WHAT IS TRULY THERE FOR YOU, RIGHT NOW.
Because of the whole movement towards ‘thinking positively’, many of us have come to believe that we are supposed to bypass our actual painful feelings or blocks, and somehow magically rise above them. Well, although I believe that the positive effects of EFT often appear almost magical or miraculous, those effects generally only occur after the person has done the first step of truly acknowledging that painful place inside of themselves.
In fact, the quickest resolution to any problem, EFT-style, is always arrived at by first really stating out loud those feelings, beliefs or blocks that the person is experiencing right now, at the beginning of the session. From there the practitioner and the client create The Set-up Statement. We can create an example of a Set-Up Statement right now.
Let’s say that a person is going through a divorce and is feeling very distraught about it. Upon further conversation we find that she knows that the divorce is the best choice for her based on the circumstances, but that she still “can’t help feeling that I have failed at something important.” We would begin with the Set-Up Statement first, which would be something like:
“Even though I feel that I have failed at something important, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.”
Within the EFT protocol, she would be either rubbing the ‘sore spot’ (as it is often called) or she would be tapping the ‘karate chop’ point AT THE SAME TIME as she is saying the above Set-Up Statement. And she would say that statement three times while doing the physical rubbing or tapping.
In the EFT Protocol there are steps that follow this one, but at the moment I am focusing solely on this one in the hopes of really impressing upon you that this step is not only effective, but also very meaningful and relevant to a larger idea that I believe is an integral part of all healing, no matter what path you take to achieve it.
The Set-Up Statement is a way to say once and for all to yourself, YES, THIS HAPPENED AND I AM OKAY WITH IT.
And it is also a way to say to yourself, “Yes, this is the way I feel and it’s okay that I feel this way, and in fact, I am lovable and and perfect RIGHT NOW.”
It is a forgiving of oneself. It is a releasing of the past.
We so often think things like:
“If I didn’t feel this way then my day would be better.”
“If I didn’t have this problem, then I would be okay.”
“If I made more money, then I would feel good about myself.”
“If I didn’t have this disease, then I would feel healthy.”
“If I hadn’t made that mistake, then things would be okay now and I would be happy with myself.”
These are all conditional statements. If we have thoughts like these in our head, then we are not actually caring for ourselves in the way that we really deserve. If we have thoughts like this in our minds, then we are waiting for some future time before we will let ourselves feel good about ourselves.
The practice of EFT allows a person to discover, and ACCEPT, exactly where he is RIGHT NOW. And not only does he discover and accept, he actually even goes so far as to LOVE HIMSELF in the process of what he sees as his living an imperfect existence.
No experience is a mistake. Nobody deserves to suffer, no matter what. Even if someone has done something ‘terrible’, if you really look at it, and you really allow yourself to see the reality of that person’s situation, you will recognize that that person was already suffering when they committed that crime or did that thing that hurt someone else. Their own self-doubt, self-hatred, or simple lack of acceptance for themselves caused them to be in a state of mind that allowed them to hurt someone else without remorse, or at least without the ability to stop themselves from doing so.
I pose the idea that it is only when we are not forgiving ourselves, do we not forgive others. And that, when we don’t forgive others then we remain disconnected from them. But the disconnection starts with ourselves. And until we allow ourselves to forgive ourselves for our pasts, and forgive ourselves for having judgments against ourselves in the present, there will always be something in the way of us experiencing the kind of bliss that’s actually available to us.
Let’s finally give ourselves a break and move on and into the kind of lifestyle where we worry about nothing, feel badly about nothing in the past, and experience the present with a kind of healthy openness that it, and WE, deserve!
Carol Look's article 'Starting Over'
I'm including this here because it covers, in one session, the two different kinds of Set-Ups and Tapping Reminder phrases that I have been writing about. Carol Look is a wonderful practitioner and writer and proponent of EFT worldwide. I did a workshop with her in January and really enjoyed her work firsthand.
She can be found at http://www.attractingabundance.com
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Starting Over...
Every minute of every day we have this glorious opportunity to start our day all over again...and we don't even have to go back to bed! Each moment we have a choice of what to feel, what to say, what to think, and most importantly, how to vibrate. As you know, the Universe hears and responds to our vibration. It's up to us to choose a vibration we want to offer deliberately to the ears of the Universe.
It feels so freeing to me to know that right in the middle of a bad day, a bad mood, or an irksome situation, I can choose to use EFT, write my appreciation list, focus on nature, listen to uplifting music, or use dozens of other games and activities that would literally start my day over again. In just a few moments...
Where is your vibration now? Do you want to stay there? What would you need to do to improve or raise your current vibration?
So choose to start over right now...Start this minute over, this day, this month, this mood...Say "Thank You" to the Universe for what it has been bringing you, check your vibration, and take a left or right turn, whatever you need to do to get back on the right track.
1. EFT SETUP PHRASES:
The EFT SETUP Phrases for this topic are as follows:
While tapping the karate chop spot on either hand, repeat these phrases out loud, (or change the words to fit your exact situation).
"Even though I'm in a bad mood and feel upset right now, I can choose to start over whenever I feel like it."
"Even though I made a mistake and can't get over it, I choose to appreciate who I am anyway."
"Even though the truth is I feel down and out, another truth is I can change this feeling in an instant."
I have indicated where to tap while saying each of the phrases below. You may repeat the positive round more than once if you wish. (Those of you who are new to EFT may view a chart of the spots on my web site under the EFT pages.)
***Now for the phrases that focus on the problem***
Eyebrow: "I'm in a bad mood."
Side of Eye: "I'm not sure I want to change it."
Under Eye: "It doesn't feel good but I'm used to it."
Nose: "I'm in one of those bad moods again..."
Chin: "I don't think anything's working for me."
Collarbone: "I don't have what I want in my life."
Under Arm: "I'm a little tired of my bad mood."
Head: "I'm considering changing my feelings."
***Now for the positive focus on the solution***
Eyebrow: "I choose to focus on something I appreciate."
Side of Eye: "I choose to look for things that make me feel better."
Under Eye: "I choose to feel relief right now."
Nose: "I have the freedom to focus on anything I want."
Chin: "There are many things I like about my life right now."
Collarbone: "My life is full of things I appreciate."
Under Arm: "I feel relieved already."
Head: "I didn't know it was so easy to change my mood."
Then tap on the following phrases as you complete one more round:
Eyebrow: I love knowing we all deserve abundance...
Side of Eye: I choose to tune into the guidance I am receiving...
Under Eye: I appreciate the prosperity in my life...
Nose: I love appreciating myself, my friends, my opportunities...
Chin: I'm grateful for all the new channels for abundance...
Collarbone: I appreciate exactly who I am...
Under Arm: I appreciate all the lessons I have learned...
Head: I am so grateful for all the prosperity in my life.
Side of Eye: I choose to tune into the guidance I am receiving...
Under Eye: I appreciate the prosperity in my life...
Nose: I love appreciating myself, my friends, my opportunities...
Chin: I'm grateful for all the new channels for abundance...
Collarbone: I appreciate exactly who I am...
Under Arm: I appreciate all the lessons I have learned...
Head: I am so grateful for all the prosperity in my life.
Brain Optimization
A few years ago I started to look at effects that certain supplements and foods specifically have on the brain. I have always been a researcher of the psyche, and as I've previously mentioned, have studied psychology and personal development with the intention of not only improving my own life, but also the lives of my clients and loved ones.
After three years I've come to understand a number of things about the brain, foods, intelligence, cravings/addictions and mood stabilization. These interests all fall under the heading, for me, of Brain Optimization.
As mentioned briefly in this post, we have what I call 'happy chemicals' that are manufactured in our bodies, and which seem to have profound effects on both the functioning of our brains and our level of contentedness in our lives. They affect our happiness! They really do. You may have heard of these before: serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine. They are all being constantly manufactured and then taken back up and expelled out of our bodies.
An example of something from the medical establishment that affects one of our happy chemicals are anti-depressants, which are most often called SSRI's: Selective Seratonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors. Sometimes people experience depression because they just don't create enough seratonin in their bodies. Most other people DO produce enough seratonin, but their bodies are 'taking it back up' and then treating it as a waste product and expelling it or reabsorbing it in such a way as to make it no longer available for use by the brain.
Phoenix Gilman, a researcher and writer of the book Diet Failure, The Naked Truth, exposes the crucial serotonin-insulin connection to successful, long-term weight loss. She explains what causes cravings, emotional eating, and food addictions, and more importantly, how to safely control them so we can have the lean, healthy, and sexy body we all desire.
As a major neurotransmitter, Gilman believes that serotonin also plays a critical role (directly or indirectly) in alleviating depression, insomnia, migraines, ADD/ADHD, type 2 diabetes, even high blood pressure, heart disease, and suicidal behavior. Gilman also talks about the 'low-fat-diet-myth' in our diet-conscious country. The body NEEDS healthy fats in order to fully function, and the brain especially needs these healthy fats. Her book talks more about these healthy fats and why we need them. When people continue to eat tons of sugar AND they cut out the healthy fats, they are creating a situation in which their moods are usually severely affected.
I personally have experimented with different supplements and have found great success with a few of them. One of those, which Gilman also recommends, is 5-HTP. You may have heard of Tryptophan in the past. It's the stuff that's in turkey that makes you sleep. Well the thing is, it makes you sleep because it actually causes you to relax, and you are simply confusing relaxation with sleepiness. Not surprising in our stressed-out culture.
5-HTP can be bought in health food stores. I have found that it doesn't really matter which brand I use, in the sense that I have tried brands that are supposedly 'higher quality' and right now I am using the least expensive one my market had, and I'm experiencing the same effects from it as I did with the higher- priced ones.
Tyrosine is another great supplement. Tyrosine is an amino acid that acts as a pre-curser to Dopamine. It helps to create more dopamine in your system. While seratonin is more of a relaxant and causes 'contentment', dopamine tends to be the chemical that gives you more energy and increases your sex drive. It appears to be more aligned with your body in terms of creating a stronger physical energy, as well as a sense of hopefulness in your mood.
These statements I'm making come partly from my research of other people's studies, and partly from my own experience taking the actual supplements.
Another GREAT BRAIN FOOD is L-Glutamine. I swear by this stuff. It does all kinds of good things, including causing my brain, personally, to be sharper. I experience a greater intelligence when I supplement with this. It's relatively inexpensive when you get it in powder form and you can just add it to juice or, like I do to my morning glass of water and my favorite green powder. I've tried a number of green powders (which are usually combinations of different 'greens' and grasses that have been dehydrated, then powdered and put in a bottle). I like the blue-green algaes as well, but I am a little lazy and don't want to have 20 bottles on my sink. I chose Health Force's Vitamineral because I feel like it has everything and I love the energizing and other healthful affects is has on my body.
And one last Brain Food, for now, that I want to mention. It's called MaxGXL. This supplement is so amazing that almost everyone who tries it for a week goes on to order it monthly. I just give them a week's supply of it and they are hooked! It's an all-natural patented composition that has L-Glutamine as it's main ingredient, combined synergistically with other small amounts of supplements which cause the cell wall of ANY cell to be penetrated by the Glutamine. Once the Glutamine (and other key ingredients) get into the cell, they cause the levels of Glutathione in every cell to increase. Glutathione is THE BODY'S MASTER ANTIOXIDANT. The body makes it on it's own. There's no juice or food you can eat to immediately increase the Glutathione levels in the body to this extent. Dr. Keller, the man who created the supplement, knew that the best anti-aging and health promoting chemical in the body was first and foremost Glutathione. Dr. Keller took 10 years to create this product. He actually created it to boost the immune systems of people whose immune systems were or are severely compromised (For AIDS, Cancer,and other auto-immune disorders).
Given that he created MaxGXL for this population, can you imagine how effective it can be for you and me?
I started taking it 6 weeks ago and my powers of concentration have increased more than 100%. I throw that number out there because I know, actually, that's it's even higher than that. I just think that '100%' sounds good. But really... I had quite severe symptoms of ADD, especially when it came to being able to focus on any task that had to be accomplished while sitting still. I had great difficulty doing paperwork or concentrating on any one task at hand for more than 10 minutes. So, like any good ADD'er, I just always had 10 tasks going. I'd move from one to the other and basically make rounds on those tasks, until they were finished (on a good day).
I have to report, because it's true, that my levels of concentration are now at the point where I actually feel like I am more focused, even, than the normal person. This has been a tremendous boon to my current life and state-of-mind, especially because I am working full-time and finishing up a graduate program in Psychology. I was not able, before taking MaxGXL, to sit down and write a whole paper in an hour or two, without getting distracted. Now I sit down and write an entire paper without distraction. and I have been in school for decades! I like school. But completing homework in focused amounts of time was never possible for me before. Now it is.
So there are some ideas for you to start with, in terms of supplementation to affect your moods, concentration levels, and state-of-mind (and heart!). These are just the beginning. There are also Energy Psychology and Energy Medicine techniques that work to both balance the two sides of the brain, as well as to affect the way that your entire brain handles and perceives your past memories and your current reality. As you can see from other articles on this blog, EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique is my first choice out of all that I have tried.
I will be writing more about Brain Optimization as time goes on.
Many happy chemicals!
EFT - The Choices Method
EFT has been effective and amazing since the beginning, when Dr. Roger Callahan first introduced it to Gary Craig. Gary made some changes and took it even further, making it more accessible to the general public.
That said, any truly effective method of treatment needs to expand its parameters as time goes on. EFT is a way of handling emotional problems that people may have had for their entire lives –– and can often do so quickly and permanently.
Dr. Patricia Carrington has been using EFT for more than a decade with her clients in her psychotherapy practice. From the moment she found it she felt that a whole new world had opened up for her and her clients.
In EFT, it's very important that the person believes, at least somewhat, in the Setup and Reminder Phrases. The basic EFT Setup statement always begins with the words, “Even though....” and always ends with the affirmation, "I deeply and completely accept myself". This will often be meaningful to the person, but not always.
This default phrase is a way for the person to absolutely affirm where they are right now in their process, and as such can be very powerful. Such an important part of healing for anyone is their coming into a loving acceptance of themselves and their present reality. However, there are situations and people for whom the default phrase "I deeply and completely accept myself" doesn't work.
If a person finds it impossible to even begin to 'love and accept' himself, then saying those words is not going to be very effective for him.
Also, sometimes this self-acceptance phrase does not make sense to a person who's just being introduced to EFT. Some of these instances are when the session is about a physical pain, and it just doesn't make sense to a new EFTer to say the words, "Even though my back is killing me, I deeply and completely love and accept myself. " And if it really doesn't make any sense to them, then they may resist the process and it may not have the results that everyone is hoping for.
So, in Carrington's Choices method we may suggest to the 'back pain' person the Set-Up phrase, "Even though my back is killing me, I choose to have my back be comfortable and pain-free."
Carrington basically came to this variation by beginning to use it with her own clients, and she found that it often worked when the usual default phrasing didn't work.
In the Choices Method the person identifies the outcome that they would truly like to have for the problem at hand, and then puts this desired outcome into a sentence which starts with the words “I choose…”
It’s important to note that “I choose” is not used in a traditional affirmation. Tradition affirmations often employ a technique in which the person deliberately says a sentence that is contrary to fact. For example, if a person is making 25k a year in their current employment, and they start saying the affirmation "I am currently making 120k a year," they are using the traditional practice of affirmations. They are hoping to re-program their subconscious mind. (I will write more about this in this blog soon).
The only problem with doing this is that it is often the case that the person will have energetic resistance to the affirmation since they know full-well that it is not currently true in their life experience.
The cool thing about the Choices Method is that, when you place “I choose…” at the beginning of your affirmation statement, it makes total sense to the person who's saying it! This is immediately believable because anyone has the right to make a “choice” and this doesn’t contradict the situation they are now in.
EFT practitioners have been using the Choices Method now for a few years, and they are experiencing wonderful results. Doing EFT can be a very free-flowing and creative process. It's nearly impossible to hurt yourself doing it. This is one of the reasons that I write about it so freely! I can ALWAYS feel good about it, because there are no side-effects! Except perhaps, Emotional Freedom.
EFT and Trauma
For years I considered going into counseling, becoming a psychotherpist. The thing is, I experienced ambivalence in my decision-making because I was stumped by my awareness of one thing: people who have experienced extreme and/or continual abuse or trauma tend to be very difficult to treat. That trauma, as I saw it, was so ingrained and held within their body and emotions that healing them would be a difficult and long-term process. I didn't want to experience the constant disappointment that I saw as inherent in a traditional psychotherapeutic environment.
I had a friend at the time that began to study EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. I saw how she and her clients used this to 'undo' past traumatic events. I was reinspired by the idea of psychotherapy! I knew that if I could include something like EMDR in my own session with clients, then I would have a better chance of helping the ones who had had traumatic experiences.
The only problem was, EMDR generally requires that the person actually go through a lot of the original emotional (and sometimes physical) pain in order to then heal, or release it from their consciousness. I didn't like this idea, and I had a feeling that there might be a better way. At the time I didn't know what that tool was. Now, years later, I do. And it's EFT.
EFT (and its sister techniques, one of which is TAT at tatlife.com) is able to be employed in the healing of trauma WITHOUT the person having to EMOTIONALLY RE-LIVE the original traumatic experience. This is a HUGE boon and puts EFT on the leading-edge of Mind-Body medicine. One of the EFT techniques that clearly accomplishes this is called the Tearless Trauma Technique.
Below is a short letter from Steve Wells (and EFT practioner in the UK) to Gary Craig, EFT's founder and creator of the wonderful EFT database at http://www.emofree.com.
Keep in mind that the numbers Steve is referring to here stand for 'intensity levels' of the emotional or physical pain that the participant currently experiences. It's a scale of 0-10, with the higher numbers begin higher levels of pain or upset.
Steve Wells reports on the Tearless Trauma Technique
Hi Gary,
I just spent the weekend presenting a personal development seminar incorporating EFT and other Energy Therapy techniques. I tried out the Tearless Trauma Technique and it worked just as you have described.
16 people, all of whom were 8, 9, or 10 when guessing the intensity of the trauma initially. 11 went to zero or near zero after 4 rounds of tapping when asked to vividly re-imagine the traumatic incident. The others were all at 4-5, and 2 more rounds took care of most of this. I offered to help one woman whose SUDS level remained at a 4 during the break but she came up and told me she really saw how she could get beyond this herself and wanted to do so as she felt empowered by the technique.
Most of the participants were absolutely astounded when they tried to re-access the feelings and weren't able to. The most outstanding result however was by one gentleman who reported that an incredible feeling of sadness he'd been experiencing almost his whole life regarding his father was absolutely gone and he was now experiencing a feeling of complete peace. You should have seen the way his face shone. This guy had previously had a taste of EFT in another seminar I was running. He came to this one because after he used EFT to deal with his constant anger and anxiety, his wife said it was like getting a new husband. Needless to say, she was VERY happy for him to come and do more. I think now his own mother wouldn't recognise him.
To echo your words from last years "Ultimate Therapist" Seminar Gary: "God I love this job!"
Love and best wishes,
Steve Wells
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Some links that you can begin with for your further research about EFT, TAT and trauma are:
http://www.energypsych.org/associations/6267/files/10tips-for-trauma-recovery.pdf
http://www.emofree.com/Trauma/trauma-ptsd-farrell.htm
http://www.emofree.com/Trauma/specific-maggie-trauma.htm
EFT, Energy Psychology, and ACEP
I'm sure it's clear how much I appreciate the effects that practicing EFT has had on my life.
EFT is a kind of 'Energy Psychology'. I mention it here because it's possible that you may eventually hear this term, and you should know that EFT is related to this genre of healing modalities.
Energy Psychology is a family of novel mind/body interventions that have been consistently clinically observed to help with a wide range of psychological concerns, through directly and methodically treating the human vibrational matrix. This matrix includes the biofield that envelops the body, the energy centers (chakras), and the energy pathways (meridians and related acupoints).
EFT appears to work primarily with just the energy pathways or meridians, although it can be said that working with any of the energy systems in the matrix affects all of the others. The human body is more of a hologram than a static physical form just taking up space. It is bigger and more more expansive than that. There are documented studies and photographs that show this more expanded energy field that is the human body, and the sciences that study this are discovering more and more about it every year.
Energy Psychology shares time and space with newer forms of Psychotherapy, Biophysics and Spirituality. When practiced with integrity and knowlege (and intuitive abilities!) Energy Psychology techniques are able to:
1) Assist people who are stuck in their life or who are unresponsive to usual psychological or medical treatments;
2) Alleviating psychospiritual & mind-body distress, such as traumas, anxiety, phobias, stress, limiting beliefs, addictions, compulsions, allergies, personality disorders, etc.; and
3) Promote high-level psychospiritual/mind-body health & peak performance, including the physical, mental and creative realms.
Most everyone who is practicing a form of Energy Psychology has as their mantra, "Whatever works!" They want to support each other in bringing to the foreground of human thought the true efficacy of these tools when they are used in service to improving the physical and emotional states of minds of the people who employ them.
People who practice Energy Psychology methods aim to support, learn from, and have fun with one another, and to provide a unified voice in helping the public and professionals to recognize these methods as the treatment breakthroughs we know them to be.
One of the support sites for this new frontier in healing can be found at: http://www.energypsych.org/
The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology is a member organization that accepts practitioners from all walks of the field of Energy Psychology. There are other Energy Psych methods than EFT, and I will probably write more about those as time goes on. Many of these other methods are practiced by the members of this organization. I am continually impressed with the comraderie and open-mindedness (and open-heartedness!) I have seen among these practitioners. I don't really see any competition among them, nor any beliefs that one method is superior to any other.
Perhaps with new and improved ways of healing we get new and improved healers. Why the hell not?
EFT and Brain Foods for Weight-Loss and Cravings
I've lived in Los Angeles for the better part of my 40 years. Although I know that 'weight-loss' is a big issue throughout the country (especially with this year's big-time media coverage of the 'Obesity in America'), nowhere does it receive more attention and focus than in Los Angeles, home of the beautiful people. Yeah, that's a joke. But really. There is so much focus here in my hometown (if you can call a place with 20 million people a 'town') on the physical aspects of beauty, that people involved in the 'weight-loss' business are making a killing.
I don't like that this has become such big business, truthfully, especially because the marketing and most of the actual philosphies in the weight-loss industry promote a feeling of lack and despair among its clients. I personally like a little fat on my body. I think it's healthy. And some of the healthiest people I know are '20 pounds overweight'. And some of the physically weakest and anxiety-ridden of people I know are very thin, and usually have Vegan diets. There tends to be a correlation between a lack of protein and a lack of clear, strong thinking ability of the brain. There also tends to be a connection between a lack of protein and a lack of muscle tone and a lack of feeling 'grounded' in one's life. Although I have considered converting to a totally plant-based, raw diet for myself in the past, I am no longer interested in doing so.
I do think that the majority of my diet, and everyone else's diet, should be fruit and vegetable based, and that those fruits and vegetables should be eaten in their natural states. It is a known fact that people feel physically and emotionally better when they eat these foods LIVE and in their RAW STATE. There truly is something true about the statement: YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. Eating a lot of cooked and dead food does make you feel as alive as LIVE FOODS. I also believe in taking supplements and eating nuts and protein powders to make sure that I get the protein that I need. Occasionally I eat meats, and I make attempts to have them be organic and free-range.
Amino acids, the components of protein, feed the brain, and encourage a healthier balance of the necessary hormones and endorphins that you need to feel good. And the brain controls the rest of the body. So feeding the brain would be pretty important, wouldn't you say? The reason I mention diet here at all, in relation to weight-loss, is that there is mounting evidence that overeating is almost always EMOTIONALLY BASED. And the fact is that, if you don't have the right balance of endorphins in your brain (related primarily to seratonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine) then the emotional ups and downs that are caused by the deficiency of these endorphins will hamper your efforts at creating the body that you truly desire.
There two ways to come into a better emotional state of balance are: 1) diet and supplements to increase the level of 'happy chemicals' in your brain, and 2) EFT to balance and integrate emotions.
I think that people's ideal weight fluctuates, and I always encourage people not to focus much on what they actually 'weigh' in pounds. I don't own a scale, there's one at the gym I can use if I'm finding myself obsessing about it, and I don't recommend focusing on your 'weight' if, in fact, you are trying to get to a place where 'weight' is no longer an issue for you. Abraham-Hicks says, "You attract what you focus upon. Focus instead on your desired outcome, and on things and ideas that make you feel good, and then allow the rest to unfold." They really do know what they are talking about. I have done it myself, specifically regarding weight (among other things) in my lifetime, and it works.
The thing you may ask is, "How can I start to feel good about things when I can't stop thinking about how fat I am?" Or, "How can stabilize my weight when I can't stop thinking about food and giving into my cravings whenever they hit?"
And my answer, as it so often is, is to TAP ON IT! Use EFT as a tool to conquer your cravings. Use EFT on your issues of self-esteem and your supposed NEED to be a certain weight in order for you to feel lovable. Use EFT for the emotional issues that you have found to be the precursers to you binging on something you believe will cause you to gain weight. Use EFT to discover how it might be that you are holding onto your extra weight as a means to protect you from something, whether it be a real fear or situation, or an imagined one. Remember, most fears are imagined. And most stress, actually and simply, comes from our THOUGHTS about our circumstances, as opposed to the actual circumstances themselves.
And last but not least, regarding EFT and weight-loss, EFT can actually be used to INCREASE YOUR METABOLISM. Yes, you heard that right. You can do a search on emofree.com for 'metabolism' and you will find a number of articles. One of the best I've found is:
http://www.emofree.com/articles/raisingmetabolism.htm
Have fun with this!
Why Journaling?
I have been journaling for a long long time. I had my first diary when I was 9. I still have it. It's pretty damn cute. I went on from there, and as the years progressed I found journaling to be indispensable to my life. Indispensable? It's a strong statement, but seriously, journaling has had profound effect on my mental and emotional well-being. And if you believe what I believe, that our physical state of health is mostly determined by our emotional state of health, then journaling has had a positive affect on my physical state of health as well.
When I journal, I integrate. What does that mean? You'll notice that the website name or URL of this blog is 'integraleverything.typepad.com'. I know that my body-mind requires some integration time every day. When I am journaling, I am integrating the thoughts, feelings and ideas that I have been experiencing that day, or that week. Or sometimes that year! It's not a linear experience. When I am really involved in my journaling the notion of 'time' becomes less clear and I am able to access a part of my brain (they say it's the 'right side' of the brain) that is wiser, more creative, and more spiritually in tune with a deeper, truer part of myself.
In these modern times we are bombarded with, they say, thousands of messages every day. Our subconscious mind makes a note of all of these, and then all of these messages basically just sit there, taking up space and energy in our systems. Also we are constantly experiencing people and situations that emotionally affect us, but because of the fast-pace that we have to maintain just to 'keep up' with everything, our minds and hearts begin to feel overloaded. We often will NOT know when we are overloaded because 'overload' will often look like anger and frustration. It's often hard to make the correct distinction.
With Journaling you have a simple and effective way of dealing with this 'overload'. And it really works!
Four years ago I did Julia Cameron's 'Morning Pages' routine. It involves writing 3 pages straight, stream-of-consciousness style, preferably every morning, with no distractions. It doesn't take long to do this. It can be done in as little as 10 minutes, depending on how fast you write. (And handwriting is better than typing, although if typing is the only way you can do it, it will still be effective!)
I was doing something like Cameron's Morning Pages before I read her book, The Artist's Way, but I loved that she so clearly validated my past experience with my own journaling. Her book, too, is a wonderful workbook with many exercises that you can use to get in better touch with your own creative abilities.
What you'll find, if you sit down and give yourself this time every day, is that, as you get about two pages into your writing, you'll experience a sense of clarity that will surprise you. If you are writing about a specific issue then you will find more clarity about that issue. If you are just free-writing about anything and everything, you will also come out of the three pages feeling more relaxed and intelligent and clear-headed than you felt 10 minutes before.
Try it! Like EFT, try it on everything!
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