EFT Christian Spiritual Healing Collides with the Physiological

A wonderful thoughtful Christian tapper Rev. Ronda Stone wrote me, "I think about EFT and how the Lord has given this wonderful tool to us to help cope with all the trauma in one’s life, the lack of feeling loved, and the everyday stresses that accumulate and cause the body/mind to pay the toll in sickness, disease, emotional, and physical pain.

Even though we love the Lord, we are only human and made of clay when facing trials and

difficulties.  It is hard for us to put aside the difficulties and emotions without being concerned or worrying about the outcome of a diagnosis or accident. 

The Lord is there for us all along, but in our human make up and propensity to worry and fret, we block Him from being the help to us that He wants to be because of the connection we already have  to fear, sadness, anxiety etc. from past events."

Ronda's insight is right on and I replied to her this way, "And what you wrote is part of the spiritual explanation of EFT and the reason why we, as Christians, should APPLY tapping to all pieces and parts of our life. To lower the cortisol and adrenaline levels that God created in us that helped us escape REAL physical danger years ago (flight, fight), we need to tap today about what happened back then to undo the stress it continues to cause today for our subconscious mind. God created our hormones to react to REAL danger where we would be harmed or eaten (predators, warfare, assault, abuse)! The elevated levels of chemicals was the way God created us to "remember" life's lessons so we don't repeat our harmful mistakes. The chemicals help us to remember the danger lessons, they encode the learned memory. Think of a child touching a hot stove. He might do it once or perhaps twice, but never again!  This is the same mechanism we all use, but with trauma it happens on a much grander survival scale. 

Today our "danger" is rarely a true physical danger, but living with negative memories from past events literally resides in our body's cells is our present day stress level.  When we were "attacked" and we ran or fought back, we "blew" off the cortisol and adrenaline. Running or fighting back clears the cortisol and adrenaline from our nervous system. Shaking after an accident appears to do the same thing. We "discharge" the trauma, so to speak.

When we "freeze", neither running or fighting back, the incidents become trauma. Most of us "freeze". We are taught not to fight back or lip off. We then hold the horrific event in our nervous system where it stagnates, stews, and skews our Godly perspective of love and safety. Our thoughts of self-doubt, rage, resentment, and hatred arise in place of love and safety God wants us to feel. These feelings foment for decades; they rarely repair themselves without some kind of emotional support. Because those emotions are so painful to live with we shift our behavior toward self-destroying activities, such as addictions (eating, porn, gambling, sex, shopping, workaholism, etc.) to distract ourselves from what we feel. Tapping "reboots" the body systems!

Humans dislike emotional pain. It's uncomfortable so we stuff it down or drown it out (addictive behaviors). Neither strategy allows the damage or pain to let go. It most often tends to compound it. Talking about it often sends the pain ever deeper into our bodies. It's the tapping, a somatic technique, that often releases it. The emotional pain went into the body's cells as a feeling; it needs to come out of our body the exact same way.

Tapping is the language both your subconscious mind and body's cells understands. It looks like a silly technique, but it works! 

Dr. Peter Levine speaks of trauma this way, "The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect...heights of transformation and mastery, depends upon how we approach it" (Dr. Peter Levine, In an Unspoken Voice, How the Boy Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness, North Atlantic Books, Berkley, CA., 2010, page 37).

Everyone has trauma of one sort or another (some minor, others horrific), every single human being does, and it is personal and specific to each of us. Our approach to dealing with it is the key to whether we heal or not. God wants us healed. We can allow the pain to destroy us, or we can transform it into life lessons where we have an unique perspective in the healing to offer other hurting human beings. That lesson often is one of hope - "I will walk with you through your emotional pain because God has helped me. I know this pain intimately, and I know a technique that will help you."

So, how is the healing done? We physically need to get our elevated flight-fight hormones (Cortisol, Adrenaline, & others) lowered in our body (tapping is that tool), removing the barriers (high adrenaline, etc.that trap the memory in our body). We need the tapping to clear the cellular receptors and quiet our brain's limbic alarm system so it stops reacting to every sound, touch, and sight around us. Peace and safety comes back to live in us once again. And it is all God's created healing touch doing the work. 1 Peter 3:10-11, 2 Thessalonians 3:16, James 3:17

The hormones God created to keep us safe often go awry during trauma (someone's mistake or sin). They stay chronically elevated as our subconscious mind plays the trauma over and over again repetitively ("movie" in our head) throughout our present day, everyday, behind the scenes of our conscious mind (we may not even know the memory is still running). This is our subconscious mind reminding you remember never to get into that situation again. This is the way your mind tries to keep you safe.

That "movie" wears us down emotionally and physically because our bodies weren't designed to live well with elevated levels of stress hormones. And our own personal trauma reactions, often self-destroying behaviors mentioned above, compound life's problems. Disease ensues eventually.

What is one of God's answers to these problems? Tapping!

EFT most often neutralizes our reaction to the originating trauma, allowing God now to free us from the impact of those traumatic memories. The fog that lived between you and Him dissipates. You see Him for Who He is. You can now step into that relationship you always desired with Him. He's always been there, but the emotional fog, and your behavioral reactions to it, has kept you from fellowship with Him! This healing becomes real to you on all levels - emotional, spiritual, mental, and often physical. Romans 8:6.

Seriously consider starting your tapping journey today!  Let Him renew your mind! God is waiting for you with open arms!

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians Tapping in God's Peace & Joy (2016)

Author of EFT for Christians Advanced  (2017)

Author of EFT for Christians 52 Tapping Devotions (Christmas, 2017)

Author of EFT for Christians Devotions (Christmas, 2020)

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Why Tap at All?

I’m often asked why we need to tap  when we’ve lived in abusive situations. Won't we just forget the old memories eventually, or just come to accept them?

My answer is always, "No! Because of the way God put our physical body together with its emotional underpinnings, we often need to find a technique that calms not only the emotional impact of the abuse, but also calms the body, too, so it can heal."

Our body continues to react to what it "thought" the abuse meant when it happened. Most abuse occurs in childhood, and as children, we believe the world revolves around us, our wants, needs, and desires. We lack the maturity to see the entire picture of what was happening around us in society, church, and our family.

While the originating abuse was real, the life perceptions we gain over the ensuing years & decades are often faulty because our safety system built into our limbic system by God Himself goes awry. The abuse often is seen personally as something about who we are or what our worth is as a human being. Shame creeps into the scene sending our future actions off in a direction they weren't meant to go because we want to feel safe in our emotional and personal environment.

When that perceptual lens gets clouded early in life, like cataracts, surgery is needed to clear that damaged lens!  Tapping is emotional cataract surgery! It clears our life perspectives not only on an emotional level, but often on spiritual and physical levels, too.

Consider taking a tapping class so you can learn all the nuances of effective tapping. It might be the best education you will ever receive.

Remember, EFT is not a substitute for sound medical or psychological advice, so please contact your own personal physicians when that type of help is needed.

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians Tapping in God's Peace & Joy (2016)

Author of EFT for Christians Advanced  (2017)

Author of EFT for Christians 52 Tapping Devotions (Christmas, 2017)

Author of EFT for Christians Devotions (Christmas, 2020)

Use Promo Code SAVE20 when ordering from Publisher to get 20% Off

Generation Suffering & EFT

Generational suffering - another scientific article explaining the need for EFT and Matrix Reimprinting:


http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120144/trauma-genetic-scientists-say-parents-are-passing-ptsd-kids

EFT & Cortisol

Why does excitement in our lives make us feel alive as humans?  What causes the buzz we feel when we are participating in stressful things in our lives?

The answer to both questions is learned stress hormones.  Adrenaline, Cortisol, Norepinephrine are the 3 major stress hormones in our lives that are triggered by our limbic brain.

So, how does all of this connect together, giving us an understanding of how this impacts our lives today? 

Our limbic system, comprised of Thalamus, Hypothalamus, Cingulate gyrus, Amygdala, Hippocampus & Basal Ganglia, was created by God to keep us safe from predators and other bodily threats. If a loud, unexplained noise occurs, the hypothalamus, a small area in the base of your brain, sends an alarm through the body via intricate system of nerve and hormonal signals, prompting the adrenal glands, sitting on top the kidneys, to release a flood of hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. The flight, freeze or flight mechanism has just been activated, keeping us alert and aroused, watching out for danger.  Heart rate increases, blood pressure is elevated, glucose to the tissues is released, blood leaves the neo-cortex for the larger muscles in the legs in case flight is necessary, digestion is interrupted (no time to eat now!), immune system literally takes a hit, suppressing it, sex and growth are out of the question at the moment, as survival is utmost in the body’s mind. Estrogen, testosterone, & the neurotransmitters, dopamine and serotonin, are also involved in this struggle to a lesser extent. All non-essential bodily functions cease until the situation resolves.

This survival mechanism was implanted only for short-term use. The limbic fight, flight, or freeze is activated, problem gets resolved, and the stress hormones return to normal levels, dropping the heart rate & glucose levels back to normal. Sometimes it takes days for the stress levels to fall back to normal levels, especially when the body has chronic stress.

DHEA levels are restored from their depressed levels for more bodily repair and growth, allowing immune system to take over maintaining good health. Now, time has come to think about food and sex!  The body has returned to a relaxed state.

A problem remains today; however, in that we humans tend to remain in this high state of alert because of the high functioning lifestyles we lead, many times by choice. We actually become addicted to the elevated stress levels, leaving us feeling sad and uncomfortable when we begin to slow down for a short period of time. Once accustomed to high stress levels, the subconscious tends to want to keep us there. It has become our standard MO. In fact, the subconscious will even put us in situations to provoke an increased stress level, keeping the hormones & glucose at higher levels. It truly is addicted to the chemicals!

We may feel relaxed, but most times we continue nearly constantly in a high beta brain wave state. It’s the state of modern life.  Unfortunately, it is killing us - literally, killing us. Our bodies weren’t built for long term limbic activation.  Continuous high levels of cortisol are known to cause huge physical issues, including increased abdominal fat, weight gain, obesity, memory impairment, heart disease, etc.  Metabolic syndrome, with its illness list, is caused by these huge glucose level increases, necessitating activation of the pancreas to pump out extra insulin to deal with it.  This introduces diabetes, more heart disease, & stroke. The depression of the immune system is a gigantic issue, as it opens us up to every infectious disease we encounter, including just that continuous cascade of one viral cold after another, that chain of unending illness that sap our strength & endurance, giving our employer fits because we need sick day after sick day.  Because of the decrease in immune function and the lack of DHEA to promote growth, we open ourselves up to other illness, such as cancer.

Since most of us no longer face true physically life threatening situations, the threats are really just “paper tigers” – they are all in our mind. Because of the physiology of the brain, particularly the limbic system, our mind doesn’t know the difference between a real physical threat and the one we create in our own imagination. Case in point: The body treats worry just the same as it treats something really happening. Worrying about the boss firing us or the boss actually firing us will trigger the exact same chemical release in our bodies. Each situation appears to be the same to our mind during our thinking and feeling process. The limbic system doesn’t differentiate between perceived and real situations. Worry is stress, as we all know. That same worry will break down our bodies, causing physical illnesses.

So, how do we solve this problem? There are many true “relaxation” techniques out there, including meditation. Often times, when we feel relaxed, we actually aren’t relaxed at all.

Here is where Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) excels. When employed regularly, EFT will cut through this stress and worry, taking us back to a state of relaxation on a daily basis, allowing us to short circuit this flight or fight mechanism implanted in us. The neural networks are reconfigured. We unlearn the cognitive patterns of our earlier years, breaking down those destructive habits that keep us locked into those stressful states, whatever they may be.

EFT is easy to learn and it takes much less time than meditation. In our hurry up world, we all look for shortcuts. EFT is one, but it is a good, healthy shortcut.

I can also teach you other quick stress reduction techniques, if that is of interest. There are many other ones out there.

Is EFT God’s healing mechanism for you?  Pray about it please, and email me for a free Christian coaching with EFT consultation. I’d love to talk with you.

For more information, go to www.eftforchristians.com

To schedule a free EFT coaching session, email me at eftforchristians@gmail.com

Always remember to take complete responsibility for your own health and well-being.

Open EFT Letter to a Depressed Friend

As difficult as it could possibly be, try your best to tap for 15-20 or more minutes a day, tuning into whatever it is that the Holy Spirit brings to mind for you (I have literally tapped thousands of hours for my healing - it had to be a priority to me, or I was simply going to end up a physical wreck - I know where I was headed). If you can do so, whenever a feeling of one sort or another washes over you during the day (or night), if you can do so, stop right then and there and start tapping, calming yourself. Slow deep breaths of 4-5 seconds in, holding for 2 seconds, and breathing out for another 4-5 seconds does similar stuff by dropping us into that alpha/theta brain wave area where we tend to be a bit steadier. Its similar brain waves to those who meditate. EFT drops us into that same brain wave state, too. It's your way of telling the limbic system to quiet down. It understands that language! I have no idea how long this will take, but after you have done enough of this, and you will never know how much is enough until the feelings break up (which isn't really too helpful for you!), call me & I will teach you, if you so desire, the next steps in EFT. The manuals tell us to get specific on events. That's what I would show you - some shortcuts and ideas of how to clear all that out of your memories. Remember, EFT doesn't remove memories; EFT just pulls the emotion out of them, neutralizing them by calming down that limbic system where the stress trigger lives in the body - yours is working overtime! Anyway, tapping globally, as we have been doing, is ok when the pain is high, but, if you can do it, tapping on specific events will undermine the stress level much more quickly. By specific I mean, grab hold of a very detailed memory of your past. Pull it into your head with all its glory, and then tap out of that memory every single emotion involved in it. Just tap the emotion, if you want to say something - at each tapping point. No need to get fancy. Simply works. If EFT calms you in the moment, then it should calm you long term if enough is done. Try something else, if you want - say "I'm so happy" at each tapping point. Obviously, it isn't true, but sometimes it confuses the subconscious enough to switch neurons around. I would have gotten to that with you eventually. There is another technique that is part of Dr. Patricia Carrington's (former psychology faculty member @ Princeton University who has used EFT for 20 years) Choices Method where she alternates between the positive and negative tapping statements at each tapping point. "I'm so happy", or "I'm so depressed", or any variations of that, or "My life is wonderful", etc. There are a couple of reasons why this sometimes helps - my favorite answer is the technique so confuses the subconscious that it simply gives up the ghost because it, literally, doesn't know what the hell you want! Remember, the subconscious is literal, linear, & logical. By constantly telling it negatively, without tapping, how you feel, it just encodes that deeper into the cells because it thinks that is what you want. It's why "talk therapy" rarely works because there is no tapping going on, or some other release method used. It's also why clinical psychologists by the dozens are switching from talk therapy to EFT! Talking without tapping drives the emotion further into us. http://eftuniverse.com/component/content/article?id=9000 Anytime, you are on the phone or talking to anyone about how you feel, tap! Use those finger points I showed you, if you can't tap on the body or head points. This technique is called "Tap and Rant" or "Tap and Complain". We all do it, but make sure we tap while we "vent" (the old psychology term)! I tap on my finger points during the sermons in church. Brad asks if I'm upset. No, I'm simply tapping. Tapping, just to tap, is therapeutic (we could get into the quantum physics of what goes on when tapping, too). The "bodymind" understands what we are doing. It's like a hug to our own self. I tap all the time. Tapping when I'm happy or joyful, encodes that into my cells, too. I want God's joy encoded! Out with the old; in with the new! It took time, nearly 2 1/2 years for me, but I'm there, or nearly so! Some people do this in a matter of weeks Like I told you, there are dozens of different EFT techniques, and I mix and match them, along with different energy modalities. In other words, there are 100s of things that can be tried. I only showed you a couple. I did as I was led by Holy Spirit to do. Here is the EFTUniverse.com website with other "depression" cases listed. I haven't read them, except for the above one from Valerie Lis. http://eftuniverse.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9313 Remember, too, with depression, one of the hardest things is to recognize that you might feel a bit better with EFT. Because the pain is so deeply embedded in those cells, and the cognitive pattern so set in what seems like cement, noticing an improvement is one of the issues with depression. Watch carefully please. EFT makes very, very subtle changes that you yourself may never notice, but Pastor or the girls might. It is very subtle in many cases. I warn clients of this...someone else may notice before you do! If they do, they are correct. I tell clients to see if they can beat their families in noticing their personal changes! Pay close attention to how you feel. The changes are most likely there; you just have to see them, and then allow God to build on them. Thank you for the privilege of tapping with you! Please let me know how you are doing. You are in my prayers and I have put you on a couple of permanent prayer lists in other states. There are prayer warriors out there on duty before the Throne of God 24/7! For more information, go to www.eftforchristians.com To schedule a free EFT consultation coaching session, email me at: eftforchristians@gmail.com Always remember to take complete responsibility for your own health and well-being