Upgrade your Stress Handling System with this Simple Tool
The Sufi mystic and poet, Rumi, said, "If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?" But honestly, it can feel some days like being rubbed raw.
In a nutshell, about two years ago I was hyper focused on plowing through a year of treatment and healing from surgery after a breast cancer diagnosis. Now I find I am no longer occupied with being a 'Survivor', but just caught up in every day surviving, the kind that involves parenting, filing taxes, aging parents and car repairs. Cumulatively, these everyday stresses set fight or flight into motion, my body flooded with stress hormones and neurotransmitters.
Physiological responses have been hard wired into our evolution. While we no longer have to defend from predators in the wild, we have been conditioned over thousands of years to have intense spikes in cortisol levels, just as if that tiger were right around the corner. Now the 'tiger's stripes' are made up of triggering news stories, or an unexpected illness, or conflict with family members or the loss of a job. Without offsetting the stress in your life, these systems that have been fine tuned to aid our survival run amok, leading to imbalance and physical illness.
What if I told you there was a powerful tool at your disposal? A way of literally clearing stress, trauma and negative emotional patters. It is easy to learn, and you can do this for yourself on any topic that is triggering for you. The technique is known as EFT Tapping, which stands for Emotional Freedom Technique.
There have been many peer reviewed scientific studies that have found EFT to be effective in helping people with PTSD, as well as anxiety, depression, weight loss, addictions, and physical pain. The technique involves tapping over acupuncture meridian end points while repeating specific statements related to your topic, pain, trauma, etc. Doing this literally rewires your brain. It's not brainwashing, but pure neuroscience. By clearing old trauma and building new neural connections, you are able to discharge the effects of stress in your life. With just a few rounds of tapping, you will find yourself feeling more energized, more positive and able to shift lifelong patters of negative thinking.
I love to share tools that really work with my friends and clients, and I'm on the lookout for people who would like to try EFT and help me practice. If you're interested, sign up for a complementary 1/2 hour EFT session here. I'd love to connect with you!
When life is rubbing you the wrong way, take a breath... and give EFT a try.
When we are 'polished' we are mirror's for each other's light!
Melissa Eppard lives in the beautiful Hudson Valley, NY area with her young son and talented musician husband. After overcoming breast cancer in her mid-30's, she knows that nothing is guaranteed in life. As a Personal Life Coach she has made it her mission to ignite the spark of purposeful living and creative fire in everyone she meets. www.MelissaEppardCoaching.com