Category Archives: Tools

Birth & Rebirth – Why Are We Here, Now?

Ancient birthing statue

We humans are usually born head first and even though we are most often caught in a pair of loving hands before our heads strike the ground, we are routinely stricken with a deep case of amnesia as soon as we reach the planet — or shortly thereafter. There is usually enough of a memory of our Source to keep us going for a few years, despite the delights of barbaric hospital births, primitive toys and condescending baby talk.

The adults who came before us forgot who they are too, so they cannot know who we are. Quickly we forget that we were made in the image and likeness of God and have traded infinite love for finite loneliness. It is rare for anyone on planet Earth to remember for very long. The ones who remember

We dive into a swirl of people, places and things, are thrown around like a Spanish dancer — this way and that — until we get to that place where we want to stop the world and get off. We have tired of feeling less than love and aliveness. We become determined to remember who we are, to sort out which voice inside our head is our friend or foe. We promise ourselves to turn our lives around to ground zero and reclaim our original identity, our dignity, and compassionate nature. After all, “God is love”, and it is our job to “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

It is my humble opinion that “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” might have been more accurately stated, “Ye are perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect”, for the same image and likeness that we were created in was, is and will always be, perfect. Pure light. Pure love. Spirit. That is what we are. It’s a true adventure to reclaim our heritage. The secret to our healing from our mistaken human identity is to rediscover, remember our original Identity.

Remembering is the first step, but intellectual understanding and one or two flashes of clarity are not enough to sustain us for long. Frequent reminding is essential because we tend to forget to remember. A lifetime of identifying with who and what we aren’t is not usually overcome in one instant, but practicing, bringing the instants closer together; our thoughts, behaviors and communications change for the better.

That is why I recommend knocking off big chunks of false identification with a few great counseling sessions or deeply transformative workshops, attending ongoing groups affiliated with your favorite church or being part of a Twelve-Step Program (AA, CoDA, ACoA).

Between times of becoming aware of, working with and releasing the big chunks of old fear and forgetfulness, we recommend staying in touch daily with our true nature by practicing feeling the feelings we love to feel. That’s what real healing is all about… releasing old fears (false evidence appearing real) and becoming accustomed to feeling peaceful, happy and content.

Here you will hopefully find helpful information, practical tools and inspiration regarding the nuts and bolts of real healing that will help you stay in touch with the love in your heart. There is something called Knowledge… Knowledge of the Soul or Knowledge of God, which helps us remember Who and What We Truly Are. Some find it to be the best gift of all, ever.

EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique

Until you make the unconscious conscious,
it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
– Carl Jung

All healing is essentially the release from fear.
– A Course In Miracles

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also called “Tapping”, does exactly what it says: it is a simple, easy way to release fear. It is a deceptively simple, yet effective tool for healing the mind, emotions and even the body.

To keep it simple, let’s call everything that is not at ease and peaceful, “fear”. Pain and dis-ease indicate a lack of ease, a lack of peace, and we can often track disease to its origin in fear.

We react to fear by contracting muscles in our body; we fight, flee or freeze. Synonyms for “fear” might include shock, terror, horror, dread, panic, anxiety, anger, rage, fury, sorrow, grief, angst, overwhelm, boredom, loss, frustration, irritability, loneliness, broken heart, longing, desire, jealousy, regret, envy, revenge, or any other feeling that is not peaceful and loving. Fear enters the mind, the body reacts by contracting. After that, if the fear is not released, it remains lodged in the muscles and even the cells of the body.

“Fear” is not our original condition – love is. Look into the eyes of any baby who was gently born and not circumcised and you will see eyes overflowing with unconditional love, aliveness, enthusiasm, and joy. Babies who have not been terrorized by intrusive medical procedures, drugs and scalpels, are relaxed. They can fall to sleep in a moment, no matter where they are or what is going on.

Yet a baby who was poked by sonogram, whose birth was medically induced, who was cut out or pulled out of his mothers, whose umbilical cord lifeline to mother was cut before he had downloaded his full allotment of oxygen and blood, who had monitoring devices attached to his head and body, a baby who was separated from his mother at birth and fed cow’s milk, not breastfed, a baby who was exposed to any number of unnecessary procedures such as blinding lights, heel pricks, injections of toxic chemicals into his pristine bloodstream, a baby who had surgery such as circumcision or open heart surgery… This baby, on the other hand, had a head start in the accumulation of fear. He learned to contract and withdraw, to distrust and expect betrayal.

After birth, fear messages are sent directly and indirectly, intentionally and unintentionally, from family members, friends, school, religion, television, movies, society; we make decisions based on things that happen to us and to others, etc and we carry all this fear forever – on our shoulders, in our stomachs or chests – until and unless we let it all go. We carry unconscious fear in the subconscious and the subconscious is the body. Muscles we tensed up long ago when terrible things happened, still hold the tension. They are the spots where we feel pain, tension, weakness. The good news is, we can let it all go and EFT is a very helpful tool in releasing fear. Letting go of fear is letting go of tension in the body and most disorders, disease, are caused by stored fear, tension.

Emotional Freedom Technique is the most effective way I’ve found to quickly and easily loosen and release uncomfortable bodily sensations from the mind and body – both ancient and current.

EFT is also called “tapping”, and you will be tapping on acupressure points to relax the inner organs that have been holding the “fear” you want to be free of.

Steps for using EFT to release fear:

1) Identify a feeling or attitude that causes you discomfort, a “fear” you want to release. Put it into words. If you cannot find a descriptor for it, just identify it by its location in the body. Examples might be: sense of anxiety, pain in my stomach, tension in my shoulders, anger at my mother.

2) Give it an intensity score. Zero means it does not bother you at all, ten means it is very much present, in your current awareness, and is occupying your mind and giving you pain and discomfort at this very moment. The goal is to use EFT until the intensity is gone and the score moves to zero.

3) Make it into a statement:

Even though I have this
[pain in my stomach],
I deeply and completely love and respect myself.

This statement serves a few purposes:

  • Naming the emotion or locating a feeling in the body is an important step in letting it go, for you are no longer unaware of it – you are now conscious of it. You have given the “demon” a name.
  • You can only release something that you already “have”. If you are unaware of a feeling, then you do not “have” it; it “has” you. But once you have it, you can release it.
  • “Even though” minimizes the importance of the “fear” you have named. It says that this “thing” that has been burdening you for a very long time is now inconsequential and you are ready to let it go.
  • To say that you love and respect yourself, even though you have carried this feeling, is a way of saying that you forgive yourself and love yourself enough to live without the burden.

4) The simplest way to perform this “exorcism” on yourself is to repeat the statement in #3, above, and tap 8-10 times on each acupressure point (see diagrams below). Some start by tapping on the side of one hand (karote chop point, in diagram below), using the palm of the other hand, and repeating the statement a few times, adjusting it for accuracy, if necessary. Then, starting at the top of your head, tap each point several times while repeating the statement. Some people shorten the statement after a few repetitions to the ‘complaint’, such as:

Even though I have this [sense of guilt], I deeply and completely love and respect myself…
Even though I have this sorrow, I deeply and completely love and respect myself…
Even though I have this sorrow, I deeply and completely love and respect myself…
this sorrow… this sorrow… this sorrow…”  – concluding with,
Even though I have this sorrow, I deeply and completely love and respect myself.

Now it is time to re-evaluate the intensity score you gave to the emotion in the beginning. On a scale from 1 to 10, how intense is the sensation now?
Some issues will resolve in one short round. Others may require several rounds, alternating tapping on both sides of the body. And some very old – or very fresh – issues may need to be addressed several times for several days. The good news is, it will all go away and stay away, once you have tapped it away. A little bit of attention now prevents years of discomfort in the future.

Here are two helpful sheets that you can access at any time from your phone or computer to remind you of how to use EFT:

EFT mini instructions

and

instructions


Re-evaluation Co-counseling (RC)

Re-evaluation co-counseling is a peer counseling system. RC has been very helpful for a lot of people. I consider it to be a “big chunk” tool. It lets you know that tears, thrashing about and shaking are not “bad” but are natural ways the body discharges emotion. I have seen it work miracles. Continue reading Re-evaluation Co-counseling (RC)

Lester Levenson, The Release Technique & The Sedona Method

Lester Levenson, was a physicist and engineer who lived from 1909 to 1984. He inspired The Sedona Method, and the Release Technique. At age 43, he was told he only had weeks to live. He lived 40 more years because of what he learned about healing himself.

Lester, like us, liked simplicity. He said “KISS” means Keep It Simple, Sweetheart. And he did it. There is nothing complicated about what he taught — and yet it is extremely powerful and helpful. Two people took the ball for a touchdown after Lester died: Larry Crane and Hale Dwoskin.

Larry Crane of the The Release Technique, writes,

In 1952, after being sent home by his doctors to die, Lester realized two truths that literally saved his life. The first was that his own feelings were the cause of all his problems, and not the world or the people in it, as he had previously thought. He also realized his own feelings were what he had struggled so hard and long against. And this struggle was what had destroyed his health and caused him to suffer in every way.

The second truth he discovered was that he had the inborn ability to let go of his feelings. He discovered how to completely discharge them and their negative influences from his life. Instead of struggling with them by suppressing, coping and venting as he had previously done, he discovered how to totally release them. This put an end to his struggle! He found permanent happiness. And, he found the more he released his feelings, the happier and healthier he became. In fact, within three months he was completely well, and he stayed well for over 40 more years!

The Release Technique is the most wonderful little 24-minute audio with Larry Crane and Lester Levenson. Listen very closely. Listen again. You can apply this simple understanding to all the fear in your life and release it easily, painlessly. As Lester says in this talk,

This thing called love is your basic nature. All the love in the universe is in your basic nature. You will discover that happiness — your happiness — equates to your capacity to love, and conversely all your miseries equate to your need to be loved. Just love, love, love and you will be so happy and healthy and prosperous.

Remember, you merely need to let go of your non-love feelings.

The Sedona Method is a series of CDs and books that Hale Dwoskin developed, based on Lester Levenson’s work. First, you find an issue or uncomfortable feeling that calls for attention. Then you ask yourself these three simple questions:

Could I let it go?
Would I let it go?
When?

Give each question sincere thought and an honest answer. There are no right or wrong answers.

The firstand second questions can be answered either “yes” or “no”. The third question can be answered with “now” or whatever time is true for you. If you are not ready to let it go “now”, repeat the questions until you reach a point where you no longer wish to hold on to it. You may find yourself laughing out loud on the third or fourth repetition of the questions. Of course, if you get really stuck with a difficult issue, you can always work on it later.

Another statement by Lester Levenson:

One of the things that happened in my process to love all was I discovered my identification with others. I saw that we are all related, we are all interconnected. Each mind is like a radio broadcasting and receiving station; that we are all tuned into each other unconsciously — that we are just not aware of it. I also saw that life was meant to be beautiful… meant to be happy all the time with no sorrow. And to be with perfect health. And so after reaching that high point of understanding in 1952, I have wanted to help others to discover what I had discovered.