Inner Work

Changing your life one step at a time

The Gulliver Club is an opportunity for anyone who has learnt EFT to come together in a supportive environment to practice their EFT skills. This is a place to do just that in a warm, friendly setting in which we use EFT to undo old hurts, put down the frustrations of the week and prepare for the next week and a better life

This is for people who want to use EFT but are not sure how. It all looked so simple in the course but when it comes to everyday life you don’t know what to say and where to start. Not only will you get to practice EFT you will learn some approaches that you can easily use at home on your own. Simple worksheets will guide you all the way.

It’s all right not to be an expert here, the exercises will be practised in the comfort of your own mind. Andy Hunt, an experienced EFT Practitioner and Trainer, will guide the group through a number of tapping exercises. It’s perfectly all right to sit quietly and work on your own stuff without saying a word to anyone – this isn’t the Jeremy Kyle Show or Oprah, no-one is going to have to confess anything to anyone.

If you know EFT then you will have heard about the Personal Peace Procedure, Gary Craig’s recommended approach to improving your life by neutralising unpleasant old memories one at a time. In this group you will have the chance to work on your personal peace procedure or join in with the specific exercises as you see fit. One of the benefits of EFT is that you can use tapping along with someone else’s issues and get relief on your own using Borrowing Benefits.

What do you need to attend the Gulliver Club?

Only a working knowledge of  basic EFT and a willingness to feel better.

Why ‘The Gulliver Club’?

If you remember in the story Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver is shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput and awakes to find himself tide down by a network of fine threads, or so he thinks, in fact the Lilliputians have tried to secure the giant with their heaviest cables and ropes. To Gulliver each rope is just like a cotton thread but together they hold him down and keep him stuck in place. We are in the same position, held in place by thousands of small threads of memory, beliefs and feelings. Each one of them can be changed with EFT, the Gulliver Club is an opportunity to start cutting those threads that hold us down.

The Gulliver Club is not a substitute for one to one therapy and is not a suitable place for dealing with serious mental health issues. It is suitable for the vast majority of people who want to feel more at ease with themselves.

How does it work?

At the beginning of each session we spend a few minutes tapping away the emotional stuff we’ve brought with us to the occasion, perhaps we’ve had an argument with our boss or spouse, experienced a disappointment or setback and we are carrying that feeling with us.

Then we tap away any charge on an incident that may have happened in the gap between your last session and this one. Or you can work on one of your Personal Peace Procedure memories.

Next we work on a specific Personal Peace Procedure memory or a current issue of your choice.

Then we tap on any upcoming events that may be causing you anxiety – such as an interview, medical appointment, etc.

Finally we do some EFT to feel confident in ourselves and to look forward to the week ahead.

We end with tea and biscuits.

You don’t need to commit to more than one session to take advantage of the Gulliver Club, you can just attend when you feel the need.

What does it cost?

The cost for the one and a half hour session is just £10.

Practicalities

The first Gulliver Club meeting is next Wednesday March 10th at St Oswald’s Hospice Teaching Centre, Regent Ave, Gosforth from 7pm-9pm as part of the EFT Cafe. Thereafter it will be on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month.

It’s been snowing here.

The already rutted and grit stained street is covered with a fresh clean blanket of white powder.

It’s been cold here for a few weeks now which is unusual in a time of globally warmed, wet and windy winters.

If you would believe the news and bus stop conversation you would think that the snow was a terrible thing, the worst thing that could possibly happen.

Personally I love it!

I had a snow starved childhood. The closest we usually got to a white Christmas on the North Wales coast was if it was misty! Now when I see snow I’m pleased, I love the crunch of it underfoot, the quiet of its falling and its dazzling whiteness.

I realise from many practical points of view it’s a real pain in the neck. Paths are slippery, driving is difficult and it’s cold. I still love it.

I love it because it throws everything into sharp relief, it covers up the annoying little details of the world and shows the overall shape of the world.

I love it because of the clarity of a deep blue sunny winter’s day.  It’s a different view of the familiar.

I love it because it’s a challenge, you have to get kitted up to go out, you can’t just go out as you please. You need to be prepared. When you are out in it, it can be so much fun. Walks with friends are wonderful, sledging is exciting and convivial (how many people do you see sledging alone?)

I love it because it brings out the big kid in me

I love the contrast between the seasons. A vivid demonstration of the majestic, passage of time. A chance to reflect on what has been and what is to come.

All these feelings are important to me

• seeing the big picture
• clarity of vision
• challenge
• shared enjoyment.
• fun
• a chance to reflect.

To me this is the value of snow.

I think we often fall into the trap about thinking about things rather than considering what feelings are produced by the things. These feelings or values are quite personal, I’m quite prepared to believe that no-one else will have the same set of associations with snow that I do.

Maybe your feelings are mixed about snow, parts of the experience you enjoy and others you don’t.

I can even imagine that many people will have a lot of negative associations with snow (after all I am living in Britain).

What are the feelings that go with things? Everything elicits its own emotional reactions. What emotional reactions are important to you? What do you want to feel more of what do you want to feel less of or even avoid?

Feelings that are important to us, our values, guide our behaviour, provide our motivations or deterrents. Sometimes they can be straight forward and positive, as is my reaction to snow. At other times they can be conflicted or even hostile. However we feel about what’s important to us will play itself out over time in our behaviour and our experience. The funny thing is that these emotional responses are not fixed in stone, you can change them if you want to, clarify them, resolve conflicts within and between them and be more conscious.

If you want to become clearer and more conscious of what is important to you, you can attend the Aligning Your Values workshop that I am running at the beginning of February in Gateshead.

Now, it’s started snowing again, the sun has gone behind a cloud, flakes are spiralling down and I feel unreasonably happy.

How do you want to feel in 2010?

Image via Wikipedia

It’s that time of year when we start to think about those New Year’s Resolutions. All the things we want to do, have and be in this New Year – new car, exotic holiday, lose weight, a new career, etc.

Often we don’t realise consciously that what we want to have or achieve are just a means to an end. What we really want from our possessions and experiences is the feeling or emotion that it gives us.

Perhaps you want to have an exotic holiday. As you imagine the holiday of your dreams what feelings and emotions arise for you? Maybe you imagine feeling relaxed, excited, enthusiastic and happy. Have you ever spent time day dreaming about what your holiday is going to be like – enjoying the feelings you’ll have before you even get there. Or perhaps you want to lose weight. That might make you feel fit, healthy and attractive.

Advertisers figured this out a long time ago. It’s obvious from all the sofa adverts at this time of year that having a deluxe leather sofa with recliner options will give you a happy contented family or an appreciative and attractive partner. Or you could join an exclusive health club and become fit and attractive like the lithe young people in the advert (who obviously don’t need it).

The seductive voices of advertising tell us “just get this thing or take part in this activity and you will be rewarded with these feelings”. I think a sofa is not the only way to have a happy family. Joining a health club is not the only way to feel fit.

I think there is a more useful way to think about New Year resolutions that gives us a better chance of getting what we want and many more choices in how we get there.

How do you want to feel in 2010? What feelings or emotions would you like to feel more of?

How would your New Year resolutions be different if started by choosing the emotional states you wanted to experience?

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s always good for me to hear about people putting the skills I teach into action. On Saturday I was presenting an EFT Level 1 training in Newcastle. One of the participants who had attended a Beginner’s EFT training told the group that she and her husband made time each week to sit down, talk about anything that was on their mind and tap out any bad feelings they had as a way of maintaining a harmonious relationship.

I think that’s a perfect use of EFT – simple, practical, consistent and beneficial. It doesn’t require any special skills just a willingness to use something simple on a regular basis. This is what I think of as Practising Wellbeing

My good friend and fellow EFTer Liz Kirsopp sent me the following email about an event she is running in Hexham. It has nothing to directly to do with NLP or EFT but I think it might be fun.

Hi Everyone,

I would love it if you could come to this event that I am leading or please feel free to forward this email to anyone you know who might be interested.

In association with Queens Hall Community Arts I am leading a workshop of Overtoning at the Moot Hall in Hexham Market Place on Sunday 26th April at 5pm to 7 pm. Ring box office on 01434 652477 to book.

Overtoning is a kind of singing or chanting that is practised in Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia and amongst native peoples in other parts of the world. There are very different ways of doing it but the basic technique is one of producing two notes or sounds at the same time with one voice.

I am not an authority on overtoning but am a competent practitioner of the basic overtone effects and I love to do it in a group! So I am not taking any payment for this but there is a charge of £6 each to cover the rent etc

I will provide basic tuition and the aim of the group is to be experiential and experimental.

Things I love about overtoning  -

- that we can create amazing harmonies very quickly with a minimum of practice,

- that we can vibrate that harmony together in a rare energy that has nothing to do with words

and that it does not matter if you are tone deaf or have a voice like a horse.

There are several youtube clips that demonstrate overtoning – the Siberian kind is called Khoomei or Tuvan singing , but don’t worry we won’t be doing that style! It is very deep and abrasive and has to be developed from childhood. Here are some links – sorry I cannot find any good examples of women doing it but we can do it just fine, I promise you! :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbzaKKfvBo4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0nI2f98ykw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcry8pvM3IU

Please do contact me if you have any questions or if you are interested to try overtoning but cannot make this date.

Thanks

Liz

If you want to get in touch with Liz drop me a line and I’ll pass your message on. As she says in the email feel free to pass this information on to anyone you think might be interested.

“Always Meditate on Whatever Provokes Resentment”
An instruction from the Lojong compassion training of Tibetan Buddhism

“It takes one to know one!”
An accusation often made at my primary school

Image via Wikipedia

Annoyances with other people are usually things we think we just have to put up with it or complain about. There are occasions when what annoys us about other people is what we are not able to acknowledge to ourselves so we project it onto someone else.

This weeks EFT Cafe will look at how we can use what annoys us in others to improve our own sense of wellbeing by working on what our adversaries reflect back to us.

The EFT Cafe starts at 7:00pm and finishes at 9:00pm on Thursday March 12th and takes place in the Coleman Teaching Centre, St Oswald’s Hospice, Newcastle and costs just £10.

I’d like to invite you to a rather unorthodox un-conference called ChangeCamp 2009 that I am organising for Saturday 27th June in Gosforth High School in Newcastle.

ChangeCamp 2009 is designed as a low cost conference event for practitioners of NLP, EFT, Hypnotherapy, Solution Focussed Brief Therapy and coaching, and for members of the public who may be interested in such things.

The themes for ChangeCamp are:

1. Changing yourself: Using psychological techniques to change our own experience of the world.

2. Changing others: Using psychological techniques in therapeutic or educational contexts.

3. Changing groups: Making groups and organisations more effective through psychological means.

Please not the emphasis on psychological applications. We will be restricting the presentations to a psychological orientation there wont be any presentations on crystal healing or aromatherapy. Our aim is to have a high quality content event that will appeal to professionals and public alike rather than a mind-body-spirit fare (of which there are many).

In a conventional conference attendees pay a large sum of money to sit and listen to acknowledged experts (who are paid an even larger sum) to tell them about the latest findings or how to do things.

In an un-conference that is put to one side, people who are interested in a subject and want to present about it make presentations to other people who are interested. The presentations may be talks, workshops, exercises, question and answer sessions, brainstorming sessions – what ever format best suits the issue in question. Audience participation is strongly encouraged. The event is organised to encourage an informality and cross fertilisation of ideas.

ChangeCamp is arranged to bring together a large number of participants from a variety of fields so they can be exposed to other ways of working and thinking. It’s set up to stimulate discussion.

To encourage high attendance the entry fee is set at £10 which is just enough to cover costs.

If you would like to attend just go to www.changecamp.co.uk and sign on to the website. If you would like to present in some way you can either email me with an idea.

I look forward to meeting with some of you in June.

View my page on ChangeCamp 2009