This is a follow-up to our Valentine’s Day message. You may remember the part where we said that you first have to love yourself to love someone else, you might want to look within yourself and ask if you felt uncomfortable or ill at ease by the suggestion. If you felt uncomfortable, we are offering you a FREE method for changing that feeling so that you can love and accept yourself. The method is one that we suggest for so many things that many of you may think we’re advocates of it or something. Well, you’re right, we are. But for good reason. It’s Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and we recommend it because it works so well for so many things that we can’t think of anything you can do for yourself that’s better.

We do group sessions twice a month using EFT (the 2nd and 4th Weds. 7-9 PM - sneaky advertising) and we’ve noticed that a lot of people have some difficulty saying the words “I love and accept myself fully and completely” during the sessions. We’ve also noticed that when they can’t say those words, the rest of the healing work is often less effective.

If you feel like you have a little or a lot of discomfort about that issue within you, then here’s a way to resolve it quickly and easily. This is a small “crash course” on using EFT to help you learn to love and accept yourself. Try it yourself and see how you feel afterward.

First, using a SUDS scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the greatest discomfort) determine just how uncomfortable you are with the phrase “I love myself” and/or “I accept myself.” By the way, the higher the number and the more uncomfortable you feel, the better the overall healing you will ultimately experience. Always envision what increases your discomfort before starting so that it becomes as bad as you can make it. Remember this number.

Start tapping on the side of your non-dominant hand with two of the fingers of your dominant hand. This is called the Set-Up. You start by tapping continuously on the side of your hand (the side of your hand away from your thumb - called the Karate Chop Spot) while saying words to the effect, “Even though I don’t love or accept myself, I’m still okay,” or “Even though I can’t say I love myself, I’m okay.” Repeat this phrase three times total as you continuously tap on the side of your hand. When you have completed the phrase three times, you’ll start doing the Sequence.

Click here to download and print our EFT on a Page which contains a diagram of all the tapping points.

Tap the points on the diagram while saying a reminder phrase such as “I don’t really love myself at all” or “I don’t feel like I love or accept myself.” You’ll be tapping 5-7 times on each point as you say one reminder phrase at each point. Don’t worry, it doesn’t take long and it's effective. Don’t be afraid to say these negative things. It’s the best way to get great results. In fact, the worse things you say as you tap all the points, the better your results will be.

If you have any issue at all with loving or accepting yourself, give EFT a try. You won’t be sorry. It will reduce any negative feelings you harbor about yourself quickly and easily. By the way, if the first round you complete doesn’t relieve all of your negative feelings completely, then do it again and again until it does. Or, you can join us any 2nd or 4th Wednesday of each month between 7-9 PM and get some personal instruction for $20.

If you have any questions about the process at all you can give Maria or me a call and we’ll gladly answer your questions. This is part of our ministry because we know how much good it can do for the world. If you need help, give us a call and we’ll help you learn this wonderfully profound technique and learn to love yourself again. It’s the key to everything in life.

In our last column we wrote about the heart being the source of all inner knowing and yet our mental minds usually get in the way of that knowing and stop us from functioning at that higher level.

Many more people are now starting to recognize that the mental mind within each of us helps to figure things out from a very early age and that we tend to rely upon that thinking mind to solve a lot of problems. As I said in my last column, however, the problem arises when we rely upon that side of our mind too much and we get “stuck” in the mental mind and ignore our heart.

This may seem like an intransigent condition that won’t change, no matter how much suffering we go through as a result of it. But all hope is not lost. This condition can and will change if you know how to change it. Here are a few solutions that you may find useful. You may find that only one feels right to you or all of them may apply, but if you look carefully, at least one will help you.

Learn about Emotional Freedom Technique, Meditation, Hypnosis, Integrated Energy Therapy, Reiki and other techniques to help you help yourself.

EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique: You knew you’d see that one first. EFT is nothing less than a wonderful tool to get you “un-stuck” from where you are. It is a tapping routine that uses acupressure on your body while you focus on what is holding you back from changing or being what you would really like to be. It is a self help technique that will assist you in recognizing what the problem is and then helping you get beyond it.

Meditation - This is a method of quieting the mind on a regular basis so that you can not only rest the mind, but also hear the clear, but quiet, voice of Spirit/God. This takes some training and practice to learn, but once learned and if practiced regularly, wonderful changes can occur in your perception and in your life.

Hypnosis - Can be used to dramatically change almost any part of your life that is stuck. It usually is done by a hypnotist (although self- hypnosis is useful) and puts the client in a hypnotic trance after which simple, but profound suggestions are given to the subconscious mind that very often effect great changes in the subject. One thing most people don’t realize about hypnosis is that you are fully conscious of everything that is going on during a hypnosis session and you are never out of control. You can emerge from hypnosis at will at any time and you can reject untoward suggestions. In short, hypnosis is safe, profoundly helpful and useful.

IET - Integrated Energy Therapy - This is a technique that Maria primarily uses to seek assistance from the healing Angels that watch over all of us. She calls upon them for their assistance and helps others learn how to make “heart links” with Angels and other people who may be seen as holding her clients back from one thing or another and sees great responses and healings from the technique. I can attest to this wonderful technique since she has done it on me many times and despite how my mental mind questions and doubts that Angels even exist, I still get quite a healing each and every time she does her technique on me. Some of her clients call her “Flame” because her hands emanate so much heat at times as she works on them.

Reiki - This is an ancient hands-on technique that has recently been rejuvenated which the practitioner uses to conduct healing energy through their hands and into the body and mind of the client. In effect, the Universal healing energy is directed into the client’s body and it then finds its way to the exact location where they need assistance or help. Many people have had wonderful physical, mental and emotional healings from this wonderful technique.

Other techniques - There are a host of other more esoteric techniques available to assist you in healing whatever it is that’s blocking you or holding you back from inner emotional health. You can also see main stream classically trained psychologists or psychiatrists who will diagnose and specifically treat emotional problems. This is an important alternative because sometimes there are conditions that can get you so stuck there is no other way out but medical help. That may sound strange coming from a holistic healer, but it is also the truth. You always have to remember to keep yourself sufficiently grounded that you know when its time to seek other types of professional care.

From my perspective, all mental, emotional and physical maladies are tied into the emotions and the repression of emotions. Therefore, if you want to do more than just find an immediate cure of the presenting symptoms and you want to effect a full healing (which is very different than a cure) you must look beneath the symptoms and go deeper. When you discover what it is that drives the symptoms and resolve it, everything takes care of itself and you can then get back to normal - no, you can go way beyond normal and get to feeling superior and excellent.

This was just a sample of how you can address that feeling of being “stuck” and actually discover a means of resolving it effectively. If you use any of these methods, you will find that your feelings can change rapidly and profoundly for the better and your mental mind will eventually come to the conclusion that it is safe to finally let go of control and allow that part of you that is the true master to take back its domain - YOU - and find fulfillment, awakening and enlightenment in this lifetime.

We do all of these techniques at the Center for Inner Healing. If you want to learn more about any of them, there are full web pages available on our website. Just click on any of the highlighted words and they will take you there in an instant. Happy healing to you!

This popover recipe makes a light delicious breakfast, specially on cold wintry mornings. The name "popover" comes from the fact that the batter swells and "pops" over the dish while baking.

INGREDIENTS:
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup all- purpose flour
1/3 cup melted butter
1 16 oz bag of thawed mixed berry frozen fruit

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place the butter in a 12 inch iron cast skillet or oven dish and place it in the oven for 4-5 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix eggs, milk, flour in blender. Add the melted butter to the mix in blender and give it a whirl for a few seconds. Take out the pre-heated skillet and pour the mixed batter in. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Sprinkle cinnamon lightly over berries. Pour the fruit over the popover and serve immediately.