By Aileen Nobles

Hi Gary

When Jenny’s mother first bought her to me, Jenny was a nervous wreck.  She was terrified of having another full-blown panic attack and was sure her heart was going to stop any minute.  As I spoke with Jenny she assured me that she knew that if she didn’t constantly think about her heart beating it would stop.  She labeled herself a mild hypochondriac.

Jenny was also terrified of sleeping alone, again sure that her heart would stop beating if she fell asleep.  We talked about her fear of dying but when I tuned into her it didn’t seem to be a major factor in this constant fear she was experiencing, although it often can be.

Jenny was an actress and was afraid to go to auditions alone. Even if she was filming all day, she could not act unless her mother was somewhere in the vicinity - just in case she had another panic attack. As a beautiful young woman with a career ahead of her, this fear was clearly not enhancing her quality of life.

Jenny’s fear of her heart stopping was a 10 on a scale of 0 to 10. Her fear of another panic attack was also a 10 out of 10.  At the time of her panic attack she was cramming for finals, auditioning and not sleeping enough. Just thinking about that event produced uncontrollable tears. As Jenny described the feelings of her heart racing, shortness of breath, and suffocation, she could not remember ever feeling those emotions before this particular event. We started by rubbing the sore spot and then tapped with these statements.

Even though I gave myself an incredibly powerful panic attack I’m still quite wonderful anyway.

Even though I scared myself to pieces and had the panic attack of all panic attacks and ended up at the hospital, I’d love to love myself anyway.

I have so much stress inside of me.

I’ve stuffed my emotions most of my life.

I was always a good little girl and I still am, but I have a lot of emotions stuffed inside.

I have so much fear, sadness and anger all stuffed inside, because I don’t really let my feelings show.

I really try and hold myself together, especially if I’m upset over something.

I don’t want to upset my mother as she has enough to worry about already.

I’ve stuffed a whole lot of anger at myself when I don’t do what I want to do, or say what I want to say.

I don’t want to have those emotions as good girls and spiritual people don’t feel these feelings.

I’d like to let go of these feelings.

Letting go of my fear of having another panic attack.

I don’t want to upset my mother.

At this point Jenny burst into uncontrollable sobs related to her mother. When Jenny’s mother went into the hospital after Jenny’s panic attack, she was terrified her mother would die. As she recounted this event she was overwhelmed with tears again, even though her mother didn’t have a serious problem, and was only in hospital for a couple of days. We tapped on her terror of losing her mother. 

If I lose my mother I think I will die.
I don’t think I can live without my mother.
But I didn’t lose my mother, she’s sitting outside waiting for me.
So I don’t need to hold on to that drama any more.
Letting go of that fear.
My mother’s here for me but I’m not here for me.
It will be a good thing if we can both enjoy being here.
I spend so much time on What if, and most of the time my What if’s don’t happen.
Now I’m going to reframe my What if’s.
Now What if my mother lives to a ripe old age.
What if I never have a panic attack again.’
What if I have fun and focus on my career.
What if I don’t have to be perfect, that will take a whole lot of stress off me.
My mother’s a strong woman… she has to be to be my mother!

She started to laugh. We continued working on being OK about expressing herself, not needing to be “perfect” whatever that meant to her, and knowing she was loved for who she was. She felt and looked so much clearer around the fear issues with her mother. We then did the Movie Technique on experiencing the actual panic attack, releasing the panic around the feeling that she was dying. Soon she felt detached enough to see it as if it was a movie.

Jenny reported the following week that she hadn’t thought about having a panic attack since our prior session.  She was still thinking about getting ill.  Her thoughts were constantly on her heart stopping if she didn’t think about it, but wasn’t panicked any more. Now we needed to work on her fear of her heart stopping.

Even though I’m sure my heart will stop if I don’t think about it, I’m quite wonderful anyway.

We talked about from where that thought might have originated. When her mother came home from hospital Jenny sat up with her all night.  She changed her mother’s dressings and watched her to make sure her heart was beating.

We did the movie technique on that specific event, gradually releasing her need to feel that if she didn’t watch her mother breathe, her mother’s heart would stop.

Even though willing my mother’s heart to beat may have helped her, there’s a good chance her heart would have continued beating anyway.

Even though I had to go to the bathroom and leave my mother during the night, somehow her heart kept working anyway.

Perhaps her heart and mine know how to beat on their own.
The truth is my heart has been beating since I was conceived.  It beats while I’m asleep and when I’m focused on acting or being involved in various activities.
I think perhaps my wonderful subconscious knows how to do this job of beating my heart better than I do.
I can’t stop my heart from beating by thinking about it, and I can’t make it beat by thinking about it. It’s either beating or its not, and I’m not controlling it.
If I was a yogi I probably could control it, but I’m definitely not.
I don’t have to think about it, I’m safe.
I surrender this job to a higher power and use my time and energy having fun. 

At the next session Jenny said her focus was not on her heart any more, and no more fear of panic attacks.  Her sleeping had also improved. Jenny was still thinking about having different illnesses every time she saw an ad on television, or heard someone talking about illness. We did a few rounds on:

Even though I haven’t a clue why I wait for something to go wrong in my body I’m still quite wonderful anyway.  

We tried a few variations on this theme and nothing much seemed to change. At this point we began work with her sub-personality that knew itself as a fearful sick person. We did a journey to bring this aspect of her into wholeness.

Sometimes I have found the need to work with a parallel life that may be adversely affecting present life. As that aspect of a person’s soul is worked with, the healing and releasing of the parallel, translates into the body here in present time. In this case, working with the sick sub-personality solved the issue.

GC COMMENT: Reducing these various issues down to the specific events that may have caused them is often an efficient approach.

Jenny was thrilled with the way she felt, and could now sleep without fear

Thank You EFT & Gary Craig

Namaste,
Aileen Nobles