Stress an Inside job?

• Worry
• Anxiety
• Anger, irritation, frustration
• Resentment, regret and rejection

Fight or flight response; A normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. When you sense danger—whether it’s real or imagined— the body's defences kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic stress response.

Notice how the above description says real or imagined. If the danger is real e.g. A tiger ready to pounce or imagined. A traumatic memory from the past long gone, the body will have the same psychological/ physiological response.

Early childhood negative or traumatic experiences can condition the fear centre of the brain to respond in the future whenever something triggers the earlier experience. Even the expectation of a similar experience will do it. Early childhood conditioning can set up a life time of automatic low grade stress responses that leave a person feeling anxiety, stress, unhappy, overweight and with a lowered immune system.

The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example or help you to avoid an accident.

But beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to your health, your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life.

It is common knowledge that reducing emotional stress can improve our sense of physical well-being. Further, it has been suggested that increased levels of stress can contribute to more serious diseases and chronic pain. The medical community has been aware of this for decades and in EFT practice we see it every day. From the tension in someone’s stomach at the thought of a confrontation to the fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or even bowel issues that result from a difficult childhood, we see evidence of that connection in almost every case.

If your issue is physical in nature, consider that unresolved emotional issues may be playing a part.

If we live in a stressful environment our body releases stress chemicals in response to how we interpret our world. If left unaddressed this can lead to disease on one or more levels. By balancing our environment we can stay balanced and healthy, rather than waiting to get sick and taking an allopathic approach. By minimising emotional stress, eating a nutrient dense diet and regular exercise we can live long and happy lives.

Instead of turning to alcohol, food and your choice of drug to soothe uncomfortable feelings, we can use EFT and ThetaHealing to easily release distorted perceptions and feelings to calm the mind. This in turn relaxes the body bringing us back into balance and harmony. Avoiding imbalances promotes wellness and therefore disease.

When we clear and release what is causing us stress we can find ourselves moving forward with freedom and energy. This is because we calm the area of the brain which is responsible for the 'fight or flight' mechanism. Old triggers disappear, and we become more curious and open. We allow abundance of all kinds... financial, romantic, creative, and more.

Traumatic Memories - PTSD

Energy Psychology v Traditional psychotherapy

A long time ago veterans returned from the Vietnam war with PTSD (traumatic memories). We now know that PTSD relates not only to war but other trauma e.g. Abuse and childhood memories. Traditional ways of dealing with trauma in psychotherapy are revisiting the memory to process the emotions from the trauma in order to move beyond it. Unfortunately this doesn't work and people become traumatised again when they revisit the memory.

The reason for this is because the part of the brain called the amygdala shuts down during severe trauma. Science reports that the stress response starts in the small almond shaped amygdala. The amygdala is the bridge from the emotions to the cognitive centres. When it is blocked the emotions alone drive the behaviour. No amount of left brain effort can stop this reaction as the emotions and thoughts have become disconnected. This was necessary during the traumatic event for survival. The shut down amygdala continues to block the brain from processing the event and healing long after the event has passed.

Harvard research as shown that tapping on the meridian points on the body decreases activity in the amygdala, sending calming messages to the body, therefore reducing adrenaline and cortisol levels associated with fight, flight or freeze. This leading edge research is breakthrough information for anxiety, depression and other emotional symptoms.

If healing does not take place after a traumatic or shocking event (and emotions become blocked because they weren’t allowed their full expression at the time) then someone will remain under unconscious stress for years. The memory, emotions and beliefs move into the unconscious, into the biology, the mind the body and the energy field. The energy systems of the body are compromised. Unresolved traumas re-create fears and blocks and misunderstandings even decades after the event.

The event is stored like a mini movie and is constantly re-run when it is triggered by something in the external environment. Often these triggers are outside of awareness.

With energy healing techniques we do not need to revisit the event or memory. Instead we rebalance the disruption in the bodies energy system which is causing the negative emotions and then when we have taken the charge off the memory it can be remembered with neutrality.

As well as one on one sessions starting a daily practise of meditation and breath work can profoundly help the healing process, calming the mind and bringing safety to the body. The cells in your body will begin to receive messages of equilibrium returning and the biochemistry of high alert will shift back to normal.