When something stressful comes up, what is your response?
Do you feel overwhelmed quickly?
Or angry?
Or want to shut down?
Or anything in-between, anything that isn’t your true self showing up?
We all know stress affects our overall health, causing inflammation – except inflammation can’t make this stress go away.
And cortisol rises, which also means DHEA drops, which we need to produce other hormones to regulate our mood and have a healthy immune system.
That means high levels of stress will slowly hijack us over time.
So when people take a closer look at how they do react in certain situations, they aren’t happy about it but also don’t know how they could possibly change it.
And that’s fair, because when your body chemistry goes wonky, it is hard to override that.
In some cases it feels like that’s always the response you’ve had, and it’s actually because most of our patterns are set in childhood.
Considering the fact that from age 0-8 years old we’re basically in a state of hypnosis (because of the brain waves they are in), and the brain isn’t done developing until around 25 years old…
… that means we get exposed to a lot of situations we don’t understand.
That means, totally benign things can happen and we can’t interpret them and it ends up getting twisted and a pattern is created that doesn’t serve us – especially as adults.
So between patterns getting set in childhood, and stress levels rising, people can easily end up feeling trapped, stuck, and in some cases hopeless.
A lot of you already know where I’m heading with this…
… because there is a great tool you always have at your disposal that can help with all of this.
I’m talking about EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), often called tapping, and it:
• Helps decrease cortisol -> which physiologically means your DHEA can come back up (which means your other hormones can get regulated and your mood becomes more stable again)
• EFT has been proven so effective it can even help with PTSD
• Sends a healing signal to your brain, so you can actually rewire your patterns to something healthy and let go of the old patterns
• Can be used in the moment (since you always have the tools with you)
• Can be used to work through old stuff, current stuff, and even set you up healthfully for future stuff (that’s why these appointments with me are 90 minutes)
This is a very simplistic explanation, and there are studies that show amazing benefits from tapping.
You can dive into the research here: https://eftuniverse.com/research-studies/
But what does this look like in actuality?
Well, for example, one day I caught myself feeling really yucky… and by tapping I was able to figure out that it was from an email from a lawyer.
Then tapping while reading the email, I was able to come up with a response that was appropriate and in this case got the result I wanted.
And let me tell you, that email triggered a bunch of fight/flight/freeze for me, so it was amazing for me that just tapping through it helped me handle this really well.
On a grander scale, EFT slowly chipped away at old experiences and patterns, helping me let go of old emotions…
… so when a very unexpected, very negative person popped up from my past…
… it didn’t sideline me. I was able to clearly see what was happening, and not get dragged down by it.
Honestly, there are a lot of examples I can give about myself and how EFT has helped me.
What makes it even more amazing to me is when I work with patients and get to see their transformations through EFT.
In some cases, it’s a single event, and releasing that emotionally can be a huge relief.
In other cases, it’s big overlying patterns, and as we work through it, we find all sorts of connections that we didn’t realize were there.
And by uncovering it, finally releasing it, big changes happen.
What I mean by releasing is that our emotions are physical things – little neuropeptides that go from receptor to receptor…
… and when we push down our feelings, refuse to feel them or accept them, they stagnate, especially with whichever organ they are associated.
So releasing the emotions is a physical act of those neuropeptides finally releasing and finishing their cycle. You get unstuck.
And the people who say they don’t feel these things, they’re usually in big trouble, because we all have emotions, we need them, they inform us of our environment.
We just need to use our feelings appropriately.
So when we tap, it gives you a safe space to feel all of that and actually let it resolve instead of still holding on.
It can neutralize traumas for you, it can let the brain create new patterns, it can help you get through tricky moments so you continue being you.
And no, that doesn’t mean we have to remember every little thing, and dig into every painful thing of the past.
So what kind of changes happen? Things like a mother finally being able to have the relationship with her daughter like she always hoped.
Or the woman who is no longer a door mat to everyone at work and she now has a healthy work / life harmony.
I mean, to keep it short (too late, I know), EFT helps be the parent you want to be (on your terms), let go of anxiety, get focused so you can achieve your goals (and not sabotage yourself), get through a tough situation, and so much more.
