EFT & Marriage

Marriage is that psychosocial arrangement we all enter into with happiness and bliss, isn’t it? Normally, it all works great until we learn way too much about our spouse; leaving us with feelings of what in the world did I get myself into. I suspect there are few people in a married or committed relationships that don’t at one time or another wonder what happened to make it all go so very wrong. Well, I’m here to tell you from first-hand experience there is hope! I’m going to make this story very personal, with permission from my husband Brad. I opened up, making myself a bit vulnerable, while in NYC helping with EFTU Level 1 and 2 classes. I’m going to do the same here.

Both Brad & I came from nasty childhoods, dealing with episodes and incidences no child should have to ever endure. It was this early abuse that actually brought us together. I know, for me, I figured it would draw us together, as we both would surely instinctively understand where the other had come from. This was all pre-EFT and I have since seen and well understood how very wrong we both were!

As the years progressed, the relationship became more embattled. I now see what exactly went on. I married a man just like my parents. Oh, he didn’t resemble anything they actually did, nor were the external behaviors even remotely similar, but his style of dealing with life’s ups and downs surely was. Denial was his best defense. If one ignores it all, it all will go away. No matter how many ways I explained to him what I needed in the relationship, nothing changed. And then I caught myself nitpicking just like Mom did to me. Nothing Brad did was good enough. The downhill slide had begun in earnest. We raised his two sons from a first marriage in our house. The boys’ mother was still involved. The tension from that was on. Then about ten years ago Brad was laid off from his engineering job permanently; the company closed. Now, we had 24/7 together.

The problems really started. It was too much time spent in each other’s company. I had plenty to nitpick about now. It wasn’t too long until we were literally fighting every day. It soon led to nothing but fighting. I, as a RN, had no idea how to stop it. I was a depressed, embittered, angry, crying, lashing out woman. My Dad’s words of, “No man will ever put up with you for long,” rang hourly in my ears. I was going to lose my marriage and Dad would be right. What was I going to do? I’m sure Brad felt the same way. Were two women going to walk out on him? At the Eleventh Hour, God provided. Emotional Freedom Techniques walked into our lives! I hired, without Brad’s permission, an EFT practitioner to work through his hatred for his parents. He never believed me when I told him he hated his parents; he does believe me now. Hatred eats us up. It burns holes in everything and everyone around us. It supersedes and melts any love that existed. Nothing survives in its wake. It’s impossible.

I hired my own EFT coach, too. I took EFTU’s Level 1 and 2 classes. What I want now to tell all of you readers is this: Please don’t give up on your marriage. Divorce costs big money, discounting the emotional pain involved, too. My best advice to you based on personal experience. Convince your spouse to take EFTU Levels 1 and 2 classes together.

Seriously, work on your own issues. Your spouse is not the problem. The problem is you. You aren’t a bad person! Your background and cognitive childhood learning has led you to the specific person who triggers you. You have attracted what you know. But there is hope! Work through all those childhood personal issues.

Free yourself to be the person you know you can be and in that process watch your marriage heal. It can work unilaterally, but it works even better when both of you are willing to use EFT on your own stuff!

 Today, I stand amazed to say our marriage is mostly healed. Yes, it worked that well. It’s taken a few years of a lot of tapping on both our parts, but we are stronger and healthier than I ever imagined. My Dad is NOT going to be right this time around! Oh, we have our moments. For heaven’s sake, we are still married! Now, we stop and tap before either of us says something stupid that we will regret later. It usually tends to be one of us starts tapping right in front of the other. We’ve made a commitment not to get angry about that, but to take it as an act of love for the other. And, it is. Hurtful things don’t tend to come out of the mouth of someone tapping. We then both go to our respective tapping places in the house, tap away what is going on INSIDE each of us, not the other person, and come back sometimes to talk about it, but many times all the tension simply dissolves, and we go on our merry way finishing up the day’s activities.

These fights and arguments have nothing to do with us. Really, you might ask. The triggering mechanisms behind them are all those perceptions and ideas we picked up from our parents, grandparents, neighbors, aunts and uncles. Those run our lives and our marriages. Tap them away; save your marriage. Give your children the greatest gift on earth – parents who love each and act like they do! About $1500 for EFTU classes with a certified trained instructor is cheaper than any attorney on planet Earth, or marriage counselor, for that matter. Oh, we tried all the conventional marriage counselor routes with no improvement in our relationship.

I highly recommend trying EFT. Go the EFTU “EFT Training” page and sign up for classes today and watch your marriage heal before your eyes. Hire a certified EFTU practitioner, if your issues are difficult or heavy. You can find them under “EFT Resources” tab. You’ll be surprised how well EFT works. I know Brad and I were!

 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.

Sherrrie Rice Smith, R.N. (Retired)
EFTforChristians.com
Author of EFT for Christians

EFT - Nothing is as it appears

Dawson Church teaches in his EFT classes that, "Nothing appears as it really is."

Today, while cleaning our bathrooms, a thought came to me around this idea.

First, why does God always seem to use the ordinary, nearly "profane" times to speak deeply to us? Jesus, when curing those around Him, used spittle, mud, and bathing facilities as physical means to make those He cured whole. He does the same to me.....often. Maybe I should just set up shop in the bathroom!

If, as Dawson says, what we see in the physical realm as related to our bodies is not as it appears because the physical, as the new physiology teaches, tends to be rooted in the emotional, doesn't that parallel what God does in the spiritual world?

We humans without the mind and eyes of Christ have no idea what is going on around us in the spiritual realm. Apostle Paul talks about those spiritual battles raging all around us. Do we actually see them?

No, we don't, except with our spiritual Jesus eyes, and even then it is difficult to believe it all is really happening. We deny those spiritual battles, and we deny that many of the physical manifestations in us are really our emotional issues coming home to roost within our bodies.

Jesus sometimes forgave sin, and then healed. Other times, He healed, and then forgave the cured person of his sins.

This sounds like a chicken or the egg scenario. Which does our God do?

Honestly, I don't know, but knowing my God, I suspect He is very creative, doing just as He pleases when He so pleases to do it!

The longer I live, the more I see so many, many parallels between our physical life and our spiritual life.

We humans seem to separate them, and even we born-again committed Christians don't at times seem to get it either.

God has set up His eternal principles as to how the universe, creation, and humanity works. It's beginning to look more and more similar. Everything is a bigger or smaller version of something else, all reflection of the Father Himself.

As an example, fractals is one of these ideas.  I don't profess to even begin to understand mathematical fractals, but I see the esthetic-ness in the them; the artistic beauty. And I see how God has set up everything He created in the same basic manner. It's so simply that it confounds the most brilliant of scientists, just like the salvation He offers in Jesus is so simple that, sadly, so many people simply miss it!

I found this definition of an artistic fractal on the internet: "A geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller (or larger) scales to produce (self-similar) irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical (Euclidian) geometry.

"Relative to science, fractals are essentially geometric shapes or forms that are represented in natural objects, from a fern leaf or tree, to a spider web or snowflake, to larger phenomena such as clouds, hurricanes, or even galaxies in space. The discovery of fractals allowed for defining irregular shapes which could not be defined, or represented before by mathematics. One could define (or model mathematically) a square, rectangle, triangle, etc., but one could not define, or model, the irregular shape of a cloud formation, or tree outline, or coastline.

"One very common shape or form, found both in fractals & throughout nature, is the spiral. This is one of the most common forms represented in the fractals one sees frequently on the internet, and this mathematical shape is pervasive throughout nature as well. Is there a connection between the mathematics and science, and creation? Fractals have been called the "Thumbprint of God", perhaps they are!" http://fractalarts.com/SFDA/whatarefractals.html

Our Creative God often, when we seem to need it the most, offers us a glimpse of Himself. As He opens Himself up, allowing us to know small pieces of Him, I see the interaction and the interconnectedness of our emotions, our physical selves, and our spiritual selves, just like fractals appear to be a possible building block of nature. The deeply profound is found in simplicity.

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) often seems to be that unique tool God uses to make much of this make sense to my human mind. He so uniquely created us to remain in communion with Him. The more I study His Word and all the newly uncovered science, the more I see where EFT surely appears to be the tool that allows it all to make the most sense!

The God of the Universe continues daily to astound me with His diversity and beauty. I don't profess to know the Mind of God, but I surely do want more of Him, more of His wisdom, grace, and mercy in my life.

Open my eyes, Lord, open my eyes!

EFT is not a substitute for medical help, so please take responsibility for your own physical and emotional health.

Sherrie Rice Smith, R.N. (Ret.), B.A., EFT-EXP
Mentor of Christian Women
Certified Emotional Freedom Techniques Practitioner
EFTUniverse Trainer
http://eftforchristians.com
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam 

Fear and EFT

Fear is a lie of the enemy!

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but utest the spirits to see whether they are from God, for vmany wfalse prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: yevery spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit athat does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and bnow is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for che who is in you is greater than dhe who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and fthe world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know hthe Spirit of truth and ithe spirit of error." 1 John 4:1-4 (ESV)

Christian EFT overcomes fear!

Remember to take responsibility for your own personal health when tapping. Email me today with questions, or visit my website to make an EFT appointment to tap with me for Jesus.

Sherrie Rice Smith, R.N. (ret.)
Certified EFT Practitioner           
Author "EFT for Christians" (2015)
www.EFTforChristians.com 
EFTforChristians@gmail.com

Marriage & EFT

Marriage is that psychosocial arrangement we all enter into with happiness and bliss, isn’t it? Normally, it all works great until we learn way too much about our spouse; leaving us with feelings of what in the world did I get myself into. I suspect there are few people in a married or committed relationships that don’t at one time or another wonder what happened to make it all go so very wrong. Well, I’m here to tell you from first-hand experience there is hope! I’m going to make this story very personal, with permission from my husband Brad. I opened up, making myself a bit vulnerable, while in NYC helping with EFTU Level 1 and 2 classes. I’m going to do the same here.

Both Brad & I came from nasty childhoods, dealing with episodes and incidences no child should have to ever endure. It was this early abuse that actually brought us together. I know, for me, I figured it would draw us together, as we both would surely instinctively understand where the other had come from. This was all pre-EFT and I have since seen and well understood how very wrong we both were!

As the years progressed, the relationship became more embattled. I now see what exactly went on. I married a man just like my parents. Oh, he didn’t resemble anything they actually did, nor were the external behaviors even remotely similar, but his style of dealing with life’s ups and downs surely was. Denial was his best defense. If one ignores it all, it all will go away. No matter how many ways I explained to him what I needed in the relationship, nothing changed. And then I caught myself nitpicking just like Mom did to me. Nothing Brad did was good enough. The downhill slide had begun in earnest. We raised his two sons from a first marriage in our house. The boys’ mother was still involved. The tension from that was on. Then about ten years ago Brad was laid off from his engineering job permanently; the company closed. Now, we had 24/7 together.

The problems really started. It was too much time spent in each other’s company. I had plenty to nitpick about now. It wasn’t too long until we were literally fighting every day. It soon led to nothing but fighting. I, as a RN, had no idea how to stop it. I was a depressed, embittered, angry, crying, lashing out woman. My Dad’s words of, “No man will ever put up with you for long,” rang hourly in my ears. I was going to lose my marriage and Dad would be right. What was I going to do? I’m sure Brad felt the same way. Were two women going to walk out on him? At the Eleventh Hour, God provided. Emotional Freedom Techniques walked into our lives! I hired, without Brad’s permission, an EFT practitioner to work through his hatred for his parents. He never believed me when I told him he hated his parents; he does believe me now. Hatred eats us up. It burns holes in everything and everyone around us. It supersedes and melts any love that existed. Nothing survives in its wake. It’s impossible.

I hired my own EFT coach, too. I took EFTU’s Level 1 and 2 classes. What I want now to tell all of you readers is this: Please don’t give up on your marriage. Divorce costs big money, discounting the emotional pain involved, too. My best advice to you based on personal experience. Convince your spouse to take EFTU Levels 1 and 2 classes together.

Seriously, work on your own issues. Your spouse is not the problem. The problem is you. You aren’t a bad person! Your background and cognitive childhood learning has led you to the specific person who triggers you. You have attracted what you know. But there is hope! Work through all those childhood personal issues.

Free yourself to be the person you know you can be and in that process watch your marriage heal. It can work unilaterally, but it works even better when both of you are willing to use EFT on your own stuff!

 Today, I stand amazed to say our marriage is mostly healed. Yes, it worked that well. It’s taken a few years of a lot of tapping on both our parts, but we are stronger and healthier than I ever imagined. My Dad is NOT going to be right this time around! Oh, we have our moments. For heaven’s sake, we are still married! Now, we stop and tap before either of us says something stupid that we will regret later. It usually tends to be one of us starts tapping right in front of the other. We’ve made a commitment not to get angry about that, but to take it as an act of love for the other. And, it is. Hurtful things don’t tend to come out of the mouth of someone tapping. We then both go to our respective tapping places in the house, tap away what is going on INSIDE each of us, not the other person, and come back sometimes to talk about it, but many times all the tension simply dissolves, and we go on our merry way finishing up the day’s activities.

These fights and arguments have nothing to do with us. Really, you might ask. The triggering mechanisms behind them are all those perceptions and ideas we picked up from our parents, grandparents, neighbors, aunts and uncles. Those run our lives and our marriages. Tap them away; save your marriage. Give your children the greatest gift on earth – parents who love each and act like they do! About $1500 for EFTU classes with a certified trained instructor is cheaper than any attorney on planet Earth, or marriage counselor, for that matter. Oh, we tried all the conventional marriage counselor routes with no improvement in our relationship.

I highly recommend trying EFT. Go the EFTU “EFT Training” page and sign up for classes today and watch your marriage heal before your eyes. Hire a certified EFTU practitioner, if your issues are difficult or heavy. You can find them under “EFT Resources” tab. You’ll be surprised how well EFT works. I know Brad and I were!

 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.

Sherrrie Rice Smith, R.N. (Retired)
EFTforChristians.com
Author of EFT for Christians

EFT & Trust in God

Wow, is God really exploding some of His truths into my consciousness! This is almost scary!  I pray often for the Wisdom of Solomon, and I know that many times I understand far beyond what I probably should, or see what is really happening below the surface, in situations around me.  At times, it is a heavy responsibility because, if I speak out with the truth, I’m ignored or rejected. I believe this is a true gift from the Holy Spirit – it is discernment, a rare gift.

Does it make me more special than anyone else? Nope!  Everyone has gifts of the Holy Spirit. The only question is:  are we willing to submit to His holy will and use them for the glorification of His Kingdom? One gift is no better or any worse than another. St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12: 4-6 & 11, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines”. God gives us exactly what He wants us to have, but the point is we must use what we are given. I mean used actively for the furtherance of His Kingdom here on earth.

My heart is nearly overwhelmed with God’s truth of the past several days. I’m trying to figure out, well, the Holy Spirit is doing the work here, how to make a Christian EFT model, one that can be implemented easily & quickly into the churches nationwide - something understandable with simple concepts on all aspects of the science & psychology of all things EFT.

I’m working with a particularly “difficult” client right now, not that she is being difficult, but that her negative life process is so deeply embedded from years and years of depression. This in & of itself makes this a tough case, but it all goes one step further. She, and I shall call her Edith, is some prominent in the community. Edith is a Christian who is in a rotten place in life, not by any choice of hers.  I need to make Edith’s faith plain to her as we use EFT. God is showing me how He wants Christian EFT to go through Edith’s pain.

The other “difficulty” here is as much as I want to divorce my own personal feelings from this tapping case, I find myself slipping back into some of my old patterns of self-doubt and fears, too.  I’ve tapped about all this, and I’ve rebuked satan & covered myself with the Blood of the Lamb, but the doubts linger. What if I fail? What if I screw up here? What if EFT lets me down? What if Edith’s disease process is so bad that not even EFT can pry it loose? On and on I go with the internal questions.

I have a small squadron of my personal prayer warriors standing behind me, as I do these tough cases. I would never even consider doing any of this work without having myself covered in prayer, and with this woman even more so!

I’ve prayed now for 3 years for God to reveal what & how He wants me to use the EFT that He has given me. I feel He wants me to produce a specifically Christian brand of EFT for the churches, something most denominations will be comfortable with, no matter how liberal or how conservative. When I started developing this I had absolutely no idea what it would look like. None. I had an offer of a free website, specifically for Christians, and I jumped on that. I won’t turn down something free. Once, the website was agreed upon, I embarked on writing all these blogs, as a free blog was also part of the website deal. As I write God just explodes in my head, one idea after another, stuff I would have never, ever thought of myself. Wow, is God amazing, or what?

However, in this process, and in this new “difficult” case He dumped onto my lap, I’ve realized/learned a few new things.

This is an added dimension of trust that I found in me. I never realized it was there, and I know it is enhanced by own personal EFT work. This is a God thing!  This is not of me. As I work daily at this new website and blog, and now this new case with Edith, I realize how vulnerable I feel. I’ve just opened myself up once again to rejection and fear of failure. Today, I realized (while having iced tea with a dear sweet young gal & her 2 beautiful little daughters) exactly what I’m feeling. I’m scared I will screw this all up. That was a huge fear of mine as a child, well into my adult life. It kept me tied up, holding back from doing what God wanted me to do. I couldn’t even trust Him to make stuff work out.

I realized today that EFT has taken me beyond all that, at least for today, and that is all God asks of us – walk with Him one day at a time, trusting Him the entire way, to deal with whatever befalls us. As I have tapped away my childhood issues, God is faithful to me. He has opened up an entirely new level of trust & dependence on Him. I see where, and I knew this before, but it never stopped me from worrying, my failure and possible rejection has absolutely nothing to do with me.  This is huge! If I have complete and total dependence on Him, then, if failure occurs, it is His will for His purpose that it happens. I’m not a failure in His eyes, no matter what other men think. I’m a failure only if I fail to do as He bids me do. I fail if I allow myself to fall into disobedience to His holy will.

Now, don’t get me wrong, intellectually I always knew all this, but today, for the first time in my life, I feel this! I finally get it!  Something has changed in my physiology! EFT tapping has changed something, making it now a part of me. God is at work.

I’ve cleared out enough emotional garbage that God can finally use me for His eternal purposes. Most of the self-doubting worry is gone. And I mean really gone, as in vanished. I think I have arrived at the place where the lilies of the field live!  Matthew 6:25-33 reads:
 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;  and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?  For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”.

I’m not called to look down the road a hundred miles, I’m only told to take one step at a time within the will of God, & seek His Kingdom first. I have no need to know what is ahead, and now the past is disabled, thanks to EFT. All that counts is the present. God has the past and God has the future (“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” Matthew 6:34).

I need only concern myself with the here and now – live in the mindfulness of the present, enjoying every minute God has allowed me to have on this earth. And the here and now is listening to the beckoning of the Holy Spirit, His instructions for my life, and then stepping out in faith & follow exactly those instructions. It means being completely and totally yielded to Him in everything.

What a spot to find myself in!  I’ve never been here before. I think it is pretty neat! Will I falter again & resume worrying? Possibly, but God has given me a wonderful tool in EFT. When worry or doubt sets in, I stop, excuse myself from the conversation, and head to a remote, quiet place and tap. What do I tap? First, I repent of the worry & doubt, and then I tap & pray, asking God to once again restore unto me His precious peace and confidence in knowing that I am walking in His perfect will. Psalm 51:10-12 reads: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit”.

What an amazing place to be, now that I’m 60 years old! The bottom line here is this: As I have tapped my way into internal cleanness, dredging up & discarding all of my emotional junk, God has honored me by blowing open a spiritual component to my Christian life that I never dreamed possible. Maybe this is the stuff, dimensions that the Christian mystics and fathers have spoken of in eons gone by. I knew nothing of it. How could I?  They were so buried under my pain and hurt and negative feelings, nothing good could penetrate them. I’ve picked and prodded myself, peeling away layer upon layer, of useless emotions, arriving at a spot I desired, but never thought possible. This may well be the peace that passes all understanding that St. Paul talks about in Philippians (“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” – Philippians 4:6-7). If it isn’t, then what in the world does that look like? I’d surely be anxious to know, wouldn’t you? Peace & trust, what a wonderful place to dwell. Thank you, Lord, thank you!

If you are interested in finding out how to get to this trustful place in your life, email me. I would love to show you how to do that with EFT. It really does work as I say it does. God be praised!

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.

Psychoneuroimmunology & Christian EFT

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is a relatively new branch of medicine, developed because the impact between the psyche, nervous system, and the immune system seemed to be apparent; they are linked in a unique God created way. Early physical feelings of an illness increase stress anxiety, activating classic stress responses, such as cortisol release. There is an entire physiological mechanism here that occurs during sickness or after accidents. Through a series of chemical reactions, the body through the brain, particularly the hypothalamus, figures out something is wrong, revving up the inflammation process, sending the infection or damage repairing cells to the scene. This response somehow makes us change our daily MO of how we operate – we ingest less water and food, we sleep poorly, we move less, and fever begins, in some cases. We just know something is wrong and the stress begins, compounding the body’s response, causing anxiety within the mind-body. It shifts the healing mechanism from the diseased or injured part to dealing with our emotions associated with the problem. All our energy is directed to the wrong place, slowing down us getting well. Emotional stress will cause the same reaction. When we feel isolated, or down, or rejected, the body begins the same stress reaction within our cells, actually making us sick. Science in this new field is showing that if the emotional impact of negative events in our lives is interrupted, the physical reaction is also interrupted, keeping us healthy because the immune system stays strong and intact. The less we are ill, the stronger the immune system remains because it doesn’t need months to recover from a previous illness, accident, or round of recent antibiotics. So what is PNI exactly? By strict definition it is something like the study of the connection between neural and endocrine systems and the functioning of the immune system by understanding how stress reacts within the body. Neural pathway is the way the body communicates within itself, passing all these minute pieces of information among the body parts. Endocrine system is the cortisol releasing part of the process. These appear to interact strongly with how our body uses our immune system to keep us healthy & alive. This is the stuff that makes up mind-body medicine. PNI studies how the body deals with cognitive stress. The way a person perceives a stressful event may indeed be more important than the event or the stress itself. How I would perceive a car accident may not be the same intensity that someone else may perceive it. And a stressful event can literally be simple something perceived in the mind, such as worry, anxiety, or dread over something that may or may not happen. Your subconscious simply doesn’t know the difference between a “made up” occurrence or a real actual occurrence. It treats both equally – it stresses the body equally with both situations. When a stressful signal is recognized by the senses, the hypothalamus begins the processing. Then a series of messages are sent via neuropeptides and neurotransmitters to all parts of the body. It was once thought that each body part had a specific neuropeptides and its accompanying cellular receptors. It has subsequently been found that the body contains a mixed batch of these everywhere. These communications are system-wide. Brain peptides are found in the gut, etc. Few are organ specific. Stress in and of itself is not the issue, but how we deal with the stress is the problem. Some people seem to have no issues dealing with high levels of stress. Somehow they have learned to compensate for it. The rest of us, and that is more of the majority of the population, simply don’t do well with high stress levels, and constantly high stress levels compound the wellness problem. The high stress levels, according to research, are what set us up for diseases such as heart disease, cancer and some autoimmune diseases. Epigenetics shows we can literally turn those disease genes off or on by the way we handle stress in our lives. Our human body functions well in homeostasis. It likes to feel good, running at low stress levels with as little emotional turmoil as possible. Where most humans get into trouble is with cognitive sensory input. We tend to internalize outside sensory information repetitively, embedding that coding into our physiological system. All of that sensory information is processed through the nervous system in conjunction with the endocrine system, and then impacting the immune system. A simple example is this: A child learns early on that when Mom curls her lip at him (her), it means Mother is disappointed. If Mom uses this method of showing disappointment in a child’s behavior over and over again, as an adult, every time the person sees anyone with a curled lip, similar to Mom’s, the adult assumes (perception) it means the curled lip person is disappointed with them. This is cognitive learning. It is a visual or auditory or tactile event where repetition encodes the behavior of another into the psyche of a child, setting up emotional stress for a lifetime. Now, this is a simple example taken to the extreme, but should that same child be exposed to hundreds of such behaviors by his parents and by others that over a course of 18 years of life, it builds up a huge bank of cognitive stress, especially if there is no loving attention added to the child rearing to offset the adult behaviors. Negative emotional responses cause physiological changes. These are the chronic cognitive changes that impact long-term health. Emotions in and of themselves aren’t the problem. How we digest them emotionally is what causes the problems. There is another physical mechanism at work here, too, that is called the HPA axis. These mechanisms can get a bit complicated here. The even more interesting fact is the body does these reactions within milliseconds of a perceived or actual stressor, meaning each of these steps take just fractions of seconds to happen. God created our bodies in a nearly unbelievable manner. Let me see if I can simplify this HPA axis mechanism for you. Stress situation happens, and the body decides if it is a true problem or not for us (remember that a problem can be physical, as it is really is happening to us i.e. accident, illness, death of a loved one, or it may simply be an internal stress i.e. worry about test tomorrow, how our dress will fit for the party tonight, or whether we will be hired for the job we interviewed for today). If a person has a physiological response to the situation, then stress is happening within the body. Physiological response includes elevated heart rate, lack of hunger, dilated pupils, changes in bowel patterns, increased respiratory rate, sweating, etc. Now, the body decides the stress needs to be dealt with. Some short term stress, like a loud noise, is defused quickly once the person recognizes the source of the noise, realizing it is not a problem, and then all the physiological markers return to normal rather quickly. If the situation is deemed stressful, the hypothalamus, located at the base of the brain, is activated. The hypothalamus is the stress judge. It takes immediate charge, sending out 2 signals – one to the pituitary gland (located in the base of the brain) and the other to the adrenal medulla (located on top of the kidneys). 2 different responses could be triggered depending on whether the stress is short-term or long-term. Short- term stress is dealt with by the Sypathomedullary Pathway (SAM) and long –term stress is dealt with by the HPA System (HPA). Within the SAM pathway the hypothalamus activates the adrenal medulla, which is part of the autonomic nervous system that controls most of our bodily functions without us thinking about them, such as breathing, heart rate, digestion, etc. The adrenal medulla activates the release of the adrenaline hormone. This hormone gets the body ready for the flight or fight response by pumping large volumes of blood to our larger muscle groups in our legs and arms, getting us ready to start punching or start running fast to avoid danger. Once the threat is over, the parasympathetic nervous system once again takes over, calming us back down into a state of homeostasis, or calm. There are few ill effects from short-term stress. It is simply a life protecting mechanism built in by God for survival. For another article another day, there is a huge problem when we do neither fight nor run, but instead we freeze. Negative memories are snapped into place in the body-mind when we freeze. The freeze mechanism is we human’s biggest problem. The Hypothalamic- Pituitary-Adrenal system is somewhat similar. The stress situation activates the HPA with the hypothalamus stimulating the pituitary gland which secretes ACTH (adenocorticotropic hormone) with the ACTH stimulating the adrenal glands to produce the hormone corticosteroid, or cortisol. With long-term stress such as abuse, the cortisol level never returns back to normal, producing an accompanying cascade of physical problems, such as diabetes, because the blood sugar remains elevated, obesity because the fat metabolism is disturbed, adrenal fatigue because the adrenals are constantly working, and many other issues causing heart disease and cancer to occur. All the while the immune system is also distressed allowing infectious diseases to enter the body, too. This all leads to permanent HPA dysregulation simply by the magnitude of the chronic cortisol release by that same HPA system. When intense negative stress (distress comes from Latin word districtus, which meant “to hinder”) events happen, traumatization occurs, and the HPA axis is activated. The traumatic events that we can recall tend not necessarily to cause us any intense problem. The problem occurs when we bury the trauma in our subconscious. This causes dissociated traumatic memories (DTM). The DTM are stored in the subconscious mind and are not accessible to the conscious mind. They do cause physiological responses that seem to be associated with absolutely nothing environmentally, or anything outside the body, but most anything can trigger them. Your subconscious remembers every single detail around the trauma, so when we encounter something that is similar to a traumatizing detail the subconscious will cause us to react again, just like we did when the trauma actually occurred. We may have absolutely no idea what is actually happening because we aren’t consciously aware of the memory. The limbic system stores all these memories in different parts of the body, not just in the brain. Any of the 3 parts of the traumatizing event, cognitive, emotional or sensory, can act as stimuli. We end up with bewildering behaviors that we cannot seem to break, such as an over-reaction to something minor, a crying jag over spilled milk, or anxiety because we see a blue car. Until some sort of energy technique is applied that will help the person root out of his or her subconscious the basis of the emotional response, the behavior tends to continue, wreaking havoc on life of everyone around him or her, mostly themselves. This problem is often extremely disturbing. Research seems to suggest that at least 15% of those experiencing long-term chronic trauma can develop PTSD. If the stressful situation seems life threatening, the hypothalamus tosses the problem over to the amygdala where the fight or flight mechanism is activated to decide if the problem is really life threatening. The amygdala is also located in the back lower brain. It appears it is the amygdala (and parts of the brain around it) and hippocampus, which seems to be responsible for memory retrieval, helps write the emotions upon the mind-body, as it experience the emotions about the occurring event, as one of the functions of the amygdala is to prepare us for survival. The amygdala recognizes guilt, fear, anxiety, remorse, etc., along with body pain issues and these emotions are then encoded as body sensations when they are chronic, causing long term pathological issues. The 5 senses are directly connected to the amygdala, so they add their input into memories, too, helping to permanently encode them. Negative memories in the amygdala encryption have been shown to require both protein synthetic and neurochemical processes to happen. This is where neuropeptides and neurotransmitters come into play. This is also where the protein sheaths around disease genes can be turned on and off. It’s a pretty complicated physical process. Now, not every negative traumatic event is encoded permanently, only those in which we feel unable to escape, causing us to feel helpless and powerless, and without any available resources to assist us, or it is an event in which we feel some responsibility for the outcome. This is where the “freeze” part of the flight, flight & freeze mechanism enters. Many times one single event is sufficient to cause great emotional damage, especially if the person has suffered multiple early environmental events, which can include earlier abuse that then set the stage for just the perfect emotional storm. This is particularly possible for children, who are subjected to chronic stress, early in life. If the trauma is so awful, the person then completely disassociates the memory to protect themselves. The memory is so unbearable that survival to the subconscious comes into question; however, the emotions around the event are buried deeply within the body and each time a triggering event that the subconscious recognizes as part of that early pattern occurs, the physiological symptoms and feelings reoccur. The subconscious keeps replaying the event in the hope of changing the outcome. Our imagination does just as well at triggering out physiological response as the actual event does. The memory just doesn’t die. It is repeated in our subconscious mind as if it is happening at this very moment. This is cognitive pattern learning at its finest. As you can see our emotional response to events is a complicated process. PNI is one of the new fields of medicine that is responding to this information in an attempt to uncover all the aspects of how this unique body system works. PNI’s primary thrust is investigating the connection to cognitive stress. Since it is apparent that our emotions greatly impact our immune system, in particular, and all the other body systems, we must learn how to disarm all negative emotional events in our lives, if we choose to stay healthy & vibrant in our daily life. Hopefully, this is where EFT or some other energy coaching appears on the scene to assist the person in deactivating this neural response to the negative memory or memories, giving them back an abundant life that Jesus talks about in the Gospels, both physically and emotionally. 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.

Step of Faith & Emotional Freedom Techniques

Many of us pray for years, and maybe even decades for God to deliver us from one thing or another, be it a physical illness or an emotional problem. Often, we blame God because He doesn’t seem to be listening whatsoever. We find something new, and think, “Ah, this is the answer”, only to have us once again fall flat on our faces, back to the exact spot where we began. Eventually, despair or desperation sets in. We all know about St. Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” which he never fully explained as to what it exactly was, but it does sound pretty annoying to St. Paul, as he roamed the Roman world evangelizing it for Christ. God has His reason for allowing us issues in life. Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, ruining what was a perfect world, until sin entered it with their act. God didn’t choose that for Adam and Eve; they chose it for themselves and passed those effects on to us today. Some of the denominations call this “original sin”, as it originated in Adam and Eve, our first parents. Why today God has opened up a newly discovered (probably once known, but lost through the ages) healing modality that is quite effective. It is so radically different than our Western medical mindset that it scares people, many of them Christian. Into our physiology God placed a mechanism for healing, if we are willing to accept it and give the modality a try.

 The modality is called Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), accidently found about 20 -25 years ago by Gary Craig, a Stanford University engineering graduate. Over the years, Gary has slowly consolidated the EFT process into a few easy steps from the earlier laborious protocols, which were difficult to learn and tedious to perform. Today, tapping, as EFT is called in some circles, is simply to learn and simple to use. I’ve personally taught 4 year olds to tap for themselves. In the Book of Joshua, chapter 3, we have a story of the Israelites crossing the Jordan River on their way to the Promised Land of Israel. Interestingly, it is after 40 years of wandering the desert because of their unbelief in the God who saved them from the Egyptians. The Lord the God told Joshua that as soon as the priests’ feet touched the Jordan River water the River itself would part, allowing the contingent of Israelites to cross on dry land. Does any of this sound familiar to you? How many of you have wandered in the desert of your emotional and/or physical problems for what surely seems like 40 years, wondering when God was going to deliver you from it? Perhaps there is a message here in the story of Joshua and the Jordan River. Is it time for you to step out in faith, once again asking God for your healing, and either emailing an EFT practitioner to help, or downloading an EFT how-to manual from the EFTUniverse.com website (http://eftuniverse.com/) and trying EFT for yourself? “Show me the way in which I should walk and the thing I should do” Jeremiah 4:3. “Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You” Psalm 143:8.

 Stormie Omartian, a popular Christian writer today says, “Once you have taken that first step, God will show you other steps to take. He will teach you how to walk in the Light of His truth, revelation, and love. You’ll discover ways to avoid the things that separated you from Him and all He has for you. You’ll learn to walk away from fear, depression, condemned loneliness, loss, un-forgiveness, and disappointment”. All of those emotions Stormie listed above are feelings that EFT deals with well. Is today your day to reach out & take the first move & see what miracles God might have in store for you through EFT? It is a scary step for some. I understand, as I had second thoughts myself when I was first introduced to it. Pray about it please. “He will teach us His ways and we shall walk in His paths Micah 2b. ] “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Psalm 37:23.

 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.

EFT is SO Effective

Hi all,

I wanted to share a little story with all you readers, as I'm hoping to show you that persistence with tapping does indeed pay off.

I have been tapping regularly and aggressively for a couple of years now, trying to clear all of my childhood emotional and verbal abuse issues. They are heavy, deep, and, until recently, pretty distressing, running my life from the subconscious level. I had no idea how much these childhood issues were driving my adult issues. It was huge!

Within the past couple of days, small events happened. I will relate one of them for you. For many of you, I suspect, you will wonder why I'm bothering to bring this up. What I need you to understand is this: small things would trigger me big time. I'd have some huge emotional blow-up over pretty much nothing.

Yesterday, accidentally, I dumped a 1/2 cup of coffee all over the floor. 4 years ago, I would have gone ballistic, calling myself all kinds of names, angry at the incident, and yelling at everyone around me. Immature behavior? You bet! Over the edge for a spill?  You bet! Now, I understand where that behavior came from - that is how my Dad reacted when one of us kids spilled a glass of milk at dinner. I thought this was how everyone reacted to incidents. He went crazy about the mess!  I learned the lesson so well. He called us all kinds of names, like klutz, idiot, etc. I simply took up, calling myself the same names, where he left off.

Well, low & behold, after I cleaned up the big puddle of coffee, I realized my only reaction was, "poop"! No swearing. No yelling. No calling myself names. I just cleaned it up with an "oh, well, stuff happens" attitude, like "normal" people do! Success!  Those old, negative, neural pathways have been severed and new, less reactive ones, built up. Praise God!  The cognitive learning has been undone! Indeed, tapping has changed my physiology!

I like this new me better. I'm more in control. Spilled coffee is not worth raising my cortisol level for 2 days!  Elevated cortisol levels and blood pressure do not serve my physical needs.

God can through EFT change behaviors that I have tried all my life to change! EFT gave me the boost to accomplish what my conscious mind could not do alone!  I'm so grateful to God for this precious gift, literally of life.

P.S. The friend who witnessed this incident added this comment later, "Not only did you only say "poop" or "darn"...something totally tame.  The next thing you said was, 'Well, at least I got to drink the first half cup of coffee!'

A beautiful example!  Great job!" Sarah

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.  Contact a medical professional, if necessary.

EFT & Christian Worship

EFT and Christian worship is a wonderful subject. How do the 2 come together?  Let me illustrate a way I do it.

I'm a product of the Rock 'n Roll era so my music genre is Christian contemporary, or Christian Rock. The more drum background with its hard rocking beat the better, in my opinion. I take my favorite Christian tunes, and, yes, any musical genre would work here, and tap to them.  Pick your favorite tapping meridian & tap.

What better ideas to tap into your subconscious than God's Word!  I tap to Scripture, too. I read a Psalm outloud and tap. satan hates hearing God's Word. It's anathema to him. Jesus' name is poison to him.

So, this idea in mind, I have attached a few of my recent favorites. I have many. I will add another one now & then to give you other ideas, but start with these, or simply pick your own. I don't know that it has to be Christian music or hymns either, but that is simply my preference because the words are then implanted into my soul through the tapping itself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4452I4veIY0 - David Crowder Band with After All.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-lvu54wBOU - Citizen Way with Nothing Ever (Could Separate Us)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvLxZEU02uI - Hillsong Live 2012 with Cornerstone.

God bless your tapping!

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.