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

Tapping and Household Chores

Today while vacuuming I realized something!

What household chore do you detest the most? Bathroom cleaning, vacuuming, cleaning the basement, scrubbing floors, wiping down the inside of refrigerator?

Bathrooms don't bother me. I'm not fond of dusting or vacuuming.

Today I realized the hating why of vacuuming! Mom used to tell us to vacuum each square inch of the carpet something like 10X. It was too much work!

Now, I understand why she so instructed us. Old vacuums from decades ago had little suction, especially those old hand-pump models. It took lots of repetition to pick up a speck of dirt! Our new models suck up everything quickly!

What's my point?

If you hate some chore, take a minute and tap on HOW you feel about having to do it. Clear out the feeling content and see if it shifts to something more productive and less grueling. You might even begin to like the chore!

Just a little cognitive shift or realization around our beliefs about most anything often takes the negative out of it.

EFT is not a substitute for sound medical or psychological physician help, so please contact your own personal doctor when any kind of medical needs arise.

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

EFT Tapping & Matrix Reimprinting

We occasionally discuss Matrix Reimprinting (MR) on this board because to become a MR practitioner one must have taken a LIVE EFT Level 1 & 2 classes. Tapping is done throughout most of the MR technique.

“Changing the memory” is often how MR is described & even I’ve been guilty of using that description.

Nice article explaining that we are changing the memory PERCEPTION not the memory itself. MR is a darn good way to change up core beliefs but, to be the most effective, should only be done AFTER all the emotions are tapped out of the negative memory or event. Otherwise all it appears we are doing is applying new wallpaper over old peeling wallpaper. In this analogy, removing peeling wallpaper first is equivalent to neutralizing the memory’s emotional content.

In tapping we are working with perceptions. How do we feel TODAY about that memory or event that happened back then? What life beliefs did we form because of that event(s)?

We tap out the emotional content of those ugly memories and then apply MR by “resourcing” our younger selves helping them through their take-away perceptions, often changing the lens through which life is NOW seen.

EFT is not a substitute for sound medical or psychological advice, so please contact your own physician if you have need of these kind of services.

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

 

Memories, EFT Tapping, and Matrix Reimprinting - How It All Changes our Emotional Beliefs

Matrix Reimprinting (MR) has been in play for almost a decade now after Karl Dawson "fell" upon the technique years ago. Because the science behind it is a bit confusing we often say MR changes memories. That is not a correct description.

 EFT and changing memories fallacy article explains what is going on behind our mind's screen when using tapping and MR. 

MR is another technique I use with clients along with EFT. 

There are classes available but taking a LIVE Levels 1 & 2 EFT class is a pre-requisite. 

Remember, EFT is not a substitute for medical or psychological care, so contact your physician when you need this type of help.

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

EFT for Christians Tapping Video #40 - Sneaking Away Technique

EFT for Christians Tapping Video #40 - Sneaking Away Technique explains how to "sneak away" when one runs out of time during a tapping sessions.

Effectively simple!

Remember, EFT is not a substitute for good medical care, so please contact your personal physician when emotional or physical care is needed.

 

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 4 Book Series

Personal Peace Procedure Tapping

This article explains a bit of how trauma forms and gets lodged in our body, and Craig makes a good point in this quote below:

"It is also why when EFT is being done and we start thinking about a childhood memory that at first seems rather innocuous and we start tapping and tuning into the memory, we commonly discover far more emotional intensity than we originally expected to find there."

It is this particular point that pinpoints why we say when using the "Personal Peace Procedure" always add EVERY memory, good or bad, to the list because often as you tap the memory you will find lots of emotional stuff underneath you honestly didn't know was hidden there. The little unexpected, hidden sensory pieces that when repeated often enough (and once is often enough) create our perception (that may be false impressions) about what life is all about. It is these perceptual core beliefs that we use as guidelines and guide posts for the rest of our lives, boxing us into a very small area of existence.

Remember, EFT is not a substitute for medical help so please contact your own personal physician whenever emotional or medical assistance is needed.

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Tapping & Metaphors

I liked this comment from Dr. Peter Levine about working with trauma, "The organism uses what it already knows to describe what it is experiencing. Don't take it literally. A sensation can feel like it is fuzzy, jagged, made of glass, wood, or plastic. Obviously, 'feel like' is the key part of the description. There isn't anything inside you that is really fuzzy or jagged, unless you have suffered some very poorly executed surgical procedures. The sensations just feel like these things. THEY ARE METAPHORS [my emphasis]. Sensations, however, can also be literal and correspond with information received from organs, bones, and muscles."

He goes on to explain that many of our memories are composits of multiple memories.

As we all learned in EFT class, the truth of memories is irrelevant just like the descriptions probably aren't literal. It is how it all FEELS that is important and the tapping changes those feelings into something more positive, neutralizing the negative implications in the process.

It allows us once again to become alive, spontaneous, ready to explore life as we once did as kids, enjoying every single moment as we step into that present mindfulness!

Please keep tapping!

Remember, EFT is not a substitute for sound medical advice, so please take care of yourself and call your own personal physician when necessary!

Sherrie Rice Smith, R.N. (Retired)

EFTforChristians.com

Author of 3 EFT for Christians books

EFTforChristians@gmail.com 

Can EFT Help Physical Problems, too?

"Not only can EFT improve psychological problems, it can improve physical symptoms too. How it that possible?

There is a strong association between emotional stress and disease. A study of 17,421 adults performed by a hospital chain, Kaiser Permanente, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at the relationship between their adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and disease (Felitti, et.al., 1998). ACEs were events like the divorce of their parents, an incarcerated parent, or an addicted parent. The ACE study found that those who had the highest amount of emotional trauma as children had higher rates of many disease as adults. Those diseases included cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. The authors of the study likened the medical establishment to fire fighters who direct all their water at the smoke (physical disease) while ignoring the flames underneath (unresolved emotional trauma).

That is not to say that physical disease is entirely psychological in origin. What it does indicate is that a lifetime of carrying the burden of trauma takes a toll on our bodies. When people use EFT for physical problems, they are releasing the emotional memories associated with the symptom. Once those memories don't hurt anymore, the stress response is reduced, and the body has a chance to heal."

EFT for Christians (original book), page 67

EFT is not a substitute for good medical care, so please consult with your own personal physicians when you deem medical help is needed.

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 4 Book Series

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

Memories Tied to Feelings

"Through our five senses, we record all the incoming data from our diverse experiences in the brain's synaptic wiring. If knowledge feeds the mind through the brain, then experience feeds the mind through the body.

The release of different brain chemicals produces specific FEELINGS; consequently, the end product of every experience is a FEELING or an emotion. FEELINGS are chemical memories.

FEELINGS are what allow us to record our sensory experiences through our neural circuitry and brain chemistry.

Episodic memories are remembered as FEELINGS, and FEELINGS are always related to experiences.

Episodic memories ALWAYS tie a person with a place, a thing with an event at a specific time, or a person to a time in our life, to name a few."

Dr. Joe Dispenza, Evolve Your Brain, pages 196-197

Capitalization emphasis mine.

 This is why we must tap on specific negative memory details, events, thoughts, triggers, etc.!

EFT is not a substitute for sound medical care, so please contact your own personal physician when you feel the need to do so.

Sherrie Rice Smith

Certified EFT Practitioner

EFTforChristians.com

Author of EFT for Christians 4 Book Series

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

How Perceptions Work in EFT

My friend and colleague Wendy Williams wrote this fictional story to illustrate how perceptions impact our memory, and how we use them in EFT vs. "Therapy". Printed here with permission.

Enjoy!

"I too can speak to the differences. By therapy, you are reviewing the event/hurt as you experienced it or recalled it. For the sake of this conversation, let's say my sister beat me up (broke my nose and my spirit) when I was 9 and she was 11. I have never felt close to her since and before that, we were tight. I felt victimized and felt it put a dent in all the family events/ gatherings moving forward. It was a real loss and now, as an adult, I still feel the sting and wish it hadn't happened and still view her as a bully. My stomach gets in knots and my defenses are up whenever I am around her. I feel that my sense of family was damaged/ruined from age 9 on and she is to blame.

This is my "story"... this is how I recall it and it's lasting impact is as I describe and I am sticking to it.

Therapy: Review the event and ask me to review how I felt then and how I feel now and review how to live now... ignore her? Pray for our relationship? Stay away from painful family events? Confront her? Exact apology? Take antidepressants? Take anti anxiety agents? Side with me on "of course you are hurt/damaged.... you were beaten up!"

My sister: Her "story" is bound to be different.... I provoked her? I took her favorite doll/toy/snack ONE TOO MANY TIMES! and she had to lash out! She pushed me hard and I fell against the coffee table and that was what broke my nose. She NEVER touched my face/nose with her fist. IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! And, she has felt terrible and regretful ever since, but I never accepted her apology, no matter how many times she offered it when she was 11, 12 etc. She finally gave up after a couple of years and assumed the "black sheep" role I assigned her. She never sought that role, but, there it is.

My Mom: Those two girls were each other's best friend... I HATE that they came to such an end. I was horrified to see little wendy with that bloody nose... so bent! So many tears... so much blood. I never expected the older one to do that! Punch Wendy? Really?? But, the evidence was there.... a broken nose. I tried and tried to get them to resume their sweet relationship, but after my husband left around that time, I got distracted. In my mind, both of them are good girls and I wish things had turned out differently, but I guess the older one turned ugly with her father leaving us. Ah me...

WHICH OF THESE IS "TRUE"? WHICH IS THE STORY AS IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED? Unknowable... Yet, each person here is telling their TRUTH, right?

EFT: The story is IRRELEVANT because all of our memories and experiences come through our very subjective filter... there is now way to "know" what really happened unless you filmed it and even then, the ways of the hearts involved?? No one knows. 

SO, EFT goes for the neurological charge that is associated with how Wendy recalls it... through stating and tapping how I recall it and sense it. By doing this, the "charge" is re-routed and turned down. The cortisol charge around it is recalibrated and reduced such that further recollection leaves me with hardly any "charge" anymore. It doesn't "hurt" the way it did. I still can recall the event as I experienced it... the memory is not gone... it just doesn't flare up.

This can take a very short amount of time.... I cannot say "how long" but, since it is not about review and recall and rehearse, rather it is about repair of the charge." 

The memory shift happens quickly with EFT. Once the charge Wendy discusses above is gone, the memory becomes, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant. Wendy usually forgives her sister because the accident "just happened" and relationships often get repaired and rebuilt. This is called memory reconsolidation. God is so good!

Consider trying EFT for yourself!  You will be pleasantly surprised!

To God be all the glory!  Amen.

From Wendy Langlois Williams

http://www.connectagain.org/meet-wendy.html

EFT is never a substitute for medical care. Call your personal physician should you need medical attention. Please take responsibility for all of your own emotional and physical health. God bless you!

Sherrie Rice Smith, R.N. (Retired)

Certified EFT Practitioner

Author of EFT for Christians (2015) 

EFTUniverse Instructor/Trainer

PTSD Article

The 6 hour window here is probably why when doing Matrix Reimprinting (MR) we instruct the client to "imprint" the new memory at least once more in the subsequent 5 hours after the session. Two, three or four times would be even better to change those neurons into that new picture.

Memory reconsolidation happens everytime we repeat a trauma story. The story simply changes with each re-telling. We mix stories together. We mess up the details. None of this matters in EFT and MR. Perception is ALL that counts - what did the memory, true or false, mean to the client? That is what we eventually change with tapping - perception.

This is why I instruct parents to tap with kids before bed. Come up with a bedtime routine, be it prayers or reading, that includes a few minutes of tapping.

Allow each child to briefly speak about their day while their siblings tap with them. Everyone gets "borrowed benefits" from the others, and anything that might have bothered the child gets "consolidated" with negative emotional perceptions removed before the hippocampus has time to embed them in the body.......so we practitioners can 20-30 years later make alot of money removing those negative memories!!!

http://www.nicabm.com/nicabmblog/trauma-can-traumatic-memories-be-changed/

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.