How Does Stress Affect Your Brain

Trust Faith and Surrender

Last month, I went to training in Oklahoma City and bonded with a wonderful woman by the name of Angela.
We quickly became friends and didn’t realize until a day or so of being together that we had been on the same plane traveling from Columbus, Ohio.
I don’t know too many people from my area that knows about eutaptics, let alone to be on the same plane with someone traveling for this extensive training.

The training was intense and transformation after transformation took place. Angela was one of those that had major break throughs and it was so gratifying to see her change right before my eyes.
Angela was as real as they come; honest, open and so authentic.

Both of us returned to Ohio that next weekend, touched by what we had experienced and learned from each other and from the group of people who had traveled from as far away as South Africa. Angela touched a part of my heart that I will never forget and I hope we will be connected for years to come.

Shortly after we returned, she sent me a piece she had just written for her blog and I wanted to share it because I think she expresses feelings that we all struggle with. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Thank you Angela for being you, my world is a better place because our paths have crossed!

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Trust, Faith and Surrender. Up till now, these have not been my strongest skill set. I say, up till now, because I am and have been working on it.

The biggest challenge for me has really been surrender. It’s a word that’s a little tricky. It’s a lot like forgiveness in that it often gets twisted up in our heads to mean something that it actually doesn’t.

We’ve all been known to confuse forgiveness for approval.
We’ve also been known to confuse surrender with giving up.

And I think we are all in agreement that giving up and condoning bad behavior are low on our list of desires in this life.

But we get confused  when our emotions hit the spin cycle of life.
I have been called in the last year to learn how to embrace trust, faith and surrender in a way I never have before. And, folks, it’s been a bumpy ride. At first it was a lot like taking your car out into a cornfield in late July. You can’t see anything. Your suspension is busted and you have no idea where you’ll end up. And if you are you like me and have seen Children of the Corn, you are sure it’s someplace bad.

So what I did was attempt to control —  everything. It went badly. I controlled my food, or lack there of. I controlled my exercise, or lack thereof. I controlled my emotions. I controlled my environment. I tried to control my body. And most of all, control the outcome.

I have arrived at this place recently where I truly see that I have been one of my biggest obstacles. Control is like putting a dam in the middle of flowing water. Nothing moves. Everything builds up. And the natural order of things is interrupted.

People, believe me when I tell you that I don’t say any of this easily. But I have spit in the wind, twisted in the wind, shadow boxed, shut down, shut out, and basically held my breath in defiance. It didn’t work. Because if it could, trust that I would have solved it by now.

Speaking of trust. That was another hurdle. I thought that I had trust in my life and I do. But then there is T-R-U-S-T, that knowing that everything will work out, no matter what. That I did not have. And I cannot say I firmly possess it now but it’s better. I am learning about myself and the life experience more each day and as I do, I am building trust. Trust in the process. Trust in my friends and family. Trust in my husband. Even trust in my feline friends that they are always showing me the way.

And then there’s faith —  blind faith. But, honestly, isn’t all faith blind? It’s believing it to see it, instead of seeing it in order to believe it. My faith muscle wasn’t very strong but not because it had atrophied but because I had never really worked it before. I had faith in hard-work, perseverance, focus, determination, unrelenting effort. I had never been forced to take my hands off the wheel and give up control. And I fought that hard for months. I didn’t know how to do life, be me any other way than through sheer will of effort and desire. And now life was asking me, actually demanding me, to stop and take a fearless self inventory and, frankly, it sucked. And sometimes still does.

I was being shoved off a cliff into a change because staying where I was standing was unacceptable.

And so that’s how I ended up jumping with my eyes closed, holding my breath and shedding more than a few tears into a world mostly unknown to me —  the  world of Trust, Faith, and Surrender. We’re still getting acquainted so don’t go getting all impressed with my progress just yet.

As I once heard Oprah say “Difficulties come when you don’t pay attention to life’s whisper. Life always whispers to you first, but if you ignore the whisper, sooner or later you’ll get a scream.”

I got the whisper but my ears were deaf, I probably got a yell or two as well. And then I finally heard the scream and was shocked to recognize it escaping from my own throat. How’s that for a wake up call?

Sunshine & Sarcasm,
Lowi & G

https://lowiandg.com/2018/08/10/trust-faith-and-surrender/

Is Crying Good For Stress Relief?

The effects of stress on our physical health are indisputable.

Science has found a concrete link between stress levels and related diseases, such as:

• Asthma
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Depression and Anxiety
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Headaches
• Fibromyalgia
• Increased risk of Cancer
  
  As this video shows, crying is an emotional response to an intense event.
   So whenever you’re extremely stressed caused by extreme joy or extreme sadness, we cry.
  
  When we cry, we shed tears, and the hormone adrenocorticotropic (ACTH) is released into the bloodstream.
   This helps to relieve stress, but crying over an extended period of time can be detrimental to your health.
   You may have found that once in a while, after having “a good cry”, you feel calmer and more relaxed.
  
  While crying does help to relieve stress, it’s not the best way to relieve stress and can actually cause physical harm to your health over the long term.
  
  Neurology based techniques such as FasterEFT are very effective in relieving the root causes of stress, not just the symptoms. 
  
  
  
   https://fastereft.com/blog/is-crying-good-for-stress-relief-theres-something-better-to-relieve-stress/
  

Ocean Waves On Tropical Island

Ocean waves on tropical island Maldives ambience sound, paradise beach sounds for relaxation, sleeping, meditation and studying. 

How to change your limiting beliefs for more success

95% of everything we know, from our behaviors and emotions to our beliefs and even our personality comes from the subconscious mind. Using humor and engagement, Dr. Irum Tahir teaches how to access the subconscious mind to transform deep patterns which cause us anxiety, pain and feelings of failure and create a life full of happiness, fulfillment and joy.

I liked this video, but I think she fell short in explaining "how" to change the subconscious. That can't be explained in 12 short minutes, but changing negative memories is the best place to start and changing the earliest negative memories in childhood is the first place to explore because they are the foundation of why you react to the world the way you do.

My experience is that Faster EFT is the best method to tackle this. You can do it on your own or with a trained professional. It takes dedication and commitment to want to change yourself for the better, but the rewards are monumental if you start that journey and see it through to the end!

How to Change Negative Childhood Memories

Changing negative childhood memories is the foundation for making big changes in your present life. It is the "how" that addresses "I don't know how to let go" or "where do I start?"

This simple video  explains how this strategy works
This is a very easy process to do on your own, but sometimes, childhood memories can be riddled with strong emotional traumas and is best addressed with a skilled practitioner who can safely guide you through the process with minimal emotional distress for permanent changes and lasting success.

How to Rewire Your Brain

It's not your thoughts and feelings that create your reality - it's your beliefs.

How the Subconscious Mind Works

Have you ever been told that you can't control other people, only your reaction to that person and/or circumstance?
That's true, but did you realize that your subconscious is running the show?
It determines how you are going to react in any given situation and it all starts at birth....

Steve Remmert does a great job of explaining how the subconscious works - it all makes sense now!

What Happens in Your Brain While You're Tapping?

When you use the FasterEFT process, the effects are not just “in your mind”. Physical changes happen in your brain as you use the technique. It literally changes the structure of the neocortex of your brain as old connections are replaced by new. As you use the FasterEFT technique on an ongoing basis, you are changing the neural connections in your brain – which will result in an automatic change to the way you think. And thinking differently will naturally change the results you experience in your life.

How Does it Work?

Thinking

The neocortex is the outer part of the brain – the walnut-shaped part that we all recognize as the brain. When you have a thought, a connection is made in this part of the brain between nerve cells or neurons. Every thought is a connection. Thinking the same thought over and over creates a more permanent connection between those particular neurons. This is how we learn intellectually. When a particular neural pathway is no longer being used, the connection begins to atrophy and those neurons no longer fire together. This is how we forget information. 

Feeling

The connection in the neocortex triggers the limbic brain (chemical brain) – which is positioned underneath the neocortex – to produce chemicals that cause a sensation, a feeling, that matches the thought. With repetition, the combination of the neural pathway becoming more permanent and the limbic brain producing the matching chemicals causes the cerebellum (the reptilian brain) – the seat of the subconscious – to record the response. This is the reason you’re able to drive home for 30 minutes and not remember the journey. Your cerebellum is doing the driving. It’s also the reason you react automatically with no conscious decision when someone “pushes your buttons”.

So, What’s it Got to Do with FasterEFT?

 When you use the FasterEFT process, you are addressing the original records in the subconscious, and making changes to them.

Read the rest of the article here: 
 https://fastereft.com/blog/whats-happening-in-your-brain-while-youre-tapping/?

What to Do When You Feel Judged

How Does FasterEFT Work – The Science Behind FasterEFT

Photo and article source: fastereft.com

Many people are confused about how saying a bunch of words, and tapping on certain meridian points can lead to such remarkable physical and emotional results?
The results can be hard to believe, especially when you hear things like cancer, diabetes, chronic pain, Lyme disease, OCD, PTSD being cured, just through Faster EFT tapping.
Faster Emotionally Focused Transformations (FasterEFT),  is a mind-based system, founded on Neurology and Biology.
Emotions affect both our physical and mental wellbeing.
So it follows that once your turbulent emotions are healed and cleaned up, you’ll have overall wellbeing.
The foundation belief in Faster EFT is that there is no disruption of energy, unlike traditional EFT.
In fact, everything in your life and body is functioning as it should.
According to the way the brain has developed in order to survive in the environment, depending on your life’s experiences.
In Faster EFT, the tapping is used to disrupt the signal between the brain and the major organs of the body that trigger the fight or flight response while changing neural pathways in the neocortex of the brain.
The Faster EFT Tapping Basic Recipe doesn’t just deal with energy disruptions, which only fixes the outer issue of the problem.


It deals with the root cause of the problems, eliminating them completely.
Faster EFT recognizes that experiences are recorded in the subconscious for future reference.
This is how we learn to walk, drive, take a shower, eat, wash the dishes, type etc. without needing to consciously concentrate on every movement and decision.
Regular EFT specifically believes that negative emotions have nothing to do with memories, and are caused only by a disruption in the body’s energy system.
The FasterEFT Tapping Basic Recipe interrupts that signal between the brain and the organs by focusing on the meridian points connected to those organs.
This rewrites the reference or memory associated with that trigger.
For example, if Tom feels angered by the loud music and wanted to change that automatic response, he could use the Faster EFT Tapping Basic Recipe to disrupt the production of the chemicals that cause the feeling of anger when he hears the loud music.
And change the meaning of the loud music in his subconscious from “rude” or “disruptive” (or whatever they learned it means) to fun and enjoyment.
This will then result in an automatic feeling of enjoyment and fun when Tom hears that loud music in the future.

The Neuroscience of FasterEFT

While the brain is a complex organ and neuroscientists still don’t know everything about it (and may never find out), the research and studies that have been carried out in the field of neuroscience have given us a reasonable “working knowledge” of how the brain works to a certain level.
In other words, science has given us enough knowledge to enable us to use our brains more effectively to significantly improve our day-to-day lives.
We don’t know everything about how our phones work, but using the “Quick Start” guide we can learn enough to operate the phone more efficiently and make use of the applications we need.

A Quick Start Guide for Your Brain

The brain can be divided into many different sections, each of which produces specific functions; but for the quick start guide all you need to know are three of these sections.
The three parts that make up your human brain for the purposes of this quick start guide are:

1. The neocortex;
2. the limbic brain and;
3. the cerebellum.
4. 
   

   How does FasterEFT work at the physical level?

   The Neocortex

   This is where you do your thinking.
   
   The neocortex is made up of billions of neurons or nerve cells; and each time you have a thought, connections are made between specific neurons.
   
   When you have the same thought over and over again, the neurons are “wired” by a substance that allows that connection to become more permanent.
   
   This is how we learn information intellectually.
   
   Thoughts that refer to the same topic will be wired in “gangs” or communities – forming neural networks.
   
   When you cease to think a certain thought, the connection weakens or atrophies.
   
   This is how we forget information.
   
   However, because the connection was present, depending on how long ago it was made, and the type of connection, it will take less time to rewire it – and as a result, relearn that information.
   
   
   

   The Limbic Brain

   The limbic brain is also known as the chemical brain, and is basically our “drug lab”.
   
   It is where chemicals are produced in response to the connections that are being made in the neocortex.
   
   When we have a thought, and a connection is made in the neocortex, the limbic brain is triggered to produce certain chemicals that will produce sensations that match that thought.
   
   In other words, when you think a sad thought, your limbic brain will produce chemicals that cause the sensations of sadness in your body.
   
   When you think a happy thought, your limbic brain will produce chemicals that cause the sensations of happiness in your body.
   
   

   The Cerebellum

   This is the oldest part of the human brain, and it is the seat of the unconscious.
   
   This is the part of the brain that allows you to carry out actions without needing to think about each aspect.
   
   It is also the part of the brain that produces your automatic reactions to triggers and stimuli.
   
   When someone “pushes your buttons” it is your cerebellum that responds with the automatic reaction – triggering chemicals to be produced in your limbic brain and the other organs in your body that cause an emotional response.
   
   When you learn something, you will learn it using thought initially (through connections in your neocortex), which will cause a chemical response in the limbic brain and other organs.
   
   When this is repeated over and over, the connection in your neocortex becomes “wired” – allowing faster transfer of the information between the neurons.
   
   And as the repetition continues, the combination of the wired connection in the neocortex and the repeated flooding of matching chemicals through your bloodstream causes the cerebellum to record that specific event.
   
   However, the cerebellum does not need repetition in order to record events, responses, and conditions.
   
   Since its primary function is your survival it is designed to prioritize any information that it considers a threat to your well-being.
   
   In other words, you will only need to be exposed to the pain of putting your hand on a hot stove once for that connection to be made in your brain.
   
   A strong fight-freeze-or-flight response to a threat will usually be recorded in your cerebellum the first time it happens.
   
   From then on, whenever you encounter that threat again your subconscious will trigger your brain to signal your organs to produce the fight or flight chemicals – which will put your body into a state of emergency.
   
   You will experience state as fear, anxiety, anger, hurt or any other stress emotion.
   
   Note:
   The threat does not necessarily need to be real.
   
   Since your subconscious does not have the ability to reason, use logic, or distinguish right from wrong or true from false, it responds based purely on the data it already contains – whether that data is correct, logical and reasonable or not.
   
   
   Let’s take an Example:
   Mary is an 8-year-old child, and experiences a stressful situation in school – the teacher asks her to recite information she doesn’t know and then scolds her in front of the rest of the class for her failure.
   
   Mary’s body goes into a state of fight-freeze-or-flight – the stress response – and the cerebellum is triggered to record the event as a threat.
   
   The brain makes a connection between the situation (being the center of attention) and the fight-freeze-or-flight stress response.
   
   The exact connection will depend on the data already held in her subconscious.
   
   This may result in a fear of public speaking, or social anxiety, or a range of other possibilities – depending on what other memories she holds and continues to collect.
   
   As you go through your life, your subconscious is constantly referring to the records it holds and triggering the brain and body to respond accordingly.
   
   
   

   How does FasterEFT work with respect to the tapping points?

   The Faster EFT Tapping Basic Recipe has only FIVE steps, that takes only 30 seconds to do.
   
   Anyone of any age can learn this simple technique and use it whenever they want, wherever they are with lasting results.
   
   It may seem a little strange at first, but after a couple of round of using the Faster EFT Tapping Basic Recipe, you’ll feel more comfortable.
   
   The following illustration is pretty straightforward and we’ll give a brief explanation of it as well.
   
   For now, just identify each of these Faster EFT Tapping points on your body and follow along!
   
    Step #1: Aim
    
   Notice how you know you have the problem.
   
   You don’t need to know what the emotions or feelings are, just notice how you know they’re there.
   
   What do you feel?
   
   Where in your body do you feel it?
   
   What do you see or hear?
   
   How do you know it’s a problem?
   
   Step #2: Tap
   Use two fingers to tap the following points, while focusing on the feeling of your fingers on your skin:
   
   • between your eyebrows
   • beside your eye
   • under your eye
   • just below your collarbone

While you are tapping, say “Let it go”.
You can also add “It’s safe to let it go”.
Note: It doesn’t matter which side you tap – you can do either side or both if you like.
Step #3: Peace
Grab your wrist, take a deep breath, blow it out, and say “peace” – and go to a peaceful memory for a moment.
Step #4: Check
Go back to your problem and take notice of how it’s changed.
Do you feel different?
Is the intensity of the feeling different?
Does the memory look or sound different?
Just notice.
Step #5: Repeat
Repeat steps two to four until the feeling or memory has “flipped” – in other words, the negative memory has been replaced by a positive memory.

How does FasterEFT work at the Physical Level?

Neuroscientist, Dr. Joe Dispenza points out that in the neocortex of the brain, nerve cells that fire together wire together.
This means that the more you think and react in the same ways you’ve always done, the more automated your thinking and reactions become.
He goes on to stress that in order to change your automatic responses, you need to consciously become aware of your habitual thinking (metacognition), and make different choices in the moment.
When you cease to use a specific connection and use a different connection instead, you literally rewire the neocortex of your brain.

How does FasterEFT work at the Emotional Level

Consistent FasterEFT tapping “rewires” the neocortex.
This causes a change in automatic thought patterns – and, as a result, in emotional states.
However, there may be a faster and more direct way to make these changes.
FasterEFT has been designed to change memories that cause negative emotions into positive memories.
By changing a memory from negative to positive, the resulting positive chemical responses produce a very different effect on the body.
In addition to this, the changes in the neocortex are an automatic result since all changes in thought patterns cause restructuring in the neocortex.
FasterEFT not only causes the user to think differently – using new connections in the neocortex – it does this with the original memory or record instead of with the current thought process alone.
In other words, instead of working with the neocortex (and by association, with the limbic brain) alone, it is designed to work with the subconscious – the part of you that is in charge of your automatic reactions and responses.
The result is: very fast, significant changes in the brain and in the automatic responses of the body.
Instead of the repetition that is needed in order to change the neural pathways on a more permanent basis (rewiring), the changes are made using the cerebellum – the part of the brain responsible for automated and instinctual reactions and responses, as well as emotional memory.

Try it yourself

Since it doesn’t cost anything, and you don’t need any special equipment or an expert in order to use it, you can carry out your own experiment, and test it for yourself.
Persistence is essential.
Don’t stop until it’s changed – even if it doesn’t feel like it’s going to change – it will, as long as you keep going until it does.

original article: https://fastereft.com/blog/fastereft-work-science-behind-fastereft/

Don't Be Afraid to Start Over