|
 Editor's
Note:
This edition of Reflections- Alex details some techniques
to use for anxiety; Dave talks about the law of attraction;
Rehana writes about a recent, very painful personal experience;
and Berit shares news about new stuff. Also, our guest contributing
columnist Tom writes about energy medicine in part two of his
article. Plus, some funnies to make you smile. Enjoy!
Techniques
for Anxiety - Part Two
by Dr. Alexander R. Lees
Last month
in Part One of my article about anxiety (click
to read it if you missed it) we explored some of the salient
reasons for anxiety. Now let's learn about some of the tried
and true methods of addressing it. There's no argument with
claiming that tapping specified acupuncture points, while focused
on the anxiety, is an excellent intervention technique. But,
it's interesting that over the years I have heard from people
that the tapping doesn't work for anxiety. There could be many
reasons for it not working, but in my experience I have found
two issues that seem to be the main culprit for lack of success.
The first
is focus. When you decide to reduce the symptoms of anxiety,
you must be in the feeling, and associated. Associated
is a term referring to being in your body. Dissociation
is part of our defense mechanism, and means to be out
of your body.
An excellent
example of this took place during a phone session with a client.
After the fourth round of tapping, she still reported little
or no change had occurred for her. I responded with, "If I were
to give you a day off from being you, and had someone else take
your place, you would need to teach her exactly what you do,
in detail, when you tap. We need to know exactly what you do
in your head - that means we need to know if you make any images,
and we need to know about any self talk that she would need
to know about so she can be you."
 After
some deliberation, the client explained, "Well, I see myself
in the situation and the look of panic on my face. Then I tap."
Her explanation
clearly indicated she was dissociated, and we spent some time
dealing with the dissociation first. One round that seemed to
really help was: "Starting with the P.R. point (also known as
karate chop point), continuously tap it as you say, 'Even though
I'm afraid to associate into this situation (the specific situation
that is causing her anxiety) I'm okay.'"
She repeated
this three times, then used the phrase, "This dissociation,
this dissociation," as she tapped the rest of the points.
We then
followed up with another round (reasonably associated into the
situation) and tapped for, "This panic in (specified situation)."
After a
short pause, the client said, "Well, I feel better now, as I
think about that situation, but what about the other issues?"
Once we
clarified the need to be associated in each, and made sure she
had adequate word phrases for the other situations, we made
an appointment for the following week.
"First,
I tap for 'Even though I can't focus,' then I tapped another
round for 'Even though I naturally dissociate when tapping for
panic,' and then I use a reminder phrase while tapping the rest
of the points."
"Then I
tap on 'this panic,' one or two rounds per situation. Am I doing
it right?"
I asked
her, "Compare how you were feeling, anxiety wise, last week
versus this week?" She responded, "Oh, so much better."
 "Then
go to the head of the class, and get yourself an A and a gold
star" I replied, "You're doing it right."
"When I
sometimes drift off and think about other things, should I stop
and tap for, "This drifting into other thoughts?" she then inquired.
"Yes. Now go get yourself another A."
Summary
The dissociation
was definitely a limiting factor in her progress, but the new
awareness that she wasn't staying focused on the issue, and
then dealing with that as well, allowed her to begin to get
the relief she desired.
You can
tap even when in a dissociated state, however, we'll leave exploring
how in another article. We will also take a look at some
other techniques that work well with panic and anxiety issues,
as well as samples from the files.
And, for
those that prefer hands on training, or at least realize and
appreciate its value, I'm pleased to say we will be creating
new workshops, specifically focusing on all the various techniques
referred to in our new book Pathways Through Your Mindfield.
The book launch date to be announced soon - please stay tuned!
|
Life
Explained
On
the first day, God created the dog and said: 'Sit all
day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes
in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span
of twenty years.' The dog said: 'That's a long time to
be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you
back the other ten?' So God agreed.
On
the second day, God created the monkey and said: 'Entertain
people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll
give you a twenty-year life span.' The monkey said: 'Monkey
tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to
perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'
And God agreed.
On
the third day, God created the cow and said: 'You must
go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer
under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the
farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span
of sixty years.' The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough
life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty
and I'll give back the other forty?' And God agreed again.
On
the fourth day, God created humans and said: 'Eat, sleep,
play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you
twenty years.' But the human said: 'Only twenty years?
Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow
gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the
dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?' 'Okay,' said
God, 'You asked for it.'
So
that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep,
play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we
slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten
years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren.
And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and
bark at everyone.
Life
has now been explained to you.
There
is no need to thank me for this valuable information.
I'm doing it as a public service.
|
 Contributing
Columnist Dave Marshall is retired and lives in Spain. Before
his retirement he taught NLP (he's an NLP Master Trainer)
and now has a website with lots of free information on NLP.
You can contact Dave at www.nlpman.eu
_______________________________________
The
Law of Attraction
by David Marshall
The
so-called "law of attraction" is something that is being heavily
oversold by many people at the moment. It seems to me that
all they want do is attract my money into their pocket. I
even received an e-mail from a young person offering to sell
me the secret of the law attraction. She did not know that
I had been using my version of the law of attraction since
1979! But, enough whining!
The so called secret is not a secret at all. It is
common knowledge among those who know about psychology. It
comes from an area of study called cognitive dissonance. You
may have experienced the particular facet I am referring to.
For example, you may have noticed that if you change your
make of car you start to notice there are many more of them
on the road. Or, if you learn a new word you see it in many
other places. This phenomenon happens because of the way our
mind filters the information that bombards us all the time.
Our senses only notice the things that come through the filters
and those things are the things that interest us and it works
at an unconscious level. All we have to do to use this feature
of the mind is to set the things that we wish to notice in
our unconscious and this is an amazingly easy thing to do.
There are many methods that will do this but, which ever you
choose to use, be careful what you wish for because it will
come true! You really must obey a few rules.
The
first rule is that what you wish for must be for yourself
and within your realistic level of control. This means that
wishing for world peace, although admirable, would not qualify.
Similarly, wishing that a friend or colleague would stop doing
something that annoys you won't work, but you might want to
change your own behavior so that you stop being annoyed by
them, and whatever it is that they do. Although things like
these may indirectly be of benefit to you they are certainly
not within your realistic level of control.
The second rule is to explore the consequences. There are
many procedures for setting goals and these are usually very
good ways of exploring the consequences. In my view the best
is the NLP version called "well formed outcomes". You should
also make sure that you can afford to maintain your wish when
you have acquired it. For example, wanting a super car is
one thing, affording the insurance, the maintenance, and the
fuel is something else. Same thing goes for a big country
house. How will you find time to do the garden, clean the
rooms, and do the repairs? Or, will you be able to afford
to pay other people to do those things that you can't manage?
One quick way of checking is to consider the following four
questions:
-
What will happen when I've got it?
-
What
will happen if I don't get it?
-
What
won't happen if I do get it?
-
What
won't happen if I don't get it?
You
may well find that, as a result of thinking about these questions,
you want to modify the goal.
 My
favorite way of setting the unconscious in motion is to make,
in mind map or pattern note, things that you would like to do,
or have, during the coming year. Put down anything that you
want to happen however impossible it may seem [bearing in mind
rule #1].
Use this as a basis for developing the ideas and then double
check each idea with a run through a well formed outcome process.
Using the things that you have produced so far, get a selection
of magazines that have lots of pictures in them and cut out
any images that are symbolic of the things that you put on your
mind map. Now get a large sheet of paper [flip chart size is
ideal] and arrange the pictures that you have selected in any
way that you like and stick them down.
Some people make them sequential. Others prefer a random placement
around a central theme or even a tree or plant with the images
hanging from the branches. Now just stick your collage on a
convenient wall in your house so that as you live your normal
life you will walk past and notice it in your peripheral vision.
Another excellent way of setting your unconscious to accomplish
things is the time line technique of putting a goal into your
future. To do this, just imagine that your future is represented
by a line that stretches out in front of you. When you have
this image in mind, imagine that you are floating above the
line and move above the line into the future, and as you move
along notice when you come to a point that seems appropriate
for the goal to be achieved and pretend that you are dropping
a picture that is symbolic of the goal down into the time line.
You also see some interesting change occur to the way the time
line looks. When you have done this, travel back to the position
on the time line that represents "now" and return to normal.
Over the next few weeks and months you will no doubt be surprised
that you will begin to notice things that support the goals
that you have defined using the above processes. This has happened
to me many times. On one occasion I was building a motorized
tricycle using a mixture of car and motorbike parts. One thing
that I was short of was a pair of front forks. One day I was
looking through the phone book for the address of a plumber
when I just happened to notice an advertisement for a motorbike
shop that I had never heard of before. I telephoned the shop
and asked them if they had any forks suitable for my project,
and to my amazement the answer was yes! The very next day I
became the proud owner of a fine pair of spiral twisted, chrome
plated, springer forks.
On another occasion I was making a collage when I was taking
part in a future development course. The topic under consideration
was our own future as the course formed part of our redundancy
terms. My collage was full of wonderful images of what life
would be like when I finished working. That was in 1991 and
as I remember back to making that collage I realize how much
of it has come true without my conscious effort. My wife and
I have both retired and live halfway up a Spanish mountain in
the wonderful countryside and have met and made many new and
interesting friends. Much of this was symbolized on that collage.
Of course this does not constitute a scientifically verifiable
experiment and it may all be a figment of my imagination. All
I can say is, to me, it seems to work.
So, just have a go and see what happens.
 Contributing
Columnist Rehana Webster (in New Zealand) is an EFT Master and
NLP Master Practitioner, and also conducts seminars/workshops
internationally.
You can
contact Rehana at webstar@ps.gen.nz
or visit her website at www.behaviourchanges.com
First
Hand Experience - Nothing Like It!
by Rehana Webster
In
order to really assess the effectiveness of a therapeutic technique
one must try it out on a personal level. In my opinion this
applies to self-help techniques in particular.
 It
was my sixtieth birthday last month and I had planned to roar
into my sixties with a big splash. However, things did not go
as planned. On my To Do list there was an item up on my roof
that needed fixing and of course, that required me to climb
up a ladder. I placed the ladder against our rickety, old fence
and totally ignored the loud voice in my head that shouted,
"DON'T DO IT!"
In the
time it takes to say, "Hello," I became aware that I was airborne.
I was falling toward the ground and it seemed to be taking forever.
The fence had given way, as did the ladder, and I landed with
a thud. My hand was at a very awkward angle. I saw stars, heard
birds twittering and my hand looked like a piece of soft spaghetti.
The pain
was so incredible that I was barely able to crawl back to the
house where I grabbed a bag of frozen peas from the freezer
and wrapped it around my wrist.
Then I
lay back on the couch and thought: Should I scream, cry or
maybe do something useful. I chose the latter and started
tapping.
 I
didn't have to make up any statements. I was right in the pain
and I just tapped on every point repeating the words, PAIN,
SWELLING, PAIN, BRUISING, PAIN.
I tapped
for about 20 minutes till my neighbour arrived and took me down
to the doctor's office. The doctor took a look and promptly
sent me to the hospital in the next town (which is an hour away)
to get an x-ray, have the wrist reset, and a cast put on.
On the
way to the hospital I tapped on STUPID AT 60! STUPID! STUPID!
I felt much better having acknowledged what a stupid thing I
had done by placing the ladder against the rickety, old fence.
I had been saying that I needed a break because I'd been working
so hard, but not a "break" of this sort!
The benefits
of tapping have been great - it's reduced the pain and I haven't
felt the need for pain killers. Yes, there are slight spasms,
some itchiness and a little pain; however, I continue to tap
on the pain whenever it occurs.
So, "Does
EFT work?" YES - if you use it.
 Our
guest Contributing Columnist is Tom Dorzab. Tom is a retired
biologist from Kansas and now lives with his wife in Spain.
Tom followed his passion and is now an energy medicine practitioner
specializing in Eden Energy Medicine. We hope you enjoy his
article as much as we did, and maybe he'll write some more for
us in future editions. Welcome Tom!
You can
contact Tom at tomdorzab@ya.com
Bear Tamer Classes - Part Two
by Tom Dorzab
In Part One of my article last month (click
to read it if you missed it) I ended with the statement,
"Our Triple Warmer Meridians are throwing us into the fight,
flight or freeze response whenever something unknown to them
is encountered." For just a little bit of the physiology, after
the Triple Warmer Meridian has been overcharged for a prolonged
period of time, the adrenals that produce the adrenalin that
starts the fight, flight or freeze response, become overworked
resulting in what has become a very common condition these days,
adrenal fatigue. Then, after the adrenals are overworked for
a period of time, thyroid problems, which are also on the increase,
begin to surface. The good news is, by balancing your Triple
Warmer Meridian; often many of your other meridians will come
into balance. Although this one act is far from being a cure
all, since all of our meridians are important, it is part of
a great first step in helping your energy systems adapt to this
new environment we have created.
OK, let's
get to the good part. There are some simple things you can do
to help yourself out of sticky situations and help calm that
pesky Triple Warmer of yours and other meridians as well. There
are a number of points on the body, mostly on the head, that
are called Neurovascular Points. Each of these points corresponds
to one or more of the meridians and can affect those meridians,
in a positive way, simply by holding them lightly. They are
best suited for emotional problems.
The next
time you find yourself emotionally upset, try this little gem.
Simply place your finger pads on your forehead. Lightly hold
the pads of the fingers on your forehead with the middle fingers
touching in the centre (simply laying the palm of one hand over
the forehead also does the job). Normally the drill would be
to hold the points for three to five minutes. Ideally though,
it is best to hold them until an equal and simultaneous pulse
is felt in the fingertips of each hand. Remember to breathe
deeply. Remember to bring to mind whatever it is that is upsetting
you. This simple, but powerful technique can stop a stress response
in its tracks!
I have
worked with very bright students who, because of severe exam
anxiety, were unable to get the grades they were capable of
because they simply locked up during a test, even though they
knew the material very well. This exercise was part of the package
I presented to them. During tests, they were instructed to simply
put their elbows on their desks, place the palm of one hand
on their foreheads and continue as normal. One bonus of doing
this simple exercise is that it can be done without drawing
attention to themselves and adding to their anxiety. The results
were very rewarding.
You can
calm your Triple Warmer Meridian more directly using a number
of techniques. Some are more complicated than others. Here are
two relatively simple techniques that you can use anywhere and
anytime. First, place the finger pads of one hand on one of
your temples between your eye and your ear. Put the fingertips
of your other hand together and place them in the notch formed
just above where your collar bone come together at the base
of your throat. Hold these points as above and then switch to
the other side. If you're in a hurry, just take five deep breaths
and switch to the other side. That's all there is to it.
 Another
useful Triple Warmer tamer begins again on the temples. Place
the finger pads of both hands on the temples on their respective
sides and take two deep breaths. On the next inhale, drag your
fingers up and over your ears. On the exhale, circle your fingers
around your ears, down the sides of your neck and after reaching
over your back as far down as you can reach, press your fingertips
into your back and hold the position. After at least two deep
breaths, begin dragging your fingertips straight up over the
top of your shoulders, maintaining pressure on the skin. Once
your fingers reach your collar bone just let them drop where
they may.
Feel free
to do these techniques often especially during stressful times.
Instead of a coffee break, why not try a stress relief break
and relax the inner bear in you.
For more
information on Energy Medicine I highly recommend you visit
www.innersource.net
and if you're looking for an energy medicine practitioner www.energymedicinedirectory.com
When you begin to incorporate the material into your life, the
results can be and often are life changing and, best of all,
it puts the power back into your hands for transforming yourself
into the person you were meant to be.
Berit's
Corner
Let's see - what's new? A whole bunch of stuff! First of all,
you've probably noticed that our newsletter has a new look,
and we hope you like it. We thought it was time for a change
and now that our book is at the printer I found myself with
some spare time on my hands.
I started
planning and plotting how we were going to promote the book
and quickly realized that our existing materials like business
cards, website, newsletter, etc., didn't fit with the look of
our book. The cover is so beautiful (in my opinion) that I thought
it was time to change everything and have a whole new image.
Although
we went through a couple of rough patches with the book and
few things took far longer than necessary to complete, the end
result was worth all the hard work. And, I've also learned that
most authors experience some kind of glitches when putting their
masterpiece together, so we weren't alone in the experiences
we had.
So, the
first thing I did was contact our designer/webmaster, Martin,
and request new business cards. Two days later we had to make
a decision between three designs, all of which were excellent.
Finally picked one, made a few small modifications and presto!
We had a new business card. While we're at it I thought, why
don't we change our existing website too. Then, we might as
well have a new newsletter.
All these
designs were created in just one week! I can't tell you what
a pleasure it was to be working with someone like Martin whom
we've known for years and trust. Everything just clicked and
we now have a whole new look! But, all we're going to show you
now is the newsletter. We don't want to reveal everything at
the same time 'cause that wouldn't be as much fun. Please keep
your eyes open for an announcement coming up in which we will
unveil the new book, the book website and our new company website.
It's a
really exciting time for us and we have no idea where all this
new stuff will take us. That's part of the excitement - the
not knowing.
Alex and
I have an interesting pattern that we have repeated many times
in our 32 years together. Usually we're sitting around with
a glass of wine, or we're walking the doggies and one of us
says, "I have an idea." And, we're off and running. That's how
our book came about. We were walking the doggies and Alex said
something about writing the book. He'd said it many times before.
This time however, I stopped walking and said, "Ok, do it!"
He agreed, and here we are, exactly one year later and anxiously
awaiting the shipment of thousands of copies of our book.
Now, I
suppose it would be a good idea to have some kind of plan re
the next step, but we haven't had a conversation about that...
yet. I'm sure we'll be sitting down soon for a chat, or we'll
talk about it on a walk and all sorts of ideas will pop and
away we go again.
I realize
this doesn't sound very organized but it seems to work well
for us. We do know that step #1 will be to sell a few copies
of the book, but steps 2, 3 and beyond are still unknown. I
wonder what the next year will bring? I have a very strong feeling
that we're in for a fun ride! We hope you stay tuned and join
us, and hopefully we'll all share in the good things coming
our way.
Till next
month,
Take care.
P.S.
Last month I told you that the name of our book is Pathways
Through Your Mindfield. When some people have heard the word
mindfield they are curious about its meaning. I thought I'd
tease you all a bit and show you what a mindfield looks like.
The illustration that appears in the book was created by Rehana
Webster, and she also created 28 other drawings for the book.
We're delighted with the results, and here's a sneak preview
of the mindfield.
The Mindfield -- Mind, body, brain; each endlessly influencing
the other.
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Totally
Useless Bits of Information We Should All Know
If
you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would
have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
(Hardly seems worth it.)
If
you passed wind consistently for 6 years and 9 months,
enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic
bomb.
(Now that's more like it!)
The
human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out
to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
Banging
your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour
(Don't try this at home, maybe at work)
The
male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is
attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping
the male's head off.
The
flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human
jumping the length of a football field.
The
catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.
(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
Butterflies
taste with their feet.
(Something I always wanted to know.)
The
strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
Right-handed
people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed
people.
(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)
Elephants
are the only animals that cannot jump.
A
cat's urine glows under a black light.
(I wonder who was paid to figure that out.)
An
ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)
Starfish
have no brains.
(I know some people like that too.)
Polar
bears are left-handed.
(If they
switch, they'll live a lot longer.) |
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