For the previous 25 years teaching had felt like Kevin’s life’s work, a career he had woken up to happily and pursued passionately. Since a shooting had happened at a nearby elementary school, however, Kevin, a middle school teacher in the same small school district, had begun to question his teaching, and the role it played in his life.
On the day of the shooting, Kevin had lost a dear friend who worked at the elementary school. Since that day, nothing in his life, especially his work, had felt the same. Struggling to overcome his grief, Kevin felt frustrated and hopeless. Each day he faced his class, he walked away terrified that he would have to end his decades-long career with a total failure to engage his students.
When Lori Leyden, co-founder of The Tapping Solution Foundation, first sat down with him, Kevin shared details of the incredible terror that he, his colleagues, and students had felt the day of the shooting. Although the shooting had taken place at a different school, all of the schools in the community had been put on lockdown that day. The details of those long hours spent silent and still while sirens blared throughout town were still vivid in his mind. Kevin felt that he, as well as the entire community, had been broken that day, and he didn’t know whether healing was possible.
It was the first time in his life that Kevin had felt like a failure, and it wasn’t until tapping through those feelings that he realized why he was struggling so acutely. While tapping, Kevin remembered a long forgotten memory of his parents telling him that failure wasn’t an option. A young boy at the time, Kevin had understood that he wasn’t allowed to fail, and so he hadn’t. A hard worker who had applied himself to pursuits he loved, Kevin had been successful at almost everything he had done in his life. The overwhelming grief he was now feeling was the first major obstacle he wasn’t sure he could overcome.
After tapping through his grief, as well as his belief that he wasn’t allowed to fail, Kevin’s hopelessness and frustration quickly faded. He could once again access the incredible creativity and resourcefulness that had fueled his teaching for all these years. Before the session was over, Kevin had decided to take a new approach with his students the following day.
The next time he walked into class, he got the class’ attention and did something he’d never done. He shared his experience around healing from the trauma they’d lived through, and expressed his desire to support and connect with them to overcome it together.
From that point forward, with the consent of their parents, Kevin began tapping with his students often. In a few short weeks, he and his class created a renewed sense of community, connection, and engagement. Since then, several other teachers and the school counselor have adopted Kevin’s approach.
Kevin’s story is a powerful testament to something we at The Tapping Solution have seen countless times. When the world around us seems to fall apart, we can’t move forward until we focus first on healing our own inner wounds. That’s how we free ourselves to access the countless resources we already possess. That’s when we can move forward to create an abundant and fulfilling future.
If you or a loved one is feeling the effects of past trauma, seek out the help you need and commit to healing, using tapping to release the trauma on emotional, mental and physical levels. For guidance, feel free to begin with our tapping practitioner page here.
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