When positive thinking isn’t enough

This post is inspired by an interview I saw this week, where Marie Forleo, the founder of B-School (which I am so delighted to be a part of this year) interviewed EFT tapping expert Nick Ortner. Click here to see the interview.

In between dancing up and down with joy that Marie was spreading the the word about my beloved EFT (you probably know by now that I think it’s the best tool ever and want to see everyone tapping out their troubles) something that Nick said really caught my attention.

That got me thinking about positive thinking and reminded me of my own EFT story. I’ve been a huge fan of positive thinking and the Law of Attraction and have been following the work of Abraham-Hicks for over 5 years now and applying those principles in my life. Yet, sometimes I’ve struggled, especially when things felt really bad, serious or troubling. At those times, it was hard to remember to be positive or find ways to ‘raise my vibrations’ i.e. to reach for better feeling thoughts or feel ok anyway (when things were feeling anything but ok).

At times like that I’d just get stuck in a hole for a while. The energy would eventually shift, but it would be pretty rough for a time. I remember being in that place 4 years ago – we were building our home (literally – I’m pretty good at dry lining walls you know), and  were suddenly ordered to stop. There was an error in the legal ‘planning permission’ that had come with the land. What I didn’t know at the time was that the error that we were assured would take 4 – 6 weeks to resolve actually took 18 months!

I remember sitting outside, I’d tried to be positive – and failed. I’d tried to appreciate other things in my life, but it didn’t help. I was scared. I tried sitting quietly with the discomfort. It felt very, very uncomfortable. I got quiet, still being aware of the discomfort. I actually tried this for two days in a row. On the second day, the words ‘Even though’ came into my mind and suddenly I remembered about tapping (I’d been a case study for a friend a few years previously and had used EFT sporadically since – the words ‘even though’ are part of the EFT set up statement*). So, I tapped, then and there… and I started to feel better.

The relief was palpable. Maybe the idea of ‘loving and accepting myself anyway’ helped soften my fear to begin with, as even just saying that phrase brought relief. As I tapped I could feel myself relax, my breathing deepen, my fear soften.

I tapped, mostly daily from then on, and whilst I can’t say that I was a beaming ray of sunshine everyday, I was ok, despite the chaos that ensued (we were told so many different things, didn’t know when we could resume, didn’t know if we’d ever get to finish it, we had to leave the area – it really became a catalogue of errors that I wouldn’t find believable if it hadn’t actually happened to me personally).

It was still hard, but I was able to cope when I tapped through my emotions (a friend asked me 6 months later whether I had holes in my head from all the tapping). I can honestly say that it was the tapping that got me through – after each letter of bad news, each stomach churning phone call, each set back – I would tap on the helplessness, the feeling of being in limbo, of not knowing what would happen. After each round of tapping it was easier to feel more grounded, to breathe easier, to have more clarity.

I still find that when I’m in a really stressful situation, and I’m finding it hard to feel safe, positive thinking or Law of Attraction techniques don’t always help me to shift my energy or mood, so I go and tap. Thank goodness I have it at my fingertips.

So, if you are finding that positive thinking isn’t enough to get you through, try tapping. There may be some underlying beliefs and patterns that are triggering you, or it could be a challenging or stressful situation. Whatever it is, here’s a tap-along EFT video to help you cope. If you don’t see the picture below, please click here to see the video. Thank you.

Now it’s over to you. I’d love to hear how tapping along is helping you. So, please watch the video, rate your issue, tap along, see what changes and report your findings below in the comments section.

Also, if you feel that someone you know could benefit from this post and video please share it with them – thank you.

* For those that aren’t familiar with EFT, ‘Even though’ is the start of the EFT set up statement,  e.g. ‘Even though I have this ______ I deeply and completely accept myself anyway.’ 

For more EFT info, please click here.