by Amy B. Scher
Method 2: Use Your List of Memories
I have two tricks that will help you identify a great experience to work with.
Determine How You Feel About Your Challenge— Ask yourself, “How do I feel about the challenge I’ve been dealing with?” The challenge usually refers to the overall issue, such as an illness or panic attacks. This question will help you uncover what unprocessed experiences might be stored in your body and are contributing to your challenge. Do you feel sad? Do you feel frustrated? Do you feel angry? Try to identify just one main emotion that comes up right now. Once you’ve done that, look at your list. What in your life did you feel this particular emotion about? Perhaps it was a fight you had with a family member or the way something was being handled at work. While there may be several unprocessed experiences, going through this process several times will help you come up with a variety of experiences to work with.
It doesn’t matter what type of challenge it is. I consistently find that how we feel about the challenge is a good indicator of what kind of emotional contributors helped create it in the first place. An interesting note to add is that when we start feeling better about the challenge, this is a great sign of healing.
Here’s an example of how this dynamic can play out. Jim came to me with pain in his joints. I asked Jim when this started, and he told me it was about two years earlier. I asked him if he remembered what was going on in his life two years ago. He rattled off a list of things that could have caused his body to go into overload. Once we explored some initial possibilities, I also asked him how he felt about the joint pain.
Each person will have a unique feeling about his or her problem, even if the actual problem is a common one, such as joint pain. With Jim, I knew that whatever his primary emotion about his joint pain was would be a good starting point for finding the contributing unprocessed experience.
Jim expressed being “tired of dealing with it.” I then helped him figure out what else he was “tired of” or what situation was “tiring” him out around the same time and leading up to that time period (in the previous year or two). You don’t need to stick to the two-year time period, but this is just what I did with Jim. We discovered some marital issues around the time that were making him feel “unworthy.” With that, we went to work on clearing energy around specific experiences in his past using the methods I’m going to teach you shortly. That helped immensely not only with Jim’s frustration and fatigue with the situation but also, in time, with his joint pain.
Over and over again, I find that how we feel physically or how we feel emotionally are very good indicators of the original energy or experience that contributed to the challenge or problem.
Identify Memories with the Strongest “Charge”— Here, you can use your list of memories again. What experiences still have the biggest emotional charge for you? Which memories still give you a knot in your stomach or a lump in your throat when you think about them? That’s an energy imbalance you are feeling—proof that the emotions or memories are still making a cozy home in your body. Choose the strongest or oldest memories on your list to work with first.
Make sure you allow whatever comes up to just be . If you’ve had significant traumas in your life but one of the things that has the biggest charge is when you didn’t win the spelling bee in fourth grade, go with it. The little things can be big, and the big things can be little.
Let me share a story that will help you understand. Sandy, a client of mine, had a really humiliating experience at her first real job after college. She was presenting at a meeting as head of marketing, and started to panic. She didn’t typically have to speak to large crowds, especially to the bigwigs of the company. She felt herself start to get dizzy and nauseous, and her palms were sweating. When she made an appointment with me, she was totally panicked, as she had another presentation coming up in a few weeks. I asked her if she’d ever had an issue with public speaking before this, and she said she hadn’t really had the opportunity. When I started helping her think on a smaller scale, though, she remembered being extremely nervous several times when she had to stand up in front of the class during her school years. She could consciously recall about five different times, so I asked her to just remember the first one. I knew that the first one would have many others “tied” to it, because all of the subsequent times would most likely be triggering that first experience.
We cleared that first experience, including all of the old feelings, and we didn’t even have to touch any of the others. While this won’t always be true and you’ll have to go back to other experiences you identify, you will sometimes get lucky. For Sandy, all the similar unprocessed experiences that reminded her of the first one came unraveled and released along with it. We must have touched on the “strongest” incident, and when we collapsed that energy, we diffused the rest, too. You’ll see how to do this for yourself shortly.
This is a great example of why it’s so very important to process and release experiences and emotions from our bodies. If we don’t, our current lives become full of trigger opportunities that cause stress on our bodies and often reinforce the beliefs we have from those unprocessed experiences.
Now, we’re ready to clear.
How to Clear Unprocessed Experiences
Using Two Techniques
Hopefully you’ve been able to identify one or two specific unprocessed experiences by now. If you’re like I was, you probably have many more than just a few! Let’s get started on clearing them. We’ll be using two techniques for this, which include Thymus Test and Tap and Emotional Freedom Technique.
I can hear you already … “How will I ever clear all that’s happened in my life?” I’m going to sound like a broken record, but I need this to be loud and clear: You don’t have to release them all, or all at once. The idea behind this work is to gently (and slowly) release things from your past as they become obvious to you. You don’t need to go in any specific or chronological order when clearing experiences. Just like earlier, you can trust that whatever comes up first will be just fine.
I’ll teach you two different techniques to clear unprocessed experiences. I use them together in my work with myself and with clients. They are very different techniques, working in different ways. This helps us clean up the experience completely. The combination of them is most effective, at least at first, but after you learn and use them both consistently, you may find that you are able to sometimes clear completely using just one.
Thymus Test and Tap
The thymus gland, as you first learned in Chapter Four , is the master gland of the body’s immune system. The thymus gland is located in the emotional energy center of the body, right around the heart, and is the first organ of the body to be affected by emotional stress. In fact, it’s often called the “heart’s protector.” It’s responsible, energetically, for regulating energy flow throughout the entire body. It’s affected most by emotions related to not feeling safe, feeling attacked by life or others, and the energy of being unprotected. It makes perfect sense why it would be so important in the role of holding (and releasing) unprocessed experiences, right?
The thymus is so powerful, and connected to the rest of the body’s energy system, that almost any block or imbalance throughout that system can be affected by working with it. This makes it the star of our next technique. Think of how people naturally “flutter” their chests when they’re upset or nervous, or how gorillas thump their chests if they perceive danger. It is believed that there is a natural tendency to strengthen and balance our energy when we need it most.
You might recall from chapter 4 that Dr. John Diamond, a pioneer in the field of holistic healing, believes the thymus serves as the link between mind and body because of its location in the body. You might also remember that the thymus gland is responsible for making T-cells, which are vital to the health of the immune system, including protection against allergies, autoimmune diseases, and immunodeficiency. I believe this makes the health of this gland es
sential to achieving complete and permanent healing. Candace Pert’s work around unexpressed emotions, and years of exploring several ideas to release them, helped me create and perfect Thymus Test and Tap. This technique’s ability to process and release feelings, while also rebalancing the immune system in relationship to them, is built upon the healing capability of the thymus gland.
In order to help clear unprocessed experiences, we’ll use a simple three-part process:
1. First, you’ll identify feelings from unprocessed experiences that are stuck in your body.
2. Then you’ll use a simple thymus-tapping procedure to release these feelings.
3. Lastly, you’ll install positive emotions to help support the complete integration and healing process for that experience. I usually install positive emotions at the end of a session instead of immediately following work on an experience. Either is okay as long as you complete or close out your work by installing positive energy.
Remember the metaphorical glass capsule we discussed earlier in this chapter? This technique will help start to clear out the emotions from that.
Let’s discuss how the heck we’re going to know what specific stuck feelings we still have. By using a list of emotions, along with muscle testing, you can find out what you need to clear.
Let me give you some examples of how this concept works. Naturopaths sometimes use lists of natural remedies (or the actual remedy), along with muscle testing, to detect what is best for their patients. Homeopathic doctors often use lists of various bacteria and viruses, along with muscle testing, to detect what microbes are affecting patients. Integrative nutritionists often use food frequency lists or vials, along with muscle testing, to discover what their clients are allergic to. By using muscle testing to ask specific questions about the lists or vials, trained practitioners can find out what the body needs in order to come back into balance. In fact, long before I knew anything about emotional healing, I was tested for blocking emotions in this very way, and was given essential oils and homeopathic remedies to help me correct them. This same method is going to help us find emotional energies still stuck in the body from unprocessed experiences. Once identified, we will clear them using Thymus Test and Tap.
This list of emotions that we’ll be using for the Thymus Test and Tap technique comes from my study and analysis of common emotions that tend to remain long after an experience is over. I left extra space on my list so that if there is a feeling I am missing that you strongly resonate with, you can add it right to the chart for yourself.
You now have the understanding to start clearing.
Step 1: Rate the Intensity of Your Experience —Let’s first recall an unprocessed experience you identified earlier in this chapter by using either muscle testing or your list of memories. To begin, simply use the title from your list of memories, or create a succinct title for your experience as an easy way to reference it. This might be something like “The day Dad died” or “When Jimmy teased me.” If you identified an experience from a past life or an experience passed down to you (generational), make a title for that.
Close your eyes and think of the experience you are focused on clearing. On a scale of 0–10, give it a rating as far as how intense it feels for you, 10 being the strongest. If you can locate where you “feel” it in your body, also take notice of that. It doesn’t matter where you are at this moment; it’s just good to have an idea of your starting point so you can gauge your progress as you clear. If you don’t feel an emotional charge, that’s okay.
Step 2: Identify the Emotions— You’ll begin using the list shown here, along with one of the three methods that follow it, to identify which feelings are stuck in your body. You will be identifying and clearing one feeling at a time.
Note: While the emotion of “anxiety” appears on pretty much every other emotion list I’ve seen out there, it does not appear on my list. I don’t consider anxiety an emotion or true feeling. What we often describe as anxiety is simply other emotion that is being suppressed. Suppression of emotions is what actually causes us to feel anxious, uneasy, or unsettled. It feels like something is trying to come up, or out. Without the option of “anxiety” on the list, your body will choose the true emotion that needs to be released. On a separate note, it’s great practice for you to consciously learn to identify emotions that you might describe as anxiety so you can be better in touch with what’s at the root of it.
Thymus Test and Tap Unprocessed Emotions
Section 1
Section 2
Abandoned
Helpless
Fearful
Hopeless
Grief-stricken
Heavy
Unloved
Impatient
Intimidated
Out of control
Criticized
Defensive
Judged
Frustrated
Hated
Panicked
Berated
Insecure
Worthless
Powerless
Attacked
Shocked
Betrayed
Failure
Thymus Test and Tap Unprocessed Emotions
Section 3
Section 4
Rejected
Vulnerable
Angry
Unsupported
Guilty
Undeserving
Resentful
Shamed
Blamed
Overwhelmed
Indecisive
Bullied
Disgusted
Lonely
Conflicted
Alone
Confused
Regretful
Nervous
Disappointed
Unsafe
Discarded
Worried
Excluded
Hurt
Desperate
Method 1: Muscle Testing — The first and best technique you can use to identify old feelings is your superpower of muscle testing. Remember, your subconscious mind is like a recorder. It knows exactly what old feelings on this list may still be linked to the unprocessed experience you are working with. Simply get into muscle-testing position and ask your body this:
• “Is there an energy [you can use the word feeling or emotion instead] on this list stuck in my body from _______ (name or title of the experience)?”
Note: You can alter the wording to whatever is comfortable for you. It doesn’t have to be exactly as I’ve suggested here. I sometimes say, “Is there an emotion from _______ (name of experience) that my body wants to let go of ?”
• “Is it in section 1?” If you get a “no,” you’ll know it’s in one of the other sections and you can ask about each of them until you get a “yes.”
• Then read each feeling, one by one, asking your body, “Is it _______?” Do this until you get a “yes.”
Method 2: Run Your Fingers Over the List — Another way to identify the feelings is to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and very gently run your fingers over the list of emotions. If you do it very, very gently, you will actually feel your fingers “stick” a little over the emotion that your body resonates with and wants to release right now. Your fingers are sensing or picking up on it for you.
Method 3: Use Your Intuition — Lastly, you can choose emotions on the list and quietly notice which ones jump out at you. Don’t judge the feeling and choose from there, but rather just notice what comes up. This method of identifying is least likely to bring up hidden emotions because it’s our natural tendency to choose the ones that we think fit or make sense with that experience. We’ve already learned that it’s not always those emotions that are affecting us negatively.
Allow yourself to remember the experience briefly. This is part of the acknowledgment process, but there is no need to dwell on it. We are just momentarily paying attention to it to help go through the processing that didn’t happen originally.
You may be used to analyzin
g and discussing experiences from the past using other approaches. The mind usually desires some understanding before it can let go. However, the energetic body doesn’t work in the same way. It will release without it. A brief acknowledgment of the memory lets us essentially hit “rewind” on the experience to go through the steps that we should have gone through originally in order to release it.
Step 3: Clear by Tapping the Thymus— Now that you have identified the feelings that are still stuck in your body, you are ready to tap your thymus to clear or neutralize this emotional energy. You will release one feeling at a time, and then repeat.
It can feel good to say the following as you perform the tapping, but it’s not necessary at all: Releasing this _______ (name of the emotion).
Simply tap seven times firmly over your thymus gland with the fingertips of one hand. As you do this, hold the intention of clearing that emotion while taking a couple of deep breaths. If you are called to, you can repeat the word clearing or releasing. Again, the verbal cue is not necessary.
Let me give you a breakdown of how and why this method works. The tapping is sending a force of energy through your thymus gland to clear the emotional energy that might be creating a block or imbalance, wherever it is in your system. You don’t need to know where it is. Your intention to release it is also a huge part of the actual clearing. You are acknowledging the feeling while giving your body permission to let it go. At the same time that you are tapping your thymus gland to release the emotion, you are also rebalancing and strengthening that gland, allowing it to recover from the imbalance.