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Clearing Clutter With EFT

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Rick Wilkes, Emotional Freedom Coach

www.ThrivingNow.com

Copyright © 2009 Carol Look LLC & Thriving Now LLC. All Rights Reserved. Special thanks to Cathy Vartuli, The Joy Connection LLC,

for her invaluable help with the transcripts and audios. Transcription service by Lucy Spencer (through eLance.com).

See also Carol & Rick's other sites:

www.PainReliefWithEFT.com www.EFT-Talk.com

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Table of Contents

Disclaimer...4

Recording #1...5

The Basics About Clutter...5

Physical Space and Clutter...5

Abundance and Clutter...7

Technological Space and Clutter...9

Emotional Clutter...10

Physical Body and Clutter...12

Spiritual Clutter...13

Where Does Clutter Come From?...14

Needing Some Place for the Stuff to Go...17

Scarcity and Lack...20

Lack of Love...22

Recording #2...25

Clearing Emotions, Events, and Conflicts...25

The Feeling of “Overwhelmed”...27

Tapping on the Feeling of “Overwhelmed”...29

Tapping on Decision-Making...33

More Tapping on “Overwhelmed”...35

The Fear of Facing Clutter...38

The Fear of Facing “IT” (Whatever IT Is)...39

Tapping on the Fear of Facing “IT”...40

Tapping on Refusing to Face “IT”...42

Tapping on the Fear of Facing “IT” When There’s “Too Much”...44

Tapping on Being Too Busy...46

The Itch of Scarcity...48

Tapping on Scarcity...50

Tapping on “Not Enough”...51

Recording #3...54

Abandonment, Hurt, and Clutter...54

Tapping on Abandonment...57

Tapping on Rejection...59

Tapping on Clinging...61

Tapping on Anger...67

Tapping on Rebelliousness...69

Tapping on “Accept Me the Way I Am”...70

Tapping on Anger...72

Tapping on Guilt...74

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Tapping on Guilt and Money...80

Recording #4...82

Guilt, Shame, and Clutter...82

Tapping on Shame in General...84

Tapping on Shame from Parents...86

Tapping on Shame About Clutter...87

The Habit of Clutter...90

Tapping on a Bad Habit of Cluttering...93

Specific Events Tied to Clutter...94

Tapping on Specific Events - What Someone Did...98

Tapping on Rebelliousness...100

Tapping on Specific Events - What Someone Said...101

Recording #5...105

What Clutters Our Vibration?...105

Tapping on What Others Think...107

Tapping on External Approval...109

Tapping on Intrusive Behavior from Loved Ones...112

Tapping on the Past...114

Tapping on the Future (Part 1)...117

Tapping on the Future (Part 2)...118

Tapping on the Habit of Negativity...123

Tapping on Appreciating Yourself...125

Recording #6...128

Review of Physical & Emotional Clutter...128

Tapping on Being Busy...131

Tapping on Where to Start...134

Tapping on Emotional Interference...136

Tapping on Backsliding...138

Tapping on Building Habits...140

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Disclaimer

The information presented on these recordings is educational in nature, and is provided only as general information. Emotional Freedom Techniques, often known as EFT, is a technique referred to as a type of energy therapy. To date, EFT has yielded remarkable results for relieving emotional and physical distress. EFT appears to have promising mental, spiritual, and physical health benefits, but has yet to be fully researched by the Western academic, medical, and psychological communities. Therefore, EFT could be considered experimental, and since EFT is a relatively new healing approach, the extent of its effectiveness as well as its risks and benefits are not fully known or understood.

You agree and understand that the information contained in these recordings is only for your personal use. You further agree and understand that if you choose to use EFT, it is possible that emotional or physical sensations, or additional unresolved memories may surface, which could be perceived as negative side effects. Previously vivid or traumatic memories may fade, which could adversely impact your ability to provide detailed legal testimony regarding a traumatic incident.

The information presented on these recordings is not intended to represent that EFT is used to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or psychological disorder. EFT is not a substitute for medical or psychological mental health treatment. Any stories or testimonials presented on these recordings do not constitute a warranty, guarantee, or prediction regarding the outcome of an individual using EFT for any particular issue. Further, you understand that Carol Look and Rick Wilkes do not know how you will personally respond to EFT, or whether EFT will help you with a particular issue. Carol Look and Rick Wilkes accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever for the use or misuse of the information contained on these recordings. Carol Look and Rick Wilkes strongly advise you to seek professional advice as appropriate before implementing any protocol or opinion expressed in these recordings, including EFT, and before making any health decisions.

By continuing to listen to these recordings and using the transcripts, you knowingly,

voluntarily, and intelligently assume these risks, including any adverse outcome that might result from using EFT, and agree to release, indemnify, hold harmless, and defend Carol Look and Rick Wilkes and their heirs, agents, consultants, and employees from and against any and all claims which you or your representatives may have, or any loss, damage or injury of any kind or nature arising out of or in connection with listening to these

recordings, reading these transcripts, and using EFT. The recordings and transcripts are copyrighted and unauthorized reproduction of these recordings and documents is prohibited by federal law.

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Recording #1

The Basics About Clutter

(starts @ 03:15)

Carol Look: Welcome, everyone! This is Recording #1, our introduction

and definition about the basics about clutter. Welcome, Rick!

Rick Wilkes: Hi, Carol!

Carol: Definition of clutter - we have lots of people listening who have

clutter in all parts of their lives, and I thought we would go through some descriptions and examples and just get people’s heads around different versions of clutter in their life. Some people are going to be listening who don’t quite think they have much, but they’re interested, and I think we can pique their interest even more.

Rick: A lot of people also think of clutter as that physical stuff that’s in your

life and we’re going to be talking here about some of the other aspects of clutter in your emotional space, in your body, and in other aspects in your life as well.

Physical Space and Clutter

(starts @ 04:11)

Carol: Let’s start with the physical space, because that’s the obvious one

that is bringing most people to the recordings and that come to us for coaching in our practices. Physical space clutter: let’s give some obvious examples. The tables with mail on it. Piles and piles of mail that people walk by and it changes your energy when it’s cluttered. Piles and piles of books in the corners of offices, on tables and couches - what else? Give some other examples that are obvious.

Rick: Well, to me, the physical clutter - what defines it as clutter is it’s

causing you some distress. You’re looking at it, and it doesn’t feel right. It changes the space in a way that isn’t pleasing to you. It’s not comfortable. You have judgments about it. You look at it, and it doesn’t look organized.

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When you want to go into the space and get something, you feel more distressed about it than you normally would have if you went in to find something in that space that might even be very full, but isn’t cluttered. You think about a library. There is organizational structure to that that allows us to go in, find it, take it off the shelf, bring it back, and you know where it’s going to go. In a lot of people’s spaces, there is either no

organization or the organization is so chaotic that it causes them to stress. I separate that from someone that has a quote “filing system” that’s all their own, that doesn’t cause them distress. I don’t necessarily think that

somebody’s desk, which has a bunch of piles on it, is necessarily cluttered if they have a system and it’s not causing them distress, and they’re not spending a lot of emotional or intellectual energy worrying about it. That’s just a different kind of space. But we know that, if you have a space that is not energetically feeling safe, comfortable, and flowing to you, that that’s a problem. And also, to me, in physical space, as people’s lives change and as their vibration changes, a space that might have been comfortable to you before, might start feeling cluttered or overwhelming as your vibration changes. As you start feeling more abundant, interestingly enough, you often want to simplify your spaces, so clutter in a physical space looks like that to me. And also big spaces where you are hoarding things, keeping them aside for one day - “maybe if this happens, I might need this”. The garage that you can’t get into and you don’t even know what’s in there because it’s holding all the stuff that you didn’t feel emotionally free enough and safe enough to let go of.

Carol: I think “chaos” is a key word here, because you’re right. I can go

into your place and think it’s cluttered, and you can come into mine and think it’s cluttered, but if it doesn’t create a chaotic response inside you energetically, then it’s not cluttered. It doesn’t get to be called “cluttered”. My desk - some people wouldn’t be able to find anything. I know exactly where everything is on that desk. And that’s really important - that notion of chaos. When you look at your pile or your desk or the corner or the garage, does it give you that electrical charge that doesn’t feel good? I was working with someone on the abundance tapes and he said, “When I think of my pile of bills and the paperwork on my desk and the taxes,” he said, “Ugh! I feel terrible!” That was clutter.

Rick: Yes.

Carol: That was chaotic clutter to his energy. Then again, somebody else

might look at it and not have that reaction. I think one thing that does seem to happen is people get used to it, and they get that shudder in their body, and they ignore it. It’s still having an energetic effect on them that’s

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negative, but they kind of pretend they don’t see it or they ignore it or they look over it, and that’s not good for us energetically either.

Rick: I do believe that people’s spaces often are a mirror to what their

inner life is like. And, if you walk into a space as someone who is normally pretty balanced and comfortable, and it feels chaotic, discordant, chances are the owner of that space is living in that energy all the time. There are practices like feng shui and the energetic tuning of spaces, but almost everybody can walk into a space and get a feeling of…for me: “Does this make me feel comfortable, safe, energized, or relaxed?” Different spaces can have different energies. You may want a space that has a very creative, energizing effect. You may want a physical space that has a relaxing,

nurturing, cuddle-me kind of feeling to it. The clutter aspect of it is, “Hey, there’s something wrong with this space. It’s not nurturing me.” That’s one of the things we’re going to help people with.

Another aspect to me, Carol, is the entropy rule about the universe: that in any space, it will tend toward disorder. And for me, clutter is something that there is always going to be a gap between the perfect organization of the space and where it is in that moment. We want to help people feel surprisingly comfortable with a space that has got some work to be done on it and feel surprisingly comfortable moving forward and cleaning up the space, organizing it in a very relaxed, natural pace, without having to have that pressure on ourselves to get it done “right here, right now, because it’s driving me insane”. Sometimes we don’t have the time to do that right in that moment.

Abundance and Clutter

(starts @ 10:02)

Carol: Before we talk about emotional, bodily, and spiritual clutter, let’s

talk a little bit about how it interferes with abundance, because you and I did a podcast on this which was very exciting, and we both agree that if you are cluttered and energetically feel that energy which seems negative and off or chaotic, that will affect your vibration. And we are all about changing your vibration, raising your vibration to be able to attract and keep abundance in your life moving and flowing, to be able to attract and keep it in your life. And if you walk into your home or your office and you just close your eyes out of disgust for your own clutter, you are not in an energetic place that is abundant. So part of why we decided to do this together was about

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And again, we’ll talk more about emotional, bodily, and spiritual clutter. We’ve already talked about the physical space clutter, but it’s critical to our being able to receive abundance, I believe.

Rick: Receiving abundance financially and experiencing it emotionally has a

lot to do with the state of being that a space evokes within us. That’s what I was talking about. One of the things that we are going to want you to look at as a part of this program is, for each of your spaces, what kind of state of being does it naturally evoke, and anything that doesn’t fit within that, if you call it clutter, we can help you start shifting that space, shifting the energy of that space so that it feels more pleasing to you, that it is evoking that state of being. To me, abundance is about a wide variety of states of being, including feeling very comfortable as well as feeling energized, eager, and curious. As I walk into my office, I feel overwhelmed instantly. Well, that’s not an emotion of abundance, and so it’s hard for me to tune into

abundance. That means that I’m not going to be looking for opportunity - open to opportunity - as much as I’m just going to be trying to tread water and get it all taken care of - getting it all taken care of, trying to make do with the mess. That uses a lot more energy actually than creating

something new that might bring financial abundance in, that might open up relationships. Those types of things actually take less energy than all of the other stuff, usually, for a lot of people that are struggling with clutter.

Carol: Right - it’s just like you’re trying to catch up by cleaning up. Catch

up, catch up, and then you never sit down. Also, I believe it can be used as a way to procrastinate. It’s a good excuse. “Well, I can’t do that project yet because I haven’t cleaned up…” You know the old joke about being in

school, when you’ve got a term paper, you suddenly clean up your room!

Rick: (laughing)

Carol: “Well, you know, I can’t work on the term paper before my laundry

is done and my room is clean!” And I think it can just be woven into our lives in a dysfunctional way, in everything.

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Technological Space and Clutter

(starts @ 13:05)

Rick: We have to address, in terms of physical space, also the technological

spaces that we have.

Carol: Thank you.

Rick: When you are looking at your inbox, and it gives you the same sense

that it would if each one of those emails was printed out and strewn out all over your office. If that’s the same kind of feeling you get, then it is

cluttered and having as much of a drain on your focus, choices, as anything. If your hard drives, if your documents, and all of those areas are causing you those same types of distress, techniques that we are going to be teaching you, they will also be able to help you to shift those areas. And again, procrastination applies there. Some people spend a lot of time massaging their inboxes rather than moving forward in the areas that are priorities that gives them that feeling of abundance. That is using clutter as that block to doing the other things. That’s why what we’re going to be doing is not just talking about how to clean it up, but looking at how do you clean it up? What ways, when you get into one of your cleanup binges, is it really serving you, or is it maybe a higher vibration way of doing that that will be more sustainable, more pleasing to you, give you a sense of a foundation that can support all the other aspects of your life.

Carol: With one click of a button, I deleted 17,000 emails one day. I had

to really think about it. “Do I need these? What’s the point? What if…

suppose…” and we’ll get into that more later with the emotional pieces, but I haven’t turned back, haven’t missed them for one minute, and that was several months ago. There was an interesting exercise for me about that kind of clutter on the computer. Computers haven’t saved me anything as far as clutter. I have more paperwork and more emails and more stuff and junk than ever. That was an interesting exercise.

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Emotional Clutter

(starts @ 14:58)

Carol: Now, emotional clutter: some of these are obvious, but we just

want to talk about these. It was very helpful for us with each other, Rick and I, when we were planning this, to talk through some of these stages of clutter. Now, emotional clutter: we are experts in helping people release some of that, just in basic EFT and just in coaching sessions, and sometimes people come to us, and they just say, “I don’t know where to start. I’m overwhelmed.” In helping them with EFT to maybe categorize, or say, “Okay, let’s put this in this compartment”, and “What overwhelms you?”, “What’s the family issue?”, “What’s the money issue?”, “What’s the

grandparent issue?”, “ What’s the boss issue?” That alone can help someone feel less cluttered emotionally. Now, some people hold on to every feeling. If that’s a good image for you, the way you might hold on to every piece of paper, hold on to every book or every pamphlet you get from a workshop, and you have too much of it. People can hold on to emotions that way, whether it’s nursing grudges, or they just think too much about all the feelings they have toward everybody, and they’re not clear. And if you’re not clear, you’re not taking the next right step toward your own abundance - and that could be an abundance of love, an abundance of money, an

abundance of priority - an abundance of anything. So clarity for us is key in our work. So emotional clutter can come in many, many forms: too many feelings, too many thoughts, not being able to turn it off at night, to turn off your monkey mind.

Rick: Yes.

Carol: Lots of ways to have emotional clutter. You’re kind of too upset and

too anxious about what other people think about you - I find that cluttering for people. There are lots of ways that some of you listening say…”Well, my office is very neat, and my home is very clean.” But emotionally, there’s “back and forth, back and forth, left, right, left, right, forward, back, what if…”, so much noise that they really can’t take a step. That’s critical, to look at the emotional clutter that we all have.

Rick: Emotional clutter, to me, impacts our relationships in enormous ways.

If I think about a particular person, and I’ve held on to a lot of different negative experiences that we might have had - little ones, big ones - I

cannot be fully present with that person. You’re going to have in your heart and around you all the different emotions that you are holding as you relate to that person. One of the things that attracted me most to EFT was being

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able to clear that emotional clutter so that I could be very simple and present with the people in my life without having to have all of this other noise. Emotional noise keeps you from hearing what someone is really communicating to you. Emotional clutter acts as heavy weights on our heart, the senses of big and little betrayals, the senses of not being heard, manipulated - all of those things play into the tapestry that we have around the people in our lives, from our bosses to our mates. That kind of clutter, you can feel it. When you think of people, do you have a very simple, uplifted feeling about them, or do you remember this, that, and the other thing that “gosh, yeah, well, that person would be perfect if it wasn’t for (blank)…” and if you have a long list of (blanks), then you have emotional clutter. The other problem with emotional clutter is that it holds people to the past that they had. It would be like if you were seeing them through negative movies that you had around them from a year ago, or five years ago, or twenty years ago, or fifty years ago. You’re seeing them as that person. Each one of us is changing moment to moment. With some people that’s very obvious, and they’re moving up the Vibrational Scale; with some people, less so. But the emotional clutter, as you clear that, suddenly now you’re relating to the person that is, right here, right now, rather than the person that was three years ago.

Carol: Now that’s a great point and angle that you bring up. If you and I

met each other in person, and we haven’t seen each other in a while, and we are bringing clutter to each other about each other. I was thinking in terms of just clutter in general in your mind emotionally. You also can’t be

present.

Rick: No.

Carol: Well, I may want to be present to you, and be totally clear about the

two of us in our relationship, but if I’ve got clutter about everybody else in my life, in business, in a business deal, and a future thing I’m doing with a family member, I’m also not present. So again, back to that clarity and that ability to be present and listen and pay attention. It’s actually an interesting sign. If someone’s talking to you and they’re not there, where are they?

Rick: (laughing) They’re off in their emotional clutter. Carol: They’re in their emotional clutter.

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Physical Body and Clutter

(starts @ 15:20)

Carol: Okay, how about we do the physical body and clutter? Because I

think this can come out in some pretty interesting ways. A basic might be for some people, I had a client say she felt that way with her weight loss. There was all this extra stuff she was holding on to, on her body, and she was almost ready to let it go. She felt like it might as well have been her messy office. It was an interesting image and angle from which to see it. That was interesting for her, just saying, “I’ve cluttered up my bones and my body by covering them with all this extra...”

Rick: I believe that excess weight - when you really feel like you have more

weight than you need - the primitive brain has been carrying around the pantry with you. Perhaps 10,000 years ago when we didn’t have grocery stores, it was important for survival, if you were under stress a lot, to carry with you a lot of stuff. A lot of those things had an expiration date a long, long time ago, and if we can help clear those energies and free them up to be reinvested in some way, in the same way that, if you had a coin collection that was gathering dust, and you felt like you wanted to go on vacation, that that would be a better experience, if you sold the coin collection and took the money to have that experience, you’d be reinvesting one form of energy into a different form of energy - from the physical coin collection to an

experience. Clutter in the body in terms of stored energy, in the form of fat, is one way that, as you clear that out, you’re reinvesting that in other things in your life: movement, vitality, creativity. There’s also those pains and traumas that are stored in a hip, in a knee. They can be speaking to us constantly. You and I, through our program “Pain Relief With EFT”, looking at these specific events and where they can be stored in the body as well as the emotional things that keep coming up, coming up, coming up.

Sometimes if you listen to the body and take inventory of the areas that you’re paying attention to in a negative way and start addressing these specific events and big and little traumas of your life, it clears the clutter from the energy flow in your body. It’s like taking a creek and taking the big rocks and the logs and the rotted stumps out of it. It gets your energy

moving more smoothly. Just like a room has a flow of energy, your body has an even more dynamic flow of energy. Clearing the clutter from that makes an enormous difference in your experience of life.

Carol: Right, you have more energy. It’s like sleeping. If your mind is

cluttered, you won’t sleep well. And if you don’t sleep well, you don’t have much energy. They all come together.

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Spiritual Clutter

(starts @ 22:40)

Carol: So how about spiritual clutter? Let’s talk a little bit about that and

how does that show up with someone.

Rick: Spiritual clutter, in the form of the inner critic. Carol: Mmm-hmm.

Rick: When someone has an inner critic, or a whole team of inner critics

that are yapping at you all the time, it’s hard to hear inner guidance. “Inner guide” is a soft, still, quieter, less assertive energy. It guides more gently than “inner critic”. So, as you address those critical, self-critical, self-hating kinds of energies - as you quiet yourself - as you allow yourself to go to a state of peaceful simplicity and awareness, now you’ve got that connection to source energy, which provides power. It provides guidance. That’s what I find - when people have a lot of clutter around that connection, clearing that clutter so that they can powerfully and consciously and intentionally connect to source energy. (Rick takes a deep breath.) “Ahh - now things are flowing quite differently.”

Carol: When people have the “shoulds”, I know they have spiritual clutter. Rick: (laughing)

Carol: They’re not connected, as you say. When “Mom say this”, “Dad says

this”, “the neighbor says this” and “coach says this”- okay, but what does your guidance say? “I don’t know. I can’t hear it!”

Rick: “They’re ‘should-ing’ all over themselves” is the way I describe it.

The “shoulds”, “have- tos”, “I must” - that shuts us off from spiritual

guidance, which is much more attuned to “Where am I and where do I want to go?” and doesn’t use “shoulds”, “musts”, and “have-tos” in order to guide us and let us go with that flow.

Carol: Before we take a brief break, before we talk about where it all comes

from, let’s talk about the question, “How does it serve you?” I think, for everyone listening, that would be a valuable question. Let’s say you have physical space clutter. How does it serve you? Is there any upside? Let’s say you have bodily clutter, whether in the form of pain or weight or arthritis

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in your knees. How does it serve you? Is there any upside to it? Does it help you do something or get a need met? Is there anything positive about it? Because if there is, and we just try to tap it away, you’ll take it back because you need to be safe with it. Being safe with it is more important than letting it go. So I think that’s a valuable question. How does it serve you to have this spiritual clutter?

Rick: You taught me the question, “If I didn’t have this clutter, what would

I have to be thinking about? What would I have in my face if I didn’t have this?” That’s a very powerful question to ask. A lot of times, I can’t see the upside of keeping the clutter, but if I imagine it gone, all of a sudden now I know that there are things that are maybe outside of my comfort zone that I have been putting off, I don’t want to look at, I don’t feel supported looking at, that are unsafe, risky, etc. It may not make logical sense at all. In fact, often times they don’t.

Carol: We’ll keep asking that question as we go through exercises, talk

more about where clutter comes from, and do the EFT exercises with all of you. We’ll continue to ask, “How does it serve you? Is there any way that having spiritual clutter, mind chatter, emotional clutter, physical space

clutter - is there any way that it gives you something or gets your needs met by protecting you in any way that we could look at?”, and then of course use EFT for the energy of that.

Where Does Clutter Come From?

(starts @ 26:17)

Carol: So, Rick, where does clutter come from?

Rick: One of the places that it comes from is from our family history and

the type of family that we are. I picture a family of hunters thousands of years ago. They probably traveled pretty light. They had to be able to pack up and carry with them everything that they owned. That meant a certain simplicity - that everything had a very strict function to it, and if it wasn’t valuable, it wasn’t worth carrying. And then other groups that were

geographically located could start collecting lots and lots of things, and there were cultures where acquisitions and wealth and jewels and other things were the way that you established your status within the tribe. Those things have gone with us and evolved through time. We all know people where what you own is the definition of who you are.

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Carol: How much stuff do you have?

Rick: I used to have a t-shirt “He who dies with the most toys wins.” I

gave that away when my energy shifted around that! That was one of the things that is a drum beat that I heard and I listened to, and I said, “Hey! That sounds pretty good! I will go that route.” So that was one of the family history types of things. It also comes from contrast, doesn’t it, Carol?

Carol: The contrast of scarcity?

Rick: If you grew up without it, you may want a lot of things, thinking that

that was the answer.

Carol: Both can happen, so you and I talk about modeled habits. So, if

your parents modeled holding on to stuff, you can either follow that model because you think that’s right, or you might get repulsed by that and give everything away as a result. If your parents felt a scarcity issue, they held on to stuff that wasn’t valuable because they thought that would help them feel valued.

Rick: Right.

Carol: You know, you can go both directions. You know, my favorite

expression is, if you grew up in France, you speak French. Well, if you grow up in a household, whatever you see at home, we usually take with us - our parents’ attitudes, their patterns, our grandparents’ attitudes about stuff. It’s about jewelry, books, paper, clothing, carpets, art work, television sets - anything - chairs, dining room tables. You also get involved in that “well, this was my great-great-grandfather’s…”. Well, it’s broken! “But this was my great-great-grandmother’s…”. It’s broken! It’s not worth anything. And that “yes, but…” feeling of you can’t possibly get rid of anything that was part of the family, that comes from a whole emotional energy there, too. So, you and I talk a lot about “Does clutter come from a need to hold on?” Now, is that from your parents? Is that from one experience? Maybe there was an event in your life - and we’ll use EFT with many specific events - maybe there was an event that taught you “you gotta hold on, because if you don’t hold on, you’ll be in trouble, you’ll feel lax, you’ll regret it”. You know the old joke about, “if you throw something out, next week you’ll need it!”

Rick: That thought is in the air. We’ve all heard it. As soon as you have

that experience, it will reinforce that statement, that idea, that as soon as you get rid of it, you’ll need it. If that happens to you once, you will tend to want to move away from the pain of feeling like “Oh, well, I just gave that

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away…” Addressing that in the moment with EFT can be a big help, keeping you from changing your behavior in a way that is not pleasing to you. I think of children who were told to share and maybe they had candy that they wanted to keep, or they had certain things that they wanted that were taken from them, like a toy that was taken prematurely for some reason. “My baby blanket was taken from me before I was ready to let it go!” Those things, we don’t know for sure whether it causes a desire to hold on, hold on, hold on. But if you start having memories like that, as you think about the things that are cluttering your life and you’ve got a resistance from letting go of the thing that so clearly, logically, no-one would accuse you of doing anything silly by getting rid of it. If you still have a feeling of holding on, guess what? There are almost certainly some events from your life that could be used effectively with EFT to shift that “I need to hold on to…”

feeling.

Carol: And maybe you heard someone talk about that. “Oh, darn it, I

shouldn’t have gotten rid of that.” Maybe you were eight and heard an aunt or an uncle or a parent say that. Maybe you did it yourself, and maybe you were ordered to clean up your room at age ten and you threw something out that you wish you hadn’t thrown out. There are so many small instances as well as enormous ones that could lead to the need to hold on. So we’re going to be very flexible, go all the way to both sides of the continuum about why emotionally we might feel the need to hold on to material objects,

books, clothing, scarves…you know how many people have a box of extra mittens, right? Fifteen extra pairs of one-sided mittens, because you might need them one day!

Rick: Or how about that sock that doesn’t have a match? You keep waiting

for it to reappear after its vacation for two years, and you still have those unmatched socks, rather than just taking the whole basket and dumping it out and buying another set for $1.99 at the store? Those are things that give us insight into our energy. You don’t have to take necessarily the big ones. You can take the small ones, the silly ones, and that will give you a doorway that we’re going to show you how to use that to affect the rest of your life, too. Sometimes it’s the simple stuff, isn’t it, Carol? When you shift the simple things, the bigger ones start becoming easier and easier and easier?

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Needing Some Place for the Stuff to Go

(starts @ 32:32)

Carol: Yes, absolutely, and also this reminds me of something else. It also

has to have someplace to go. When I found a fantastic second-hand shop that I could bring bags and bags of clothing and socks and books - they take everything. They’ll take an old picture frame - they’ll take anything. When I found that, that changed how I handled clutter, believe it or not. There was a sense of “I don’t know where to put it. Who am I going to give it to? What am I going to do with it?” It sounds odd, but that shifted something energetically. That, and my office building, half a year ago, put in an enormous industrial shredder in our lobby of our building by the mailbox holders. So, I now feel totally free. I take reams of paper and paperwork and old workshop flyers and things and bills and things that I don’t need and shred it. Now, some people are thinking, “What, you didn’t know how to throw it out?” No, I needed a place to put it where I felt safe getting rid of it.

Rick: Yes.

Carol: And having a second-hand store that is fantastic where I can take

piles and piles and having a shredder…it changed the feeling of being able to let go. Now, I wouldn’t have been open to that had I not been doing all of my energy EFT work on letting go. So that had to come first, then lo and behold, I mean I’ve been doing this taking things to the second-hand store. You helped me with that one time financially when I said, “It’s hard to give away something that you’ve spent a lot of money on.” You helped me realize about the abundance about it, that you’re giving it to someone else. It’s not being thrown in the garbage. It is being given to someone else. Take it to the second-hand store. Give the couch for no money. Give it away, whatever you hold on to, whether it’s furniture or books. I’m starting to give away books, and it feels good. It feels really good.

Rick: I used to hold on to my books. I used to hold on to clothes. I used

to hold on to so many things, and I think you’re right on with that. We need to feel good and safe in the recycling/reuse process. Most of the things that we have that we think are clutter are not just trash.

Carol: Right.

Rick: If it was just trash, if you’re holding on to dirty lollipop wrappers,

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people that say they have a cluttered house, it’s not necessarily a dirty place, it’s just that there are things that they are not ready to move on. I agree with you - in terms of paperwork, for me, dumping it out in a bin that was on its way to the county dump, and I knew somebody was not going to be able to go through it, that provided a measure of safety. Shredding it is great because most of the shredded materials end up being recycled and end up in toilet paper and stuff like that. It’s wonderful. So, I believe that there are ways of allowing that energy to transform and move and flow, but like you said, you won’t see them. You’ll make excuses why it’s not going to work for you. You won’t even see the tax deduction that you get from

donating clothes and books and the like, which can be very considerable. You won’t see those things if your programming is, “I have to hold on to this. I need to hold on to this, or I will feel worse for the not having than the having.”

Carol: One time I was taking a whole load of clothes to a Salvation Army,

and in it - the Salvation Army was actually built like a store as well - there was some seventeen-year-old kid who found a black suit or a tuxedo for his prom, and he bought it for like two dollars. Some man gave a tuxedo that probably cost hundreds of dollars, and this seventeen-year-old kid paid three dollars for it, and he was beaming! I was like, suddenly energetically, “I got it! I get it! I get it!” That sense of “I might need this one day” or “Who’s going to use it?”, there are millions of people who can use the book you read and loved, who can use that sweater that, you know what, it’s not your style any more. You’ve moved to a different…

Rick: Your energy has changed! Every time someone’s energy changes,

the clothes that used to work for you are not going to work for you. And unless you backpedaled to junior high school, chances are you’re not going to be interested in wearing those clothes any more. I had always wondered what the “nearly new” shop did with the clothes that nobody seemed to buy. They went off to Guatemala. Every year, some of the local surgeons would go down and do free surgery down in Guatemala, and when they did, they would take shipping crates worth of clothes and materials and other things that were appropriate for the villagers that they would be seeing. And they were like Santa Claus for these people - the shirts and socks and things that we may not be happy with, there are people in different places in terms of financial abundance that can be happy with it. If you find that that idea makes you tense and uncomfortable, we’re delighted to have you listen, because that is the energy that, if it shifts, you will find a lot of things start flowing in your life. And it’s okay to be there. We all pick these things up. We can pick them up from movies, from our family, from bosses, friends - just the experience of living can say, “It’s better to hold on than to let go.” From a flow standpoint, that’s not true.

(19)

Carol: I remember first being in New York, and living in these tiny

apartments and not having enough furniture or a little ceramic thing for the table - I mean, I didn’t have anything. So I would kind of collect stuff that was neither my style, my preference, my taste, I didn’t buy it. If someone was throwing something out, I was happy to have it. I don’t mean grungy stuff, but you know - someone would say, “I don’t need this ashtray any more”, and it’s like, well, I wasn’t smoking any more, but “I’d like an ashtray on my table!”

Rick: (laughing)

Carol: Because I had nothing. I was living in a studio apartment. I was

lucky to have a couple of chairs. So that feeling took a while to let go of. That sense - we have categories - that needing to hold on, the insecurity, “there’s not enough”, “even though it’s not great, grab it anyway”. “There’s not enough, so why don’t you…” People do that with overeating, too.

There’s not enough food, so they’ll eat more of something they don’t like because there might not be enough food tomorrow. Well, we do that with items - with material objects. We fear that there’s not going to be enough for us and we hold on.

Rick: Then there is the “what if…” game. “What if I need this…”, what if,

what if, what if, what if - all the negative what-ifs that you can ask around a specific thing that has you put it back instead of letting it move on.

Carol: Right. So, the fear of “we might need it one day”, “if only I had held

on to…”, “what if…” - that’s connected to regret. What we’re going to get more into the emotions, the lack of, and how our emotions make us hold on rather than a life experience of “I threw something out and I wish I hadn’t because I needed it.” That “I might need it one day” - I hear that over and over and over again in this society. People tease about it. It’s a cliché: “Oh, you might need that one day!” People talk about that even when they don’t really believe it. That’s a very common topic. “Oh, you might need that one day!” They’re teasing. They’re talking around the water cooler: “Don’t clean up your office…” I think that’s a very common topic of

conversation.

Rick: I think it’s also a way of covering for the emotional discomfort that

people have about letting it go. I say, “I might need it some day”, and I can’t argue with it. Right? You might need that carburetor from that 1974 Chevy Vega that you haven’t owned for 15 years. “You might need it some day. It might be worth something someday.” That’s the other side of it. “It might be worth something someday.”

(20)

Carol: That’s the abundance…

Rick: “Yep, look at those Beanie Babies. They might be, if they’re in

pristine condition!” But are they really something that you’re enjoying having in your space and in your life? You can always go back and re-buy them, if you want, and if you’re in a place of abundance, that’s one of the measures: if something really isn’t life or death, and it’s right to let go of, if you can’t, then to me, that’s a sign that you’ve got an energy around it that isn’t as healthy and useful and resourceful.

Scarcity and Lack

(starts @ 41:00)

Carol: Yes, and that it’s being used for the wrong reasons. So let’s talk

about scarcity and lack.

Rick: Okay.

Carol: In scarcity and lack, maybe you don’t have your physical needs met.

Maybe you grew up in poverty and you really didn’t have enough clothes or enough warmth or enough shoes. That’s a serious, real physical lack and scarcity. But now you’ve grown up and you have a job, and you actually are providing for yourself and you have enough. It may not feel plentiful, but you have clothes and shoes and a roof over your head. You know, it’s hard to grow out of that, where one day… I’ve always had clients talk to me about how they grew up so poor, and they’re wealthy now, or wealthy by comparison.

Rick: Yes.

Carol: They have a job and they do have a home, and they’re so afraid that

they’re going to go back to being poor, the way they were as a child. They can’t let go of that. All the signs are there that they’ve changed that energy - they have an income and they have a salary and they’re taking care of themselves much better than the previous generation, but that energy is in them. “Yes, but what if I ever go back to that poverty state I was in as a kid?” It’s very powerful.

Rick: You didn’t have a pair of shoes that fit, so now you can’t even let go

of the shoes that are so well worn out, or that you will never wear again. You were short of food for a while, legitimately, and it was painful -

(21)

traumatic, even. So now, your pantry has to be stocked to overflowing, and your refrigerator has to be stocked to overflowing. You don’t feel

comfortable unless it is. Those are signs of that scarcity and lack. It’s not a mentality only - we call it a mentality - but it’s a feeling in the body. It’s a whole-body experience of discomfort when you think about changing that. Recognize that it’s not a behavior that’s serving you, that may have led you to this program. Now, what we’re going to be doing is help you feel

comfortable shifting that, by acknowledging and doing a little detective work about where that lack of physical needs being met early in your life is still being run and experienced now - and run amok, to a certain extent.

Carol: And by the way, if your energy is in that lack because of what you

grew up with (or didn’t grow up with), stocking the refrigerator and the

pantry doesn’t scratch the itch. If you didn’t grow up with enough shoes and socks and clothing or enough warmth, having fifteen thousand sweaters doesn’t actually do the job, but we are under the illusion that it does.

Rick: I think it does self-medicate, but it’s a self-medication that lasts for a

very short period of time. It’s really a case where any change in the negative direction is a trend that you’re sensitive to. So as long as you’re accumulating more and more and more and more, you’re comfortable, but as soon as that trend starts changing, where you start feeling like stuff is moving out rather than more and more and more stuff being accumulated - whoa, now we’ve got the problem. That’s the trigger. It doesn’t matter whether you’re starting from a thousand pair of shoes or ten. If you have an issue around needing lots of physical things, if the trend shifts the other way…uh-oh. Your being will start sabotaging any effort - sometimes rather dramatically sabotaging.

Carol: No one ever accumulates unless they have an energetic place of lack

that they’re trying to fill. It’s not normal to accumulate for no reason, just for security. In other words, it comes from an emotion. It comes from energy. You’re not reading the book. You couldn’t possibly read the thousands of books. You couldn’t possibly go through all those papers. I used to hold on to all the old workshop brochures that I put out, or my 20- and 30-page pamphlets that I gave to people from 1998, my first EFT

workshops, 1997 - and I got to the point where I realized, “I don’t need that one day! I won’t need that!” But it was an insecurity of “Yes, but what if someone needs it? What if I need to copy it? What if I need to do

another…” I have so moved on from that time period in my life, and even how I teach EFT, but I had to really wrap my head around that, and it was wonderfully cleansing when I did. We’re offering people a way to clear and to cleanse, because I must say that it’s very hard to do it by yourself. If you’ve had the lack of food and the lack of physical needs - and what about

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lack of love? Let’s talk about that for a little bit. If you’ve experienced a lack of love, what might you hold on to in your life?

Lack of Love

(starts @ 45:00)

Rick: Anything that gives you comfort. Anything that makes you feel loved.

The person that had a lack of love generally, but felt loved when Grandma brought her some chocolate chip cookies, will want to hoard chocolate chip cookies as well as other food and things that evoke the same energy. If you felt loved and safe escaping into books - and a lot of people did as children - they would be able to pick up a book and escape into it, and it would allow them to not be in their body and in their current life. Well, why in the world would you ever want to get rid of a single book? Because the books

represented not only love, but safety. Those are, for me, some of the key examples. What do you think of when you see people compensate for lack of love with clutter?

Carol: Before I say that, I want to go back to one of your earlier points

that, if you have a beautiful library of a thousand books, and you walk in and you feel happy there - not energetically disturbed or chaotic - then that’s not clutter.

Rick: It isn’t.

Carol: Keep your lovely, beautiful books! You’re not self-medicating - it’s

fantastic! I just want to make that point again. It’s about your reaction and your response to the stuff in your life. But regarding love, I have found people literally hold on to and get cluttered with relationships.

Rick: Oh.

Carol: The relationships that aren’t serving them anymore, the

relationships that are a drag on their energy, but they keep up. I think, “Now why is he keeping up with that person? You told me two weeks ago that they criticized you, and it’s no fun, and you felt like you had grown past them, but you can’t let go!” So they have two hundred close

acquaintances…

Rick: (laughing) …that they all have to send Christmas cards to every year,

(23)

Carol: …which makes them feel special. So if that love issue - if you’re

starving, if you’re starved from love and comfort and care and affection from your family, you may grow up and mistake and confuse quantity with

quality.

Rick: Can it also be that somebody makes a statement to themselves as a

younger child, “I will never do this to someone else,” that they felt rejected and let go of.

Carol: Yes.

Rick: They say, “I will never turn away from anyone, even if that person is

messing up my psyche. They’re being mean to me, disrespectful, there is no emotional or even physical safety. I’m not going to turn away from that person. I’ve got to hold on.” That’s a very good point about relationship clutter. I also think about groups. I hear about people that are on so many different committees…

Carol: Right.

Rick: …that they have all of these different areas where the ways that

they’re trying to contribute to society is so cluttered, they don’t feel good anymore. They’re just doing too much. Again, I think it comes down to that looking at “Why is this serving you?” on some level. What rule would you be breaking if you let go of this?

Carol: Right, and if you only feel valued because you contribute? I believe

in contribution, absolutely, and doing service, but if you don’t feel valued without it, then you’ll be on fourteen committees, three local societal organizations…and you will be stretched beyond your capacity and not be giving to yourself or your family anymore. That would defeat the purpose. This is what you and I always see in our coaching practices and in our workshops with people who… they’re trying to get a need met, but they’re going about it backwards, the wrong way. It doesn’t meet the need, except for very temporarily, and then they end up more hungry later.

Rick: I think you just defined what clutter is.

Carol: I’m so glad people are listening to this, because we knew it was

complicated. You know, everybody teases, “Oh, yeah, I’m so cluttered. I’m a mess. Oh, yes, my office…my home…” It is very complex. I won’t say complicated - it’s complex, energetically. We believe from our personal and professional experiences that you can make huge progress using EFT to clear the clutter emotionally, spiritually, physically, in your body, with

(24)

relationships. You know those people who, their last 27 girlfriends or

boyfriends are still buddies? Still pals? And I think, “Really? You didn’t like them enough to stay with them…” but they don’t want to let go of anybody. “No, we dated 23 years ago…” What are you doing? What’s the point? What is the point of keeping in touch with everyone? What is that serving? We’re back to “How does that serve you?” How is that really taking care of you? Maybe it’s taking care of you because you feel safer that you haven’t lost touch with anybody because some family member lost touch with your parents or your grandparents, and it’s a family story. Again, family stories and family patterns and habits are where we learn. That’s our first

language.

Rick: So, on the other side of clutter, there’s safety, there’s simplicity,

there’s a “going with the flow”, and there’s an emotional freedom that allows you to choose the things to be in your life that feel really delicious, that give you that sense of abundance, that let you live a life that is thriving,

enjoyable - that you can be eager about without dragging with you stuff that really can be left behind for someone else or recycling, composting, what have you.

Carol: And you can be so much more creative when you’re not cluttered.

Again, cluttered on any level, like what you’re saying with safety and simplicity on the other side. And creativity - there can be some real brilliance and inspiration on the other side when your energy isn’t being dampened by stuff.

Rick: Thank you, Carol. Carol: Thank you!

(25)

Recording #2

Clearing Emotions, Events, and Conflicts

Carol: First thing, Rick: We need to decide whether we’re clearing an

emotion, an event, or a conflict, because we treat those differently with EFT.

Rick: Do you want to give us a little background on what you mean by that,

Carol?

Carol: With the emotion, if someone says, “I’m so cluttered because I feel

anxious about all the work I have to do,” that’s in the now. Right now, they think about all the work they have to do and the feeling comes up in their body. That’s our target. Maybe they feel clutter because of an event in their life. Maybe something happened in their family, in their high school, in their college. Maybe something happened that somehow triggered this feeling of overwhelm and clutter. Then we go back to, “In 1992, ‘x’

happened, and this was the feeling,” and we tap on that. We have different targets.

Rick: Yes. Right.

Carol: A conflict might be…you know how people say, “My desk is messy,

but I can find everything, so don’t touch it”? Some people think they should be all neat and tidy and noncluttered, but they really don’t work that way. It’s okay to have some, and honestly, their system does work for them. So that would be a conflict. So then we’d use “Even though I have a conflict about clutter, and I’m not sure I want to clean it up”, “even though people are saying “should, should, should”” - so then that’s important, too.

Rick: Right. When people are doing it for the wrong reasons, they’re doing

it because everyone else looks at them and judges them…

Carol: Yes.

Rick: …versus “What’s right for me?” Carol: Right.

(26)

Rick: “What’s the level of organization?” - because organization is a time

investment. It is.

Carol: Absolutely.

Rick: Things tend toward disorganization. The amount that you invest in

the organization of various areas of your home, various areas of your office and your life, will depend both on your own personality and what works for the way that your brain is structured…

Carol: Right.

Rick: …as well as some compromise with other people in your life. What’s

the balance? If you clear the conflict there, then you’ll be able to get clarity about what’s a YES for you.

Carol: I think that’s important because you and I are really having fun

doing this, and that’s really helping me with my clutter, and really, things are changing. However, no one needs to do it our way. That sense of you saying, “the judgment from others” - we’re just offering stuff to help you. If they want to shift the clutter and EFT energetically, we’ll shift the reason you have excess clutter that’s making you unhappy. If your clutter is making you unhappy, that’s a problem. If you’re happy with your clutter, you know what? Work on something else.

Rick: (laughing) Chances are you’re not listening to this anyway!

Carol: (laughing) True, true, true. So I thought we could start with the

emotions, because they seem to be all over the place for everyone. We have so many emotions that we could tap on that would clear the clutter in the mind and in the energy. We have all sorts of emotions here:

overwhelm, fear, scarcity, abandonment, anger, guilt, shame. Do you have a preference on where to start?

(27)

The Feeling of “Overwhelmed”

(starts @ 02:57)

Carol: Overwhelm? Okay.

Rick: Things that are inherent in clutter is that you look at it and there is no

organization to it. You feel often that it’s clutter because it’s too much to get your hands around - too much to get through. Something that doesn’t feel that way, I’m not sure is even clutter.

Carol: Right.

Rick: So that’s why, to me, starting with overwhelm - the feeling that,

“How do I do this?”. I think we’ll go from that emotion to some of the other subsidiary ones that are all around how you feel when you connect to the reality that is your clutter.

Carol: Yes, and I think what’s hard for people and is so challenging is if you

feel overwhelmed by your clutter, you can’t start cleaning it.

Rick: No.

Carol: So there’s this terrible cycle that happens, where “I’m overwhelmed

by my clutter!” What you need to do to get less overwhelmed is to clean the garbage! You can’t clean the clutter because you’re overwhelmed! So

again, EFT would be fabulous, and I’ve certainly done it with myself and with others for that overwhelming emotional feeling. Maybe your overwhelm is actually about your life and emotions, so then you become cluttered because you’re not paying attention to that, and it’s not overwhelm about looking at your clutter. Those are two separate tracks also.

Rick: Right.

Carol: Shall I lead you through one? Rick: That would be great!

Carol: All right. As all of you know, we start on the Karate Chop point, and

then go through the regular points, tapping.

(28)

Carol: Let’s have people look at their clutter and get that feeling of

“overwhelmed”, and then we’re going to tap on that and then we might do “overwhelmed” with feelings in their life - what feels like clutter in their emotional life.

Rick: Got it.

Carol: They’re two separate ones. Okay?

Rick: I’ve got a big pile of stuff that I put in a place where it has been piling

up. I added to it this morning. I even have an empty box sitting there, too…

Carol: (laughing)

Rick: (laughing) …I’ve got all kinds of a mix of stuff there. Carol: I love using props.

Rick: I can feel it coming already!

Carol: Great! You and I love using props with EFT, right? Rick: Right.

Carol: So the prop is in your office or your home or your purse or your

briefcase or whatever. Look at the clutter. What does it do to you physiologically?

Rick: The idea here is to build some intensity. Carol: Yes.

Rick: We have gotten used to, many times, ignoring it - just not seeing it.

That’s to avoid the overwhelm feeling.

Carol: Yes.

Rick: Right now, we’d like you to look at it, and if you’re going to feel

overwhelmed, let that feeling come up right now while we tap together.

Carol: And how about measuring it on our EFT 0-10 intensity scale that we

(29)

Rick: Great.

Carol: …see if you get a place in your body. Rick: Yes!

Carol: Where does the overwhelm show up for you in your body?

Rick: Mine is at the base of my throat - upper chest, base of my throat.

I’m feeling that as I look at these things and, really - Ugh!

Carol: And mine right now is definitely upper chest. I hadn’t even noticed

it was there until I was asking the listeners to do that.

Tapping on the Feeling of “Overwhelmed”

(starts @ 05:52)

Carol: Okay.

Karate Chop point: Even though I feel overwhelmed when I look at all this

stuff…

…and I don’t know what to do with it all… …and I don’t know how to even get started. I deeply and profoundly…

…accept myself anyway.

Even though I feel overwhelmed by my own clutter… …and I can feel it in my body right now…

…I deeply and profoundly… …accept all of me anyway.

Even though I’m critical of myself… …because of all my clutter…

…I accept who I am… …no matter what.

Eyebrow: I feel overwhelmed by my own clutter. Side of the eye: I’m overwhelmed by my own clutter. Under the eye: There’s too much!

Under the nose: Too much clutter! Chin: It makes me feel overwhelmed.

(30)

Collarbone: I feel overwhelmed by my own clutter. Under the arm: It’s too much, and I feel it in my body. Top of the head: I just want to run away.

…or ignore it.

Carol: Take a breath.

Rick: Ahhhhhh… (deep breath) Right before we finished, it actually got

more intense. I could feel it become more sharp in my upper chest. I was doing that intentionally. I was looking at these things and really feeling what it meant to me in terms of overwhelm. I could use another round.

Carol: Yes. Absolutely.

Round Two - “Overwhelmed”

(starts @ 7:40)

Karate Chop: Even though I still feel overwhelmed by my clutter…

…and I feel it in my body…

…I deeply and profoundly accept myself anyway. Even though I am overwhelmed by my own clutter… …and I am embarrassed by it…

…I accept who I am… …no matter what.

Even though I hate this overwhelming feeling… …all this clutter…

…all this clutter in my life… I accept who I am right now.

Eyebrow: This remaining overwhelming feeling.

Side of the eye: I look at my clutter and I feel overwhelmed. Under the eye: No wonder I can’t do anything about it.

Under the nose: No wonder I can’t do anything about it. Chin: All this clutter is overwhelming me.

Collarbone: I’m overwhelmed by my own clutter. Under the arm: I don’t even want to look at it. Top of the head: I don’t even want to look at it. Carol: I thought we’d stop there.

(31)

Carol: We could always do a positive round, kind of a clearing round, but I

thought we’d stop there and just check in.

Rick: What’s interesting is that I now am seeing individual items, and

there’s a specific action associated with at least two of the items. The box - easily thrown away.

Carol: Mmm-hmm.

Rick: And there’s a spray bottle for cleaning the screen on my computer.

And I feel like, now, I see it, and I know that that’s right to just clean it and then put away that spray bottle. Those two things are different than when I first looked at it. As I now look at it, I’m picking out certain things that feel like they’re heavy, that there’s an obligation involved with doing something with it. That’s part of the overwhelm. Now, as I start seeing the individual items, my overwhelm sees that there is a CD sitting here that someone gave me. It feels like, “Aw, now I gotta write a thank-you, and they didn’t send an email, so what am I going to do with that?” and “Do I really have time…”

Carol: Mmm-hmm.

Rick: “…to listen to this CD?” That’s part of the overwhelm process to me,

if I start looking really at it. Is there something we can do for that?

Carol: Well, yes. One thing I was going to say is that I forgot to ask you

your number at looking at the pile, because things are different. This is very

important energetically for you to be able to see things. Things are popping out at you, and that’s what happens. If someone is overwhelmed about a relationship, they’re not looking at the relationship either. They do some tapping, and suddenly pieces of the relationship start to show themselves, and they understand what they can do. So I forgot to ask you the number. I’m sorry about that. But what I can tell you about my chest - you know, I was saying that it was in my upper chest as I’m looking at this particular corner - is that has definitely gone down in me.

Rick: Yes. Around the whole pile, it’s probably gone from a 7 to a 2. Carol: Okay.

Rick: Around one of the specific things that is sitting here in the front, kind

of on the top…

(32)

Rick: …the CD, I don’t have clarity. It feels like, “Ugh! What do I do with

this? You don’t throw out a gift!” You know? So those are examples of now we’re at specifics.

Carol: And decisions. What kind of decisions should you make? Rick: Decisions. And that’s an aspect of clutter.

Carol: Okay.

Rick: “What do I do?” If I could reduce the overwhelm feeling around even

one specific item on there, I sense that everything might shift a bit. I feel that when my breathing gets constricted.

Carol: Okay.

Rick: I’m sharing this with everyone because this is the type of thing that

will happen. Your body reaction may be different.

Carol: Right.

Rick: You may want to run. Carol: Right, right.

Rick: I feel like I want to release this tension, so I’m staying very focused

on it.

Carol: And 0-10, the tension for you about this particular item is what? Rick: It just feels overwhelming at about an 8.

Carol: Mmm-hmm.

Rick: It’s not that important to me… Carol: Mmm-hmm.

Rick: …which actually makes it more overwhelming. If it was really

important, then it would be something that I would fit into my day, but it’s not that important to me.

(33)

Rick: I’m looking at the last two bank statements that I haven’t reconciled.

In terms of the grand scheme of things, I’m already kind of electronically up to date. But they’re sitting there.

Carol: Right.

Rick: And what do you do when something feels overwhelming? It feels

like kind of a chaotic, “Ughhhhhhhhhhh”… (laughing)

Carol: And not being able to make decisions about small things, because

you’re overwhelmed. I mean, we could do 6 audio CD tapes on being overwhelmed period with no extra content…

Rick: Right.

Carol: …and it would help people because it is such a common issue. Okay.

So the overwhelming tension is about an 8?

Rick: In my breathing, it is. Carol: Okay.

Rick: Not in my mind. In my mind, I’ve got pretty good…I could come up

with something logical. But in my breathing, in my body, there’s not an alignment between the part of me that says, “Just file this on the shelf - no problem” versus leaving it here in my to-do, big, huge pile.

Tapping on Decision-Making

(starts @ 12:59)

Karate Chop: Even though I don’t know what to do…

…and that’s tightening up my breathing… …I deeply and profoundly…

…accept myself anyway.

Even though I can’t make a decision about this… …and it’s making my breathing all tight…

…I accept who I am no matter what.

Even though I feel overwhelmed when I can’t make decisions… …and I don’t know what to do…

(34)

…I accept who I am… …no matter what.

Eyebrow: I feel overwhelmed again.

Side of the eye: What do I do with this stuff? Under the eye: I can’t make a decision. Nose: I don’t know what to do…

Chin: …and my breathing is so tight.

Collarbone: I don’t know what to do with this stuff… Under the arm: …and it’s making me tense.

Top of the head: I don’t know what to do with this stuff.

Rick: Ahhhhhh… (deep breath) My breathing has relaxed dramatically.

There’s still a point in my upper chest on my right-hand side. We often see this, where we’ll relax in one area and it might become more noticeably constricted in another place.

Carol: Mmm-hmm.

Rick: What’s interesting is that I don’t feel as overwhelmed about that. It

was a gift, and I’m starting to connect to the energy of the gift rather than the obligation…

Carol: Mmm-hmm.

Rick: …to do something. I had a rule. This person sent me something. It’s

nice. It’s actually appreciated. I don’t know exactly when I’ll listen to it, but it’s got a good energy to it.

Carol: Mmm-hmm.

Rick: I’m shifting. I can feel the shift around this. What’s interesting, too,

is that everything else doesn’t feel heavy to me.

Carol: Nice.

Rick: I’m getting to that resourceful state. There are some exceptions I’m

thinking of, in terms of overwhelming now, quite a bit.

Carol: Nice. Rick: Thank you.

References

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