This blog and website are intended to be a companion to the 7 Minutes to Happiness podcast. With a website, we are able to offer you resources we don’t have time to offer on the podcast.
Quick Origin Story
I grew up in an extremely dysfunctional home, but I never bought into the constant gaslighting and/or denigration, at least on a conscious level. Unfortunately, anything said to you while you are being yelled at or physically abused goes straight to your subconscious mind. When I learned about Adult Children of Alcoholics, it was like the proverbial “great weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.”
I learned that my underachievement and feelings of not being good enough were standard fare for ACOA’s. To me, it meant three things. First, there was nothing intrinsically wrong with me. Second, it wasn’t my fault. And third: I knew deep inside that I could fix what had been done to me.
Is it “Fair?”
One of the prevailing themes of ACOA’s and other adult children of dysfunctional homes is that “it isn’t fair.” The basic theme is “my parents were the ones who screwed up, but I have to pay for it.” To me, the answer is “yes and no.” It isn’t fair that we have to fix the damage our parents perpetrated on us, intentionally or unintentionally. But what IS fair is that we have the resources to do just that: repair the damage. Or at least most of it.
My Journey to Recovery
I had started “searching” eight years before I learned about ACOA. It was a breakthrough because I now knew it wasn’t my fault. But once I knew that, I also knew it was my responsibility to fix it. As the saying goes, “it certainly wasn’t going to fix itself.” I consumed more than 1000 tapes, books, and CD’s about fixing myself. I read a lot of books about transpersonal psychology, spirituality, motivation, fixing the subconscious mind, and other systems. I used self-hypnosis and “sleep learning” tapes. I did a great job of getting over my anger. But there was still something missing.
Enter EFT or Meridian Tapping
When I finally found out about EFT, which was the second generation form of meridian tapping, in 2000, it changed my life even more radically than finding out about ACOA had. I was about to do my first musical gig in over 15 years and wanted to vomit a full 24 hours before the gig. My then-wife had downloaded and printed the original EFT manual and asked me to look at it a few months earlier. I told her it was “BS” and that “you can’t heal deep-seated, long-standing problems in 10 minutes.
I had thrown the manual in a box on our bedroom floor and we both forgot about it. But it suddenly looked really good to me when I was desperate, so I tried it on my stage fright. Within 15 minutes, I reduced my stage fright from 13 on a scale of ten to 1.5. I knew I had something really powerful. I had turned myself from stage fright to feeling totally at home in 15 minutes.
I would immediately start using this in every aspect of my life. It works on some things and doesn’t on others. There isn’t always a “reason.” It either works or it doesn’t. But it has been the ultimate game-changer for me. After 23 years of doing meridian tapping, my biggest “problem” is figuring out what to work on.
So Why is it Called “7 Minutes to Happiness?”
The short answer: it only takes 7 minutes or less a day to change your life in ways you may think aren’t possible right now. All of my products, videos, lessons, and podcasts are in chunks of 7 minutes, or at least as close as I can get them to 7 minutes without compromising the integrity or quality of the material.
Each podcast episode starts with an issue to tackle, some information about how the issue most often becomes an issue, and a healing tapping session of around 3-4 minutes during the second portion of the podcast.
One of my “pet peeves” that I still have are answering system messages that say “we know your time is important to you” and leave you on hold for long periods of time. Because of this, I know your time really is important to you. I also know from my time as a massage teacher that attention spans have become drastically reduced because the internet has made it so easy to get information in a few clicks.
If I have to take more than 7 minutes to teach something, I feel it needs to be broken down into smaller chunks. So I try to keep everything under 7 minutes. I actually prefer 5 minute videos for classes so people can take a mental break and fully assimilate the information before moving on.
How to Get the Most out of the Podcast
The only real flaw in my 7 minute podcast is that you can get more out of it if you know a tapping system. I have experimented with different formats, and have found out the most efficient use of time during the podcast is to have you tap on your breastbone, wherever it feels right to you. It takes longer than 7 minutes to teach someone the full tapping technique verbally and people would get lost. It needs to be taught in a pdf or a video.
I have three paid resources for you in the product section. The first is an ebook called “How I Stop Anxiety Attacks in 2 Minutes (and Have Fun Doing It). it is available here for $7: How I Stop Anxiety Attacks in 2 Minutes (and Have Fun Doing It).
The second is my 7 Day Happiness Reboot. It is a series of pdf’s and videos that combine meridian tapping with a specific set of issues, affirmations, and meditations that can have an incredible effect on your happiness level in just seven days. It is available here for $99: 7 Day Happiness Reboot
The third is an Amazon book called 7 Life-Changing Hacks for Happiness. It is just what it says: 7 hacks that can increase your happiness level a lot. It is short and sweet with no fluff. It is available here for $7.99 in Kindle or $12.99 in paperback. 7 Life-Changing Hacks for Happiness.
My own tapping is slightly different than the original EFT manual, but if you want the original, you can get it free. The creator of EFT, Dr Gary Craig, put it into the public domain in the early 2000’s. It is available here: Original EFT Manual.
In conclusion, the best way to get the most out of the podcasts is to tap along with them. I will find issues you didn’t know you had. You will find the issues that are the most important to you. Every time you tap, you are helping yourself become happier, even if you don’t feel it right away. To me, meridian tapping is by far the 20th century’s biggest advance in the self-improvement field. Tap every day for even 30 days. You will see a big difference.
Thanks for reading. Now hop over to the podcast here: 7 Minutes to Happiness Podcast.
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