This week I was reading Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman's "Spontaneous Evolution". It's an amazing book, as is Bruce Lipton's "Biology of Belief", but there are a couple of chapters that explain some of the realities of our present world and, as I was reading those chapters, I felt such a sense of despair and hopelessness that I didn't want to read any more. I just wanted to put the book down and move on, move away from those feelings. Luckily for me, and for Bruce and Steve, I have my awareness and I have EFT! :)

I knew the book was worth reading right to the end and I even knew that they give some suggestions for personal solutions further on but it just seemed too much to bear so I tapped to remove the negative, hand-tying feelings that weren't serving me.

I didn't bother with set up phrasing much but I tapped the points when I noticed feelings arising as I read those chapters. I just let my mind flow through its "natural" self-talk (I don't actually believe this kind of thinking is "natural" to the human condition, I believe it is learned from our environment -family, friends, religion, society, etc.- but it becomes so ingrained that we feel like it's "natural").

I used different words on different points: How depressing, the world is such a mess, I feel so helpless, I feel so powerless, I feel so small and insignificant against such huge problems, against such huge powerful corporations, no one cares, most people just want to watch TV and ignore it, I want to just watch TV and ignore it, what can I possibly do against such things?, there's no hope, it's hopeless, we can never win, the world can never recover from this because most people won't make the effort to change themselves, we hide our heads in the sand and blame our problems on others, things will only get worse, we are so small, they are so big, we will all be crushed under other peoples' greed and immorality, people who run corporations don't care about anyone, they only care about the money in their bank accounts, we can't possibly change that, we can't, we are powerless, I feel so hopeless, I feel so helpless, it's so sad, it's so depressing... I tapped as I read until the feelings lifted and the negative, depressing self-talk simply stopped (if you keep tapping, this WILL happen - aim for zero pain!).

You're right, if you're thinking that me doing EFT while sitting on a couch reading a book didn't change anything in the actual world's present situation but it did change my feeling of being unable to move from my couch. I felt so much lighter. When I felt depressed and hopeless, I felt unable to move and absolutely unable to act in any manner that would have an effect. I TOO wanted to just sit on my couch and ignore the situation. I don't believe that I'll go out there and start up an association to save the world tomorrow but I no longer feel oppressed and that alone allows me to act if an opportunity presents itself. When I am inspired to action in the future, I won't have those thoughts: it's useless, why bother?, you can't change anything... (etc. ad infinitum) to stop me, I will simply act. It's so often our negative thoughts that stop us from acting and so many wonderful, uplifting, useful, helpful acts are never "committed" out of a fear of them being ineffectual. If we didn't have so much fear and despondancy perhaps we wouldn't be where we are now.

The situation hasn't changed but I have changed and that, ultimately, is the message in "Spontaneous Evolution": we can only ever really change the world from the inside out. I invite you to find a technique that suits you (be it EFT or another) and follow Michael Jackson's advice: "If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change".