Eft/tapping Q & A Podcast W/ Gene Monterastelli - Emotional Freedom Techniques

If you have been around tapping and EFT for any length of time then more than likely you are aware of Dawson Church's work. He has been on the forefront of research being done to prove tapping’s efficacy and tapping best practices. He has also been very involved in conducting research into best practice for practitioners. When I approached Dawson about doing another interview he insisted upon talking about relationships. When I asked why he said, "It is something I am really passionate about. When people have stronger relationships they have better lives." You can't argue with that! This interview isn't your typical interview about relationships. Forever the scientist, Dawson talks about how what is going on in our brain impacts the type and quality of relationships that we have. We then discuss how we can use tapping to impact the brain in ways that directly lead us to find the right relationships. It is not a path that I would have expected us to go down in a conversation about tapping and relationships, bu

The first weekend of April the 2nd annual Spring Energy Event was held outside NYC. My friend Jondi Whitis did an awesome job once again of putting together a great event. This year I was asked to talk about how we can use tapping to move ourselves to taking the action we want. My presentation was broken into three parts: Part 1: Tapping For Action v. Tapping For Relief Part 2: The 9 Immutable Laws Of Taking Action Part 3: 4 Ways To Use Tapping To Move You Towards Taking Action The version of the handout I created for the talk had a number of blanks for the audience to fill in while listening. I have provided the completed notes below. If you are looking for help taking action you will find over 200 audios, classes, and resources in the Ruach Center designed specifically to move you taking action.

[Note: This is part 2 of our conversation. Listen to part 1 here.] I am guessing as you read the title of this week's podcast you are thinking, "Luck is an odd thing to tap for. They say try it on anything, but luck… really?" I would agree with you. When my friend and EFT Master Rue Hass recommended this as the topic for our conversation I was curious. In the end the conversation turned out to be so fruitful that I needed to split it into two parts. When Rue is talking about luck she is talking about how we access the opportunities around us to move towards our goals. Even though I personally wouldn't use the word luck to describe what she is talking about you will hear in our conversation that I do agree with her disposition. You will find this conversation in contrast to most of the conversation around an attraction (and law of attraction) world view.

[Note: This is part 1 of our conversation. Listen to part 2 here.] I am guessing as you read the title of this week's podcast you are thinking, "Luck is an odd thing to tap for. They say try it on anything, but luck… really?" I would agree with you. When my friend and EFT Master Rue Hass recommended this as the topic for our conversation I was curious. In the end the conversation turned out to be so fruitful that I needed to split it into two parts. When Rue is talking about luck she is talking about how we access the opportunities around us to move towards our goals. Even though I personally wouldn't use the word luck to describe what she is talking about you will hear in our conversation that I do agree with her disposition. You will find this conversation in contrast to most of the conversation around an attraction (and law of attraction) world view. Listen to part 2 here.

On the surface it might not seem like an obvious connection, but in many ways fear of failure and fear of success are the opposite sides of the same coin. Fear of failure is concerned about what goes wrong when things don't work out.  Fear of success is concerned about what goes wrong when things do work out. (And, yes, things can still go wrong when we are successful.) Both fears keep us from taking action, believing it will keep us out of harm’s way. In this interview with Annabel Fisher we talk about the fears of failure and success, how they are related, and how we can tap for them.   

Self-sabotage can be so frustrating. There are times when we know exactly what we need to be doing, yet we still choose the wrong course of action. Sometimes I can see myself getting in my own way and I am amazed at how creatively I self-sabotage.  If it didn't negatively impact my life I would almost think it is funny! Brad Yates uses an interesting word to describe this type of creative self-sabotage.  He calls it "brilliant".  It is not brilliant in the outcome that results, but it is brilliant in how creative it is in causing us problems. In this interview Brad and I talk about the amazing ways we get in our own way and what we can do to leverage this brilliance into having what we want. 

EFT is such a powerful tool that we all know that we should "try it on anything."  Even though most of us have tried it on anything we haven't taken it to the extremes.  Most of have tapped for deep and powerful issues, but not in moments that are literally life or death. Deborah Miller has done just that.  She works with children with cancer and their parents.  She is doing more than trying it on anything, she is being successful! In this interview we talk about what all tappers can learn from her work with these extreme issues.  We also talk about the book she has written on how parents and children can use tapping.

There is no question that we are impacted by our past.  That seems so obvious that it doesn't even seem worth commenting on. Nevertheless I think it is easy to underestimate how some past experiences impact us.  In my private sessions with clients it is amazing how often we find our way back to roots planted firmly in their childhood via current issues.  We are more than impacted by our childhood experiences, we are deeply imprinted by them. In this interview I talk with EFT Master Jacqui Crooks about how we are affected by these childhood moments and how we can tap to create freedom from memories and lessons that are no longer helpful.

It happens all the time.  You know how to do something.  You might have done it a ton of times before.  But the moment you step in front of someone else and have to do it you freeze. You might be before a whole group of people, like giving a presentation, or just in front of one person, like in a job interview.  You get tense.  And sweaty.  You can't remember what to say or do.  You might even shake. Things that usually come easily to us are suddenly really difficult when others are watching us. In this interview with Gina Parris we talk about performance anxiety and how you can use what Gina calls "3 R" to move past it.

In a recent Time magazine artile Jessica Lamb-Shapiro points out that only 8% of us follow through on our New Year’s resolutions, with most people giving up within a week. There are lots of reasons for this. We create goals that are too big, we don't create an infrastructure or system that will set us up for success, and we are trying to change old habits with willpower alone. It is really easy to feel frustrated with our failed attempts at change. In this week's podcast we tap for dealing with the frustration of not following up on our goals and also do some tapping to set you up to start taking action towards your New Year's resolutions. Think of this as the reset button for your New Year's Resolutions.

In December I was the guest on the Tapping Solution's monthly ‘Ask The Expert’ call. We answered questions about anger, fear of finding work, how to tap for the fear that comes up when physical symptoms persist, how to tap for feeling overwhelmed, and what to do when we keep sabotaging our own success. Thanks to Kris (and the callers) for such a great time. If you missed the call you can hear the whole thing here.

The holidays can be a very stressful time. There are million things going on, we are tempted by tasty treats at every turn, and we are surrounded by people who sometimes push our buttons. In this audio we tap for: Not having enough time Feeling like we have to accept every invitation we receive The temptation of too much unhealthy holiday food The financial stress of buying gifts Holiday travel Spending time with loved ones who are very different than us The loneliness we feel during the holidays because of everyone else's busyness.

Managing social anxiety can be difficult. It is not like the fear triggered by something like a snake we encounter in our path. Social anxiety is insidious, sitting just below the surface, and impacting our every interaction in some way big or small. Not having one specific memory to start with can make tapping for it tricky. I know this firsthand as this was the very issue that first brought me to tapping. I wish that I had known Sebastiaan van der Schrier when I started out on my own tapping journey. Sebastiaan specializes in tapping for social anxiety. In this interview he walks us through his comprehensive 8-step process for working with social anxiety, which can also be applied to many other issues.

EFT does a great job of helping us to feel better in the moment. In a very short time we can go from being emotionally overwhelmed to calm. But we know there is much more that can be achieved with tapping. Not only is it helpful for short-term relief but it can also help create long-term change. I had an interesting conversation with a client this week. "Jackie" was relaying the fact we had tapped for an issue a few weeks earlier, a major shift had happened when we tapped, and it was still hard to make new choices in the moment when the issue came up. In today's podcast I address why Jackie experienced what she did and some simple things you can do with your tapping to make sure you experience not just short-term relief but long-term change. Here is the podcast I reference in this recording. Pod #91: Using The Gamut Point To Make Long Lasting Change

I recently had a great conversation with one of my clients. She started the call by saying, "I have some great news! I am no longer a doormat. I am asking for what I need. I am only helping others in a way that is healthy for me. Most importantly I am able to say 'no' to others when I want to!" After sharing this story in my newsletter many people wrote to me asking how they could achieve the same change in their own lives. There are three main areas we can tap for when it comes to uprooting a doormat disposition. In order to enjoy the lasting effects of this transformation I would recommend regular if not daily tapping on these issues. I encourage you to listen to the audio at the end of this post for examples of tapping for these three areas. Take out a piece of paper and answer the questions below. The answer to each question will provide you with at least one tappable issue. Spending a little time tapping for one of these daily WILL lead to a powerful change.

One of the things I love most about tapping is its flexibility. Not only can it be used on a wide range of issues, but it can be used in a numerous ways. Steve Wells and his colleague David Lake have spent years playing around with the basic EFT recipe. They asked what worked, what didn't work, and how it could be improved. In the end they created something they call Simple Energy Technique (SET) which is a user friendly collection of the best of the best techniques. In this interview Steve talks about the ways in which SET is similar to and different from EFT. SET is so simple and straightforward that you will be able to add the parts you find useful to your tapping right away.

A huge piece of who we are is where we came from. Our personality and our beliefs are shaped from a very early age by the people around us and the stories they told. We describe ourselves by our family name, our heritage, where we grew up, and our nationality. This type of connection to our past is important and healthy, but there are times when it becomes a problem. It becomes easy to use these descriptions of who we are as a way of limiting ourselves unnecessarily, for example: The men in my family were never good at sharing their emotions You know how hot tempered we Irish are The women in my family always have had trouble with love In this interview with EFT Master Jacqui Crooks we talk about the conscious and subconscious ways in which we adopt these beliefs as our own, how debilitating they can be, and what we can do to release them in a healthy way without damaging our connection with the people we love.

Taking care of others is easy to do. We see needs, suffering, and struggle. We respond. Often (at least for me) it is hard for us to extend the same type of care and concern to ourselves. In this interview with EFT Master Loretta Sparks we talk about some of the most common reasons that caring people have such a hard time taking care of themselves. We also talk about a number of simple tools and steps that can be implemented right now to make it easier to care for yourself.

Years ago a friend of mine wrote a book called "Real Love In A Pizza Love World". In English at least, love is a tricky word. We use it for so many things, and in so many ways, that sometimes it can be hard to get our mind wrapped around the idea of wanting to be loving and be love. In this interview with Terry Lynch we talk about the way she approaches the word love, and also demonstrates the protocol of EmoTrance on me.

One of the questions I receive a lot from people new to tapping is, "Aren't you worried that you will tap something bad in?" That is a reasonable concern. Often when we are tapping we are saying phrases about how we would like our life to be better while we are tapping. From the outside it almost looks like we are driving the positive phrases into our body and our mind. But that isn't what is really happening. Instead, from my point of view at least, we are in the process of clearing out inaccurate beliefs and perceptions. In this podcast I explain what I think is really happening when we are tapping, how we can be more successful with our tapping, and why the big pink eraser I have in my front pocket informs the way I tap.