Recent Articles on www.thrivingnow.com

   Exercise-Induced Tension Headache (feature article this issue)
   Positive and Negative Emotions in Marriage
   Diet Sodas May Double Your Risk of Obesity
   Friends to Live Well (and Long!)
   How Big a Check Do I Require to Feel Grateful? (audio)
   You Have Got To Find What You Love

Announcements

Dr. Carol Look will be interviewing Gary Craig (founder of EFT) on internet radio at 3pm EDT Monday, July 18th on Why EFT Works with Physical Pain and Ailments. This is Carol's 8th show (the 2nd interviewing Gary), and all of them are available on-demand through her website if it isn't convenient for you to listen in live.

Travel Notes from Rick

We had a wonderful trip to La Maddalena, Sardegna (Sardinia), Italy, as well as a delightful cruise that took us to Sicily, Turkey, and Greece. In addition to the four of us, we were joined by my sister-in-law Giulia, her husband Tom, and their two babies Francesca (2) and Emilia (5 mo), my mother-in-law Ann and her husband Bill who made the whole trip possible, and Bill's two college-age daughters Sarah and Rachel for the Sardegna portion. We all had a marvelous time!

I've added just a few of the 400+ digital pictures we took to the photo gallery. Sandy and I both have Casio EX-Z750 cameras that fit easily into a pocket and can even take short, high quality video clips.

If you read last newsletter's feature article, On The Road to Optimal Health, you'll recall that our trip out took us from Washington, DC, then in the opposite direction to Chicago, and then to Frankfurt and Rome to get on the cruise ship. I found that by staying focused on the end goal??”whether we were headed to the cruise, headed to La Maddalena, or headed home??”made the 14-24 hour travel days easier to endure. There are always things that don't go according to plan. My favorite mantra when traveling by airlines is, "Time to spare, travel by air." It reminds me that the schedule and flow are not under my control; patience is the order of the day, even when they lose 80% of your bags on the way home.

Such setbacks are par for the course, whether traveling or returning to health. But the trip isn't about what happens in an airport, cab, or ferry station. It is about both the destination you desire to experience and the loving moments you can find at each step along the way.

I just loved swimming in the Mediterranean Sea around La Maddalena. If you're used to swimming in lakes and swimming pools like I am, the salt water sea makes you feel so light and buoyant. I would swim from one side of a cove to another, or around a point, and then climb the granite rocks and sit and meditate looking out over the crystal-clear waters. It was wonderfully renewing for body, mind, and spirit.

It did, however, leave me with some muscles that were a bit more tight than usual. I ended up with two fairly intense tension headaches, one in Italy which Sandy rubbed away and another after returning home. This second one I used EFT to relieve, as you will read about below. I'm very interested in hearing whether you find recorded sessions like this useful in learning and applying EFT for yourself.

Exercise-Induced Tension Headache

Listen (26:07) at http://www.thrivingnow.com/for/Health/exercise-tension-headache/

Have you ever had a tension headache caused by something you did? I woke this morning at 5:30am with a crushing tension headache??”the second in just the past two weeks brought on by swimming. The relaxation exercises and self-massage I tried in bed for a half hour did not help much. I prayed for guidance, and what I received was: ???Get up, put on your headset, and record a tapping session for the headache.??? That is what I did!

You can listen to this 26 minute session session by visiting the website and clicking the Play button. The session shows how I use EFT for my own pain, as physio-emotional self-care. You will notice that:

- I use whatever words come to me (it's not about the ???formula??? or getting the words just right).
- Sometimes, a round doesn??™t help much, or the pain can intensify.
- I chase the pain.
- Body sensations change, and as they do, I add those specific changes to the tapping sequence.
- Emotions, memories, and beliefs are included as they come up.
- Deep breaths happen both spontaneously at certain points as well as being consciously used between rounds to allow the energy to balance (and give time for self-observation).
- I persist until it is close to zero.
- Positive statements and gratitude, particularly at the end of the session, help to raise my overall sense of well-being.

You can listen to this session and tap along to ???borrow benefits??? for your own pains and discomfort. I hope you find this type of recording helpful. Please let me know.

Follow-up 10pm: I have had a great day! My headache and tension have not returned. After the tapping session, I did movement (gentle, like Tai Chi only without any specific pattern), stretching, self-massage, and meditation??”not to ???fix??? anything but because they feel good to me. Later this morning, Sandy continued to loosen up my muscles with a back massage using jojoba oil (great for the skin, too) and that continued the healing process. I tapped a few times for various thoughts and body sensations. As I re-listened to the recording I also made note of some of the specific memories that came up and used the EFT movie technique to take those quickly down to zero.

Peace, joy, and healing be with you,

Rick Wilkes, CMT, EFT-ADV
Emotional Freedom Coach
Certified Massage Therapist 
Rick@Thrivingnow.com  

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Disclaimer: The information and coaching we provide is intended to educate, inform, amuse, and inspire you on your personal journey towards optimal health and a thriving life. It is clearly not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is definitely not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you are under the care of any health professionals (or should be), we strongly encourage you to discuss modifications in your diet, lifestyle, exercise program, nutrition, or use of EFT with them prior to making any changes, and never discontinue or reduce prescription medications without consulting your doctor or pharmacist.

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