Energies4Life Newsletter - September 2008

TAPPING TIPS!  Energy—Make the most of yours!!

The Three Thumps for Energy Slumps!

How to increase your vitality and concentration in seconds! You can tap these three points at any time during the day when you need a boost. Don’t forget to breathe slowly and deeply, in through the nose and out through the mouth, as you tap. Repeat as required.

1) The K27 Points:  These are the two points immediately below the “collar bone corners”; the 27th point on the kidney meridian. To locate these points place your forefingers on your collarbone and move them inwards towards the U shaped notch at the top of the breastbone. Move your fingers to the bottom of the U. Then go to the left and to the right about an inch and tap on these two points. Most people have an indentation or soft spot there. Don’t worry about being in exactly the precise location; if you tap briskly with all your fingertips, you will be stimulating the right areas. Tap for 15 seconds.

2) The Thymus Tap:  Place the fingers of either or both hands in the centre of your sternum, at the thymus gland. Tap for 20 seconds using your thumb and all your fingers.

3) The Neurolymphatic Spleen Points:  These two points are easy to find; beneath the breasts and down one rib. Tap firmly with fingertips and thumb for about 15 seconds.

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Assess Your Energy Levels

The best way to see the evidence of how well these techniques work is to assess your energy levels before you start. Give yourself a score between zero and ten, where ten would be the maximum energy level possible. Note down your score. After trying out these exercises re-assess yourself in the same way. Always remember to breathe deeply and slowly as you tap!

With grateful thanks to Gary Craig, Donna Eden and David Feinstein for their amazing contributions to energy techniques and energy psychology.

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Action Planning without Stress

Action planning is a process which will help you to focus your ideas and to decide what steps you need to take to achieve a particular goal or goals that you may have.

This process is a cyclical one and, once you have been through one cycle, you can start again at the beginning. Life being as it is though, you must be prepared to revise your plan at any given moment as stages may overlap, circumstances change and so on. This willingness and openness to change and revision of your plan is a crucial part of its success and equally a vital tool in keeping stress levels down!! Once you accept that nothing need be set in stone and that “Action Planning” is a process, which by its very nature implies evolution and change, you are immediately released from a rigid structure and are free to be creative and to actually enjoy the process.

Here are the stages in your Action Planning model:

Where am I now?
This is where you review your current achievements and progress. It’s an important stage of self-assessment.

Where do I want to be?
This is where you decide you goal or goals. It is vital that you actually believe that these goal/goals are achievable and that you really want to implement the changes necessary to attain them. Go through the following statements and give yourself a score out of five for each one:

I really want to achieve this.

I have all the capabilities and skills necessary to achieve this.

It is possible to achieve this.

It is beneficial and ecological in all areas of my life to achieve this.
I deserve to achieve this.

I take full responsibility towards making it happen.

How are your scores? If you averaged 5/5 then you are really in harmony or congruent with your action plan. If you averaged less than 4/5 then it’s time to review your goals and how you feel about them. If you lack belief in yourself or your goals, then you will be up against it. Perhaps now is the time to change your plan and install different goals or outcomes that seem more authentic or believable for you.

How do I get there?
This is where you identify the strategy you will use to achieve your goal(s) and to break down your goal(s) into the smaller, discreet steps you will need to take to achieve your target. Now is the time to define clearly the steps you will take. Think of all the possible things you could do to take you closer to achieving your goal(s), no matter how small. Break down any large steps into smaller components, so it doesn’t seem so difficult to achieve. If at any stage you start to feel overwhelmed at the enormity or complexity of the task in hand, you can immediately stop your stress levels rising by asking this simple question: “What is the very first step I need to take?” On completing this first step, your next question will be “and what is the next step that I need to take?” and so on. By breaking the tasks down into smaller, more manageable “chunks”, you create a sequence of achievable steps and mini goals.

Taking Action:
This is it! This is where you implement your plan. Once again, there is no need whatsoever for stress levels to rise. Organise the steps required for each action, arrange these in a logical, chronological order and put a date by which you will start each step. If appropriate set yourself weekly goals and get into the habit of planning a timetable listing your tasks for the next few days. Be flexible! Don’t beat yourself up if things don’t unfold exactly as planned. Ask yourself “How did things come out that way? What do I need to adjust? What do I need to do next? What resources would best help me to do this?” Don’t be afraid to ask others for their advice or opinions. Remember that feedback is the foundation of success!

Where am I now?
And so the cycle begins again with a review and redefinition of your goals. Keep a diary or logbook of your daily activities and record in it your progress as things happen. A good time to start your review is about two weeks after you have begun. Review how far you have got towards your objective, identify any mistakes you may have made and what you can learn from them, look at any new ideas or opportunities that may have presented themselves and then revise your plan to incorporate these.

As the new cycle begins it inevitably brings with it the flexibility to make adaptations and changes. Being open to this in the process of Action Planning takes the rigidity and accompanying stress responses out of the mix and puts the creativity and enjoyment back in, where it belongs.