How Can I be Happy

I recently turned 55 and at my birthday celebration, a friend told me that I had changed more than anyone he knew. When I told this to another friend (with whom I have recently reconnected after 30 years) he said yes, that was true for him too, “you aren't the same person in so many ways, and yet you haven't changed at all in ways that are so fundamental to your nature.” What a great thing to hear after all these years—that my work on myself has paid off!

I was an unhappy child and a depressed adult (off and on antidepressants for many years). As I look back now, how true it is—I have changed quite a bit. I feel content and satisfied; peaceful and grateful. I don’t get upset by much, whereas I used to get upset often—there was always some drama I was responding to. Now I feel I live in “Heaven on Earth.” How did all of this change occur?

I have been using an energy psychology methodology called CLEAR® on myself and clients for almost 15 years. CLEAR removes blocks and trauma that prevent me from actualizing my potential.

How do we become blocked?
When we are growing up and things happen to us that we don’t like, we normally respond by tensing up and resisting the experience. We think things like, “I don’t want this, this is scary, I need to get away from this,” etc. And our very act of resisting keeps the body from processing the event and causes it to get stuck in our system. So if something comes along later that reminds us of this situation, we are “triggered.” The brain is alerted, and the fight or flight part of our brain (or reptilian brain) takes over. Because only one part of the brain works at any given time (unless there is a problem like an epileptic fit), when the reptilian brain is activated, we have no access to the rest of our brain. We are, therefore, in terms of problem solving, fairly limited because we only have the choice of fight, flight or immobility. Not great choices unless our lives are at stake.

Triggers and the trauma causing them can be cleared using CLEAR, an energy psychology technique.

How does CLEAR work?
CLEAR uses bilateral stimulation, acupressure point therapy, somatic experiencing, clearing of blocking beliefs and muscle testing (or Kinesiology). I will explain each of these below.

Bilateral stimulation involves tapping alternately on right and left sides of the body while thinking of the issue being worked on. The theory here is that the trauma is “frozen in time” and is energetically stuck on one side of the body or the other and alternatively tapping on the body while thinking of the issue frees it up.

There are fourteen acupressure points on the body that correspond to various emotions (see the table below). Light pressure is then applied to each point successively while putting one’s attention on the topic that is being addressed. (Some energy psychology methods tap on the points. I find light pressure is sufficient).

Somatic Experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, is used with both the acupressure point technique and bilateral stimulation. Levine surmised that because humans think, we avoid the processing necessary to heal trauma. We don’t want to experience the feelings and sensations that usually accompany difficult situations because they are unpleasant and they don’t feel good. We think, “I don’t want to feel that; I don’t like that feeling. It is unpleasant and I won’t be happy if I feel that. I want to get away from that feeling.” Our resistance to feeling is what gets trauma stuck because what we resist thinking about cannot be cleared and remains locked into our memories. Using somatic experiencing, we are present in the body and allow feelings and sensations to surface to our awareness so that the trauma can be reprocessed and thus be freed.

When we are triggered, we develop beliefs to explain what is going on. For example, a child who has an abusive parent may decide that their parent is angry because they are bad and they deserve to be punished; there is something wrong with them or they could make it better if they could only figure out what to do differently. Once beliefs are developed, we then live our lives as though those beliefs about us are true—they impact us in every area of our lives. If I believe I am bad and deserve to be punished, can you see how that could impact my ability to be successful in my life?

Muscle testing (also referred to as Applied Kinesiology) is a way to get feedback from the conscious and unconscious mind about what is going on in the body on physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual levels. When the body is in the presence of something negative to that body, muscles are weaker than when it is in the presence of something positive. There are many ways to test muscles, but the most common is to press down on an arm, which is held out parallel to the ground. The logical brain is by-passed to get a true reading of what is occurring in the body/mind – a response of muscle strength is a “yes” or positive, and muscle weakness is a “no” or a negative. In CLEAR, muscle testing is used to determine issues to clear, blocking beliefs, methods needed to clear, which acupressure points or bilateral stimulation are needed to clear the issue, and finally to see if the issue is indeed cleared. Muscle testing allows one to streamline the clearing process and only work on what the person’s muscle testing indicates is necessary to heal at that point in time.

I use CLEAR on myself when I am stressed, blocked, if I am procrastinating, depressed or if I am perseverating (obsessively thinking) on something. I have witnessed clients heal PTSD, phobias, being stuck, anxiety, sleep disorders, money problems, cutting, overeating, anorexia, OCD, and relationship issues.

CLEAR is explained fully in the book, Change Works with CLEAR, clearing limits energetically with acupressure release, available at www.changeworksinc.com. There is also a page on the website with the “simplified version” (click on “try CLEAR now” on the home page) which walks you through the process without having to use the muscle testing.