As we continue to cope with this pandemic, economic chaos, political brouhaha and civil unrest–I personally feel like my emotions are all over the map these days. In fact, this past week, our former First Lady Michelle Obama validated her emotional journey, stating she’s suffering from a “low-grade depression.” The reasons? The pandemic, race relations in the US and the political strife surrounding it all, she says.
“I’m waking up in the middle of the night because I’m worrying about something or there’s a heaviness,” Obama said in her “The Michelle Obama Podcast” on Wednesday. “I try to make sure I get a workout in, although there have been periods throughout this quarantine, where I just have felt too low.”
Her words are definitely striking a cord of truth for many of us these days. She further states: “The idea that what this country is going through shouldn’t have any effect on us—that we all should just feel OK all the time—that just doesn’t feel real to me. So I hope you all are allowing yourselves to feel whatever it is you’re feeling.” As stated in one of my previous articles you’ve got to feel it to heal it or as Robert Frost observed: “The only way out is always through.”
In truth, it feels like Michelle’s words are giving us all permission to bring some discussion around this topic of our pandemic emotional merry go round–how wonderful and necessary. And this brings me to revisiting a user-friendly wellness option that I have previously written about regarding emotional self-care called “tapping” otherwise known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) addressed in a book titled The Tapping Solution by Nick Ortner.
Even though wellness ideas can come and go as our wellness journey evolves, isn’t it wonderful how God/the Universe put things (sometimes back) into our lives when we most need them? This time, I’ve been admittedly awestruck by the potential this holds for anyone looking for deeper wellness options — what an excellent example of the mind/body connection and what’s possible.
As a quick review–the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is the psychological acupressure technique routinely used in non-traditional practice and is highly recommended to optimize our emotional wellness–and who couldn’t use more of that these days? Although it’s still often overlooked, emotional health is absolutely essential to our physical health and healing–no matter how devoted we are to the proper diet and lifestyle, experts believe that we’ll not achieve our body’s ideal healing and preventative powers if emotional barriers stand in our way.
Some EFT Benefits:
Remove Negative Emotions
Reduce Food Cravings
Reduce or Eliminate Pain
Decrease Anxiety and Stress
Enhance healing
Improve sleeping
Psychological acupressure is based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over 5,000 years, but without needles. Instead, simple tapping with the fingertips is used to input kinetic energy onto specific meridians while we think about our specific concern–while voicing positive affirmations.
This combination of tapping the energy meridians and voicing positive affirmation works to clear the “short-circuit”–the emotional block–from our body’s bioenergy system–restoring our mind and body’s balance, which is essential for optimal wellness and healing.
We’ve all heard of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) in relation to our soldiers’ response to challenging war-related experiences–I feel we all suffer from PTSD (especially now)–from small to larger extents–in fact, it becomes part of our DNA until cleared.
One provider wrote: “more than any traditional or alternative method I have used or researched, EFT works. I have witnessed amazing results in my patients since deciding to use EFT exclusively since 2001.” Indeed, because of its very high rate of success, the use of EFT has spread rapidly, and medical practitioners employing EFT can now be found in every corner of the country and the world. However, the beauty of it is that it can be quickly and easily learned by any of us.
As I revisit this self-healing option, I’m currently using my tapping for the healing of my recent stem cell knee injections, releasing fear, stress and feeling safe and grounded. How valuable is all that?? And I must report that I am experiencing many improvements in these areas.
There are numerous resources available online including a free smartphone app called The Tapping Solution which guides us through the tapping process depending on our wellness goal(s). (For some of the tapping options, you may need to upgrade, however, it’s very affordable.) They recently added several 5-day series: “Releasing Anxiety” and “You are Enough” and there’s an entire section on dealing with the Coronavirus. .
More Coronavirus humor: Just wait a second–so what you’re telling me is that my chance of surviving all this, is directly linked to the Common Sense of others? Be afraid–cause it doesn’t seem very common for many.
We are complex souls, Warriors–let’s do whatever we can to get to support our emotional well being. Progress not perfection–and let’s be gentle with ourselves along the way.