The holidays… feeling overwhelmed?

By Maureen Cram, EFT therapist Level 3

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The Holidays – do these words make your heart sink just hearing them or seeing them? To many people they do – and to very many women! After all we women are the ones who organize everything, and sort out everything, and cook everything, and wrap everything, and play referee to the children’s squabbles, and drink too much to take away the stress, and panic when we hear that Aunty X is going to be coming along with her arch enemy Auntie Y, and feel devastated when we find out our ex is coming with his new younger model wife to give the children their gifts as you have to be pleasant to everyone during The Holidays right?

Phew… that is just the start of thoughts swirling around in our heads. How are we going to manage?

We do manage… most of the time – even if in the past we have resorted to a bit too much Christmas cheer or a secret stash of sherry or something stronger to see us through.

What about a new way of looking at things this holiday season? Tried reading the self help articles and all they did were take up more of your ever decreasing spare time? Already tried taking deep breaths and attempting to relax? Will power alone does not work. All the will in the world will not help if you are still focused on the same outcome.

OK… then what about a really new way of looking at all this holiday stress and strain? Enter Fairy Godmother waving her meridian tapping wand.

You need to relax my dear she says (tell me something I don’t already know…) – so what is this magic wand stuff and how is it going to help me?

First we do a set up – this is repeated three times:

Even though I am so totally stressed out and overwhelmed just thinking about the holidays never mind planning for them, I want to work through this right now
Even though in the past I got totally overwhelmed and nothing worked out as I wanted it to, this year it will be different and I am working towards that right now
Even though I don’t even know where to start there are so many thoughts whizzing around in my head, I am not going to go through the same stuff again this year so I want to work through this right now.

And now for some meridian tapping:

    EB: I am totally overwhelmed
    OE: I can’t go through this again
    UE: I don’t even know where to start
    UN: I can’t face all those awful relatives
    CH: Why does my husband think I can just do this every year without help
    CB: I deserve things to be different this year
    UA: Maybe I can let some of this stress go
    TOH: Perhaps it is safe for me to let some of this stress go right now

Take a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep breath.

Feel any calmer? Good!

Now try these set ups:

Even though there is still a huge amount of work for me to do, I am working through this
Even though I still am not sure yet if I can cope, I am working through this
Even though there is a part of me that would rather not do this at all, I can take my power back and work through this right now.

Now the tapping:

    EB: I can’t do this by myself
    OE: Maybe I can ask the family to help
    UE: Nobody ever helps me
    UN: This time it can be different
    CH: I deserve to have some help
    CB: I deserve things to be different this year
    UA: It is safe for me to ask for help
    TOH: It is safe and easy for me to ask for help right now

Take another deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep breath. Any easier?

You might say how can this help me – I am the only one who does the planning and the cooking and and and… Well. Where does the responsibility lay? Do you live alone? If so then yes you decide what to do and plan and all the rest.

However, most of us are doing all this because we have families and if we don’t ask them for help, I am fairly certain they are not all going to come rushing up begging to do the chores.

Have a family conference or pow-wow and tell them how it is going to be this year. Tell them you need help. Ask them how they would like to contribute in the way of help. Make a list… or continue to be a martyr and sneak out back with your vice of choice. But remember… you can make a change if you want to!

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Author's Bio:

Maureen is a surrogate animal intuitive and energy therapist who uses EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and meridian tapping techniques to help any animal in need.

She is a business owner, cat lover (she and her husband live in South Africa with five rescued cats), educator on the benefits of energy therapy and a certified Matrix Reimprinting therapist. She specializes in helping animals from birds to whales (and anything in between!) as well as helping women of all ages with eating, weight and menopause issues.

To find out more about how Maureen can help you and or your animals, please visit http://www.stuffbusters.co.za

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While EFT has produced remarkable clinical results, it must still be considered to be in the experimental stage and thus practitioners and the public must take complete responsibility for their use of it.

In addition, the articles on this site represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the founder of EFT, Gary Craig, nor the owner of this web site, Stefan Gonick.