Trauma and Memory Holes

Trauma sends our hippocampus (mind's historian that keeps track of events and time) off-line. The trauma is so hurtful the mind simply shuts it down! Trauma also shrinks the hippocampus up to 25-30%, particularly when one has post-traumatic symptoms, so it makes sense that many of us have big memory holes! The hippocampus comes on-line about age 2-3, if I remember correctly, but our amygdala (alarm center) is present in utero; therefore, we have alarms ringing in our mind before we have processes to figure out what is going on. It amazes me how much tapping we practitioners do on VERY early memories, some of them we swear happened before we were born, and as a practitioner, we just go with whatever the client brings to the tapping table. Sadly, science clearly shows us that we carry around so much epigenetic trauma from our ancestors! It's no wonder some of us are so burdened down with emotional stuff! Anyone have a tapping story to share around any really, really early memories? We'd love to hear them! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Early Childhood Trauma Tapped

DR. AIMIE APIGIAN “For the first 6-7 months of life, a baby still believes it is physically connected to their mother. This is why by themselves, they become dysregulated. Separation from a biological mother for any length of time in the first 2-3 years of life is traumatic. The earlier the separation, the earlier the trauma impacts and imprints feeling unsafe and insecure into the developing nervous system. The social standard of moms to receive 6 weeks of maternity leave is a very common reason for unknown attachment trauma. This will result in the features of the earliest shock to an infant’s system, the Connection- Attachment NARM style, which happens with an infant experiencing inadequate regulation during its first 0-6 months and having to adapt with the dorsal vagal freeze response. (1) 1. Schore, A. N. (2008). Right brain affect regulation: An essential mechanism of development, trauma, dissociation and psychotherapy. PsycEXTRA Dataset. https://doi.org/10.1037/e608922012-004” Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

EFT Tapping - God's Invention

“Our mind forgets what our heart refuses to remember.” And there is where our emotional pain tends to begin. Forgotten consciously; remembered unconsciously, driving our thoughts, actions, & physical sensations, controlling our very life. ……..until God’s EFT tapping enters our confined, limited space. And our Lord busts us out of that prison by His own healing invention! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Persistent Emotional Pain

“….persistent symptoms, in fact, can start innocently enough but go on relentlessly-a cold that leads to a lingering cough, a stomach bug that leaves you with a long-term aversion to the food you ate just before getting sick; or a sports injury in which the pain continues after it’s allegedly healed, and there’s no pathology to support it. But once the initial cause of the symptoms passes, there is a new spark that fuels them. And for many people, the spark is a rising level of what I am going to label as ‘discomfort’ - a discomfort that creates a NEW NETWORK {my emphasis} in the brain and body that continually feeds the symptoms. Amazingly, this level of discomfort flies below their mental radar until a symptom crescendos and takes root.” Page 7. “Your Survival Instinct is Killing You” by Marc Schoen, Ph. D. Note: we create an emotional trigger that turns physical and the brain creates an entire new “story” around that issue or symptom, just like a group of old men embellishing fish stories around the dinner table! Once that “tale” is in place, the nerve pathways in the brain dig it in deeper and permanently. Good luck changing that because most likely you consciously don’t even notice……and now you’re stuck! Enter EFT. God’s brain changing technique. What issue/thing/event in your life bugs you? A lot? What happened 6-12 months prior to this ”new” thing popping up in life? That prior event that just came to mind would be the “thing” I’d start tapping on and chatting with Holy Spirit about! There’s your beginning point! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Stimulating Acupuncture Points

Did you know that stimulation of pressure receptors (acupuncture points) releases neurotransmitters oxytocin (also a hormone), dopamine, and serotonin. This stimulation also reduces stress hormone cortisol and its precursor hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropic), increases vagal nerve actions(parasympathetic or relaxation), helps neuroplasticity in body’s sensory organs, and restores internal organ functioning? All this helps us to experience contentment, comfort, joy, peace, and happiness! What a God we have! He created all of this for you to access and we access it by using EFT tapping! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Paper Tigers Chasing Us

We often discuss “paper tigers” in EFT training classes. “Evolutionary” science shows us that, like animals, we often instinctively know what is dangerous and we take steps to avoid the same mistakes in the future. Today dangerous fatal situations rarely exist yet we often react to emotional events just as if these were threatening our mortality! “Indeed, the majority of discomfort (dangerous situations)is typically self- manufactured. As Mark Twain once wrote, ‘My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes-most of which never happened.’ We are our own worst enemy. So with a lack of an external battle or enemy, an internal battle has emerged. What’s more, our discomfort today typically revolves around trivial issues that are construed by our mind and body as being ruinous. The war that then takes place within us isn’t just confined to our minds - it also materializes at the cellular level. Nowhere else is this so obvious as in autoimmune illnesses, which are characterized by the absence of an external threat yet the body begins to wage a war within itself, one that takes a serious and sometimes deadly toll.” “Your Survival Instinct is Killing You” pg. 40. Marc Schoen Am I saying we do any of this on purpose? Absolutely not! Our unconscious mind reacts for us as a protective mechanism. God created it this way to keep us alive, but trauma spins it out of control, leaving us with angst, pain, emotional unsteadiness and disease. All the trauma remnants go into a body part(s). We find out 20-30-40 years later what body part(s) absorbed it. Time to let it go before we discover where that discomfort and pain all went! EFT tapping awaits you! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Childhood Limiting Beliefs Hang On!

I heard Simon & Garfunkel’s song “My Little Town” other day and the lyrics got me thinking, again. Verse 3 goes as this, “And after it rains there's a rainbow and all of the colors are black. It's not that the colors aren't there, it's just imagination they lack. Everything's the same back in my little town, my little town, my little town.” For many of us our childhood trauma has locked us in just like the rainbow that lacks imagination. We were so busy protecting ourselves and our hearts from further pain, all the color of life was lacking, and we stayed small within our “little town” of our mind. We created limiting beliefs, lies, about everything around us - who we were, what we were, where we belonged, who did/didn’t love us, including God, what our abilities were, were we even safe at all, etc. For me, when I dream or just have my eyes closed I see no color, just black, white, and maybe gray. Through the decade plus of tapping, as I just about fall asleep and am in that alpha-theta brain wave state, I get glimpses of vivid pictures complete with its full compliment of appropriate colors! It’s beautiful! Once I realize consciously what I’m seeing, it all disappears! I know that as healing continues more will come. I guess my subconscious mind still, even today, doesn’t feel safe enough to go full techni-color, like the old movies called it. So how much of our trauma gets tied up into those sensory pieces? Neurologically it’s an interesting question! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Tapping to the Radio

Who else ”keeps time” to the radio by tapping on the steering wheel while driving? That’s still “tapping” if you are using the edge of a finger or the thumb. It counts as part of your daily tapping regime even if you aren’t tapping on anything specific! Why? Because JUST tapping is keeping your body calm and it’s helping with emotional regulation! Turn up that music and tap away! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Stealth Tapping

Here is EFT International EFT Trainer Cathy Reiling (https://www.efttappingacademy.com/workshops) teaching "Stealth Tapping" on EFT for Christians YouTube Channel. Stealth Tapping is extremely useful when in an emergency we find ourselves emotional and triggered but cannot just stop to tap. Give it a try next time a situation causes emotional angst! Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ustlBobSFRA Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

True Health and Happiness

“…true health and happiness, I have learned, is not about merely having a life full of comfort and pleasure. Much to the contrary, it’s about the ability to feel safe and comfortable despite life’s inevitable hardships, drawbacks, and challenges." Pg. 38. “Your Survival Instinct is Killing You” by Marc Schoen Tapping is your neurobiological wiring changer! This quote is indeed an achievable goal, as Apostle Paul so stated in Philippians 4:11. Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

How Energy Psychology Works with Internal Issues

“How energy psychology works with internal issues: a. Bringing to mind a memory, thought, or cue related to relationship difficulties . . . b. Activates the amygdala and initiates a stress response (cortisol, adrenaline, and other stress hormones flood the system and the hippocampus goes offline). c. BUT stimulating selected acupuncture points initiates an opposing process: d. The alarm response is turned off, even though the memory or trigger is still present. e. With a few repetitions, the memory or trigger no longer evokes the alarm response. f. The hippocampus can process the current experience in concert with the prefrontal cortex. g. This becomes the “new normal” – the internal model has been changed. 4. Acupoint tapping changes the brain in any of five ways: a. Reducing the amygdala’s threat response. b. Extinguishing conditioned responses. c. Supporting hippocampus and prefrontal cortex activity. d. Increasing the neural impact of positive self-imagery. e. Increasing the neural impact of well-conceived suggestions." David Feinstein, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist who has served on the faculties of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Antioch College, and the California School of Professional Psychology. Author of more than 80 professional articles and eight books, he has been a pioneer in the areas of Energy Psychology and Energy Medicine. His books have won nine national awards, including the U.S. Book News Best Psychology/Mental Health Book in 2007 (for Personal Mythology) and an Indies Best Books Award (for The Promise of Energy Psychology). Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series