Emotional Pain Lands IN the Body!

"BALANCING THE EMOTIONS 'Any imbalance in an emotional state - when one emotion dominates or overrides the others - can predispose one to heart disease,' says Frank Lipman, MD, an integrative physician, board-certified internist, and licensed acupuncturist. 'Learning to deal with emotions is extremely important.' But studying these emotional states is difficult, concedes Lipman, 'It's not something you can measure easily.' Nonetheless, emotions can get stuck in the body. When you release these emotional holding patterns physically, he says, you're releasing emotional states, as well.' Lipman has facilitated these releases in patients through acupuncture. He also refers some patients to body workers and healers, who are able to shift energy in the body." https://www.webmd.com/depression/features/many-emotions-can-damage-heart Want help moving those painful emotional states? Email me for a Christian EFT practitioner referral - we have practitioners in several countries in a couple continents! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Brain Can Change Itself (with some help from us!)

Wonderful quote! Norman Doidge, M.D., a neurologist at Columbia University and author of “The Brain That Changes Itself”sums it up nicely: “The discovery that the human brain can change its own structure and function with thought and experience, turning on its own genes to change its circuitry, reorganize itself, and change its operation, is the most important alteration in our understanding of the brain in four hundred years.” And that’s what we do when we use EFT tapping - change our brain and change our DNA genes! —— Example: Tapping on how a mother was emotionally distant growing up would look totally different with each person/client because how that was felt or experienced is specific to the person who is tapping. We tap on events, events, events, neutralizing as we go along, step by step, day by day. Tapping has a formula but it’s just that. A formula. Chemistry and mathematics have formulas, too, but outcomes of both are dependent on what factors are attached to the formula! Tapping outcomes differ between people, too, depending on multiple factors, but we plod on, tapping, doing the best we can. If we hit a wall, time to call me for a referral to a Christian EFT practitioner! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Empathy vs. Compassion

“Wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness and compassion without wisdom is folly.” Fred Kofman “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” Plato “By practicing compassion, we can become more resilient and improve our overall well-being. Bloom says, ‘careful reasoning mixed with a more distant compassion […] makes the world a better place.’” “The problem with empathy is the flip side that psychologists refer to as emotional empathy. That’s our yearning to not only understand other people but to feel their pain, too.” https://www.betterup.com/blog/compassion-vs-empathy We’ve discussed the difference between empathy and compassion on this board before, and I created a YouTube video on the topic. People who claim to be ”empaths” own a hard road, I believe. Feeling others’ pain” as a “thought” in our head rather than as a bodily sensation can help keep us from completely “sucking” up the other person’s physical problems/disease. Being empathetic is an attempt “to feel” the other person’s angst almost as much as if the originating event actually happened personally to us. Either compassion or empathy can lead to the same end we are trying to achieve - helping one another (Galatians 5:13, 1 Corinthians 10:24), but compassion is healthier because we aren’t carrying the actual emotional burden that gets our body into biochemical problems! This is worth reading. Tapping, I believe, can make us more compassionate than empathetic, keeping us healthier both physically and emotionally. And Jesus exuded compassion in His ministry by finding ways to help others without getting tied up in our human drama until the Father allowed Calvary. Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Is EFT Tapping in the Bible?

Sometimes I have people ask me, "Is EFT in the Bible?" Well, of course, it isn't, nor is our automobile (wonder what Jesus would have ridden in on Palm Sunday instead of His donkey???!!), or airplane or refrigerator and washing machine, and we still use those freely. What is IN the Bible is lots of humans with lots of negative emotions that caused all kinds of societal fallout, as it does today. We are human, we have emotional turmoil, but it doesn't HAVE to rule us. Once again, God has provided everything we need, including a path out of emotional pain. The EFT tapping tool sits waiting for us to grab it and use it! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Emotional Pain Sticks to US

It’s indeed a bit like treating the symptoms vs. treating the cause. The “symptoms” are our emotional angst and possibly physical issues. The underlying “cause” (disease) is our trauma, big stuff or lots of little stuff, hurtful memories, and disturbing events in our life. Those emotional “causes” stick around in our cells where our unconscious mind puts them, completely unknown to us. Our cells can be equated to a house attic, storage unit, old barn loft, etc. We stuff items in any or all of those places, forgetting about them, until sometime possible catastrophic happens and NOW we have to deal with the stored up junk. Emotionally it’s the same thing. Bad stuff happens, we “get over it” (time doesn’t heal all wounds, sorry, folks!), move on and THEN our body starts yelling and our emotions begin to flare, forcing us NOW to deal with the past - all those things we stuffed in our emotional attic, barn, and storage unit. Tapping BEFORE we accumulate all that junk keeps the “storage” unit of our unconscious mind clear, clean, and uncluttered! Tap, tap, tap! 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

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

Dopamine, Our Pleasure Neurotransmitter! Friend or Foe?

Did you know that when we experience pleasure of one kind or another, our brain chemicals impact our limbic system including the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, & nucleus accumbens, in particular, and ventral striatum, which are connected to the neurotransmitter dopamine and the brain’s natural opiate, endorphin. Once the body associates a pleasure with those chemicals, it wants more! And more. And more. Let’s use chocolate as an example. Often the mere thought or seeing chocolate produces a release of dopamine in the brain. Then when we taste it, opiates (endorphins) are released further binding our behavior to chocolate eating! Once we eat the chocolate our dopamine level begins to drop. The ANTICIPATION of the pleasure drives the dopamine more so than the actual consumption! Now we have entered dopamine lack which often leaves us feeling deprived and we reach for more chocolate to drive the dopamine back up. It’s cyclic and chocolate is simply an example, as anything pleasurable can send our dopamine levels into overdrive, including other foods, alcohol, sex, shop lifting, work, exercise, dare devil activities, drugs, etc. A similar experience happens with cortisol and sugar. This can be the beginning of an addiction or a craving around a substance or activity that drives anxiousness. Anxiousness is very uncomfortable, but tapping can help. How? By often finding the source event or memories driving the pleasure and tapping on those. Many ask why would I want to rid myself of pleasure! You wouldn’t but perhaps letting go of the excess behaviors might feel like a good idea. And it is, as it often then leaves us more satisfied with less of something (like calories, alcohol, etc.). Questions? Thoughts? Comments? Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

EFT for Christians Discussion Group Has a New Look!

 We've decided to try a new network to replace Facebook.

Here is the link

This link will take you to the main Emotional Freedom Tapping EFT board. Once there, look for the "cohort" link and ask to join the EFT for Christians one.

Please bookmark the page so you can come back to it anytime!

Please only join this forum if you promise to participate at least TWICE a month with a meaningful comment or post. "Cheers" do NOT count.

 

Because this "cohort" is under the larger umbrella of Emotional Freedom Techniques, you will have to join it first and then this cohort.

 

Make sure when posting that you are on the EFTC board and not the big Emotional Freedom board that we are listed under. Bookmark EFTC so you find the correct place!

See you there!

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

EFT for Christians is Alive and Active on our Facebook Venue

Facebook EFT for Christians discussion group is up and running full speed.

Come join us there for interesting teachings and discussions on all things Christian EFT.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/352652964926202

See you there!

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

EFT for Christians Discussion Group

Facebook EFT for Christians discussion group is up and running full speed.

Come join us there for interesting teachings and discussions on all things Christian EFT.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/352652964926202

See you there!

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Why Christians Can Use EFT Tapping!

This article succinctly says what I have tried to explain in the 5 EFT for Christians books I have written.

1). Chinese medicine and Chinese religion are 2 different things, just as Western Medicine and any western religious beliefs are completely different. Usually, when we show up in an ER, we don't ask the trauma physician if he or she is a Christian, we are just grateful for their help!

2). As a Practitioner in EFT when working with a client who has physical issues, our first question is, "have you seen a doctor?" There is definitely a place for both Eastern and Western medicine. If I have a gangrene gallbladder, probably caused by my reaction to abuse, where I carry around rage, anger, hatred, I'm not necessarily going to try to "cure" it with tapping. I want a competent surgeon to remove it before it bursts and I become septic. Then I will want to deal with the negative emotions that got me in the fix to begin with so something else physical doesn't go haywire!

3). Being a history buff, I agree with this author that not all early Western medicine researchers, such as William Harvey, Lister, Salk, etc. were Christians. They might have been. Who cares? Does that mean I reject all their findings? Of course, I don't. Their religious beliefs as they researched how God put together the human body has absolutely no bearing on what they personally believed about the Creator Himself!

4). Research surely now seems to show that there is a direct relationship between our emotions and our physical health. God is in the healing business. Jesus performed many miracles, as did His apostles. Miracles still happen today. Healing is God's purview, not satan's. satan never healed anyone! So, like the instructions to Apostle Peter in Acts, eat sacrificed meat, it doesn't matter what the original intent or belief system was, God blesses it and sanctions for our good because He created it for our wellbeing.

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Personal and Family Epigenetics Running Our Present Lives

Here is an interesting article that explains the new field of epigenetics.

What often is running both our emotional and physical health is our own personal past. There truly is still more affecting us than we ever envisioned decades ago!

As mind and brain research continues to unfold, scientists are only just beginning to understand that experiences and memories of our forefathers and foremothers are also running our personal biology.

I'm not talking about "past lives" or "reincarnation", so please don't confuse epigenetics with that topic!

God wrapped up so very much in the human body when He created us. Part of that experiential learning is bound up in the new science field of epigenetics. In order to survive life, all species, including humans, have to learn and REMEMBER what they experienced so as not to repeat that possibly dangerous behavior.

Often these behaviors were repeated so often and are so hardwired into our subconscious memory! God created this as a good thing! However, with sin entering the world, it can often go awry.

When we remember not only the incident but all the accompanying emotional pain and fallout from something horrific, this piece of the learning also gets stuffed into our body's cells.The cells remember the pain which can then get triggered when we sense a danger that is closely akin to what happened in the past.

So, we not only remember the incident as a safety valve to protect us, we remember the emotional pain to reinforce that learning.

Often this is subconscious! We don't know we have inherited great, great grandma's issues, but we have and we can.

We have lots to tap about! Tapping can make a huge dent in this ancestor stuff. And when we clear it using EFT and/or Matrix Reimprinting (or other somatic techniques), often our physical issues also heal once the body's cells release the pain they have been holding.

God is amazing! He thought of it all! We truly are blessed!

God bless your tapping journey! Join us on Facebook for more discussion opportunities!

Visit my EFT for Christians website and request the free EFT information I have listed there.

And grab a copy of my 5 EFT for Christians How-to Tap books to obtain a thorough understanding of how to incorporate the Christian components into your EFT tapping!

Remember, EFT is NOT a substitute for sound medical or psychological care, so please contact your own personal physician when you need that type of help.

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Tapping Example from a Client Story! God is so Good!

With permission I recount this client (Jennie) story:

EFT Tapping is such a versatile tool. Here is a practical use of it!

Jennie was having anxiety and some fear around this her upcoming colonoscopy appointment.

And so we tapped on all the different aspects (details) that were bothering her including:

1). Fear of what the doctor might find

2). Anxiety about the procedure itself, including the sedation

3). Anxiety about the awful prep including the diet, as the allowable pre-test foods are things Jennie doesn't usually eat!

4). Fear of catching COVID at the clinic

5). Inconvenience of needing to go to clinic 2 days early to get a COVID test

6). Anxiety about previous prep reactions - feeling horribly cold, shaking, and generally feeling miserable

7). Anxiety about trying to remember to take some car seat protective covering in case of an accident.

8). Fear about getting an IV pre-op, reactions to the anesthetic, and whatever else we tapped about!

PRAISE REPORT

Wonderfully, the following morning I receive a phone call! Jennie is now actually excited to get this colonoscopy done and over. Yes, read that! Excited!

Her reframe (changing of our mind) is she is going to ENJOY the 5 day prep! After looking at the dietary list, she realized she would buy and eat foods she loves but rarely eats because they don't fit into her lifestyle right now. She planned to TREAT herself to something special!

Jennie wrote out her menus and created her grocery list. She also wrote out a time line of what had to be done when in order to eliminate re-reading the pages and pages of instructions. Nothing would be missed or mixed up now!

==========================================

This is EXACTLY what EFT tapping often does for us!

As we tap God "reframes" and changes our mind about thing to come and things that have happened in the past, so that we can settle down and enjoy His presence right here right now in a state of grace without worry or preoccupation.

Tapping does so much more than just this, but if we just used it for issues of today, what a wonderful gift from our Lord!

What have you recently tapped about that God gave you an exciting gift as He switched up your emotions?  Leave me a message, so I can rejoice with you!

God bless your tapping journey! Join us on Facebook for more discussion opportunities!

Visit my EFT for Christians website and request the free EFT information I have listed there.

And grab a copy of my 5 EFT for Christians How-to Tap books to obtain a thorough understanding of how to incorporate the Christian components into your EFT tapping!

Remember, EFT is NOT a substitute for sound medical or psychological care, so please contact your own personal physician when you need that type of help.

We tap for Jesus!

Sherrie Rice SmithCertified EFT PractitionerEFTforChristians.comAuthor of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series