Hi there again,

This week I worked on some guilt I had. My brother was moving on a Wednesday and I don't have many vacation days left so I had to opt out of helping him. The few people who were able to help him were older members of my family, not strapping young men with muscles. He and his family don't have a lot of money and they're not overly organized. I realized a few aspects of this were bothering me so I began to tap:

Even though I'm a bad sister because I'm not helping my brother move, I completely love and accept myself.
Reminder phrases: Crappy sister, won't even help my brother move, I feel guilty, this bad sister guilt.

I also had some issues about not liking to move people in general so I tapped on that also:

Even though I'm just trying to avoid another move at my brother's expense, I completely love, accept and forgive myself.
Reminder phrases: Just trying to get out of moving, I'm just lazy, bad sister.

I also had some anger about feeling responsible to organize the move of a grown man, his girlfriend and their children, so that was the next layer:

Even though I feel like I have to make the "proper" choices for them because they can't make them themselves, I completely love accept and forgive myself for taking this on.
Reminder phrases: They don't know, moving is big, it takes a lot of people, I have to do it or it won't be done "right", don't they realize.

As I tapped on that aspect, it became clear to me that, if my brother had really felt he needed to have more or younger people he would have organized the move to happen on a weekend when friends and younger family members would have been available to help. As much as I don't like moving, I would have been there if it had been on a weekend.

He chose the moving date because of other concerns or priorities so he was responsible for the situation it created. He also didn't seem to be as bothered by it as I was. I was bothered by it. He seemed to be taking it in stride.

The situation also reminded me that some of us, by making the choices we make, make our lives harder than they need to be. By trying to avoid one thing (sometimes a less important thing), we create greater difficulty for ourselves - just something for me to reflect on the next time I have some choices to make. What it came down to was that his choices were not my responsibility. After tapping, I was able to see that.

That is, I find, the real power of tapping, that it gives us clarity to which we don't have access when we are caught up in the emotion of a situation. Remove the disturbing emotions and we are able to see the situation/event/etc. with so much more distance. Our view point becomes more global and all encompassing.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!