Basically, anyone who wants to be happier and has an open mind can benefit from this podcast and from our books and classes But I do want to pay attention to a few communities and traits of people who can usually be helped. I do need to say here that my podcast, books, and classes are no substitute for licensed medical professionals. People with serious physical and mental health conditions should contact their doctors or therapists. If you have a serious condition, the best I can aim for here is to make your therapist’s job a lot easier and for you to get a lot more out of therapy.
Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOA) and other dysfunctional household groups.
I identify as an ACOA. While the meeting structure didn’t really fit me, I turned four years of my life into de facto one-on-one ACOA “meetings.” Once I found out about it and quickly learned it applied to all dysfunctional families, it was easy for me to find people to talk to about it. Strangers became mutual therapists. For me, the one-on-one connections were more valuable than the group therapy. However, I have a lot of respect for those who are going through the group.
I 12-stepped myself, but quickly found myself asking, “Is that it?” While the proverbial “weight” was “lifted from my shoulders,” I knew I had a lot more healing to do. So I searched. And searched. And searched.
When I found EFT or meridian tapping, it was the missing link I had been looking for. After over 1000 self-improvement books, tapes, classes, and videos, I had finally found something that could change me experientially. I had learned a lot of theory and techniques that were excellent for me over a period of 30 years of searching, but. this blew everything else out of the water.
After working on pressing issues, I went over the “laundry list” of Tony A. It had become part of the ACOA lexicon. I decided to use meridian tapping on every Laundry List item. I felt it was so important that the first 28 weeks of the podcast had “Laundry List Wednesday,” where I covered one item from the Laundry List and the Flip Side entry for each item. I then did the same for the “Other Laundry List.” You can find these episodes in the 7 Minutes to Happiness page on Buzzsprout.
These are relevant for Adult Children of Alcoholics, but in no way is that the only segment of the population who can use them. And that leads to the next entry.
Childhood Trauma and Abuse
It’s safe to say that most people who had childhood trauma and abuse come from dysfunctional families. Sometimes they identify as Children of Narcissistic Parents. Or they identify as abuse survivors. Or any of many titles. Whatever the case, they often have issues that are even deeper than the standard ACOA issues.
Meridian tapping is one of the few ways I know of to reduce or remove the emotional charge of most childhood trauma without forcing you to relive that trauma. Trauma and abuse are bad enough the first time without having to relive them. One of the most beautiful aspects of meridian tapping is that you don’t have to go deeper than a simple acknowledgement of the abuse to create significant change.
My household was abusive. If I was going to compare my childhood trauma and abuse to others, it would be about a 7 for physical abuse and a 9 for emotional abuse. I have come to understand that my parents were tragically flawed people who were doing the best they could and they didn’t see what they were doing as abuse. That has made it a lot easier for me to forgive them.
PTSD and CPTSD
EFT, which is the second generation of meridian tapping but the most popular, has been documented to help veterans with PTSD. As for CPTSD, pretty much every ACOA and abuse survivor has it and tapping has helped numerous people remove the emotional charge of past trauma. Personally, I feel 100% healed from my own CPTSD. However, I am not intellectually arrogant enough to think I am really 100% healed. But it sure feels that way sometimes.
General Stress and Anxiety
This is where tapping truly shines. The more meridian tapping you do, the more of a cumulative effect it seems to have. When it comes to stress and anxiety, I am not remotely the same person I was when I started tapping 22 years ago. I am far from perfect, but I have reduced myself from about a 7 out of 10 on the chronic anxiety scale to about a 0.5.
Affirmations
Starting with people like Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie, continuing with Dr Maxwell Maltz, and pretty much every famous motivational speaker of the last three generations, affirmations have been a great part of their teachings. Dr Maltz came up with visualizations and many would come up with long form affirmations. Basically, you would have to spend 20-40 minutes a day visualizing and imagining your affirmations.
This is just too long for most people nowadays. Everyone is working hard. Nobody has an extra 40 minutes a day to spend on affirmations without having 100% faith that they will come true. Luckily, tapping can make affirmations a breeze. And if they are done right, they can have results that are as good or better than traditional affirmations and visualizations in as little as 2 minutes a day.
Last but not Least: Happiness
I teach happiness work on three levels. First you clear the immediate stuff that bothers you the most. Then, you start on long-term traits and deeper negative feelings you want to get rid of. Once you have gotten rid of all the falsehoods and lies that were pounded into your subconscious, you are able to have clarity and look toward a brighter future.
When you aren’t suffering from the old ghosts of past abuse, trauma, and inaccurate/harsh judgment from parents, teachers, bullies, and others who once had power over you, your true self starts to come out. And that true self is always happier than the old one. If you work on reducing and clearing the emotional charge of all the negatives in your past, you are free to finally be happy. And that’s before you start working on your future.
One thing I’ve noticed over the years: good things happen to happy people. The happier you are, the more good experiences seem to come to you. I have experienced this miracle in my own life. I wish it for everyone.
Resources:
Here are the products we offer to help you find your way to happiness.
How I Stop Anxiety Attacks in as Little as 2 Minutes and Have Fun Doing it.