| In this article Rick Wilkes shares on EFT when you | | | | with the idea of baby steps. |
| need surgery. Rick Wilkes is an EFT specialist. | | | | KEVIN: OK. |
| KEVIN: What about, you know, and I think that some | | | | RICK: We're not necessarily going to jump right out of |
| of your body worked deals with this because you | | | | a plane, OK? There is an evolutionary process. If you |
| were a massage therapist. What about someone who | | | | want to be a skydiver, they are going to take you to |
| has surgery for something, say, for a knee injury or an | | | | ground school. |
| elbow injury or a shoulder injury, and the doctor says | | | | KEVIN: Yeah. |
| to them, "Look, you're not going to ever regain full | | | | RICK: And, what I say is, OK. What is this first limitation |
| range of motion?" Like, what can EFT do for | | | | that you think you that have, based upon this surgery? |
| someone who has experienced something like that, | | | | And one of them that immediately came to mind is "I |
| because I think this is one of the most fascinating | | | | have to be careful." |
| things about it? | | | | KEVIN: OK. |
| RICK: Oh it is. First of all, acknowledge that.... | | | | RICK: A-ha. |
| KEVIN: Oh, before you even say this, I want to say | | | | KEVIN: Great. Yeah. OK. |
| please to everyone out there. Please listen to this with | | | | RICK: So, I felt like, "Ahh, I've got to be careful. I don't |
| an open mind because I know that some people might | | | | want to reinjure myself." |
| discount some of this stuff right off the bat, but please | | | | KEVIN: And be careful in terms of just anything, |
| listen to this because there's countless of examples | | | | correct? |
| for what it's worth. | | | | RICK: Anything. |
| RICK: Oh, I don't have problem with skepticism. | | | | KEVIN: Yeah. |
| KEVIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. | | | | RICK: Right. Anything. I have to be careful. There is this |
| RICK: In fact, I came to EFT not only as a massage | | | | sense of "Hmm, I really can't explore the edges of |
| therapist which to some may feel pretty squishy. | | | | experience. I have to be in a more narrow comfort |
| KEVIN: A-ha. Yeah. | | | | zone." So, I did some tapping even though I feel like I |
| RICK: I'm an electrical engineer and technologist by | | | | have to be careful. |
| training. | | | | KEVIN: A-ha. |
| KEVIN: A-ha. | | | | RICK: I'm open to the possibility that my back is |
| RICK: I have decades of experience working with | | | | stronger and more flexible than ever. |
| computers and designing processes and systems that | | | | KEVIN: OK. |
| need to work consistently and robustly and for me, | | | | RICK: Alright. And as I did the tapping around, feeling |
| EFT, if it did not provide the kind of consistent results | | | | the need to be careful, what I felt was my comfort |
| that an engineer would find appealing, well, hmm, I | | | | zone expanding. Now that didn't mean that I |
| wouldn't be interested. | | | | immediately left to doing breakdancing. |
| KEVIN: Ha! That's a great point. | | | | KEVIN: Right. |
| RICK: So, when I look at the energy of something, if I | | | | RICK: Right? |
| am in a doctor's office and maybe half-dressed, feeling | | | | KEVIN: Right. |
| scared and a doctor says to me a long list of possible | | | | RICK: What I did is I started to explore. I started doing |
| side effects of a medication or that these are the | | | | some dance around my studio. I put on some music, I |
| things that may go wrong or that may never would be | | | | started exploring the movement. Now the next thing |
| restored as part of this surgery, we are in an altered | | | | that came up, Kevin, was when I was sore the next |
| state of consciousness. | | | | day. Now, who doesn't try something new and feel a |
| KEVIN: A-ha. | | | | little sore the next day, right? |
| RICK: Anytime that we're in the presence of | | | | KEVIN: Yeah. |
| somebody that has authority, don't we all feel a little bit | | | | RICK: But if you've been through a year of chronic |
| different than our calm and confident self? | | | | pain or you're just starting to move back into a more |
| KEVIN: Yeah, absolutely. | | | | vital activity, well, you're going to be sore, and yet it |
| RICK: Yeah. So let's just first take the reality that | | | | triggered a sense of uh-oh. There was just a sense |
| doctors are now required to give you a whole slew of | | | | that there was no logical reason for it. My doctors |
| bad news that doesn't apply to 99.9% of the people | | | | aren't telling me "Don't do this." Never go against the |
| but they're required by law to give you all this | | | | doctor who is saying "don't do this" during the early |
| information in the interest of "informed consent." | | | | stages of recovery. |
| KEVIN: OK. | | | | KEVIN: Sure. Yeah. |
| RICK: OK. Now, they also are looking at your body in a | | | | RICK: You know. We're not suggesting that you be |
| particular light. They do not necessarily appreciate the | | | | stupid. |
| kind of intelligence that's at work in the natural healing | | | | KEVIN: Yeah. |
| process because they come in at a point where your | | | | RICK: But your body has an intelligence and as you |
| natural healing processes had been disturbed. | | | | soothe the energy around it, like uh-oh. Once I soothe |
| KEVIN: Sure. | | | | that energy, guess what, when I put my hand on my |
| RICK: They don't even know what you might be | | | | back, my back said "Oh, I feel good." I said "Really?" It |
| capable of regenerating in terms of range of motion, | | | | said "Yeah." It is a little bit sore but we weren't working |
| flexibility, regeneration of the health and vitality of the | | | | on some scar tissue here, Rick. We're just loosening |
| joints of your body. So I'll give you an example. It's a | | | | that up. It's starting to feel pretty good." And I said |
| personal example. I had back surgery, L5-S1 | | | | "Well, OK. What might help soothe you a little bit?" And |
| discectomy in 1999. | | | | my back said, "Well you know, a little warm compress |
| KEVIN: A-ha. | | | | might feel really good right now." And I went and took |
| RICK: Now, I have spent a year in pretty intense pain | | | | a nice hot bath and I put some warmth on my back |
| before that surgery. I did not recover nearly as quickly | | | | and my back said "Oh, that's really good." Now here is |
| as the doctor had said might be typical. But today, | | | | the key. EFT helped clear the noise, this fear. And then, |
| having used EFT and all the limiting beliefs about what | | | | you're listening to your own body's intelligence. |
| that back injury might mean to me, the limitations that it | | | | KEVIN: A-ha. |
| might put on my flexibility, everything that I've heard | | | | RICK: You're not trying to force your body to take |
| about it. Today, my spine feels to me the healthiest it | | | | huge leaps because "I have something to prove." |
| has ever felt. My spine at 13 was not nearly as healthy | | | | That's not the way the body's intelligence works. What |
| and vital as it is today. I am doing Zumba which is, if | | | | it is, is if the noise is up, the fear is up, soothe that using |
| you are familiar with it, is a pretty high-intensity | | | | EFT and then very intelligently listen to your body and |
| aerobics based upon Latin dance moves. | | | | say, "Well, what would be good for you right now?" |
| KEVIN: A-ha. | | | | Oh, five minutes of dance and movements. |
| RICK: Well, there's a lot of shaking of the low back | | | | KEVIN: A-ha. |
| and sacrum as part of Zumba. | | | | RICK: Maybe a couple of jumping jacks might be good. |
| KEVIN: Right. | | | | "Hey look at me, I'm more strong and vital than I |
| RICK: And before I went to that class, there were | | | | thought." How about doing a gastroc stretch. |
| some limiting beliefs about what was possible in my | | | | KEVIN: Uh-hmm. |
| body that I addressed with EFT. | | | | RICK: I haven't been able to do that for a long time. |
| KEVIN: OK. | | | | That feels pretty good. How many should I do? |
| RICK: Today, I went to the class much more calm and | | | | Three? Well. Why not 12? I'm going to push it to beat |
| confident and I'm seeing my body respond in a way | | | | the - that's where another aspect of this can be |
| that is certainly out, way outside the curve of what | | | | helped with EFT. That sense that you're having to fix |
| you normally see from people that had an L5-S1 | | | | yourself; the sense that, "Well, I was broken before |
| surgery, even 7 or 8 years ago. | | | | and now I have something to prove." |
| KEVIN: Got you. And why don't you take us through to | | | | KEVIN: Huh. |
| some of the things that you addressed with having, | | | | RICK: That is just as much of a block to you, really |
| because I think, I think having a blueprint is so important | | | | enjoying your body, Kevin, if you're feeling limited. It's |
| because, you know, there's probably a lot of people | | | | the whip aspect that so many people who want to be |
| out there who have had certain injuries or certain, they | | | | at peak performance, believe that you have to really |
| have been told that they are limited. And why don't | | | | push beyond, push beyond. If somebody is a pusher |
| you take us through a process that can say "Hey, you | | | | like that and they find themselves repeatedly being |
| know, this is what you might want to attempt to do, | | | | injured in little or big ways, that's an area to deal with |
| you know, just try it and see what happens." | | | | with EFT as well. What's the belief that says you have |
| RICK: Now, I suggest that first, people be comfortable | | | | something to prove rather than a life to enjoy. |