Posts Tagged ‘fears’

I hope you enjoy Nina Simone, and this song, as much as I do. Sugar, more often than not, is a euphemism in music. This is one of my favorites. Her artistry is incredible.

In the past Letting Go of Sugar Hypnosis Hour, attended by “newbies” and “old timers” I was reminded that it is a journey, and not a destination. It is certainly not about never having sugar again, but It is about changing your relationship.

Sugar happens to be a drug, which some of us have or have had a harder time with than others. I began by explaining my own love of sugar.

Sometimes people don’t hear that so I give details, “Back in the day, I would treat myself to a pound of Dilettante chocolate, way too many Snickers bars, and if you want to hear about my love of frosting and cake, pull up a chair.

I had gone to Simply Desserts in Fremont because a new client waxed poetic about their cakes, and I wanted something very tempting for class. As soon as I walked in the door, I was nearly knocked down by the smell of sweetness and then I was in the Dreamland: picture perfect red-headed girls, a beautiful mom, wide planked wooden floors, and cakes from fairy tales. Yes, a real drug den.

I left without a piece of cake. I had to go somewhere less intoxicating.

The first time Catherine came to my one of my Sugar Workshops she confessed that it was either a sugar day or not a sugar day. On a sugar day, she would eat pretty much only sugar.

I would like to say she immediately took the cure after that one class, years ago, but she did not. Catherine is a good example of determination. She came back several times. With the combination of EFT, hypnosis, counseling and her own very stubborn spirit, she changed her mind and has turned her behavior around.

My spirit soared when she said, “I just take care of myself. I eat what I want.” Next up was Patty. She said, “I can’t believe how far I have come. I used to say, “I am going to be bad and have this.” Now it makes me laugh and I cringe a bit when others say it. If I really don’t want something and I feel tempted, I just imagine pickle juice. It is kind of fun and I am almost fifty pounds down, yeah me!”

Did it take each of us some time? Yes. Was it worth it? You betcha!

A newer client talked about how she loves to go out and treat herself. Her affection wanders but is consistent in that all sweets are special, and especially when shared. As we used EFT on her desire for the beautiful and sexy piece of cake I did bring to class, her craving waned and she made the comment, “If you are going to mess with me, I don’t want it.”

We did a couple of EFT rounds of tapping and I slipped in some statements about entitlement. When I finally ask her if I could throw her piece of the cake in the garbage, she did not flinch, but I could feel that going through her mind was, “I can go buy my own piece of cake.”

We saw each other the next day and this is what she said: “When I left class I thought, I can go buy a piece of cake. But then I thought, I am kind of hungry, I want some protein. For some reason I drove by Red Lobster and I wanted to go in. I have never even been to a Red Lobster before. Then I wanted deep fried prawns. I haven’t had deep fried prawns since I was a little kid. It used to be my favorite. I stopped eating them after I ordered prawns a restaurant that was a little more expensive than usual for my family. When I bit into one it was runny, but I knew if I said I didn’t like it, I would get into trouble, so I said it didn’t taste right, because that was the safer thing to say. My step dad immediately said, “You ordered it you have to eat it.” My mom reached over and took a small taste and she said, “They don’t taste right.” My step dad thought she was just siding with me and insisted I eat them. Well, my mom bless her, ate half, and we both got really sick.

He never admitted there was anything wrong with those prawns. We were just sticking together. “ At home her step dad was allowed sweets, but she wasn’t.

That Hypnosis Happy Hour for Sugar was in July. I ran into her yesterday and she said, Yes, I still have my favorite bakeries, but my approach is different, I don’t feel so compelled and sometimes I can take a few bites and leave the rest. I also spoke to Catherine today; she said she made a pumpkin pie, ate one piece, felt satisfied, and someone else ate the rest.

To learn more about how you too can change your mind about sugar, check out Letting Sugar Go, a great way to ease your way into a different relationship with all things sweet.

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT): A New Moment in Science

© Copyright 2003 by Christopher Hegarty, Ph.D., USA

Imagine for a moment a healing modality that, in less than 10 years, has become a highly valued method of more than five thousand medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, nurses and other members of the healing professions in dozens of countries. Imagine further that no surgery, drugs or equipment are needed. There is such a healing modality, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

Practitioners worldwide have marveled at its simplicity, elegance and rapid means of healing. It has been clinically effective in thousands of cases for physical symptoms, trauma, stress, anxiety, fears, depression, addictive cravings, children’s issues and more.

Even in the hands of most newcomers, it often achieves either noticeable improvement or complete cessation of the client’s problem. For those practitioners who learn the advanced work, there are much higher success rates.

Many skilled practitioners get measurable results over 80% of the time. In addition, the process is often rapid, long lasting and gentle and sometimes works when nothing else will. For more than 10 years I have both witnessed, and used, acupuncture meridian methods as part of an integrated healing process that has proven valuable..

There are too many proven successes to ignore the results. (See What health care practitioners around the world say about EFT at the end of this article.) A very important book giving scientific validation in this field is Science and Human Transformation: Subtle Energies, Intentionality and Consciousness, by Stanford professor William A. Tiller, Ph.D. (ISBN: 09642637-4-2). The potential within these procedures is so far-reaching that we may have reached “a new moment in science.” While there are several useful techniques in this field, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is clearly the leader.

How Does it Work? EFT is sometimes called “acupuncture without needles” and generates its results by balancing the body’s energy meridians while the client “tunes in” to their problem in a gentle, conversational manner. In this way an important link is established between mind and body. It parallels acupuncture, except that needles are not used. Instead, certain meridian points are stimulated by tapping with the fingertips while the client focuses on the issue they wish to resolve.

A simple way to explain how the EFT strategies work is to use the analogy of a circuit breaker in your kitchen. Once the circuit is over-powered you cannot turn the lights on or get the refrigerator to cool until the circuit breaker has been reset. EFT resets the circuits in a person’s body and mind.

This acupressure-based healing modality was pioneered by renowned chiropractor, George Goodheart, furthered by medical doctor John Diamond and psychologist Roger Callahan and dramatically simplified and improved by Stanford engineer Gary Craig.

With the initial aid of Adrienne Fowlie, Craig developed EFT and made the work elegant, efficient and affordable for almost anyone.

Craig deserves the Legion of Honor award for making the work available at little or no cost to millions of people. Many people have achieved success using only the 79 page EFT Manual (which is free and can be downloaded from www.emofree.com).

More in depth training is available at modest cost through live seminars and EFT’s 57 professional videos. The favorite video of most practitioners is “6 Days at the VA”.

It displays full EFT sessions with Vietnam veterans and clearly shows how these hospitalized soldiers (with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) are freed from the horrors of war often in a matter of one or 2 sessions.

I recently watched Craig demonstrate the value of EFT to an audience of over 350 people. Like many other EFT audiences they were initially skeptical. How, they questioned, could tapping with their fingertips on various acupuncture points bring relief to both physical and emotional pain? Nonetheless, the audience members were soon tapping along with him as a means of bringing relief to their unwanted memories and physical discomforts.

I witnessed more than 70% report noticeable relief. Back pains subsided, headaches went away and sinus problems vanished. In addition, the unrelenting traumatic memories emanating from war, rejection, rape and abuse were replaced, for most, by a sense of calm. Many of the attendees claimed they were able to eliminate issues that years of conventional counseling had been unable to resolve.

To Craig, these results are logical and to be expected. In his words, “Einstein discovered decades ago that physical matter (including the human body) is made of energy. Thus, even though the human body may appear to be solid, its foundation is energetic at its core. This simple fact is one of the most universally agreed upon findings in the scientific world but, to date, it has not been well integrated into western healing procedures.”

For more details on EFT’s results, visit the EFT web site (www.emofree.com). There you will find hundreds of cases where physical issues such as migraine headaches, carpal tunnel, lactose intolerance, strep throat and multiple sclerosis symptoms have gained complete or partial relief through EFT.

Unique Features of EFT

There are several features that set EFT apart from other such healing procedures. For example, it employs one basic tapping routine that is effective for both physical and emotional issues. That’s why diverse audiences can achieve high percentage results even though each member may be addressing a different issue.

Further, healthy belief changes often occur as the energy meridians come into balance. The abuse victim, for example, may experience a belief shift from “My father hates me” to the healthier, “Dad doesn’t know how to love. He needs help.” Along with this more peaceful attitude, physical symptoms often subside.

Also, EFT’s results are often long term. Properly done, the process most often does not need to be repeated. I know a number of people, who received very successful EFT sessions more than 10 years ago, and have never had a relapse. This is particularly so with emotional issues involving traumatic memories, grief, fears and phobias. It is also true with many physical symptoms although highly skilled practitioners may be necessary in complicated cases.

Many injuries, including sports injuries, tend to heal faster when EFT is part of the healing protocol. A New Moment in Science? My view of science is that “SCIENCE IS THE BEST WE KNOW AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT.” However, “the best known” is not always “the best available.” Valuable breakthroughs often take a long time before being accepted. For example, the doctor who discovered and proved the need for sanitary conditions when clients were being treated saw his proven work ignored for decades. EFT, by contrast, has already received international acceptance. Thanks to close teamwork between highly skilled practitioners, seminars and word-of-mouth, the EFT email list has grown over a thousand fold since it first started 6 years ago and it continues to grow at an impressive pace. Also, the EFT training videos are modestly priced and can be copied and freely distributed to your colleagues and to other professionals. It is estimated that over 1,000,000 people worldwide have received the benefits of EFT.

A controlled study is now available in the September, 2003 Journal of Clinical Psychology. For historical perspective, let me also mention that I served as a special advisor for the Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine at the time (1972) that it sponsored the first acupuncture symposium held in America. Dr William Tiller was head of the Materials Science Department at Stanford University at that time and played a major role in bringing the symposium to Stanford. It was conducted on the Stanford University campus one day before the American Medical Association opened its annual national meeting in San Francisco. The room was filled with M.D.s from all over the US.

In an interview with Dr. Paul Dudley White, who had served as Dwight Eisenhower’s personal physician while he was President of the United States, he stated “Christopher, I traveled to mainland China as a tourist after retiring from medicine. I went to a demonstration of acupuncture at a leading Chinese hospital and witnessed a number of major operations being done without anesthesia that changed the rest of my life. I am now devoted to seeing acupuncture used in the U.S. It may take time to see the benefits utilized in the U.S., but it will happen.”

With that symposium as the starting point, acupuncture is now being widely used in America. EFT is a logical extension of that movement and, because of it’s value and simplicity (and skillful use of the internet) is known around the world. EFT has come full circle and is now being used in China, the birthplace of acupuncture. I have not known of a healing breakthrough to reach so far, so soon.

My observation is that EFT will likely be a global force in the field of integrated health and healing. What Health Care Practitioners Around the World Say about EFT

“In addition to several emotional issues, I have used EFT for impressive relief for many physical problems including Hiatal.. Hernia, Candidiasis and Rheumatoid Arthritis. The process is gentle and often provides benefits where other methods fail.” -Raul Vergini, MD Italy

“In my opinion, even though Gary is not a therapist by profession, his masterful use of EFT has made him one of the top 5 therapists I have ever met….and I’ve met the best.” -David Lake, MD, Australia

“EFT has been, for me, the single most effective technique I’ve used in my 45 years of practice as a psychiatrist. I’ve had success with panic, social anxiety and many other disorders.” -Curtis Steele, MD, Canada

“I have found EFT to be so useful that it has become the centerpiece of my practice. I have used it successfully on a long list of emotional issues, including paranoid schizophrenia. Interestingly, when the emotional issues subside, physical ailments often enjoy simultaneous relief. I have seen this with the symptoms of fibromyalgia and MS as well as for swallowing problems, back pains, hemmerhoids, acidity, breathing problems, stomach pain, vaginitis, headaches, joint pains and stomach problems.” -Sonia Novinsky, Ph.D., Brazil

“In my 50 years as a practicing psychiatrist, EFT has proven to be one ofthe most rapid and effective techniques I’ve ever used.” -Henry Altenberg, MD, USA

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Christopher J. Hegarty, Ph.D. is an alternative medicine researcher/journalist, best selling author and an advisor to a number of organizations in the health and healing field. His major focus is to make proven, valuable healing and health products and services well known internationally.