Getting Change to Stick
By Dr. Tanya Smith, TCM
The dawn of the New Year is like a field of fresh snow, unmarked and glistening with possibility. Often we take some time at the turning of the calendar to take stock of the past year and make plans for the one upcoming.
Then we resolve the keep those plans, things that we think we ought to be doing to improve our lives and get us where we want to go. No one resolves to eat more chocolate or spend more time watching TV. We resolve to do things we are otherwise unlikely to do or may find difficult to do.
And studies show at least half of us give up on our resolutions a month or two into the year.
I see this all of the time in my clinical practice when I talk with women about making dietary changes in order to lose weight or improve their fertility. There’s not much that we discuss that women don’t already know. So why, when we have tons of information about nutrition and diet, do we still eat in ways we know are not healthy for us?
Philosophers have grappled with what motivates us for centuries. Aristotle took a view that fits well with our everyday experience of failing to do what we know to be best. Our rational mind may tell us what is best to do, he thought, but in a particular moment, our reason may be overwhelmed by emotion or desire. So the problem is not a lack of knowledge but a failure of our reason to master the non-rational parts of our nature.
We don’t need more information. We need a way to relieve our emotions and desires so our rational mind has a chance to have a say.
One strategy is to change our thoughts by repeating positive thoughts often enough that they become a habit. However, positive thinking only works when it matches our experience, especially our inner experience. If you want to accomplish something you’ve never done before and you have an inner experience of confidence that you have the potential to reach this goal, then you will be aligned with positive thinking and can use it like a little engine to help you get up the hill. But positive thinking can’t work when it argues with our experience. Insisting on trying to overcome or erase experience with positive thinking can be both incredibly frustrating and terribly unkind.
So if we can’t rationalize our way to our goals and positive thinking is running us is circles, what can we do?
I was recently introduced to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as a way to release the emotional charge associated with change. Here’s a woo-woo alert. EFT looks weird when you do it. But if you’re game, give it a try.
EFT is based on the premise that the body’s energy is intimately connected with our well-being and has profound effects on how we feel and act. According to the principles of EFT, negative emotions are caused when a thought or memory causes a disruption in the body’s energy system.
EFT works by restoring balance to the body’s energy system by tapping on the end points of meridians. These meridians have been known to and used by Chinese medicine practitioners for over 5000 years. With EFT you can access the body’s energy system to change long-standing patterns of fear, anxiety and stress, freeing up your creative and rational energies to make changes in your life.
As a TCM practitioner, I think EFT works by disrupting the usual flow of your energy in response to a thought or emotional trigger. For example, when you have a craving for chocolate, your energy flows in a certain way and your body responds accordingly with the sensation of craving. Tapping the points at the ends of the meridians interrupts the usual flow and releases the energy, allowing calm energy flow to resume and eases the sense of craving.
You can learn how to do EFT for free by downloading the instructions at this website: http://www.emofree.com Give it a try. You’ve got nothing to lose. It may be just the ticket to getting the changes you want to make in your life to stick!
By Dr. Tanya Smith, TCM
The dawn of the New Year is like a field of fresh snow, unmarked and glistening with possibility. Often we take some time at the turning of the calendar to take stock of the past year and make plans for the one upcoming.
Then we resolve the keep those plans, things that we think we ought to be doing to improve our lives and get us where we want to go. No one resolves to eat more chocolate or spend more time watching TV. We resolve to do things we are otherwise unlikely to do or may find difficult to do.
And studies show at least half of us give up on our resolutions a month or two into the year.
I see this all of the time in my clinical practice when I talk with women about making dietary changes in order to lose weight or improve their fertility. There’s not much that we discuss that women don’t already know. So why, when we have tons of information about nutrition and diet, do we still eat in ways we know are not healthy for us?
Philosophers have grappled with what motivates us for centuries. Aristotle took a view that fits well with our everyday experience of failing to do what we know to be best. Our rational mind may tell us what is best to do, he thought, but in a particular moment, our reason may be overwhelmed by emotion or desire. So the problem is not a lack of knowledge but a failure of our reason to master the non-rational parts of our nature.
We don’t need more information. We need a way to relieve our emotions and desires so our rational mind has a chance to have a say.
One strategy is to change our thoughts by repeating positive thoughts often enough that they become a habit. However, positive thinking only works when it matches our experience, especially our inner experience. If you want to accomplish something you’ve never done before and you have an inner experience of confidence that you have the potential to reach this goal, then you will be aligned with positive thinking and can use it like a little engine to help you get up the hill. But positive thinking can’t work when it argues with our experience. Insisting on trying to overcome or erase experience with positive thinking can be both incredibly frustrating and terribly unkind.
So if we can’t rationalize our way to our goals and positive thinking is running us is circles, what can we do?
I was recently introduced to the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as a way to release the emotional charge associated with change. Here’s a woo-woo alert. EFT looks weird when you do it. But if you’re game, give it a try.
EFT is based on the premise that the body’s energy is intimately connected with our well-being and has profound effects on how we feel and act. According to the principles of EFT, negative emotions are caused when a thought or memory causes a disruption in the body’s energy system.
EFT works by restoring balance to the body’s energy system by tapping on the end points of meridians. These meridians have been known to and used by Chinese medicine practitioners for over 5000 years. With EFT you can access the body’s energy system to change long-standing patterns of fear, anxiety and stress, freeing up your creative and rational energies to make changes in your life.
As a TCM practitioner, I think EFT works by disrupting the usual flow of your energy in response to a thought or emotional trigger. For example, when you have a craving for chocolate, your energy flows in a certain way and your body responds accordingly with the sensation of craving. Tapping the points at the ends of the meridians interrupts the usual flow and releases the energy, allowing calm energy flow to resume and eases the sense of craving.
You can learn how to do EFT for free by downloading the instructions at this website: http://www.emofree.com Give it a try. You’ve got nothing to lose. It may be just the ticket to getting the changes you want to make in your life to stick!
