Tap Along

There is a lovely (and cheesy) song from my youth by Garth Brooks called “Unanswered Prayers.” The basic premise of the song is the protagonist runs into his teenage girlfriend as an adult. He remembers that as a teen the only thing he prayed for was that he would marry his sweet heart. With the wisdom of age he realize that it turned out for the best that God didn’t answer his prayer….leading the chorus “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers…”

There are times when we sit down to tap that we have a very clear plan of what issues we want to go after. There is either a specific wound to heal or there is a particular goal to achieve. Other times we just need to make time for ourselves because it is good we are taking the time to care for ourselves, even if there isn’t something specific we need to take care of.

“Never apologize for saying what you feel, because that’s like saying. ‘Sorry for being real’” @livetorque

Sometimes it is very difficult very difficult to share how we feel about something because we know that others are going to react to our feelings in a negative way. When this happens we can feel bad for feeling the way we do and we can feel bad for what we perceive is hurting someone else. Our feelings are our truth. We feel the way we do. We can choose to change these feelings and heal these feelings, but they are what they are. We never have to apologize for how we feel. There are choices we make in response to these feeling that aren’t the best for others and ourselves. We need to be comfortable enough with ourselves to know how we feel because that is our truth in the moment.

Sometimes all we need to do is know what we want to get. By naming it we start to see the path to what we want. It is a great way to start the day or the week by knowing what you want. If we tap while naming what we want, we can start to clear the resistance to those things.

Shame is a really interesting emotion. It is something that causes us to recoil inside of our selves. It wants us to hide our past and our present. Even with all of these negative outcomes it is rooted in a good place. Our shame wants us to have done better and it wants us to do better. The problem is it prevents us from moving forward because it is trying to keep us safe from making the same mistake again or it feels that we have so clearly messed up that it doesn’t think we deserve to move forward. Because of this it can be very crippling. But, we don’t have to stay stuck in shame.

When I am tapping I like to write down the insights I have while tapping. Sometimes they are things I already know (and have know forever) and other times they are completely new insights. I might only get one or two of these insights when I sit down to tap, but when I collect them over time I end up with a lots of wisdom that I need to here.

One of the things I have struggled with over the years is accepting compliments. They made me feel uncomfortable. They made me feel judged. They made me feel like I needed to point out the things that were wrong with me. Over time I have learned that it is okay to take a compliment. It gives me a chance to recognize that I am good at something. It gives me a chance to recognize that others also see the things I do well.

The world we live in is full of amazingly beautiful things. Many of them we miss (or at least I miss) because we are wrapped up in our todo list. When we take the time to just look at beauty, bathe in beauty, and absorbe beauty it touches us and tunes us into our emotional core. If we combine beauty with tapping we can transform our heart. Here is an easy example…

As I am sure you are aware last week Steve Jobs died. He was a galvanizing figure to say the least. He was a thought leader and he demanded a lot of himself (and his employes). I always enjoyed his interviews and speeches because there was always nugests of hope, inspiration and challenge. Here are some of my favorite Steve Jobs quote.

Are you looking for a great way to start your day on a creative inspired foot? Then just read these and tap along.

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” – Pablo Picasso

Trying new things can be hard. It requires us to put ourselves at risk. It requires up to face the fact that we don’t know everything. We know intellectually that there are many things we have tried in the past that we didn’t know how to do. Some of them worked out right away while others took time for us to learn. When we recognize that it is okay for us to try new things and that it is okay to not be perfect during the learning process it makes it easier for us to try new and different things.