Lynne Shaner, MA, Certified Hypnotherapist & EFT Practitioner

May 13, 2010

Curbing Food Cravings with EFT

May 13th, 2010, by Lynne

Sometimes I’ve thought of food as the final frontier. I’ve changed my life in many ways—personally, emotionally, physically—and over time, in the mundane area of the physical, I’ve deleted a lot. Some things have been really hard (I used to smoke–which gives me the shivers now), and some things have been easier (I have nearly eliminated caffeine and really like decaf tea and coffee). I gave up alcohol many years ago, for loads of reasons.

But food has been hard. I LOVE food. And of course, no one is asking me (or you) to give it up. But it seems as if the things I have always wanted to overdo are the very things I need to eliminate, or severely restrict—sugar, most white foods (odd but true—bread, pasta, potatoes), heavy sauces, fried things, sweet things, pizza—are the very things I crave. But those are the foods that pile weight on, that cause the craving cycle to kick in and pull at me—and I find that this is true for many of my clients, too. Studies are beginning to show us why, and are also showing us what happens when we can’t stop the overeating. Not only do we gain weight and open ourselves up to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and all those grisly ailments, we also make ourselves much more vulnerable to loss of brain function. Neuroscientists studying these areas are finding that we are 50% more likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer’s if we are overweight or obese.

Happily, EFT does help in this area. A new study has shown that EFT curbs food cravings. We’ve known that anectodally for a while, and I have personally experienced it in a fairly dramatic way, but it is nice to have the published study. Here’s the link, from Science Daily:

New Study Shows EFT Reduces Food Cravings:

Dr. Peta Stapleton and a team of researchers at the School of
Medicine in Griffith University in Queensland have just
completed a randomised clinical trial showing that EFT (which
they refer to as psychological acupressure) can reduce food
cravings for up to 6 months in people who are overweight or
obese. Details can be found in a Science Daily article at:
http://tinyurl.com/2854nz4

Full url for the article (cut and paste all into your browser):
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100423094627.htm?ut
m_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienced
aily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29


Try working on your cravings with EFT—give yourself the gift of freedom from whatever it is that has you stuck.

Enjoy the weekend—

Lynne

March 23, 2010

Opening to Spring and New Patterns

March 23rd, 2010, by Lynne

At last. Spring is fully here. Flowers are unfurling with luscious, exuberant colors, the air is soft, and the sunshine is so welcome this year it makes us close our eyes in relief. And then, it begins to feel just, well, normal. It is the way things should be and I don’t really have to think about whether the tulips are going to bloom, now that the daffodils are up. They just will.

I was thinking about this a bit, and noticing that so often, clients say that they worry that they won’t know what do to, or how to be, or act, when the old traumas are released and dissolved, or when old ways of behavior are gone. It can sometimes feel safer to hold on to an old belief or incident, an old way of thinking, even old eating patterns or addictive patterns.

But it is important to allow ourselves to step away from that circle of thinking. Here’s why. Our entire system (being, self, true self) wants to come into balance and to flourish. We are hard-wired to do that. It is simply fundamental. Other things (patterns, behaviors, wounds, traumas, and so forth) get in the way and we hold on to them, or don’t know how to let them go. But once we do let in a change—and erase/dissolve/ease these old things, the deeper part of ourself will fill things in automatically. Sometimes it will take a while, but many times, people report that it is rather odd, but it feels “as if it’s always been this way.” They’ll forget that the problem existed, and feel as if this is just the way things are now.

This is the beauty of working with an interactive approach like EFT —-because as we tap on the acupoints, we are sending signals to the amygdala and other parts of the so-called limbic brain system. That’s the part in which the fight-or-flight response is generated, at a sub-cortical, subconscious level. And those signals essentially dissolve the reaction, while simultaneously reprogramming the system with the wording that is chosen.

It is quite elegant and very gentle—and we open like the flowers to the selves we are meant to be.

February 12, 2010

Gifts of the Blizzard

February 12th, 2010, by Lynne

What an amazing week it has been here in D.C. The city has been crippled by record snows—more snow than ever in recorded history. Someone told me that this year, we had so far received more snow than Anchorage, Alaska. The blizzard caused a beauty and a sense of the surreal. I was, over the weekend, snowed in at a dear friend’s without power, light, water, cooking—miles into a hilly, forest area. There were a couple of scary moments, especially when we realized the power was out and the light was leaving. And yet—there was a great beauty in that evening. My friend’s grown son was with us and he mentioned that he was “addicted” to electricity—and now was without iPod, movies, music. As is our culture, really—addicted to electricity and to that which it provides. So that night, we gathered all of the candles, unused for years, and my friend built a towering fire in the fireplace. We told stories, laughed, drew the blankets around us (there was no heat, of course, and it was well below freezing outside). It was an evening ablaze with warmth and love.

In the week that followed, I was mostly at home, in my office-turned-snowglobe. It was beautiful outside, and brutal. There was one day it was much too raw and dangerous even to try to go outside. So I abandoned myself to it, and enjoyed session after session over the phone, tapping through challenges with my clients, watching the snow swirl outside.

In every setback, there are gifts…at my friend’s house, we all drew close that evening and I will be forever grateful for the time, though had I known beforehand that I would be stranded, I probably would have decided to stay home instead. It makes me wonder what gifts I may deny myself by looking ahead in fear. And how much better it is for me, and all of us, to look ahead in hope and expectation. Where are the gifts that are on my way now?

Whatever they are, they are many.

Stay warm, and enjoy this wintry day, wherever you are.

much love,

Lynne

December 29, 2009

Tapping in New Year’s Resolutions

December 29th, 2009, by Lynne

Tapping into the Positive for Your New Year’s Resolutions

How many times have you started off the year with good ideas and new hopes, yet find that within even a couple of weeks, or perhaps a month, you come back to the old behaviors, thought patterns, and ideas that weighed you down? This year, incorporate EFT into this reflection time. By pausing to tap in the hopes and possibilities, the resolutions and new excitement, you’ll be laying the best foundation for their realization. (Read the rest of this entry >>)

Hello

December 29th, 2009, by Lynne

Hello!

It was time to grow into a new phase, so I’ve added the blog—welcome! As much as I think that sometimes blogs can be overdone, I do learn so much from good posts on sites that I return to time and again. I hope to become a resource like that for you. I plan to give good information here, share things that I hope will be meaningful and interesting to you, and welcome your thoughts and ideas. EFT and epigenetics in general are so clearly driven by interactivity—-it makes sense to open things up a bit in this way. Enjoy, and stop by occasionally to see new posts.