trip through successful elimination of multiple chemical & food sensitivities

[Guest guest]

Poster's Comment: Food for thought?

 

A fascinating trip through the successful elimination of multiple chemical

and food sensitivities

_http://www.emofree.com/Allergy/multiple-food-allergies.htm_

(http://www.emofree.com/Allergy/multiple-food-allergies.htm)

Hi Everyone,

This is a MUST read for all serious EFT students. Listen in as Jo Hainsworth

(from New Zealand) gives us a detailed trip through all the erroneous

beliefs that caused her decades long problem. She says, " That afternoon,

something

incredible happened. It was like I was all of a sudden redefining my whole

beliefs about food. I realised for the first time in my life that, despite my

lifelong battle with dairy [and other foods], my body does not have a

problem with food; it’s the subconscious beliefs that cause the reaction, not

the

substance itself. "

Hugs, Gary

 

__

 

 

By Jo Hainsworth

Gary,

Background

I was chronically ill for 16 years, starting at age 10 (chronic fatigue

syndrome (CFS), recurrent sinus infections and systemic candidiasis), and have

long thought that the food sensitivities I had were as a result of the effect

of the illness and the treatments for it. My partner Rex and I have recently

learned EFT, so we decided to take on my dairy and wheat difficulties, and

see what we could do.

I have been dairy and wheat free for 10 years, with the exception of

occasional tests with small amounts of dairy and inadvertent “tests†when

I’ve been

unknowingly exposed to wheat. The reactions to dairy are nearly immediate

after eating, however not as severe as the reactions to wheat, which after the

smallest exposure can leave me seriously debilitated for several days.

We began our journey with EFT and allergies one day after seeing Carol Look

make a comment on one of the EFT Training DVDs, to the effect that underlying

a lot of allergy issues, is a feeling of being unsafe. Given that, in

addition to the food sensitivities I’ve long had chemical sensitivities as

well,

this resonated with me.

It prompted the memory of my mother telling me that I was born with the

umbilical cord around my neck, and an email to confirm that also revealed that

I

had been administered a Vitamin K injection shortly after birth. I also

remember my mother talking about her having fear during her pregnancy with me.

Body dowsing (muscle testing) confirmed that this was the place to start.

The First Session

We began with the earliest issue, and worked on me not feeling safe in the

womb. Instead of assigning a level of intensity we used body dowsing to check

when we were clear. Next we moved on to the umbilical cord, and as soon as

I started tapping I burst into tears and was filled with emotion. Two rounds

took care of it.

We then moved on to the Vitamin K injection, taking the approach that when I

arrived in the world I felt unsafe as I was first nearly “strangled†(with

the umbilical cord), then “stabbed†with the injection. While I initially

started with no emotion I soon started shifting to interesting new aspects,

which after lots of tapping and some imaginative testing on Rex’s part,

resulted in a great by-product of me losing my fear of needles!

We decided to end the session there, as it had been quite emotional, and

give me a break before carrying on the next day. However, my body had other

plans! Later that afternoon I ate some pickled garlic as I have been doing

regularly over the last few months. An hour later my abdomen was bloated and I

felt very uncomfortable (I had not reacted to it on any of the occasions I’d

eaten it before).

Rex suggested I tap on it, and all of a sudden I started crying as I flicked

into when I had systemic candidiasis, and had been eating lots of garlic to

try to kill the candida. This led to realising that my body had been a war

zone for so many years, with my main metaphor being that we had to do whatever

we could to kill the “bad guysâ€. This was a big part of me feeling unsafe

for years, as I felt so vulnerable to the “bad guys†for so long. Later

that night some of the minor symptoms that I used to have when killing candida

came back, so I tapped on them, and they were gone the following morning.

The Second Session

We commenced the second session with the fact that (as told by my mother) I

threw up every time she fed me, and she had to feed me again. We had

concluded that perhaps after the initial traumas of my birth, I had just

associated

the next thing that came my way (milk) as traumatic as well, so tapped on,

Even though soon after I was born I felt that food was unsafe for me, I now

choose to feel delighted that my body can deal appropriately with all foods.

In arriving at this choice, (and dealing with the psychological reversal

standing in the way of getting there!), I finally realised that my reluctance

to

let go of my reactions was because I saw them as warning signs that I was in

unsafe territory, and therefore I saw them as my friends.

We then worked on the fact that I was weaned from the breast at three months

and introduced to dairy and wheat (my two main food sensitivities). After

that we did a positive round on “It is safe for me to let go of my reactions

to foodâ€. We continued with working on several aspects of feeling unsafe

with

food, then went in on dairy products (cows, goats and sheep separately).

At this stage I felt ready to try some cheese, and I was pleasantly

surprised at my reaction to Rex saying “I’ll have to cut the mould off the

sides and

tidy it up, the only cheese I’ve got is a bit gross.†Normally something

like that would trigger all sorts of warning alarms and there is no way I

would eat it. The fact that it didn’t bother me gave me great encouragement

that

what we had done had really dealt with my feeling unsafe with food.

About an hour after eating two slices of cheese (and enjoying it!), I

suddenly had itching all over my body. Rex body-dowsed and established that it

was

not a physical reaction to the cheese, but rather a reaction to my anxiety

about the possibility of a reaction! We tapped a few rounds on the itching

and there was no difference. Then all of a sudden my level of intensity shot

up as I realised that I had a major issue with the “It’s all in your

headâ€

phrase that anyone with something like CFS has heard or heard implied many

times throughout the years. We tapped on that, and the itching started to

subside, but not disappear. The 9 gamut and floor to ceiling eye roll brought

the

itching down to 0.

Next I started thinking about how people have said that if you haven’t eaten

dairy products in a long time, your body doesn’t have the enzyme to digest

them, and so we tapped on that too, just to be sure.

That afternoon, something incredible happened. It was like I was all of a

sudden redefining my whole beliefs about food. I realised for the first time

in my life that, despite my lifelong battle with dairy, my body does not have

a problem with food; it’s the subconscious beliefs that cause the reaction,

not the substance itself. I wasn’t able to realise this until after we’d

cleared the “It’s all in my headâ€, and as we cleared that, I ended up

tapping

on “It really is all in my head, and that’s OK!†(and got to the point

where

I could laugh about it!)

I later found myself asking Rex all sorts of questions on how he saw

different types of food, and I began to sort my food beliefs into valid and

untrue.

I realised for the first time that white bread is not nutritionally useful,

but it is not poison to the body (as I had long claimed). I found myself for

the first time ever entertaining the idea of actually choosing to eat small

amounts of food for their taste, even if they aren’t nutritionally great

(I’

ve been very strict with my diet ever since my candida days, and although I

have enjoyed what I’ve eaten, I’ve now come to realise that my metaphor

with

a lot of food was the same as my metaphor with the candida – a war zone, with

my body trying to “kill†the bad guys (like dairy and wheat.)) I actually

found myself daydreaming about trying the chocolate croissants they make here

in France, made with two former “poisonsâ€.

The next evening, we decided to go for broke and really test it. Rex made

cauliflower cheese, which for me was the greatest test – milk, butter and

cheese all in one dish. I ate a good helping, and had no anxiety, except

feeling

a bit strange that I didn’t have any anxiety! I was a bit phlegmy the next

morning and sneezed a couple of times, but that’s a reasonably regular

occurrence for me, so we concluded there is no reason to believe that my body

cannot handle dairy products, it being a far cry from past reactions to even

small

amounts of dairy.

I have had multiple chemical and food sensitivities for at least 20 years.

For the first time in my life I can now see that it is not a case of

something poisonous invading my body, but rather an overreaction caused by my

seeing

myself as unsafe, and under attack. This has been a major revelation to me.

 

My metaphor has for so long been that of the canary in the coalmine –

alerting the world around me that what we are doing to the environment and our

own

bodies is not OK. The metaphor has now changed, and the canary is now out of

the cage and flying free, however I still have real concerns about our

bodies needing safe ways to alert us when what we are doing is not OK. This is

something I think I will integrate over time.

Third Session

When we started the third session, we felt that we had made huge inroads

into all my allergy issues, as a result of dealing with the issue of not

feeling

safe, and the realisation that it wasn’t actually my body reacting all that

time, it was as a result of invalid associations in my subconscious.

I was however still quite nervous about trying wheat, as a result of the

severity of past reactions. I still also felt I had an issue with not wanting

to let go of the allergies due to feeling like if I did, nobody would believe

that I had ever been sick (this is common for people with illnesses like CFS

who have had the “It’s all in your head†implications throughout their

lives).

As we tapped on this particular aspect, I realised that the main issue was

that while I was very sick but the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with

me, I started to doubt my own sanity. We were unable to get past

psychological reversal on clearing the wheat, until we addressed this aspect.

It was interesting to note here that once we started on this issue, I

started crying and accused Rex of making light of the issue and not taking me

seriously! It was very hard for him to understand, and I would imagine that

any

therapists who have not had severe allergies might not realise just how

significant this was for me or others like me.

We also addressed the issue that once I no longer had reactions, I needed to

choose to rely on my intuition to let me know if it wasn’t a good idea to

eat something. And the lifelong dairy “allergy†had disappeared so rapidly

and easily, I felt it also important to do a round on “It’s just too

easy!â€

We also did a round with a choice, choosing to be free by learning to choose

my own limits, instead of letting my body set them for me.

We then started on the wheat itself, and tapped on the three most recent and

severe times I could remember reacting to wheat, and we tapped on Even

though I recently heard an ‘expert’ say that wheat is incredibly difficult

to

clear even with EFT… We then worked on cravings, as I had noticed that I’d

been craving cheese ever since the first bit of testing a few days prior.

By this time I was feeling ready to try some organic wheat bread we had

purchased for the testing that morning. My only concern was that I wasn’t

concerned!!! After enjoying a slice without any symptoms, we made some soup to

enjoy the bread with for lunch, and the rest of the day was symptom free. It t

ook a bit of getting my head around this, as past exposure to wheat had left

me in pain and with all sorts of horrible symptoms for several days, starting

within a couple of hours of eating the wheat.

I noted later in the day, that the cravings I had had for cheese since

eating the first lot to test had stopped, and I was not craving the bread at

all,

which is very unusual as I usually even crave the wheat free bread I eat

sometimes. Something else that really stood out for me is that I am normally

very paranoid when handling wheat – I always wash my hands right after giving

the dogs a biscuit to avoid touching anything that I could later touch before

eating. After the tapping, I was very comfortable handling the wheat and had

no desire to wash my hands or clean up every crumb on the bench.

That evening we decided to go for broke, and I ate wheat bread, together

with three different types of cheeses, with dinner. I enjoyed it, no anxiety

at

all! A little while after dinner I noticed I was starting to swallow a bit

of phlegm. I did a couple of rounds on it, and discovered that I was feeling

guilty that I’d eaten so much and expected my “poor body†to be able to

cope with digesting it all, for the first time in so long. The phlegm stopped.

A few days later we had dinner with a friend, and as I sat debating in my

mind whether to ask what the dessert was, and what it was made of, I realised

that it was the first time in 10 years that I had been able to trust that it

was OK to eat something, without knowing exactly what was in it. I realised

that I have used controlling my food as a way of giving myself a false sense

of security, masking the feeling deep down that I wasn’t safe in the world.

It was a real eye opener.

Summary

This whole thing has completely blown me away. To think of all the hell I

went through during all those years, and it was just because I arrived in the

world feeling unsafe, and continued to “build evidence†that that was true

as I grew up.

I’m having to revisit everything I’ve “learned†about allergies over

the

years, and am integrating the fact that it appears that for all these years,

my body has not been reacting to substances, but rather to my perception of

the lack of safety of those substances. It’s been hard for me to come to

terms

with, particularly as I’ve had occasions in the past where I have reacted

when neither Rex nor I have known that I’ve ingested wheat, and only

discovered

after some detective work after the symptoms appeared that Rex had

unknowingly used stock with a small amount of wheat in it.

However despite what my conscious or unconscious mind thinks I know I am now

symptom free after eating dairy and wheat (and some chocolate for the first

time in many years!), and looking forward to enjoying a life without so many

limitations. The food is only a very small aspect of this, because clearing

this issue has completely changed my understanding of healing and health, and

I now feel that the sky truly is the limit. I’m excited about taking on a

20 year muscle spasm in my neck next!!!

Note on my use of EFT

While I use the word “tapping†in this article, in actual fact I don’t

tap

at all. I have practised and taught Reiki for many years, and have used

Reiki to do a lot of emotional healing in the past. I now combine the two, and

all of this work was done with me running Reiki through my fingertips at each

of the EFT tapping points, for a few seconds each round. For anyone who does

Reiki, I believe that combining it with the EFT makes it very powerful

indeed.

Note on the aspects with fear of needles

While not of interest from the perspective of allergies, the side path we

went down on my fear of needles might be of interest to some. As we were

tapping on the Vitamin K injection soon after birth, the aspect of my fear of

medical needles came up.

This led to all the countless blood tests I’d had that hurt but yielded no

benefit as for so long the result was always “we can’t find anything wrong

with you.†Then it moved on to the painful twice weekly injections of B12

I’d

had during a 6 month period, when I was very ill. Then all of a sudden once

that was cleared, I suddenly realised for the first time in my life that my

fear of sewing needles being put down on the floor might be a little

irrational (for as long as I can remember, if someone has placed a needle down

while

sewing, I haven’t been able to take my eyes off it, for fear of standing on

it and it going into my bloodstream and killing me!)

After I thought we’d dealt with this issue, some deft testing on Rex’s part

got my intensity level right back up again. Eventually after several lots

of testing, I remembered I had been avoiding getting a splinter out of my

finger, because I can’t stand needles, and suggested perhaps it would be the

ultimate test. When Rex first got a needle out, I exclaimed that he wasn’t

going

near my finger with such a big needle, then after another round of tapping,

it didn’t seem quite so big after all! When Rex had difficulty getting the

splinter out with the needle, I surprised both of us by reaching out for it

and saying, “Here, I’ll do itâ€, and proceeded to successfully dig it out

of my

own finger with no drama!

Jo Hainsworth