Deactivate the Fight or Flight Response with EFT
Written by Carla M. Sodi
Six years ago I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, which opened a new way to live my life. A lot has happened since that time. When I discovered I am a HSP (Highly Sensitive Person), everything fell into place. I had to learn how to take care of myself and change the old me into something that worked for my life, while also healing myself from an autoimmune disorder. EFT, among other approaches, has helped me to recover and live a normal life again.
Now I know that being a highly sensitive means I am very easily overwhelmed by all internal and external stimuli. My fight or flight response is triggered constantly, causing me to feel unsafe and in danger most of the time, flooding my body with hormones, such as cortisol, the stress hormone. This constant flood of hormones became chronic and contributed to me becoming sick. Being constantly triggered by my surroundings put me on high alert, and trying to protect myself was exhausting. It was just a matter of time before I created chaos within my body and it manifested itself into disease and chronic illness.
After I recovered, and I am very happy to say, I am in complete remission and without any symptom. I began to think there must be a correlation between this trait (HSP), the immune system, the fight or flight response and stress.
In my case, I am sure, being HSP affected me in many ways. When I learned how using EFT could dissolve my emotional triggers, my entire perception changed, including how all stimuli affect my body.
Working with all the triggers that affected me, with EFT on a daily basis, has trained and conditioned me to feel safer than usual. It has helped me to communicate to and desensitize my fight or flight response by sending a calming message to my amygdala, that all is well and it is safe to relax.
The solution has been to train myself to always look back to what the initial assumption is. Is it a response to a person’s emotional reaction? Did I feel like they are attacking me?
“A Course In Miracles”states there are only two emotions – love and fear. If it is not love, then all emotional reactions stem from some form of fear such as: insecurity, stress, phobia, anxiety, panic, etc.
I had worked with so many fears in all aspects of my life: health, money, and relationships. And behind the fear, I had found emotions such as anger, resentment, prejudice, judgment, irritability, and many beliefs that caused me to feel fear or doubt about my own value, like being needy, being accepted, or being loved. Underneath all of these labels is a fear of not being good enough, getting hurt, being rejected, misunderstood or wronged.
My entire life has changed as I have taught my body and mind to recognize each minor signal of distress and to tap on it and therefore experience less stress. I have developed a higher tolerance level for things that used to overwhelm me. I am able to process all the heightened information I received daily in a clear way and use it in a form that worked for me instead of against me.
It is fascinating to observe how after some tapping rounds my body started to relax and past memories popped out, allowing me to work with those unresolved issues, change them and once again, start loving and accepting myself completely.
Acknowledging that my mind is always trying to keep me safe , I am able to look closer at those daily potential threats and deactivate my stress response with EFT and feel more grounded and stronger in my body each day.
This is what I wanted to share with you. I am convinced that self-care, relaxation and stress reduction techniques such as EFT, can help any person, highly sensitive or not, to have a more peaceful day and experience greater well-being. Persistence is the key!
Now I feel so much safer and happier in my current moment. That is one of the reasons I recommend EFT as a wonderful tool for any person that is dealing with stress, a chronic disease or unspecified symptoms that trigger our flight or fight response.
