Hope.
It is a powerful word and feeling. Yet it is more than that. It can be a driving force behind change, or a comfort in dark times. Hope is a fundamental part of dealing with the future, which often feels large, dangerous, and beyond our control. Yet as a component of good health, hope is often overlooked and in short supply in present day. With constant fears of the future, studies are showing that our youth increasingly feel that they have no future or that the future for them is bleak. Who can blame them. Rising costs of resources and housing, growing mental health issues of stress, anxiety, depression, environmental concerns, political instability, wide spread anger and hate messaging. All of these paint a pretty dark picture for the young of today. They feel that the future is actually “hopeless” and that they will have no chance of success. Society tries to heal this with growing numbers of distractions, medications, drugs, etc. Yet what are we doing to bring them hope? How could we possibly bring hope when everywhere and everything keeps pointing towards hopelessness?
That is where I believe and have found that energy medicine in general, and EFT in particular brings hope back into the equation. I have had the opportunity to experience both as a practitioner and first hand personally how EFT can bring back hope into the equation. It allows a person to process and handle the emotional baggage that we all are carrying around. In the moment it can help bring us back to a place of neutrality and peace and overcome the intense feelings we experience interacting with our environment. Even more, it can help us over come moments and memories from our past in a healthy way, allowing us to then experience hope for the future. It brings us back to the present and helps to dial all the negative input of the world down to a more manageable and reasonable level. For my self and many others it has even been the tool that allows us to heal old hurts and fears. How do I know all this? I have experienced it myself.
I come from a family riddled with mental health illnesses and traumatic experiences. I had severe anxiety, depression, dread of the future, collapse of personality, PTSD, and a variety of other health concerns both physically and mentally. I tried Talk Therapy, EDMR, SSRI’s, supplements, exercise, soldiering through, bottling it, hiding in my room crying, judging myself and everyone else, and blowing up at everyone around me. None of it worked long term. None of it got to the root. Worse, trying so many different methods and tools, left me feeling like it was hopeless. Like I would never be free of the nightmare, the pain, the fear. I gave up trying, I had no hope. I finally became bed ridden, just wishing to end. Then EFT entered the room.
Previous to my collapse I had been an incredible sceptic. I believed it was too easy, too simple to actually do anything for me. I went out of my way to try and disprove it as a strategy, tool, or method of healing. I refused to even give it a try, claiming it was to “Woo Woo”. Yet when I crashed into rock bottom, having given up on everything I finally relented and gave it a try. I remember standing in my mother in laws kitchen absolutely miserable finally willing to give it a try stating “Fine, but it won’t work”. She had me touch my toes, then we did a few rounds of EFT saying “this is stupid, this won’t work”. I remember my shock when she had me touch my toes again and I was able to no problem. I was blown away. I then had my first EFT session, starting out small and gentle. We focused on just how I felt then in the moment. There was much crying, shaking and weeping. Yet by the end with a few deep breaths (which previously I could not get) and my feet in the grass of her back yard I felt a little bit better. The fear was not as intense. The sadness not as deep. The situation not as hopeless as I had thought. Looking back, I see that in that one session I had a glimmer of hope with the thought of “maybe I can get better.
Since then I have become an active member of society again. I teach in middle schools, went and became a practitioner of EFT, had a son, and am feeling the peace and joy I had never thought I could have. EFT gave me the hope to get better, and that hope propelled me forwards. I had frequent weekly sessions slowly plodding forwards through the years of accumulated much, and looked at some of the ugliest moments/memories of my life. EFT helped me through it all and gave me the hope for a better future. Now working with clients myself, I have the privilege of seeing the same thing happen. I get to see people bring up and forward the areas in their life that they feel hopeless about, and then during and after the session something shifts and they can see hope forwards with the issue. So I encourage you to give EFT a try, even just a simple YouTube demo or guided EFT session. Experience what it feels like to have hope again.