PTSD draft

Acupressure is intended as an adjunct to, not a substitute for, conventional medical therapy. The information and methods set forth in this book reflect the author's experiences and are not intended to replace medical advice. Diagnosis and treatment are, by law, to be supervised by your health professional. Cautions for use by special risk groups and pregnant women are found in the precautions section.

Acupressure for Post Tramatic Stress Disorder and related problems. Copyright 2009© by Monte Cunningham. All rights reserved. Printed in Arizona. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Send information requests to: Stressaway Acupressure, New Age Press, PO Box 564, Snowflake, Az. 85937

Acupressure for Post Tramatic Stress Disorder and related problems/Monte Cunningham

1. Acupressure 2. Acupuncture points 3. Auriculotherapy 4.Reflexology 5. Hand. 6.PTSD

The core ideas of traditional acupuncture and acupressure are as follows. Energy flows within the body along lines known as channels or meridians. There are 14 main channels, some associated with an organ of the body, and a number of subsidiary channels. The state of a person's health is dependent on the balance of energy in the system and the overall level of energy. In the treatment of disease needles are inserted in the classical acupuncture points located on the channels and are manipulated with the aim of restoring the energy flow to a state of balance, and so restoring the patient to a state of health. The process of diagnosis is often complex and not easily understood.

There are many different schools of Traditional Chinese Medicine that use complicated systems of determining how and where the body is out of balance and how to restore this balance. One simple method is to determine which acupuncture points relate to different symptoms and then to treat those points. This method uses orthodox Western diagnoses and a corresponding prescription or 'formula' of classical acupuncture points for each dysfunction or disease. This method is used in our presentation here.

To summarize what we are doing here can be done in a few words. We find the acupressure point or points that relate to your symptom and we stimulate these points until we get relief and/or healing of the symptom. The rest of the material in this book will be outlining the best practices of successfully applying this concept. First a little background on how this system (Stressaway Acupressure Program) began and why it works.

I personally struggled with pain for twenty years before discovering that I could put pressure on my back in specific places to relieve the pain. I developed this tool to reach those spots. *picture of tool here

There are several unique features of this program that make it unusual and exceptionally powerful. These particular factors developed over the last thirty years with the sole criteria of what works the best. This system of acupressure began with the development of the Stressaway Massaging tool (SA), so it seemed fitting to call it by its origins.

One of the main functions that acupressure has is to affect the body’s ability to handle Stress through the autonomic nervous system. By constantly exposing ourselves to "fight or flight" situations, where we produce the chemicals for these events and then do not respond in physical ways to deal with these chemicals we build up stress reactions in our bodies. The Stressaway was named for the response that people frequently reported of feeling the stress leave their bodies. Some experts have estimated that 80 percent of our current illnesses relate to this stress factor.

Over the course of three years, three other tools developed which expanded the effectiveness of the Stressaway Massager to stimulate and heal this imbalance of the autonomic nervous system. Time and again people testified that acupressure never worked for them until they started using these tools. So tools are an important part of the program. Tools make it easier to stimulate the points with deep effective pressure in a manner that fingers cannot do. They make it possible for self treatment to be effective.

At first we worked with rolling the Stressaway on body and specific acupressure points. Later we found we found increased results by also working with points on the hands, feet and ears which have been found to be miniature representations of the body. When I have a sore part in my body I will find a corresponding sore point in my ear, hands, and foot. By stimulating that point I get a healing in the part of the body that is bothering me.

It was clear that ending symptoms was important but even more important was preventing the problems from happening. So prevention is an integral part of the program.

As I studied different books on acupressure and acupuncture (which both use the same points) and tried to learn the theories behind the systems it was very confusing. Many new terms were used that didn't make sense to me and when I tried to explain them to others I saw blank stares so I began using language that translated all the information into more user- friendly terms, explanations and theory. Ease of understanding is critical for a person to effectively apply this material for their own personal use. Much of the difficult terminology came from eastern explanations of why this was working from their perspective. To me it became important to phrase things in western terms so I could understand it better and share it with others.

This system was developed with an empirical emphasis. Something wasn't changed or added unless it was thoroughly researched and tested out. My research on eleven hundred people documented that we get an average 78% reduction in less than five minutes. This research is found on the web site www.stress-away.com.

My web site encourages the development of research projects and will post any research that is done in this field. Research is important for each person also because you are given several points for different problems and you must decide which points work for you. You do not need to use all the points. Just a few may work. If you get a list of 10 different points for your condition and find that each time you stimulate two particular points from that list your problem lessens you may be able to focus your future treatments only on those two points. You must also determine which tool works best for your condition.

The need for individuals to experiment with each tool led me to put three tools and the books (the present book, Stressaway Acupressure, is a consolidation of my first three smaller books) into the Deluxe Acupressure Kit. I have been able to summarize recommended acupressure points for more than four thousand conditions from 400 different experts. These symptoms have been placed into a computer program which is available for your use and is one of the keys for this user-friendly system. You can simply enter the symptom and get a list of the most important points for your symptom. These points are also available in the internet.

The possession of a list of points for your condition plus a tool to easily stimulate the points makes it easy for you to do it yourself. I teach you how to do it for yourself and this Self-use is critical for you to get the best results, especially because frequency of use is an important factor.

Taking responsibility for your health is an important factor in the success of this program. Self-use or self treatment reduces the need for someone to always be around to fix you. Eliminating that need reduces your medical costs tremendously. By not needing someone else to fix you, we keep your cost as low as possible so everyone can afford this system. So the word affordable states this aspect of the program.

The key aspect of acupressure that makes this system so powerful is presented in Acupressure: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Day Healing in these paragraphs.

Pain is a warning of danger and a way to alert us to fix damaged parts of our body. Physical and emotional pain is an important message for health and survival. In response to pain we produce endorphins to kill the pain, increase the heart rate, change the blood pressure, increase the flow of toxins from the damaged area, and initiate a long series of internal healing processes. I call this the "Healing Response." Most of us take this process for granted. There is a revolution just ahead in medical science as we open these avenues of self healing. We are truly self healing organisms. We possess capacities and potentials that we have only begun to tap. These tools and techniques will allow you to begin exploring this healing process for yourself.

Acupuncture tricks the body into thinking it has been damaged by creating a small injury. In principle, this is very similar to our western tradition of vaccinations. When acupuncturists insert a needle, the body responds as if it has been cut. Most of the methods used by acupuncturists (including acupressure) simulate some kind of damage. Acupuncturists have tools to simulate damage by cutting, pressure, electricity, heat, ice, lasers, lights, magnets, scratching, tapping and chemicals.

Acupressure is the application of pressure on specific points (using the fingers or acupressure tools) to trick the body to begin its Healing Response. Healing responses for a particular pain do not occur all over the body. We get the Healing Response just on the area of damage and along specific paths related to nerves and electrical lines called meridians. For example, endorphins (natural painkillers in the body) produce a numbing effect along these meridians. When you create pain by putting pressure on points, you are artificially starting all your body's healing mechanisms for that specific point and various symptoms related to that point. While the body is trying to heal the point of pain, it also heals specific symptoms. The more sensitive the points, and the more pain you create, the stronger the healing response (the body thinks it has been hurt more) and the better your results. When I press a point on my hand that is sore, the body is deadening the pain at the point at my hand, and along the meridian, going from my hand into the elbow, shoulder, neck, and head. It is also producing the Healing Response all along that meridian. *picture of meridian

The key to making acupressure work is to know which points create the Healing Response for a particular problem. Knowing the problem determines which meridians are related and which points might help. If a point that relates to a problem is sore, that tells you it will create the Healing Response for that problem. The diagrams in this booklet and in our other publications contain the most recommended points as reported by over four hundred acupuncturists. The points that work best for you and how long it takes to get results are individual matters that you will work out for yourself.

Now for your particular situation working with PTSD, here is a summary of what is going on and how the healing response of acupressure is working in this situation. Our mind is known for it’s ability to learn from each days experience. This starts from an early age that we are learning from others, habits and ways of living that keep us secure and able to fulfill our needs and goals. We have long term and short term memory systems that take each days happenings and determine behavior patterns that allow us remember the past and to predict and prepare for future events. The mind is always comparing our past events with the current events.

As the mind is quiet at night the new events of the day are compared with older long term memories to see if anything needs to be changed or were the old memories in line with todays events. It is trying to synthesize the data and get rid of the stuff it doesn’t need to keep updated. So if I have events in a day that don’t seem very important they can be placed somewhere in the memory system where they aren’t referred to often. But if the events during a day are life threatening or tie in closely with traumatic events that have happened to me in the past or are very stressful to me in some way then the mind must integrate them in some different fashion. The more intense the emotion related to an event the more the mind must deal with that happening.

Emotions get attached to events for many different reasons. One reason an events becomes memorable is because of the threat to our survival or how it may be connected with some event of our past or long term memory. High emotional events create a fight or flight response which is characterized by lots of adrenalin. The adrenalin and associated chemicals allows us to meet the current emergency situation with some type of action. This heightened alert status reinforces the events of the day with long term memories. Then the mind pulls up these old memories and says ‘ah’ yes this is something that is important and we should keep up our vigilance on this issue. This memory is important to remember because it has applications today.

So the events of the day (by having strong emotional responses) can reinforce learned behaviors and memories and make them stronger. The small or large upsets during the day can be pointers to patterns or memories that we are using to guide our lives. Now if I am finding that the old memories are falsely coloring my day then I have some things I can do to unlearn the patterns that I have learned related to these old memories. The most critical thing I can do is to stop my emotional response to the days events. By doing this on a daily basis I begin unlearning those reactions to the thoughts and memories that are distressing to me.

We remember things that are reinforced on a regular basis. We will use certain techniques that allow us to take away the highly emotional response to events and therefore we will lose our attachments to the old memories. Sometimes our memories effects how we see a situation and how we interpret events. And looking at current events as reflections of the past we have a way to deprogram what we have learned. We can reprogram our robat like emotional patterns so that when events that remind us of old memories come up we will be liberated from the ways we have responded before. Old traumatic memories may and probably will still come up but as we reprogram our emotional responses to them they have less and less of an effect on our lives.

Much of what we are doing is similar to research that has been done in learning theory. We learn a behavior when it is positively or negatively reinforced. If I am training a dog how to learn a trick he will learn faster if I give him a reward each time he does the trick. NOW IF I STOP REWARDING HIM HE WILL UNLEARN THE TRICK. We unlearn behavior or traumatic memories by simply stopping the emotional response to events that remind us of those old events.

Some therapies will also recall the old memories while in a relaxed state without the emotional response so that the memories will lose their emotional strength. The trauma is recalled in the presence of relaxation (or if not relaxation, the absence of stress) and thus is not "re-lived" as it is remembered because the negative affect associated with the trauma is not re-experienced with the memory of the event.

We reinforce a memory by remembering an event and creating a strong emotional response to that memory. We let go of that memory or begin forgetting it when we can stop the high or even small emotional responses to events that remind us of the traumatic event. Also if the memory arises we can monitor the emotional response we have to the memory and in that fashion reduce it’s effect on our lives.

One reason old traumatic memories keep coming up is that the mind has not successfully figured out a solution to the problem that presented itself when we had a traumatic or stressful event in our past. So it keeps looking for events in our present time that relate to the old events so it can figure out a plan that will help it survive or keep it from suffering as it did in the past. So we are drawn to people in our lives so we can work out past events that were unresolved.

We use a multi-pronged approach to give you the tools necessary to discharge negative memories and patterns that are keeping us from being happy. First we use acupressure on specific points that relax the body and counter the adrenalin that characterizes the fight or flight response of any past traumatic events. This has a healing effect on the energy systems. This sequence should be done every night before going to sleep. The mind is beginning to process and integrate the short term memories of the day with your other long term memories.

Each time you stimulate a point, the body is producing a healing response that repairs any effects of stress and adrenalin during the day. This has a reprogramming effect on those old traumatic memories. The mechanism of action, from the Western viewpoint, appears to be regulation of blood circulation to the brain and release of valuable neurotransmitter substances that can affect brain function to aid recovery. As you learn the sequence of points you can do this as you are going to sleep in bed.

For the best results it is important to understand the following acupressure principles:

No pain, no gain. You are looking for sore points. If a point is sore, it needs work. If a point is not sore, you do not need to treat it. Finger pressure will work but most people get a better Healing Response using acupressure tools. They are sharper and allow more pressure to be applied. If a point is very sore, press only as hard as you can tolerate. You must be the judge on this. Light pressure for a longer period will give you the same results. Some people who are larger or less sensitive than others, may need more pressure to activate the healing response. If a point is not sore, study the diagrams to be sure you have located the right spot. Our computer analysis can give you additional points that relate to your condition. If you bruise easily, check our Acupressure Cookbook to find the points for bruising.

Repeat, repeat, repeat; treatments have a cumulative effect. Sometimes lasting results are immediate, but most often it takes a while. Each time you activate the Healing Response it brings the system closer to normal. If you do not get a response quickly you can increase the frequency of treatment. Three or four times a day or even once an hour is OK. You cannot overdose. It does not mean that the treatments are not working if the pain comes back. This is normal. Eventually you will reach a point where the pain does not return. Some acupuncturists report treating people 160 times and some think the use of needles is three times as effective as acupressure. You can use acupressure again and again with no additional cost.

As you repeatedly stimulate the points over time the nervous system learns a new response to the problem. Sometimes it is like teaching puppies a new trick. At first you must coach them frequently and then one day they know the new trick. Sometimes this is learned for life, but most often you will just need to remind them of the trick you want them to remember. As you know each puppy is different and the more difficult the trick the more you must work to get the learned response. Long-term results with acupressure depend on repeated use. If you have difficulties getting results, be patient and keep trying. The specific sequence we recommend consists of three different stages.

Phase One: Get rid of the pain. At least three times a day do acupressure treatments using all the points you have identified (people with the reference books will have about 10 points). Treat for 30 seconds to a minute. You can treat longer (2 to 3 minutes) but not more than 10 minutes. Learn the points so you do not have to refer to the pictures. During this phase use any two of the prevention routines for at least five minutes and whenever you have a free moment for treatment. (See section on Prevention). Do this phase until the pain stays away between treatments.

Phase Two: Get rid of the sore acupressure points. Treat at least once a day all the points you have. Work any one of your four prevention systems once a day and whenever you have a free moment.

Phase Three: Keep your system balanced. Use the treatment sequence or a few of the critical points whenever you have a spare moment. Work any one of the four micro-systems at least every other day. For more energy and better health work one of the micro-systems each day or whenever you feel tired or under stress. Stress, a re-injury, overuse, and daily life will sometimes bring the pain back to warn us of imbalances. Move back to the other more intense phases as needed.

Your scale of response relates to the cumulative effect. First, if the points are sore you are on the right spots. Some people report that the points become very sore at first, so go slowly. You may get a lessening of pain or disease with treatment. The pain will go away for short periods, then for longer periods and finally the pain will stay away and the pressure points will lose their soreness.

Prevention. You can fix a tire by putting more air in it but that is only temporary. The same is true with the imbalances in our body's energy system that underlie all illnesses. Stress in our lives will cause the points to become sore again so work on them regularly. This heals imbalances caused by the stress we normally accumulate. Distressed areas of the body are reflected in the energy system (acupressure points) of the body as painful points. Our booklet Being Healthy describes a way of working with the acupressure points to provide the maximum preventive Healing Response using the body points.

There are four parts of the body that are miniature representations of the whole body (see diagrams). Stimulating these points can prevent pain and illness before it occurs. Any sore points on these miniaturizations will activate the Healing Response for the stressed area. Use the Happy-Feet tool on all parts of the foot to work out any soreness. The Acu-Ki tool is easiest to use on the hand and some people enjoy the sharper effects of the Happy-Feet on the hand. Your Stressaway Massager is the best tool for rubbing the head, which is also a miniaturization of the body. The Back-Eze is the best tool for stimulating the miniature system of the back. The body point ST36 is your most powerful point for prevention of illnesses. Use it to add years and energy to our lives. Add it to all your treatments and use it daily. Ancient texts site it as the most important point for increasing your life span. People continually tell us how energized they feel using these different systems. If you work with these tools just to get rid of pain or illness, you are missing the most powerful benefit of acupressure -- prevention of illness, better health, and a sense of aliveness.

A few good points. The goal is to find the fewest points possible that give you effective results. Sorest points usually give the best results. It is critical to find the correct point. This is why we have developed such good diagrams. By looking in the general area and finding the tender spot you will know you are on the point related to your problem. Our books provide at least ten different points so you can test their effectiveness for yourself. More points are available through our computer listings.

A free moment. You do not have to use all of the points recommended. Using just a few of them when you have a free moment can be effective. Work points while watching TV, in a movie theater, waiting in a line or for an appointment, in class, in meetings, in your car, before going to bed -- anytime.

Another way of determining when to use acupressure points during the day is to pay attention to anytime you feel a negative emotion. Instead of feeling an emotion and acting out on it you pause to feel the emotion in your heart area or stomach area. Then you stimulate the C17 point with your acu-ki. Sometimes stimulating the point will be all you need to do for 30 seconds to a minute. Sometimes people can just put pressure on the point and the healing effect (endorphins, etc) will stop the negative emotion and allow them to go on with their activities of the day. If this one point and method works for you it is the easiest and takes the least amount of time of the different approaches we offer here.

You may also select another point that you may have found that gives you a special healing effect. Another modification of this method is to work initially with all the points for PTSD and as you are pressing the point paying attention to how your body feels. You may find one or two points that give you much more relief than the other points. You could then use one or two of those points anytime your feel an negative emotion or that relates to old past memories instead of C17. You would also need to determine if the visualization of the energies (in part 2) works for you with these other points.

This gives you a tool to stop the runaway emotions that are associated with the traumatic event. The use of the acupressure tool along with other ways offered below of stopping the thoughts associated with the event are key to your success in overcoming these conditions.

I became aware how well this point worked when I gave a list of nine points to a lady with a panic disorder. She took the points and tools and I didn’t see her for a couple of months. When I saw her again I asked how the sequence worked for her and she said that whenever she feels the old panic starting up she just presses the C17 and it goes away. She was ecstatic it worked so well.

Many have found stimulating acupressure points can be more effective if you become aware of your breath and as you stimulate the point, breathe in thinking “Balance the energy” and as you breathe out thinking “let go of the ________________________(feeling i.e. anger or condition i.e. pain).” Along with the thought you visualize white light coming in to your body through the Acu-Ki with the in breath and smoke going out of your body through the Acu-Ki with the energy of the condition leaving. As the healing light comes in from the sky through the point you are pressing it spreads quickly throughout the body. Then as the breath goes out dark smoke comes from all the parts of the body and leaves through the Acu-ki out into the sky. The white light representing the healing balancing energy coming in to heal the condition and the dark smoke representing the energy behind the feeling or condition leaving. The clearer this visualization can be the better your results. Thirty seconds is usually a good time to stimulate the points. You can kind of measure this by knowing that a good slow in and out breath will usually take about 10 seconds. So three in and out breaths will be about 30 seconds. You can do it longer if you have more time but this allows you to get through all the sequence of points in a timely manner. As you learn the PTSD points by heart and double up with the two Acu-ki tools you can do the complete sequence in ten minutes.

Once you have done all the points come back to C17 with the Acu-Ki and then recall the events of your day where there has been some emotional response. The smallest of events that reflect anger, fear, doubts, self-recriminations, irritation, feelings of lack, pain, illnesses, frustration, stress, depression, sadness etc. can be used. It is important that a part of us act as observers in this exercise. We welcome these big or little emotions because they give us clues on how we can be free from the bigger past traumatic events or emotional blocks. Any negative emotions that you have had during the day should be recalled and felt in your heart one at a time. For example a way to release fear and anger is to let go of resisting it or fighting with it. Instead of fighting with it, practice “welcoming” the fear and anger. As you invite up these feelings allow them to be felt within as energy. Don’t label it. Just feel the energy of it. Before you label them, it is simply energy. Give it a little air time within. Simply become acutely aware of it as nothing more than energy, you’ve been resisting and then after welcoming it, let it go. Actually see the visual event and feel the emotion as much as you can. Remember emotions have an energy and this energy is what we want to release at the end of the day so it does not reinforce old patterns and memories. Then you do the breathing in and out visualizations, letting go of the energy of the negative emotion. You can work with each situation for the three breaths as you do with each acupressure point or you can work with each situation until you feel relaxed and balanced and when there seems like no more smoke coming out. Then go on to the next situation until you have let go of all the energy associated with negative emotions and negativity from the day. If events from the day have reminded you of the past traumatic events you are working with again let go of resisting it or fighting with it. Instead of fighting with it, practice “welcoming” the feeling. As you invite up these feelings allow them to be felt within as energy. Don’t label it. Don’t think about it. Just feel the energy of it. Before you label them, it is simply energy. Give it a little air time within. Simply become acutely aware of it as nothing more than energy, you’ve been resisting and then after welcoming it, let it go (again with the breathing techniques and visualizations.) Once you have finished then recognize a “feeling of balance” or peacefulness and try to be in that feeling as you go to sleep.

As we do this at night and have practice we can begin doing the same during the day with events in our lives. We do this by recognizing an emotion as it comes up or as it starts as a general feeling of anxiety or uncomfortableness. As we experience the beginning of the emotion we focus on the feeling in the heart area and put pressure on C17 doing the “letting go of the energy” along with the breathing exercise. Once you become proficient at this you may find you can just visualize the acu-ki on C17 and the energy leaving. Some people are able just to press the point and the energy behind their emotion will vanish.

If there is a particular emotion that keeps coming up and you want to work with it on an individual basis then get the points from the ebook “Balancing Your Emotions” and work on some of those specific feelings. This is especially important if your patterns are bringing up depression, anger and/or feelings that would cause you to hurt yourself or someone else. It is important that you remember that this is a self help technique that should be used in conjunction with whatever other therapies which are available to you and with which you feel comfortable.

Do whenever you have time as outlined in Acupressure Principles found in Acupressure: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Day Healing. Instead of working with pain we are dealing with emotional imbalances so it slightly different but all the same principles apply. Those of you who are also experiencing a lot of pain may find acupressure can help you there also. That is the area where we have the most research data and positive results.

Then we have a series of relaxation tapes that allow you to have a daily event that counters any tension stored up during the day and allows you to gain some new outlooks or Aphorisms on events in your life. An aphorism is a short wise saying. We use them to replace some of the programming associated with uncomfortable emotions. They allow us to stop the runaway mind and put in what we want. You will learn how to relax using these phrases and they will give you another way of looking at the events in your life and how you relate to them. There are Seven Simple Aphorisms that you can use at any time during the day or during your acupressure treatments. They are; The mind cannot be stilled by force; I am not my name; To command nature obey it; Simplify your desires; Center your attention; Redirect your attention; and This too shall pass.

The tapes were developed for a group environment so some of the initial agreements may not apply to you if you are doing this on your own. You will need a reclining chair and a tape player that has stereo ear phones which you can get from most any thrift store. This series of tapes is better just to experience without trying to describe what is happening. It is explained through the series how to use this experience of inner exploration.

Whether we realize it or not, we are thinking most of the time. If you are speaking or listening to someone, you are thinking. If you are reading the newspaper or watching television, you are thinking. When you recall memories from your past, you are thinking. When you are considering something in your future, you are thinking. When you are driving, you are thinking. When you are getting ready in the morning, you are thinking. Most of us don’t have any control of what we are thinking. The Simple Aphorisms phrases can be used to stop the runaway mind and give us a chance to enjoy more the experiences in our awareness. *6 (share how you use them)

he apparent differences for each of these treatments obscure what may be an important similarity, the client-directed nature of the treatment. Although the treatments vary greatly in their outward appearance, they all require that the client provide and /or direct two important aspects of the treatment. First, in each of the treatments, the control and direct the extent of exposure to the traumatic event they will receive. Second, while creating their own level of exposure to the trauma, each of the treatments provides some intervention, ranging from a form of what could be called unconditional positive regard (TIR) to tapping (TFT). We suggest that the impact of the treatments is to create in the client a relaxation effect at the same time that the client is self-exposing to the trauma. In TIR for example, the method could be described as asking the client repeatedly to expose themselves to their traumatic memories at their own pace accompanied by unconditional positive regard from the therapist. VK/D shares similarities with TIR in that it involves multiple "viewing" of the trauma at the client's direction with the support of a therapist. In EMDR, the client also self-exposes while being directed in eye-movements. While the eye-movements are purported to be of importance in a neurological sense, proponents of EMDR also indicate that finger tapping is equally successful, indicating that any success achieved through the use of EMDR is not due to the neurological impact of eye movement, but to some other process. TFT involves the client mentally exposing themselves to their traumatic memories with direction from the therapist on which "meridians" to tap or stimulate. Essentially, in all of the approaches, the trauma is recalled in the presence of relaxation (or if not relaxation, the absence of stress) and thus is not "re-lived" as it is remembered because the negative affect associated with the trauma is not re-experienced with the memory of the event.

Another important similarity is that the client chooses the level of exposure to the stressful materials. Although in both TIR and VK/D, this exposure may be verbalized repeatedly to the therapist, and in EMDR and TFT the exposure is verbalized to a lesser extent, the client still chooses the level of exposure. In addition, all four-treatment approaches seem to lower negative arousal during this self-dosed exposure.

All four of the approaches are highly focused on outcome objectives, exposure based, and client directed both in terms of the selection of traumatic material to be considered and the amount of exposure to the material that they experience. This leads to the hypothesis that the active ingredient may be the simultaneous exposure to the traumatic memory and the reduction in distress. Thus, the client is able to remember the trauma without the negative arousal that previously accompanied the memory of the trauma (Lick & Bootzin, 1975).

In general, the world knows of three ways of handling a feeling. These ways are to

express (vent) the feeling, try to suppress (hide) the feeling, or try to escape (cope)

which allows you to “let go” of the feeling, and to discharge any negative energy.

drink, etc., anything to get away from that unsettling feeling. But it doesn’t

go away.. . It’s still there... It just goes underground, taking its toll on you

suppressed energy is undone, leaving you freer and calmer. As time goes by you become naturally free and calm, with greater clarity of mind. Purpose

and direction become more positive and constructive, resulting in better decision making and higher productivity.

Diligently and persistently apply the basic recipe to emotional problems that interest you and you will likely raise your success ratio without having to dwell on the technicalities of these impediments. Your success ratio will be even higher if you apply the release technique to all the specific events of your life that may contribute to whatever problem you are addressing.

In essence, the Personal Peace Procedure involves making a list of every bothersome specific event in ones life and systematically EFT’ing their impacts out of existence. By diligently doing this we can pull out every negative tree from our emotional forests and thus eliminate major causes of our emotional and physical ailments. This, of course, propels each individual toward personal peace which, in turn, contributes mightily toward world peace.

1. As "homework" between sessions with a physician or therapist. This is certain to accelerate and deepen the healing process.

2. As a daily procedure to clear out a lifetime of accumulated emotional debris. This will enhance self-image, reduce self-doubt and provide a profound sense of freedom.

3. As a means to eliminate a major contributor (if not the sole cause) of a serious disease. Somewhere within one's specific events are those angers, fears and traumas that are manifesting as disease. By addressing them all, you will likely cover those responsible for the disease.

4. As a useful substitute for finding core issues. If you neutralize all the specific issues you will have automatically included core issues.

6. To become an example to others as to what is possible. This simple concept should shift the entire healing field. I can state it in a sentence...

MOST OF OUR EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL PROBLEMS ARE CAUSED (OR CONTRIBUTED TO) BY OUR UNRESOLVED SPECIFIC EVENTS, THE VAST MAJORITY OF WHICH CAN BE EASILY HANDLED BY ACUPRESSURE.

The following explanation and process will give you a small taste of what The Sedona Method can do for you. Remember, this is just a sample. For you to get maximum benefit and sustained results, we highly recommend that you work with our audio program and/or attend one of our seminars.

There are three ways to approach the process of releasing, and they all lead to the same result: liberating your natural ability of letting go of any unwanted emotion on the spot, and allowing some of the suppressed energy in your subconscious to dissipate. The first way is by choosing to let go of the unwanted feeling. The second way is to welcome the feeling, to allow the emotion just to be. The third way is to dive into the very core of the emotion.

Let me explain by asking you to participate in a simple exercise. Pick up a pen, a pencil, or some small object that you would be willing to drop without giving it a second thought. Now, hold it in front of you and really grip it tightly. Pretend this is one of your limiting feelings and that your hand represents your gut or your consciousness. If you held the object long enough, this would start to feel uncomfortable yet familiar.

Now, open your hand and roll the object around in it. Notice that you are the one holding on to it; it is not attached to your hand. The same is true with your feelings, too. Your feelings are as attached to you as this object is attached to your hand.

We hold on to our feelings and forget that we are holding on to them. It’s even in our language. When we feel angry or sad, we don’t usually say, “I feel angry,” or, “I feel sad.” We say, “I am angry,” or, “I am sad.” Without realizing it, we are misidentifying that we are the feeling. Often, we believe a feeling is holding on to us. This is not true… we are always in control and just don’t know it.

What happened? You let go of the object, and it dropped to the floor. Was that hard? Of course not. That’s what we mean when we say “let go.”

Sticking with this same analogy: If you walked around with your hand open, wouldn’t it be very difficult to hold on to the pen or other object you’re holding? Likewise, when you allow or welcome a feeling, you are opening your consciousness, and this enables the feeling to drop away all by itself—like the clouds passing in the sky or smoke passing up a chimney with the flue open. It is as though you are removing the lid from a pressure cooker.

Now, if you took the same object—a pencil, pen, or pebble—and magnified it large enough, it would appear more and more like empty space. You would be looking into the gaps between the molecules and atoms. When you dive into the very core of a feeling, you will observe a comparable phenomenon: nothing is really there.

As you master the process of releasing, you will discover that even your deepest feelings are just on the surface. At the core you are empty, silent, and at peace—not in the pain and darkness that most of us would assume. In fact, even our most extreme feelings have only as much substance as a soap bubble. And you know what happens when you poke your finger into a soap bubble: it pops. That’s exactly what happens when you dive into the core of a feeling.

Please keep these three analogies in mind as we go through the releasing process together. Releasing will help you to free yourself from all of your unwanted patterns of behavior, thought, and feeling. All that is required from you is being as open as you can be to the process. Releasing will free you to access clearer thinking, yet it is not a thinking process. Although it will help you to access heightened creativity, you don’t need to be particularly creative to be effective at doing it.

You will get the most out of the process of releasing the more you allow yourself to see, hear, and feel it working, rather than by thinking about how and why it works. Lead, as best you can, with your heart, not your head. If you find yourself getting a little stuck in trying to figure it out, you can use the identical process to let go of “wanting to figure it out.” Guaranteed, as you work with this process, you will understand it more fully by having the direct experience of doing it.

Step 1: Focus on an issue that you would like to feel better about, and then allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling in this moment. This doesn’t have to be a strong feeling. In fact, you can even check on how you feel about this exercise and what you want to get from it. Just welcome the feeling and allow it to be as fully or as best you can.

This instruction may seem simplistic, but it needs to be. Most of us live in our thoughts, pictures, and stories about the past and the future, rather than being aware of how we actually feel in this moment. The only time that we can actually do anything about the way we feel (and, for that matter, about our businesses or our lives) is NOW. You don’t need to wait for a feeling to be strong before letting go. In fact, if you are feeling numb, flat, blank, cut off, or empty inside, those are feelings that can be let go of just as easily as the more recognizable ones. Simply do the best you can. The more you work with this process, the easier it will be for you to identify what you are feeling.

These questions are merely asking you if it is possible to take this action. “Yes” or “no” are both acceptable answers. You will often let go even if you say “no.” As best you can, answer the question that you choose with a minimum of thought, staying away from second-guessing yourself or getting into an internal debate about the merits of that action or its consequences.

All the questions used in this process are deliberately simple. They are not important in and of themselves but are designed to point you to the experience of letting go, to the experience of stopping holding on. Go on to Step 3 no matter how you answered the first question.

Step 3: No matter which question you started with, ask yourself this simple question: Would I? In other words: Am I willing to let go?

Again, stay away from debate as best you can. Also remember that you are always doing this process for yourself—for the purpose of gaining your own freedom and clarity. It doesn’t matter whether the feeling is justified, long-standing, or right.

If the answer is “no,” or if you are not sure, ask yourself: “Would I rather have this feeling, or would I rather be free?”

This is an invitation to just let it go NOW. You may find yourself easily letting go. Remember that letting go is a decision you can make any time you choose.

Step 5: Repeat the preceding four steps as often as needed until you feel free of that particular feeling.

You will probably find yourself letting go a little more on each step of the process. The results at first may be quite subtle. Very quickly, if you are persistent, the results will get more and more noticeable. You may find that you have layers of feelings about a particular topic. However, what you let go of is gone for good.