For years (before Tapping) I knew I was avoiding all kinds of things. In fact, I used to say “Everything I do is to avoid doing something else.” I knew, for example, that I was working in my garden to avoid paying bills. Or I was paying bills to avoid those nasty phone calls. Or I was baking cookies to avoid doing laundry. Or I was eating those cookies, to avoid feeling something. Mostly I was avoiding FEELING something.

Living by avoidance isn’t at all deliberate. It’s also a lot of work. I didn’t have much inner peace. I have photos of the pre-Tapping clutter in my home. The “outer world” (clutter) was a reflection of my “inner world” (my thoughts and emotions). What a jumbled mess everything was.

But little by little (and sometimes in big chunks) I cleared that clutter. And little by little (and sometimes in big ways) I have untangled many of my emotions and old traumas. Little by little (and sometimes drastically) I have found inner peace. An inner quiet that stays with me for greater and greater periods of time. Minutes at first. Now days, weeks, and even months. This is with the help of Tapping – which gave me mental and emotional clarity, which allowed me to create a meditation practice, which allowed me to see a bigger picture.

I swear, I love Tapping more and more all the time. In a deep respectful way. I tap every day – often many times throughout the day. It is a most-powerful modality. And even though I have seen many miracles, Tapping often surprises even me. It’s interesting to me that I notice the shifts and changes that Tapping brings about – in a much more subtle manner than I did when I first began this journey of energy emotional healing.

As many of you know, I am facilitating a 6-week “Tapping for Weight Loss” Program. As part of my own “food healing,” I recently found myself eating a big bag of Fritos’ “Scoops.” I had eaten most of the bag, licking my salty fingers between handfuls of corn chips, before I even noticed. I was out on a week-long journey, driving a Sprinter van, and working for a vendor at Cycle Oregon. Road-trip mentality had taken over my “appetite,” and I didn’t even think twice about buying the Fritos, or about eating them.

I felt bad, of course, once I became conscious of my food folly. But I’ve learned over the years to not beat myself up. It’s painful and quite useless to give myself mental punishment. A couple of days later, during this same road trip, I found myself eating another bag of Fritos. Now I was much more aware of what I was doing, and how it felt that I “couldn’t stop” eating them.” I ate nearly the whole bag! Again I didn’t beat myself up, but rather, looked at this eating binge with curiosity. I was so busy that week, that I rarely had time for meditation or self-reflection. At the end of each day, I was so exhausted that I would retire early to my tent, and fall asleep immediately. The Fritos-eating events went unexamined.

But then, I was eating my third bag of Fritos in a week. I was driving the Sprinter van to Baker City. Now I was more aware that I was eating uncontrollably. I would grab a handful of fritos, put them in my mouth, and then lick my fingers. I tried eating one at a time. But I still couldn’t stop eating.

A voice in my head suggested: “You could tap about this.” Remember those V-8 ads, where someone was drinking a soda, then saw a vegetable juice, and then put their palm to their forehead, and said “I could have had a V-8!” That’s how I felt in that moment.

Honestly, I wasn’t holding much hope for Tapping and my Fritos affair. But I began Tapping, saying things like “I love the crunch,” “I love the salt,” “That corn taste,” “So many memories attached to Fritos,” and so on. I had only gone two times around the Tapping Points, when I simply closed the bag of Fritos and stopped eating them. I no longer craved them. I mean, I didn’t even WANT them! During that Tapping, I hadn’t felt a giant shift, but rather something as subtle as looking left and then looking right. I was amazed again at the power of this simple modality.

I set the Fritos bag aside, and when I arrived at the next site, I left them in the Sprinter. Three days later, as I drove back to Portland, the unfinished bag of Fritos was in my grocery bag. It’s still sitting on my kitchen counter. (Update: my son ate them last night).

Even though I know the power of Tapping, and even though I have the tools at my fingertips, I “forget” to Tap, or resist Tapping. That fact reminds me of how powerful the subconscious mind is. That part of our mind that is really running our show and creating our reality. Why wouldn’t I spend all my free time Tapping on issues that keep my reality from manifesting quite the way I think I want it. What am I afraid of? What am I avoiding? Ah, the question whose answer continually eludes us.

It took me eating two and a half bags of Fritos before I even thought to Tap. And just before I started, I had a brief moment of “Do I really want to let go of this craving?” You see, there’s still a massive part of me that knows that change = change. And that part of me is still afraid of change – though not nearly as afraid as it once was.

When I Tapped on my Fritios-eating dilemma, I didn’t get a big answer about why I was eating them. At least not at a conscious level that I’m aware of. But the Tapping allowed me to simply disconnect all the emotions from all the tastes, smells, crunches, salty hands, and deep unconscious memories that were attached to Fritos. Whatever was going on that caused me to crave them was now “released,” and the craving was disconnected. Not at all scary. Nothing traumatic to work on. No shameful events to look at. In fact, it was so easy and freeing  that I had to wonder “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” (Palm to forehead) “I could have Tapped!”

What are YOU avoiding?

-Do you give in to food or beverage cravings? Does that make you feel both soothed and powerless? Would you like to be free?

-Is there someone you’ve been holding a resentment towards? Does that make you feel both powerful and powerless? Would you like to be free?

-Are you avoiding looking at your finances and creating a relationship with your money? Does that make you feel like you’re “in control” and yet powerless? Would you like to be free?

-Are you avoiding repairing a relationship? Does that make you feel like “It’s not my fault,” and yet miserable?

What are you avoiding? You are spending (wasting) a ton of time and energy avoiding. I know because I’ve done it, and I still do it sometimes.

Imagine a life of non-avoidance. Imagine the freedom! Imagine what’s possible for you when you begin to face and clear some of the “big things” that you’re avoiding.

Tapping makes this all so gentle and efficient and effective. Start Tapping today, and see what begins to change for you. Contact me for one-to-one professional-level Tapping in a confidential, supportive environment – via video conference, phone, or even in person. My clients make great headway, and we have fun. I am holding space for your healing!