MODULE 2 STRESS & THE ROLE OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS

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2 INTRODUCTION In this module, you will be provided with a brief introduction to the mind-body system and the power of the subconscious mind. You will learn more about how the mind and body work so closely together, and why chronic activation of the fight-or-flight response contributes to your symptoms of stress. Finally, you will build on your knowledge of how to implement EFT effectively to reduce the effects of stress in your life. THE MIND-BODY SYSTEM For most of us, the way we deal with stress, in whatever form it shows up, is to tough it out, ignore it, down play it, or just live with it. And we suppress the emotions that accompany the stress. As you read on, you will learn that as a result, we actually add fuel to the fire to the point where we begin to experience physical, emotional, and/or behavioral symptoms. It is time to STOP doing all of that. A better way, as described in Module 1, is to access our body s wisdom and tune in to our thoughts and emotions. A quick look at the Mind-Body System using a pyramid analogy will help further explain. There are three main components of the Mind-Body System. Think of a pyramid that is divided into three tiers. The top tier represents the PHYSICAL. This includes the physical body with its symptoms, pain, illness, disease, and other health issues, including extra weight. It also includes the physical world that Physical goes beyond the body, such as relationships, career, money, family, food, and other things in our physical environment that we react to emotionally. In the current western medical model, almost 100% of the focus is on the physical (injections, medications, prescriptions, surgery, therapy), trying to fix the physical problem. Unfortunately, that approach is like paddling upstream against a really strong current. The same holds true when we try to fix our relationships by going to therapy or trying to make more money by reading Napoleon Hill s book Think and Grow Rich. This narrowly focused model relies on trying to fix things by addressing only the physical. Yet what is mostly going on in the body, as indicated by the pyramid, happens beneath the top layer. The real root cause of physical issues including 2

3 chronic pain, illness, disease, and 99% of all other health conditions, as well as, stress about money, job responsibilities, family, time, etc., originates at the EMOTIONAL and MENTAL levels. The EMOTIONAL tier is about hormone and chemical Physical balance. As learned in Module 1, emotions are chemistry floating around in the bloodstream and orchestrating everything in the body, including how we Emotional feel. If we feel fearful, anxious, angry, or frustrated, we don't feel so good. If we experience joy, Mental empowerment, gratitude, or confidence, we do feel thoughts, beliefs, memories good. These feelings represent emotional states and thus, chemical states, affecting every cell in our body. Given that the environment of the cell dictates the health of the cell, prolonged negative, non-constructive emotions have a damaging affect on our physical body. When symptoms of stress show up, it would make sense then to pay attention to what was going on emotionally when or just before the symptoms surfaced. So, our emotions are responsible for how stress manifests physically in our body. But, what determines our emotional state? The answer lies within the largest tier of the body-mind system - the MENTAL tier. This is where our thoughts, beliefs and memories reside. And, it is our thoughts, beliefs and memories that are the most surprising contributors to our on-going stress. These three factors activate the automatic and subconscious secretion of chemicals that determine which emotions we experience. Remember the visualization exercise in Module 1? While we were not experiencing the events, we were able to activate different emotions by thought alone. So, what we are thinking in any moment, the beliefs we hold about ourselves and our world, and the memories of past events will directly affect what is happening chemically in our body. (More about beliefs in Module 3, and memories in Module 4.) These three factors have the power to influence the state of our immune system, and our genetic expression, thus affecting what is happening physically in our body. You can begin to understand why we have a lot of leverage in the two tiers below the physical, and why we might want to focus our attention here. By making changes in the mental and emotional layers, we can make profound changes in the physical. 3

4 Our physical state does impact our chemistry, our emotions, and how we feel. When we feel good physically, we tend to have more positive thoughts, and thus, more positive emotions. However, it is a small factor compared to how our thoughts and emotions impact us physically. Also, our emotions can impact what we think. thoughts, beliefs, memories When we feel good emotionally, we tend to have more positive thoughts. But again, the power lies in how our thoughts, beliefs and memories impact our emotions and our physical body. That is why, when we are having problems with chronic pain, anxiety, cravings, fears and phobias, anger or motivation, or we lack energy, have an inflammatory condition, or allergies, it is important to look at what is going on at the mental and emotional levels. THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND Since our thoughts govern our emotions, non-constructive thoughts, whether conscious or subconscious, show up in the form of emotional stress AND, as mentioned, WE DON T FEEL GOOD! Here s what s really, really scary about that: Picture an iceberg. The tip, the 5% above the water, represents our conscious thoughts. The hidden 95% below the water represents our subconscious thoughts, thoughts we are unaware of. That s right, 95% of our thoughts are actually subconscious or hidden. ALL of our thoughts determine our emotions! That means 95% of our emotions originate from our subconscious thoughts. The significance of this is that 70% of our subconscious thoughts are negative or non-constructive. Ouch! Emotional Mental Physical If 95% of our thoughts are subconscious, and 70% of those are non-constructive, imagine how many non-constructive emotions are being created by our 4

5 subconscious thoughts. And, the news gets worse. The subconscious mind is a million times more powerful than the conscious mind. Here is another analogy. Think of any situation as having a rider, an elephant, and a path. The rider represents the conscious mind, the one we think is making the decisions. The elephant represents the subconscious mind, where hidden thoughts, beliefs, and memories are playing like records in the background. The path represents our decisions, where we want to go or what we want to do. At a glance, it appears the rider is in control of the elephant, and the decisions. But, the truth is, if the rider wants to go to the right, and the elephant wants to go to the left, guess which way they will go? Since the more powerful subconscious mind controls over 95% of what we do, the elephant and the rider will indeed go left. When the elephant is in control, we tend to behave in ways that don t always serve us best. For example, if you wanted to apply for your dream job (the rider), but your subconscious belief is I m not good enough (the elephant), then your decision most likely would be to not even apply (the path). This decision would not necessarily serve your best interest. So while most of our thoughts are subconscious, they are still impacting what is happening chemically, and thus, emotionally and physically every second of every day. And, since most of our subconscious thoughts are non-constructive, our bodies are in fight-or-flight response much more often than is healthy. As previously learned, every time we think a non-constructive thought, we initiate the stress response. This fight-or-flight response assists us in the short term, but we are NOT built to be in this state for a long period of time. The body is not designed to withstand chronic, ongoing exposure to stress chemicals and hormones. For people living in prolonged states of anxiety and tension, which in this day and age is just about all of us, stress chemicals and hormones stick around for much longer than intended and wreak havoc on the body. When we are in a prolonged state of stress, how might this impact our life? Symptoms might include: Increased anxiety, worry, guilt, nervousness, etc.; Being short-tempered, more angry, frustrated, irritated and annoyed; 5

6 Giving in to cravings, binge eating, over-eating and eating mindlessly; Difficulty concentrating; having racing thoughts; Difficulty making decisions; Being less efficient and productive; Having less energy; Experiencing problems sleeping But this isn t the whole story. The long-term effects of chronic stress have been linked to nearly every major chronic illness known, including arthritis, asthma, cancer, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, irritable bowel disease, fibromyalgia, and the list goes on. Here are some facts from recent studies on stress by the American Institute for Stress. 50% of all American deaths under the age of 65 are due to stress; 43% of all adults suffer adverse physical affects from stress; 73%-77% of all adults suffer physical and/or psychological affects from stress; 60% of lost workdays each year can be attributed to stress; 3 out of 4 American workers describe their work as stressful; 75-90% of all family doctor visits are the result of stress. EFT - A PROVEN SOLUTION We often try to use affirmations and positive thinking to convince the rider that he has control over the elephant. This doesn t work well because the elephant is so much stronger (remember, the subconscious mind is a million times more powerful than the conscious mind). The solution is not to control the elephant, but to retrain it so it will gladly follow the rider s directions. In order to do this, we need special techniques, such as EFT, to access the subconscious. As noted in Module 1, EFT has been scientifically proven to calm the fear center of the brain and reduce the cortisol levels in the bloodstream, effectively shifting the fight-or-flight response to the growth-and-relaxation response. EFT can turn off our non-constructive thoughts, and alter our limiting beliefs and emotions that are being triggered by past troublesome memories - all constantly playing in the 6

7 background of our subconscious mind. By turning off these records, our emotions shift and we feel much better. Next we will further explore the use of EFT by introducing The Tapping Triad. THE TAPPING TRIAD Gary Craig, the founder of EFT, speaks of the Tapping Triad as a harmonious trio of concepts that work together to help make the tapping process more effective. These three concepts are known as Aspects, Being Specific, and Testing. ASPECTS Aspects are the different details, emotions, and thoughts that can make up a Specific Event or story that we are tapping on. An Aspect will always be Specific. Ask, What part bothers me the most? or What emotion is most intense? Tap on the most intense Aspect first, and tap on one Aspect at a time. For example, tapping on The auto accident is very broad. Tapping on the blinding headlights, the piercing screams, all that blood, or my guilt for driving too fast, are Specific Aspects that would be tapped on separately. While some issues may have only one Aspect, when there are multiple Aspects, treat each one as a separate issue. Where several Aspects of a problem are present, we may not notice any relief until all Aspects are reduced to zero. As long as there is intensity, there are more Aspects to work on. Aspects are usually easy to find. They commonly appear as we Test our work (see Testing below). BEING SPECIFIC!!!!!!!!ASPECTS!!!!!!!!BEING!!!!SPECIFIC! Being Specific means looking more closely or deeply at the issue. Tapping on an Aspect of an issue rather than on the issue itself helps with Being Specific. However, we can often get even more Specific by looking for Aspects within the Aspect. Here s an example: 7

8 A Stiff Neck: While a stiff neck may sound Specific (stiffness in the neck), it is possible to get even more Specific when describing the pain using elements such as location (right side of neck), size (about 4 inches around), sensation (pulling tightness), shape (long), color (silver), texture (smooth), intensity (5 of 10), etc. The most obvious way to look more deeply at a physical symptom is to identify the emotional contributors and address them directly. If the emotional contributors can, in turn, be broken into Aspects of their own, then we can be even more Specific and get faster results. For example: Relationship with spouse: If the problem is that you feel your partner is too critical, you could start by tapping on Even though I feel my partner is critical However, that would be very general. By tapping on the Aspect of your response to the criticism, i.e., feeling irritated, you are getting more Specific. Even though I feel irritated when he/she criticizes me Often there is more than one Aspect about being criticized that bother you, so you can Be Specific by identifying those Aspects individually. I feel irritated that he/she never recognizes me when I do something good, I am irritated because I never criticize him/her, I am irritated by that tone of voice. Being Specific may also include the exact words that were said, and using the name of the person. Even though I am irritated that Sally snapped, You spend too much time on your computer With that level of Being Specific, it is easier to see when that Aspect has cleared and a new one presents itself. Being Specific gives us more details and allows us greater control of the process. It lets us work with the building blocks of the issue and not just the issue itself. TESTING! Testing the results you get by tapping on an issue is the third concept in the Tapping Triad. A basic way to Test is to use an intensity scale of What intensity is the pain in your back? What is the level of frustration?!!!!!!!testing! The way to use this scale is to establish the intensity of the issue before starting to tap. As Aspects appear during tapping, assess their individual intensities. Tap 8

9 separately on each Aspect until they are reduced to a 0 intensity. Then go back and Test the intensity of the original issue. If intensity remains, there are more hidden Aspects to find and tap on. In this way, Testing is actually being used as a tool to find Aspects, as well as confirming whether or not we are done. So Testing is a critical component of the Tapping Triad because, when used effectively, better results can be realized. Ultimately, the best way to Test is to relive the situation if possible. For example, fear of flying is best tested by flying. SUMMARY These three concepts work harmoniously together to get the best possible results. One cannot be separated from the others. Knowing about ASPECTS helps break the issue into smaller parts. BEING SPECIFIC is a more refined way to work with ASPECTS. TESTING is the strongest tool for actively digging up ASPECTS and confirming the work is complete. When all ASPECTS seem to be resolved, assess a new 0-10 number for the overall issue and see if there is anything left. ACTIVITY #1: Using the Tapping Triad (Refer to Activity #1 of Worksheet) Think of a situation that brings up a minor irritation, annoyance or frustration. Example: My cat wakes me up in the middle of the night to go out, then hides behind a chair when I open the door. Identify the emotion that comes up when thinking of that situation. Example: Annoyance. Rate the intensity of the emotion on a scale of 0-10 before tapping. Example: Intensity = 5. Develop a Setup Statement. Example: I get annoyed when my cat wakes me up at night. Tap using the Setup Statement and Reminder Phrases. Examples of Reminder Phrases: All this annoyance. My cat wakes me up. I m really annoyed. 9

10 After tapping a round or two, check the intensity of the emotion. If the intensity is zero, Test the results by visualizing the event and trying to call up the emotion. If there is still intensity, pay attention to what thoughts came up during the tapping to identify any other emotions. If nothing came up, continue to tap on the original Setup Statement until the intensity is zero. If another thought or emotion came up, this represents another Aspect. Example: I get angry when he hides under the chair and won t go out. Measure the intensity of the new Aspect. If the new Aspect has a higher intensity, develop a new Setup Statement using the new emotion. Tap using the new Setup Statement and Reminder Phrases, then Test using the 0-10 intensity scale. When the intensity level of each Aspect is 0, go back and Test the original issue and emotion to make sure all Aspects have been cleared. POSITIVE EFT In order to function properly, energy must flow freely into, through and out of our body. As described in Module 1, sometimes we experience traffic jams and the energy becomes blocked, causing problems in our system. EFT works by increasing the flow of energy through the body. So far, we have used EFT to shift non-constructive thoughts, feelings and emotions. We have suggested using an intensity scale of 0-10 to measure the progress of moving a non-constructive emotion from a level of intensity above zero to zero. An example is reducing an emotion of frustration from a 5 to the point where there is no feeling of frustration any longer. We feel better because the energy flow has improved. While feeling better is good, we don t want to settle on feeling just good. We want to feel great! How To Feel Great! Once you eliminate how you don t want to feel by bringing a non-constructive emotion to zero, the problem is gone and you don t feel any emotion about it any longer, it is time to think about how you do want to feel. Instead of thinking about 10

11 the problem, think about what positive emotions you want to feel, such as, I want to feel more confident, amazing, empowered, joyful, energized, peaceful, etc. Since EFT increases the flow of energy in the body and can effectively reduce and neutralize non-constructive emotions, by continuing to tap on a constructive emotion, you can maximize the flow of energy and how you feel. Once again, we suggest using a scale of 0-10 where 0 means not feeling the emotion at all and 10 meaning powerfully experiencing the emotion. The same Heart And Soul Protocol that is used to eliminate problems or issues is also used with Positive EFT. However, with Positive EFT, there is greater emphasis on deep breathing. A deep breath is taken before moving from one tapping point to the next. With hands on the Heart Center Position, start the Positive EFT by identifying and saying out loud a positive Setup Statement, i.e. I want to feel confident. Then continue through the tapping points stating out loud a short Reminder Phrase, i.e. confident. Be sure to rate on the 0-10 intensity scale how strong the positive feeling is before beginning to tap. You can feel when energy flow increases when: You begin to feel tingling in your body You feel lighter, more energized, more positive You experience greater intensity of the emotion you are working on Check where you fall on the intensity scale. To increase energy flow further, begin another Positive EFT round and add the word more, i.e. I want to feel more confident. Use the Reminder Phrase, more confident. Check where you are on the intensity scale at the end of this round. If you are not at 10, continue with another round adding the word even, i.e. I want to feel even more confident. The Reminder Phrase would be, even more confident. If the intensity is 8 or more, continue with another round using the Setup Phrase, I want to feel all the confidence in the universe, with the Reminder Phrase, all the confidence in the universe. You may be surprised to discover just how good you can feel when your energy system is in full throttle! 11

12 MODULE 2 STRESS & THE ROLE OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS Practice (See Pages 1 and 2 of Worksheet): Repeat Activity #1 with a different minor situation that brings up annoyance, irritation or frustration. Be aware of and tap on the different Aspects that may come up. Review The Tapping Triad as necessary. Practice (See Page 2, Activity #2 of Worksheet): Once you have eliminated the emotions related to your issue and are at zero on the intensity scale, think about how you would like to feel about that situation, i.e. instead of frustrated, annoyed or irritated, you might want to feel calm, content, peaceful, energized, passionate, understanding, etc. Practice tapping daily using the Tapping For Feeling Ill At Ease audio meditation found at: DISCLAIMER In participating in the Stress Less and Thrive Program, you take full responsibility for your own emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well-being. You understand the practitioners at Wellness Within offer their services as mentors and coaches, not psychologists, psychotherapists, physicians, or other licensed health care providers. All materials included in the Stress Less and Thrive Program are provided for informational purposes only and are not intended to serve as a substitute for professional medical or psychological advice, dietary advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you should have any questions concerning any medical or psychological condition, the WellnessWithin Practitioners advise you to seek professional advice as appropriate before making any health decisions. Information in the Stress Less and Thrive Program should never take the place of the advice of a qualified health care provider. 12