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Deepak Chopra, MD
"EFT offers great healing benefits."
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques®) Where emotional relief brings physical health
Self help method often works where nothing else will No Drugs Involved ~ High Success Rate
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The bird fear that had an unusual aspect
Note: This article assumes you have a working knowledge of EFT. Newcomers can still learn from it but are advised to get our Free EFT Get Started Package or our Affordable DVDs for a more complete understanding. For more, read our EFT Info and Disclaimer Document.
Hi Everyone,
Colleen Flanagan helps her mother with a 70 year old bird fear. However, it didn't go completely away until an unusual aspect of the fear showed up at the end. Notice how Colleen listens to her mother's words and uses creative ways of testing the result.
Hugs, Gary
Dear Gary,
Whenever my clients don’t know the core issue fear causing their physical or emotional “dis-ease” I encourage them to tap on whatever person or event comes to mind, however ridiculous or unrelated they may think it is. Often just tapping on something minor opens their mind to events that are specific to the core issue fears. When in doubt, tap it out!
For example, birds and flocks of bird have always terrified my mom and she never knew why. One of my Mother’s Day gifts to her was to apply EFT to release the bird fears that have haunted her for over 70 years.
When I asked her what frightened her about birds she said she didn’t know, but that “their fluttering upsets me”. I asked her to relate any bad experiences with birds. She said that during her childhood her mom allowed the family canary, Dickie Bird, out of his cage to fly around the house for exercise. Dickie Bird never hurt my mom but his flying through their house terrified her. As an adult, she worked in a downtown office district and had to walk through huge flocks of pigeons to get to the bus stop. She repeated several times that the birds’ “fluttering” terrified her. I knew that was an important phrase to her and used it in our setup statements.
Mom said just discussing this topic had her anxiety at level 8 on a scale of 0 to 10, and rapidly approaching level 10, so we began tapping:
Even though birds fluttering anywhere around me terrifies me, I know that no bird has ever hurt me and I now release this fear.
Even though the sounds of Dickie Bird’s wings fluttering in our home frightened me as a little girl, that was many years ago and I choose to feel safe now.
She interrupted our tapping to say she’d just flashed on a memory from her early 30’s of being attacked by a blue jay. She’d been gardening in our backyard and came across a baby blue jay hiding in the bushes. Moments later, one of the youngster’s parents flew at her to protect the helpless baby. Mom heard the wings fluttering then felt the bird’s claws on her scalp. Startled, she leapt to her feet and ran into the house. We tapped on these setup statements:
Even though that blue jay attacked me with fluttering wings and claws and made me even more afraid of birds, I now forgive that bird and choose to feel safe. As a mom, I understand that the bird was only protecting its baby as I would do for my children. That happened a long time ago and it’s safe to release this old fear now.
Even though I’ve been terrified of birds fluttering and flying around me for over 70 years, I know that birds are more afraid of me than I am of them and no bird has ever really hurt me. I don’t want or need to have this fear anymore and I release it NOW!
I asked her to think of being surrounded by flocks of fluttering birds with no way to escape and tell me her anxiety level. She replied that her level of intensity was 2 on a scale of 0 to 10. When I asked what her fear was about, she said it was not the fluttering birds, but something related to birds. She’d recalled an amusing memory when her brother-in-law, who was always impeccably dressed, had been bragging about his wonderful pet bird perched on his shoulder then the bird pooped on his dress shirt. Mom insisted this couldn’t have anything to do with the remaining bird fear and it didn’t seem likely to me, either. However, surrogate muscle-testing indicated that the final fear of not being safe around birds was because of this event. Instead of starting a new EFT round, we began Reminder Phrase tapping on:
Afraid of bird poop falling on me.
No need to be afraid as I’ll just wash it off.
Tapping away this silly fear of birds fluttering and pooping on me.
Releasing these fears of things that never happened and will likely never happen to me.
Choosing to feel safe NOW!
To test that she was at a level of intensity of 0 out of 10, I asked my mom to imagine herself in a huge flock of fluttering birds that pooped on her. She laughed and said she’d take a shower. I told her to imagine walking with her grandchildren through the city zoo’s aviary, seeing birds flying everywhere, feeling and hearing their fluttering wings. (Due to her bird fear, she’d never entered the exhibit.) Mom replied that she looked forward to finally walking through the aviary. She felt so relieved and relaxed that she decided to enjoy a brief Mother’s Day nap.
Three weeks later, she and her husband traveled to Tennessee for a wedding. Part of their sightseeing included a butterfly exhibit and exotic bird aviary. In the past, she’d have told her husband to go in while she waited outside. Now she felt excited to test out her EFT results. Mom fearlessly entered the aviary with her husband. For the first time ever, she marveled rather than cringed at the beautiful birds flying everywhere. She's looking forward to more aviary visits in her travels.
Thank you, Gary, for helping me to give my mom an incredible Mother’s Day gift of fearlessness via EFT!
Colleen Flanagan
