Stress Management with EFT

Definition: a person's physiological response to an external stimulus that triggers the "fight-or-flight" reaction.

This did us well until the industrial revolution and people were packed into factories to mass produce stuff. From then on we did less and less physical exercise and stayed in one spot longer and longer. We couldn’t run or fight but the new stress had to go somewhere.

Hans Selye (Physician) was born in Vienna to Austrian/Hungarian parents. Selye worked as a professor and director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine and Surgery at the Université de Montréal. It was his work that brought stress to the forefront of causing dis-ease in the body.

Hans Selye looked at stress a number of ways:

• Stress is not simply nervous tension. Stress reactions do occur in lower animals, and even in plants that have no nervous systems.
• A biological process, a wide ranging set of events in the body, irrespective of cause or of subjective awareness.
• Excessive stress occurs when the demands made on an organism exceed that organism's reasonable capacities to fulfill them.

Types of Events that cause stress:

Major Events
• Marriage, Divorce, Changing Careers usually involuntarily, Moving, Death

Long Term
• Children's future, Financial, Economic, Ongoing debilitating illness

Short Term
• Traffic, Rude people
• Frustrations with equipment & people

How this may show up in our bodies.

Physically
• Sleep problems (Lack of sleep, inability to sleep, oversleeping)
• Hair loss
• Headaches
• Neck pain
• Back pain
• Skin problems
• Heart disease & attacks (palpitations or irregular beat, high blood pressure, chest pain, inability to breath, sweaty palms, hot/cold waves)
• Digestive system (heart burn, gas, stomach pain & cramps, constipation & diarrhea )

Emotionally
• Increased sense of nervousness or anxiety
• Depression
• Mood swings
• Anti-social behaviours
• Edginess
• Anger/frustration
• Lack of concentration
• Memory problems
• Tendency to overreact

Reduction Techniques
• Self-understanding -know yourself as a Type A or a Type B personality.
• Self-management – organizing your personal life and work areas

• Conflict resolution- being complete with all you take on so you can move on to the next task.
• Positive Attitude – the “I can” attitude
• Self-talk –your own personal cheer leader
• Autogenic training.

It usually involves a series of sessions in which the patients learn to relax their limbs, heart, and breathing. The goal is to induce a pleasant, warm feeling throughout most of the body and induce a feeling of coolness in the forehead. The technique is used against stress-induced psychosomatic disorders.

• Progressive relaxation
• Breathing –becoming aware of your own breath
• Meditation, Tai Chi
• Yoga -stills the mind by working directly on the mind
• Qigong - stills the mind by working with the Dan Tien point
• Heart Math - stills the mind by focusing on the heart
• Regular exercise
• Diet – getting a physical checkup and eating for your body
• Rest – a good night’s sleep
• Stress balls – mechanical manipulation for the hands
• Therapeutic massage

Most of these techniques require discipline and involve training with lots of practice before they become useful tools. Some are easy to start but require the discipline to stay with it.

Why go through the process? Stress is one of the major causes of all illnesses. Gary Craig’s Discovery Statement for EFT is, “The cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system”. Or stated another way “Our unresolved negative emotions are major contributors to most physical pains and diseases.”