Mindshop Metaphysical Books and Gifts, Monterey CA

I’m proud to be doing a presentation at the Mindshop Metaphysical Books and Gifts in Pacific Grove, CA (a few minutes from Monterey) on May 18th at 7 p.m. You’ll discover Why Emotions Can Cause Physical Symptoms … and how you can start addressing them.

Being aware is the first step in not allowing your negative emotions to rule your health. So, come take that step of finding out more and join others who will be doing the same.

You’ll learn:
• Why you may not be able to get well and stay well without addressing negative emotions
• How you can release negative emotions from your body
• Self application techniques you can use quickly for overwhelm, fear and other negative emotions

In addition to learning a few simple techniques you can start using at home, I’ll also open the floor up to questions. I’ll answer them all and also share more about the energy therapy techniques for emotional healing I use with my clients in private practice.

More details

This presentation will be similar to one I did at a private support group several months ago in Mountain View, CA. It was so well received that many in the Monterey Bay area requested I come share with them too.

Download this presentation flyer to learn more about Why Emotions Can Cause Physical Symptoms.

I’m so excited for this opportunity and hope to see you there!

I believe the deep, full healing we all want to experience is a gentle, winding path of retracing what got us to this dis-eased (either physical or emotional) space in the first place. It is exactly how I healed myself from chronic health issues, and how I help clients heal using energy therapy techniques.

Although I only work with the energetic emotional component of healing, because our mind and body is so so inter-connected, one cannot be looked at separately from another. You have to consider, if you’ve manifested symptoms in the physical body, the original imbalance has been there far longer than the symptoms that finally caught your attention.

How Energy Therapy Helps you Heal Fully

• Releases all that emotional “stuff” from the energy body in terms of trauma, , negative emotional patterns, unprocessed emotions and limiting beliefs. This will work to restore the body’s own self-healing mechanism which will be your greatest tool (remember, stress on the immune system is a huge part of how illness occurs).

  By doing this, you will also be putting yourself in a better position to receive the benefit of the medical and alternative treatments. I have had countless stories of people telling me that once they started working at an emotional/energetic level, their practitioners were amazed at how their treatment protocols actually seemed to become effective (this includes supplements being absorbed better, chiropractic and cranial sacral work being easier to do and actually holding, and more).

• Helps you to discover, uncover and release all the reasons the disease is serving you. When there is no purpose emotionally (like keeping you safe, supported, getting out out of things you might be scared to confront, or helping you justify things in your life you otherwise could not), the body doesn’t need the illness anymore at a physical level. This is a very strong personal belief I have based on my own past health experience and much experience with clients).

Why Making Physical Healing a Goal Can Be a Mistake

I actually see more of the ‘I’ve-tried-everything-in-a-gung-ho-way’ people be stuck at a standstill, in comparison to those who come to me with a different energy about their process. Those who approach their healing with curiosity and the intent to heal fully, down to the core of who they are and all that brought them to this place in their life seem to actually make more progress. Illness, in my opinion, is never just physical. A physical illness is a huge upset in the system…one that has likely been brewing for quite some time. It didn’t get there overnight and it won’t go overnight either. Insisting it will and employing 10 treatments at the same time in an order to force it, doesn’t change that.

Most people who can only see the goal as “getting physically well” completely miss the true purpose and lessons of dis-ease. To me, this is a major mistake as healing down to the core  is a way to ensure long lasting wellness. I see emotional or physical challenges or symptoms as a sign from the body that you need to explore your life. What is it trying to tell you? What do you need to correct, re-think, or heal before you can move forward in your life with ease?

It is my belief that disease cannot happen unless your immune system allows it. Your immune system only allows it when not fully functioning. According to many studies, stress (and not just the kind where you worry about having too many chores!) is the biggest factor in a weakened immune system. Stress can be anything from stored trauma, fears, limiting beliefs or simply not living your life in a way that’s true to you (aka, separating from yourself spiritually or emotionally). There are many common emotional patterns leading to stress but with some guidance, each person can find what is true for them.

If we try to force the process, we are not taking the journey of full healing, which invariably includes discovering why and how we manifested a dis-ease or condition. THIS is how you make sure you never get back to that place. How many times have you heard of someone who gets medical treatment for one thing or type of illness, only to manifest something else when that’s gone? I have been one of these people and I believe it’s because the underlining issues that triggered the disease on an emotional and energetic level, were never cleared.

How Trying To Heal Too Fast Can Slow You Down

I believe in part, we manifest physical or emotional dis-eases for a purpose; to fulfill needs in our lives or to keep us safe. When that very thing that has served us is threatened by a process, a treatment or another person who is trying to take it away too fast, our protection can grow stronger and our system can almost literally revolt. Once we find the reasons an issue or illness is serving a client, it is always such an aha moment and they are so eager to clear them all quickly, in a businesslike manner – and boy do I get that! They often comment about how gentle I am in my wording to them during sessions – using phrases like “it might be safe to be in this world without being sick.”

The reason I am doing this is because of experience. The need for an illness at an emotional level is such a strong anchor, that if you try or even suggest taking away the safety net quickly, it seems this can scare someone at an unconscious level. Trying to heal too fast can actually be a healing block in its own right.

As much as I wish everyone could heal at a rapid pace, I truly believe it’s not necessarily the best path.

So, What Is The Most Effective Way to Heal?

I feel that approaching the healing journey as an integrative, flowing, weaving, uncovering of your life is the most fulfilling and effective way to approach it. Focusing solely on being physically healthy can be a huge mistake; you will miss so much of what is on the path that will actually help you get to 100% health.

Being faced with the possibility of a quick recovery from anything you’ve had for awhile, can actually bring up feelings of fear, anger, and much more. This is because if you took a person’s illness or other problem away without healing why it might be there, it is not serving to the body. It actually wouldn’t feel good to the person at their core.

By becoming curious on your own adventure of healing, you can put yourself in the right direction. Become ok with healing at a pace that feels good to your body, be excited and thankful that you have this opportunity to look at your life and reinvent it. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is something you can use on your own to start accepting where you are on the journey, and come to peace with a new pace.

Chasing the bacteria or virus or dysfunctional cells to blame for your symptoms, is what I believe, a road to nowhere. When you are able to look beyond all that, you can find the gold that gives you the security of wellness that will last a lifetime.

Ah, now isn’t that worth waiting for?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.”

This is one of the most powerful quotes I know. And, it is something that eventually gets discussed when I work with my clients. Many of us are not scared of failure, but scared of what we would become, how our lives would change, and who we would lose….if we didn’t stop ourselves from finding out who we really are and just how big we could be.

Illness is one of the most “convenient” roadblocks for allowing us to have to permission to “live small,” not surpass our friends or spouses, or not feel visible in a world that may feel unsafe. Many people become defensive at the idea that their illness is serving them in some way. But the ones who can eventually consider this, open up a whole new world of healing for themselves. I know I absolutely did when I was struggling with health problems. In fact, if I had to pick the key to me unraveling WHY I couldn’t heal, it was probably this concept that brought me the biggest energetic shift  – which eventually manifested in a shift of my physical body.

Why is it safer to “live small?“

It is amazing to explore this issue, that an illness or problem can keep us from having to be our biggest, brightest best self – because often that is terrifying. We become accustomed to “dimming our light” to fit in to a social scene, to camouflage ourselves in relationships we don’t fit in, and to not rock the boat of our own lives when following our heart is the harder road.

Sadness, anger and more from picturing yourself healthy?

Energy therapy is a great way to release these types of fears from your body. Often, just the mental image of a life that is big and powerful brings up unexpected negative emotions. The underlining causes of these emotions, which affect our body’s energy system and therefore us, can be things like:

• Sadness, realizing we could not stay in current relationships comfortably if we were our brightest, truest selves
• Anger at ourselves when we realize we have held ourselves back from what we know we can accomplish
• Fear because calling ourselves to our greatness is unknown territory
• Guilt because we don’t feel like it’s ok to have better lives than our parents did or do

Start to release this on your own

One quick energy exercise you can do to start to neutralize some of this is to hold the mental picture of a BIG life (in whatever way that means to you – dream job, new geographical area to live, or even just focusing on the feeling of being happy). While you hold that picture, really sink into the negative emotions that come up. Give it a minute as at first you may only see the happy picture but soon the “consequences” of that picture may come up.

1. Place fingertips very lightly on the points above the eyebrows (called the neurovascular points). These are often where we instinctively put our hands when stressed.

2. Hold your hands this way until you feel a pulse in your fingertips. It may take several minutes the first time you use this technique but will be faster as you practice it more. Don’t give up – just keep using it.

Why it works: Up to 80% of blood leaves the frontal lobes of our brain when we are stressed or focused on negative emotions (no wonder we can’t think our way out of them!). However, you can reprogram your stress response by doing this technique. It literally uses the electromagnetic energy in your fingers to hold the blood in your brain, or draw it back up again once you’re already into the stress process. This can reprogram your brain to stay calm even while you think of something that can bring up stressful emotions.

If you’re body isn’t stressed, it can start to heal. And if you aren’t stressed thinking about something seemingly positive (like living life to the fullest!), there is less of a reason for that block (illness, negative thinking, etc.) to exist.

Emotional Freedom Technique is an amazing tool I use to help clients clear this problem at a deeper level. We start by coming up with all the reasons why it might be too scary to live big. And then, we start tapping them away! Until you’re ready or can work with a practitioner to dig deep, the exercise above can make a good start to calming the negative emotions when they come up.

So, what would you do if your illness wasn’t stopping you? If you have no negative reaction to being healthy, you are the anomaly. If you do, you have some work to do! But it’s honestly the most curious, fun and rewarding process so go ahead and think about living BIG, even the scary parts. I dare you.

Chiyacat / iStockphoto

Working with so many different types of clients, I am always finding common threads in the emotional patterns I see.

Because I had chronic Lyme disease and about 50% of my clients have it, I thought it might be useful to outline some of the common emotional denominators I see with this dis-ease. I also see these with other chronic physical manifestations that involve the immune system. However, they are always part of what I work with when seeing a client with chronic Lyme disease who hasn’t been making any progress in their treatment.

How These Affect Us

Unresolved emotional issues and negative emotional patterns can put a huge stress on the immune system, which can allow a disease to take over. Our immune systems are our bodies greatest protection.

Stress hormones has been found to inhibit the production of cytokines, the agents of the immune system that responds to danger. This causes these cells to overreact and create an inflammatory response that is over the top, often creating a greater problem than the original danger. Our systems cannot distinguish the difference between a negative emotional pattern, trauma or wound; or a real threat to our physical health. If the emotional issue or trauma does not get released, our bodies can remain in a perpetual state of stress.

Clearing these emotional issues can be highly beneficial in releasing the immune system from suppression.

In my opinion, a disease always serves a purpose – to keep us safe, to allow us justification to not be perfect, to force us to care for ourselves when we’d otherwise feel too guilty, to make us re-assess how we live, our relationships, and the list goes on.

The only way our body has to communicate with us is with symptoms, and it does a very good job using them to get our attention :) Once you take away the body’s reason to try to get your attention, it is amazing how the symptoms can start to fall away because they have no purpose anymore.

What is your body trying to tell you?

Common Emotional Patterns Leading to Stress

Self-criticism (fear of not being perfect)
This is a huge one. My Lyme disease clients are some of the ones that beat themselves up the most – about everything. I can attest to having been one of the best examples of these people (and still have to work on it to this day). This process is so unconscious that many people don’t realize it until we start to break down what’s really going on. Some ways this shows up are fear and guilt. If these are themes in your life, chances are you’re probably a highly self-critical person.

I often recall something a friend used to tell me when I was struggling with chronic health issues: The mind leads and the body follows.

If we are constantly telling ourselves we aren’t good enough, criticizing every little thing – why do we think the body has any reason to feel deserving of health, and ever come into line with that?

What messages are you giving to yourself? Ones that you deserve to be healthy, or ones that allow your mind and body to justify that you’re in exactly the right place with deserving the punishment of an illness. Our bodies listen to us – make sure you’re not sending the wrong messages.

Inability to trust yourself and/or the flow of life (has to be in control)
Another one I always see is inability to trust – which leads to a feeling of being unsafe in the world. This is the person who tries to control EVERYTHING. This one is not only completely exhausting, but never works either (or else you probably wouldn’t be reading this). We always tend to think that our analytic selves know better than anything or anyone how to run our lives. But, it’s not always true. We over-plan, over research, kill ourselves getting every perspective from every doctor everywhere. But the sheer amount of energy this consumes, takes an unbelievable toll on the body (and mind)!

How would things be different if you followed the flow of where life was trying to take you? For those of you who believe in the Universe and/or God, how would things be different if just for awhile, we considered they knew more than us? And also considered, that our inner selves knows what feels right for us? What if we stopped over-researching, over controlling, over analyzing everything and just followed what felt right?

I believe there is an absolute flow to life and by trying to control the path precisely using logic, you may be steering yourself away from the very place you’re meant to go…

I saw a massive shift in my health when I was finally able to just let go….stop holding myself to unrealistic treatment rules I made for myself….trust that if I was feeling something wasn’t the right road for me despite what others’ said, it would be ok.

You can’t imagine the strain on your body that’s released when you get to this point of trusting and letting go.

Taking on too much responsibility
This one is a pattern of taking on everything! I find these clients to be highly energetically sensitive which can be a gift; but the downfall is it’s too easy to take on everyone else’s crap. Once someone has a chronic illness, this can become exacerbated as they suddenly feel like they have to save everyone from going through this themselves. It perpetuates the problem.

This can show up in a few ways: feeling responsible for other people’s feelings, feeling like you have the responsibility to make sure other’s lives are going right, thinking you know better for someone else than they do, and feeling like you have to save people from their own pain or possible mistakes.

This is dangerous as not only are you draining your own energy, but no one has a right to impede on another’s journey. We each walk on our own and you are interfering when you can’t allow someone else to fully be themselves. This attempt at ‘helping’ other people hurts both parties.

Once someone can work through their need to take responsibility, it can release so much healing energy for their own body.

Do Any of These Resonate With You?

If any of these resonate with you, it is a good idea to start watching out for this pattern and even watching for how it might correlate with symptoms. Your body is a messenger and it’s trying to tell you something.

How would it change your life if for awhile, you tried to really, really listen?

When we don’t process an emotion completely out of our bodies, we feel the resonance of that fear, sadness or whatever it is at a low level all the time; because it is literally a part of us. Animals experience the same thing. I use a technique that can be done at a distance that is very effective for animals. They won’t feel a thing but possibly relief from whatever they are suffering from.

I’m offering a full session to three animals (preferably larger ones like dogs, cats and horses as opposed to tiny ones like mice and lizards).

How to qualify:

• Leave a post on my blog with the type of animal you have, their name and their behavior problem. A couple of sentences is great! I am going to choose randomly, old school style from a hat.
• This must be your pet or you must be able to put me in touch with the owner, shelter director or anyone who is in charge of the animal. I won’t do any sessions without permission.
• Make sure you’re a fan on my facebook page to see the winning pet announced!

Deadline:

• I will be choosing lucky furry winners April 10th so hurry and get your pet in the running.

Questions?

• Leave a comment on this post and I’ll answer ‘em immediately.

I am personally a science junkie, always wanting to know how something works. For all of you others like me, check out Nick’s article:

Breakthroughs in Energy Psychology: A New Way to Heal the Body and Mind

Here’s how it works and why it’s so important.

When someone comes to see me for energy therapy, they are often very aware of what they think might be holding them back. By the end of the session though, they realize they may not have been focusing on the root of the issue at all. That makes it harder to clear, no matter what techniques you are using.

For instance, by using my simple two word formula we could start to dig to the bottom of the issue. Let’s say you know you are a perfectionist and you come to me with that problem because the stress is just too much for you and it’s affecting your health. Our conversation might go something like this.

Me: What would happen if you slipped up and were a little bit less than perfect?

You: Things might not get done the right way.

Me: Then what?

You: Well, then I’d disappoint people.

Me: Then what?

You: Then people couldn’t count on me.

Me: Then what?

You: I would probably get fired from my job.

Me: Then what?

You: I’d be poor.

Me: Then what?

You: I couldn’t support my family.

Me: Then what?

You: I’d have to ask for help.

Me: Then what?

You: That would mean I was weak.

Me: Then what?

You: I’d be useless to my family just like my mother was.

Me: Bingo! Yay. We got to the TRUE fear of not being perfect…and we even get to blame it on your mother :) 

I’d then start to work to energetically clear your fears about being useless and other relevant emotions related to your relationship with your mother. Once that stuff is cleared on an energetic level, the fear of not being perfect has no legs to stand on since that was the foundation of it.

One of my favorite techniques for this type of issue is Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).

So next time you’re feeling stuck and think you know what you’re issue is, double check and ask the magic question. I promise you you’ll find much more to it than you thought there was! And, isn’t that the awesome part about self-exploration?

So, how do we figure out what’s what? Well, I have many angles that I approach someone’s problem from because I don’t want to miss any possible solution!

However, one thing I always ask clients at some point is:

How do you feel about your problem?

The problem can be anything from being chronically ill to being unable to handle their kids calmly. And no, I don’t judge you if you’re not a saint with your children ;)

I find that how someone feels about their problem is often a good indication of what kind of emotional contributors might have been there in the first place.

Let me explain…..

Example:

Jim (who doesn’t exist except for this example by the way) comes in with pain in his joints. I ask Jim when this started and he says about three years ago. So, I ask him if he remembers what was going on in his life three years ago. He rattles off a list of things that could have caused his body to go into overload. Once we’ve explored some initial possibilities, I also ask how he feels about his joint pain. Does he feel angry? Sad? Frustrated? Each client will have a really unique feeling about their problem, even if the actual problem is a common one – like joint pain.

Whatever Jim’s primary emotion about his joint pain is, is a good starting point. It allows us to look at other times he had that emotion about an event or situation. For instance, if he feels “tired of dealing with it,”  I then try to figure out what else he is/was “tired of” or what situation was “tiring” him out around the same time or leading up to that time.

I have found over and over again that the issues linked to the problem are often very indicative of either how they feel physically, or how we feel about them emotionally.

Our bodies and brains are so smart that I really believe they are constantly trying to give us clues as to what we need to look at in our lives. Once we learn to listen, we can start to address the events and emotions. I am constantly amazed how once people are open to allowing, pictures and random things pop into their minds as clues. It’s my favorite part of a session and it always happens!

Although our issues often seem complicated, I find that using just a few of my “detective” techniques can reveal just what we need to know. And of course then we can use energy therapy techniques to start clearing them away.

Even if you aren’t a client of mine though, this a great approach you can use yourself to see if you can connect any dots. I promise they’re there if you look!

From the last post, we understand how having an upside to your illness, or wanting to keep it at some level. Now we’re going to talk about the second type of psychological reversal I see most. These come up even if you don’t have a physical condition too. It can be a life pattern or emotional problem you can’t overcome.  An example would be overeating, being addicted to working, or having a pattern of depression.

Limiting Beliefs: You don’t believe you deserve to get better, can get better, or are ready to get better.

My belief is that those of us that manifest chronic illness, do it in part as a protection mechanism (subconsciously of course). Often illness comes after a trauma or upsetting event; or even more often, after we’ve been living in a way that’s not true to who we are. This would include being in a relationship we know is not healthy, not being our true self because it will threaten someone else, or doing a job we feel is unethical or not in line with our true selves. We can manifest excessive worry to keep us safe and alert so we can never be caught off guard in a relationship again, we can manifest pain as a punishment to ourselves when we feel guilty about something we have done, and the list goes on.

Even if we’ve made changes to get out of situations that contributed to the breakdown of our bodies in the first place, we still need to clear the beliefs we have about the ability or safety to get well now. Beliefs are just thoughts but can be deeply engrained patterns. Our bodies and brains need to be updated to know it’s safe, possible and ok for us to be well now.

Examples of limiting beliefs are:

• “There is no cure for what I have so I can’t get well.”
• “I always have to have something bad going on in my life and this is it.”
• “I don’t deserve to get well.”
• “If I get well, I’ll be vulnerable and I can’t handle that.”
• “I’ll just fail if I try another treatment.”

We create our realities with our belief system. Just look at your life and see if whatever you believe matches exactly where you are now. Now, isn’t it worth seeing what happens if you shift those beliefs?

Energy therapy is so effective at helping us release these negative beliefs. Can you imagine the difference in your healing if you find out you were scared to get better, and then cleared that?

Yep yep, it’s possible, even if your brain is trying to protect you right now by telling you it’s not :)

If this is you, there is a good chance your subconscious is trying to stop you from getting over whatever your problem is. Yep, that’s right! Simply put, you could be blocking not only your treatment efforts, but your own healing altogether. This happens because your subconscious is so smart, it is actually trying to protect you from something it thinks is worse than whatever you’re going through. The key is doing work to find out what that is. Energy therapy has been shown to be really effective at clearing these blocks.

There are two major reasons I see for these emotional blocks, often called “psychological reversals.”

Today we’re going to cover the first one.

There is some upside or benefit to keeping your problem.

I see this over and over again and I believe it’s one of the biggest blocks to getting well (from anything, emotional or physical). I know you are shaking your head “no” right now just as I did when this was suggested to me many years ago when I was sick. But, now….well, hindsight is 20/20.

Often we can find some of these without tapping in to our subconscious minds at all. If we can be really truthful with ourselves, we can sometimes figure out what the benefit of our problems are.

Examples of this are:

• “If I get over this, it might affect someone else negatively and I don’t want that.”
  (This could be a caretaker, other friends who are chronically ill whose life would change if you got healthy.)
• “If I get over this, I’ll have to support myself financially and I don’t know how.”
• “If I get over this, I’ll be letting someone off the hook who did something bad to me. Having to see me sick is their punishment.”

There are too many to name here, but if you believe any of these types of statements (even if not consciously), your brain will try to so hard to protect you, that it will keep you from getting over your problem and realizing your fears.

Everyone has an upside to their problem so if you can admit you might have one, you’re already halfway to solving it.

See my follow-up post on the second psychological reversal and all the sneaky ways it can affect you. After that, you’ll be well on  your way to understanding why maybe nothing’s working so you can do something to change that. Right? Right.