What IF?
What if we could eliminate pain without running to the medicine cabinet or the pharmacy at the first twinge?
What if we didn’t have to store those large bottles of Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen in our homes, taking up space until the next headache or knee pain comes along. Doesn’t every household have shelves full of pain killers, always at the ready? Gotta have it!
Pause…deep breath.
What if we tuned into our bodies more often and realized most of the aches and pains that we rush to medicate are usually caused by our emotions.
What if we turned to our Emotional Toolbox to ease the chronic pain brought on by stress and anxiety?
What if we possessed a universal tool that could work on everything from physical pain to PTSD?
You might say, “No way! That’s impossible; one technique couldn’t possibly work on every emotion. What if I’m feeling like a failure because I can’t lose weight? What if my knee pain just won’t go away? What if I’m scared of thunder and lightning? What if the thought of speaking up in a meeting terrifies me? What if I’m feeling over-the-top guilty because I can’t stand my step-mother?”
I would say, “Have you heard of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or Tapping?”
The technique of Tapping began in 1980, with a psychologist by the name of Roger Callahan, and a patient with an extreme phobia of water. Mary’s fear of water controlled her life and kept her from daily activities. Dr. Callahan and Mary had been working on this problem together for over a year. Finally, Mary worked up the courage to sit within sight of the pool at Dr. Callahan’s house. Even doing this caused Mary extreme distress. Her fear of being near the water caused Mary stomach pains – a common “gut reaction.”
Dr. Callahan had recently been studying traditional Chinese medicine and learning about meridians. Remembering that there was an acupuncture point for the stomach meridian on the cheekbone, he asked her to tap there, thinking it might cure her stomach pains.
Mary tapped her cheekbone as directed, and this little action changed medicinal history! The response seemed miraculous, to both Mary and Dr. Callahan. Her stomach pains disappeared. But even more amazingly, her phobia of water also disappeared.
EFT Tapping has come a long way since 1980 and has become known in my practice as
“The Universal Tool” because it’s true; it does work on everything.
The starting point with Tapping is to identify how we feel. We need to tune in to our emotions and recognize how we’re feeling about the actual physical or emotional issue.
We forget that our body, mind and spirit are one. You can’t feel an emotion without a physical reaction and you can’t have a physical reaction without feeling an emotion.
My client, Dina, experienced how Tapping integrates our natural self-healing abilities by releasing the emotional trauma that was triggered at her recent dentist appointment.
Dina went to her dentist to have the first half of a crown procedure, where the dentist had to drill away most of the tooth enamel and then fit a temporary crown on the tooth. Lots of drilling! After the Novocain wore off, Dina found herself with a screaming toothache, but not in the crowned tooth. In agony, she called me the next day to ask if I thought Tapping could relieve the intense pain.
I asked her how she felt about having the pain and what the dentist appointment had been like.
Dina said, “Well, I guess the procedure went ok, but in addition to having this debilitating toothache, I’m really angry that while I was sitting there tipped back in the dentist chair with the exam light shining in my eyes, my dentist and his assistant were having a grand old time talking and laughing about their botched cooking experiences and the gardening plans they had for the weekend! REALLY? I felt like a piece of meat. I felt like they weren’t paying attention to me or the drilling. It really scared me!”
From Dina’s description of how she felt during her appointment, it was clear to me that she was still carrying the anxiety and fear that she had experienced the day before and that it was manifesting as a toothache.
I said, “Let’s tap. Repeat after me: Even though I’m so angry at my dentist and his assistant for ignoring me, I deeply and completely accept myself.” We repeated this statement 3 times.
Using Dina’s words, we gently tapped on the meridian points of the face and upper body as we said:
“I’m so angry at my dentist.”
“How dare he not pay attention to my dental procedure.”
“I don’t like being treated like I don’t matter.”
“Talk and laugh about cooking on your own time.”
“I was really scared.”
“They had no idea how I felt because they were so focused on amusing themselves.”
“I didn’t think it was funny.”
“I’m disappointed that they treated me that way.”
We took a deep breath after the first round of tapping and Dina became very quiet.
After a long pause, she said, “I remember when I was little, my Mom made me feel that same way at a dentist appointment.”
There it was; the root cause of why Dina was feeling such anger. The recent crown procedure had triggered an old emotional wound from an experience with her Mom that she carried with her for years.
We continued tapping on the original trauma until we were able to clear all of the anger that she felt toward her Mom and the Dentist for not paying attention to her fears and even worse, making light of what she felt was a serious procedure. After 4 rounds of Tapping, Dina’s toothache was gone.
What if Dina hadn’t taken the time to use The Universal Tool ~ EFT Tapping? She probably would have resorted to taking an over-the-counter medication to mask her discomfort. By turning to EFT Tapping she was able to resolve the pain in a more natural way and get to the root cause of it.
Karen St.Clair, AAMET Certified EFT Practitioner is a highly skilled professional with a true gift for facilitating her clients’ healing outcomes. She specializes in thorough energy clearing using EFT Tapping and is the founder of Reiki Tap Renewal℠, a modality that combines the energy psychology of EFT and the healing energy of Reiki. To book an EFT or Reiki appointment call: 207-878-8315. To learn more, visit: www.karenstclaireft.com
ELM™ | Maine
