Hi there, welcome to my Facebook Live.
This is Cheryl Richardson and I'm here
just a couple minutes early while I wait
for people to join us. I'm going to wait
just a couple minutes. And then today I'm
going to talk about, I want to talk about
three things in particular that you can
do to just not only survive this
difficult time but actually really use
it to your advantage. One of the things
I'm going to be talking about is Tapping
and I'm going do a Tapping Session here.
Just a mini Tapping Session that you can
tap along with me. You can use it now and
you can use it in the future. You can
come back and use it. We'll be sure to
have timestamps so you know exactly when
that begins. And I'm going to do it just for
the kind of general anxiety that people
are dealing with during this time. So
it's something, it'll be a tool that you
can use. And then I have little
assignments for you, an important
self-care assignment that's not only
going to benefit you but is going to
benefit other people as well. So let's
start by just saying hello. Hi Terry,
thank you for being here. And hi Heather,
I've missed you, too. I'm glad that you're
here. Feel free to post a comment letting
me know where you're from. And so I'm
going to cover three specific things first
and then after that I'm going to go
ahead and answer your questions. So when
we're done, whatever resources I talked
about will get posted up here in the
Facebook Live, in the timeline
area. I'll have links to any resources we
talked about and I'll also have
timestamps so you'll know when we end
the three things and I start taking
questions. You'll know exactly when that
happens so if you need to scoot out you
can do that and always come back
afterward. So if you have a question or a challenge
you're faced with and you'd like some
support you might want to just type it
out now someplace, copy it and hang on to
it. You can paste it into the comment
section when we get to that point. So let
me just say hi to a few people and then
I'll begin. Hi Mary Beth, thank you for
being here. And Jen, welcome to you.
Cat and Nina, welcome. Hi Cindy and Laurie
and Megan and Pam. Lots of people. Hi
Bruce, glad you're here. We always love
when the men are here, we really
appreciate it. Hey Chris! Has he called yet?
One of these days I'm going to get
your phone number, Chris. Chris has been
following me forever
and every time she posts on Facebook or
sends an email or
whatever, she always ends with: He hasn't
called, meaning my husband Michael. It's
just some kind of a joke.
Chris, we hope to be back
at Circles of Wisdom once we
move beyond this. Hey Cheryl, welcome to
you. And Permeal and Sheila. Glad you're
here, Sheila, lovely to see your name. And
Nuroma and Carol and Debbie. I always
feel like the woman from Romper Room
saying: Hello Mary. Hello, I see you, Jo.
Do you remember that? You have to be old
enough to remember that. I do. Anyway,
so as I was saying in the very
beginning of this there are three things
that I'm going to cover today and then I'll
stop and read through some of your
comments. I've got my phone here so that
I can see them because they slide by so
fast. I'll read through your comments and
if there are any questions that you have
I will also answer those or any coaching
that I can provide, just support you. And
as we go along, any resources I talk
about will be posted in the timeline
here afterwards. I'll go back and edit it
so you'll be able to find links to
whatever it is we talked about here. So
the first thing I want you to do is this.
A lot of people I've been speaking
with and hearing from are talking about
the anxiety that they're feeling during
this time, understandably so for a
variety of reasons. We're not used to
being at home. We are scared of the
pandemic. The news does a really good
job of keeping us informed and letting
us know what it is we need to do and
also making us really anxious,
depending on where you get you news and
how often you check it. Also, I find that
people who are very sensitive and
empathic, like I'm a very sensitive
person, seem to also be picking up on the
collective anxiety. You know, Carl Jung
talked about the collective unconscious,
right. There's this pool of, what
would I call it? Energy consciousness
that exists, that connects all of us.
It's sort of like, let's think of it as
a highway, a cosmic highway that's
running all kinds of information:
energetic information, emotional
information, intellectual information.
It's like a highway of information
and a highway of energy and we all tap
into that highway off and on whether you
believe it or not or whether you're
conscious of it or not. And right now as
people's senses are heightened and as
we're in a state of hyper-vigilance and
fight, flight or freeze, the
old parts of the brain are really
working strong. What happens is we have a
tendency to connect with this
energetic highway and we might start to
feel the anxiety of the world or of our
community, our town or city,
wherever it is we might live. Just the
energy in the air if you think of it
that way. And then certainly just the
fear of the unknown like: What's going to happen? How long is this going to last last?
All of these things, I'm sure you have
your own examples. You're stuck in the
house with the kids and you want to pull
your hair out. You're stuck in the house
with your spouse or your partner and
you're thinking: Okay, we
haven't spent this much time together in
I don't  know how long and it's not
comfortable. So just our worlds are so different now.
So the first thing I want to talk about is a ridiculously
simple but actually quite powerful way
to manage the anxiety or to deal with
the anxiety. So what I'd like you all to
do right now is to just take a moment,
keep your eyes open. So just look at me
here for a moment. And I want you to just
tune into your your level of stress
or anxiety and give it a
number on a scale from 1 to 10 with
1 being I feel pretty good; I have no
anxiety at all and 10 being I'm on
the verge of a panic attack; I'm really
really anxious. Notice where that number
falls right now in your body and
your psyche. How do you feel right now?
And just post the number here in the
comment section, whatever number occurs to you based
on your current level of anxiety. Okay, so
once you have a number, smile. All right,
good. Now here's what I'd like you to do. I'd
like you to just close your eyes, that's
all. Just close your eyes and keep your
eyes closed. And then just take a few
breaths in. Whatever way feels
comfortable to you. Just breathe. Keep
your eyes closed. And what I want you to
know as you keep your eyes closed is
that just the act of closing your eyes
causes your brain to begin making alpha
brainwaves. And alpha waves are the waves
that your brain makes when you lay down
to go to sleep. So the more alpha waves
that get created keeping your eyes
closed, the more alpha waves that get
created, the calmer the body becomes. Just
by closing your eyes.
So normally during the day when our eyes
are open and we're functioning, our brain
is making lots of beta brainwaves and
that's the brainwave of activity. Beta
activity, I think of it as. So the moment
we close our eyes and you're keeping
your eyes closed, the brain is saying: Oh,
it's time to rest. It's time to make more
alpha waves and the more it does that, the
calmer the body becomes. And you don't
even have to think about it. It just
automatically happens.
All right. Now, when you're ready, open your
eyes and just notice. Tune in again to
your body, to your energy system, and rate
your stress level on a scale from 1 to
10 with 1 being no stress at all and
10 being lots of stress, lots of anxiety.
And notice if the numbers changed at all
and go ahead and put the new number in
the comment section. So what you might
discover is that the number/ your
level of anxiety has dropped a point or
two. Maybe even more. The longer you
keep your eyes closed, the more alpha
waves your brain makes and the calmer
the body becomes. Now, there's a certain
percentage of people, a smaller
percentage of people who will close
their eyes for as long as we did and
will actually start to feel more anxious.
There are a couple reasons for that. Number
one, when we close our eyes we really are
suddenly meeting ourselves,
where we're shutting out the outer world
and we're coming in contact with
ourselves. And honestly, if you've been
really busy in your life, if you've been
working a lot and running here and there
and taking care of kids or taking care
of other people who need you, just
running a hundred miles an hour; when you
close your eyes and begin to turn inward
you actually meet a stranger and it can
feel a little uncomfortable at first. So
sometimes in the beginning when you
close your eyes, the anxiety of meeting
that stranger or the anxiety of being
tuned out from the outer world, which
might be unusual for you, can kind of
ramp up a little bit. The longer you can
keep your eyes closed, the greater the
chances of your stress level dropping
because your brain is making alpha waves
whether you want it to or not. It's
automatically doing that. This is the
beauty of the mind-body connection. How
we think influences our body without a
doubt. But also, what we
do to the body influences how we think.
And it's so important to remember that
because a lot of times we're more
focused on: Oh, I need to think positively.
I need to to calm my thinking down. I
need to recite a million
affirmations or whatever. All of that is
great to really focus on how you take
good care of your mind, how you manage
your mind. But how you manage your body
matters as well. That's why during times
like this, getting outside into fresh air
is so important. Closing your eyes and
resting is so important. It's why sleep
is so important. There's a lot of
processing and healing and sort of
cleaning up of the inner filing cabinets
that happens when we sleep. So the
downtime allows the body to relax, allows
the body to calm down, and that actually
calms the thinking down. So the first
step of self-care any time at all when
you start to feel anxious or when you
feel anxiety creeping up, close your eyes.
Stop where you are. Sit down. Breathe
slowly through the nose if that feels good to you.
But most importantly, just close your
eyes and see if you can keep your eyes
closed for a little bit longer and
longer and longer as we go along,
okay? And that will really
automatically help you to calm down a
bit. I do that. I did that especially a couple
of weeks ago when I would go to the
grocery store and lots
of shelves were empty. And I felt like I
just automatically plugged in to this
collective unconscious, the energy
highway and suddenly I was feeling the
anxiety of everyone in this store, it
felt like. But I just stopped, closed my
eyes even for a couple of minutes in the
grocery store and all of a sudden that
rush of anxiety just dissipated and
I felt a lot better. So that's the first
thing. The second thing I want to do is a
mini Tapping Session with you. So again,
we're going to timestamp this right now.
Thank you, Terry. And then I'm just going to
do a mini Tapping Session with you.
I'm going to ask you to follow along with
me. There's no perfect way to do this. The
Tapping is very forgiving and
works beautifully for a lot of people.
I'm going to do a Tapping Session here.
You'll be able to come back to this.
You'll see exactly what time it starts.
So anytime you feel anxious or panicked
or scared or just antsy,
irritable. Anxiety expresses itself in
many ways: depressed, agitated, angry and
you don't understand why, anything like
that. You can come back to this Tapping
Session, just go right to the time
when this starts and follow along and do
it again with me. So first, let me take a
drink of water and if you've got
something to drink near you, do me a
favor and hydrate yourself right now.
It's also really important to drink more
water than you think you need.
That's another little tip by the way. The
minute you start to feel anxious, drink a
glass of water. A lot of times anxiety is
the body's way of alerting you to the
fact that it's dehydrated. And
when the body gets hydrated, the mind
thinks better, thinks more clearly. Okay,
so now we're going to start the Tapping. So
here's what I'd like you to do. I'm going to
tap for fear and anxiety. I have a few
little tricks about that that I'm going
to use. This will be relevant to
everybody and you can feel free to add little
pieces that are more relevant to you,
specifically in regards to your anxiety
or fear. But this sort of general one
will work for people. I'm just looking
over here at my notes. There are a few things I
want to make sure I do. Okay, so here's
how we're going to begin. Once again, I
just want you to close your eyes for a
moment and I want you to tune into any
fear or anxiety that you're experiencing.
And don't worry, you're going to feel better
in just a couple minutes. So the more we
can bring the anxiety into the energy
field, the more effective it seems
to be with the Tapping to calm it down
and get it and move it out of the field.
So close your eyes and just notice when
you imagine whatever it is that is
making you frightened or anxious right
now.
When is this going to end? Am I going to be
okay? Are my loved ones going to be okay?
Am I going to be able to get food or
water? Whatever comes up for you in
regards to the anxiety just tune in to
your anxious feelings and on a scale
from 1 to 10, I want you to rate your
level of anxiety with 1 being I don't
have much anxiety at all and 10 being
it's off the charts,  have a lot of
anxiety and a lot of fear. And notice
where you fall, what that number is. And
again, put the number in the comments
section here. Okay. So rate your anxiety
from 1 to 10 and put the number in
the comments section. Okay. Great. Good. I
see you're all doing that. You're awesome.
Thank you. Okay, so now we're going to do
some Tapping. And let's see. I'm going
to, how am I going to do this?
I guess I'm going to do the full algorithm
with you. So it's going to be just so you
know: side of the hand, side of the
eye, under the eye, under the nose, under
the lip, the bottom lip, collarbone, under
the arm like where your bra would be if
you're wearing one. A lot of you probably
aren't these days, which is a good thing.
Give those beautiful breasts of yours a
chance to rest. On top of the head. So I'm
going to do the full algorithm with you. You ready?
So starting right here with the karate
chop point, you can do either hand,
doesn't matter. And just repeat after me:
Even though I feel anxious about the
coronavirus, I deeply and profoundly love
and accept myself. Even though I feel so
anxious about this time in our lives, I
deeply and profoundly love and accept
myself. Even though I feel really anxious and afraid,
I choose to embrace these feelings. Even
though I manufacture anxiety with my
mind, I choose to feel peaceful and calm.
And then go to the eyebrow spot: All this
anxiety. Side of the eye: All this fear.
Under the eye: I don't know when this is
going to end. Nose: I don't know what's
going to happen. Chin: I feel anxious.
Collarbone: All this fear and anxiety.
Under the arm: All this fear and anxiety.
Top of the head: I feel anxious and
afraid. Then go back to the eyebrows
point again: I don't know when this is
going to end. I feel trapped in my home. I
feel anxious. I feel anxious about the
virus. What if I get it. What if my loved
ones get it. I just feel so much
anxiety and fear. All this fear and
anxiety. Top of the head: I feel anxious
and afraid. Okay. And then close your eyes
and take a breath. And with your eyes
closed I want you to once again tune in
and rate your anxiety on a scale from
1 to 10 with 1 being not much at
all and 10 being a lot. And when you
have a number, go ahead and put it in the
comments section. Let's see what's going
on. Let's see how this worked for you.
Okay. Let me just scroll down and see. Okay,
great. Let's post some numbers here. Okay.
And also you can let me know, you can
even type in the comments section down
or up. Oh, there we go. Well, that's
actually, that's better. Thank you, Esther. A 10
to a 4. That's awesome. Yeah, I'm sorry.
We should do it that way. Tell me
the number you started with and then
where you are. Okay. 3 to a 2, that's great.
Good. Some people will stay the same.
We're going to do more Tapping. Okay, good. All right. Great.
Down 2, good. Okay, great. So let's continue.
You ready? Again, we're going to go to the
karate chop spot: Even though I manufacture, sorry. Even though I
manufacture anxiety with my thinking, I
choose to feel peaceful and calm. Even
though I manufacture anxiety with my
thoughts, I choose to feel peaceful and
calm. Even though I have all this tension
in my body, I choose to release it now.
Even though I carry all this fear and
anxiety in my body and it makes me
anxious, I choose to remember I am safe.
Okay, great. Let's go to the eyebrow: This
tension in my body. Side of the eye: All
this anxiety. Under the eye: I feel afraid.
Under the nose: I just feel anxious. Chin:
I feel out of control. Collarbone: I don't
know what's going to happen. Under the arm: All this anxiety. Top of the head: I feel
anxious and afraid.
Okay, now stay with me. Go to the eyes: I love
feeling anxious. Side of the eyes: No I
don't, that's
crazy. Under the eye: I love being afraid.
It's so much fun.
Under the nose: No, that's insane. I hate
feeling anxious. Chin: I don't like
feeling anxious. Collarbone: I manufacture
anxiety. Under the arm: I am masterful at
manufacturing anxiety. Top of the head: I
could get a PhD in manufacturing anxiety.
Go back to the eyebrow: And now I choose
to get a PhD in manufacturing peace.
Side of the eye: I'm really good at
manufacturing peace. Under the eye: I love
feeling peaceful and calm. Nose:
I'm safe. Chin: I feel peaceful and calm.
Collarbone: I love feeling peaceful and
calm. Under the arm: I am masterful at
manufacturing peace and calm. Top of the
head: I have a PhD in manufacturing peace
and calm. Okay, now close your eyes again.
Take a deep breath. I know I feel calmer.
And now tune in and once again tune
in to your stress level and notice what
number where your stress is at right now.
And in the comment section you can tell
me where you started and where you are
now. Let's see how that's doing. Okay.
Okay, great. Yep, I see people going down.
So great. While you're doing that,
let's do one more thing. Let's
go to the karate chop spot once again:
Even though my anxiety isn't going away,
I choose to feel peaceful and calm. Even
though I still feel afraid and even more
afraid, I choose to manufacture peace.
Even though I don't feel any calmer, I
love myself anyway. Even though I still
feel anxious, I choose to feel peaceful
and calm. Go to the eyebrow: I still have
some anxiety. Side of the eye: I still
have a lot of anxiety. Under the eye: I
still feel afraid. Nose: What if this
doesn't get better. Chin: I don't know how
to be with my fear. Collarbone: I choose
to feel peaceful and calm. Under the arm:
I choose to remember I am safe. Top of
the head:
I choose to feel peaceful and calm. Then
close your eyes. Take a breath. And once
again, I want you to tune in and notice
on a scale from 1 to 10 if the
anxiety has moved or the fear has moved,
if your body feels calmer. And again, you
can post the number you started with and
the number where you're at now.
Yeah. Vincey says: I feel heavy like all
the stress went to my feet. Yeah,
sometimes people will start to just feel
sleepy. Some people start laughing. It's a
good sign that the energy, the stressful
energy is being released. Some people
just start to feel a sense of, some
people will say to me, I can't find the
anxiety. I can't seem to access it in my head. I
can't get where it was before.
It's a good sign. It just means the brain
is sort of shutting out, it's like
shutting the doors to the fear and the
anxiety. That's what the Tapping I find
does. Wow. Liz went from a 10 to a 2.
That's awesome. And so did Debra. See
people, you can use this all the time. Yes,
some people are saying: I feel like I
could fall asleep. You know, if this is
working for you and it works for a good
percentage of the people and those of
you that still feel the anxiety or feel
like it hasn't moved, please come back. Go
to the beginning of the Tapping
Session and do it a few times. I promise
you it will make a difference.
Yeah, good. Sherry's smiling. And Kris went
from a 3 to a 0. That's great.
Anisha went from an 8.5 to
a 1. Yeah. And Colleen
says: Actually, I'm not feeling anxious
but I feel like I could cry. That's the
other thing, Colleen. Sometimes when we
move beyond the fear and anxiety, when
we're able to kind of calm that down and
give ourselves a rest from the fear and
anxiety, what the body naturally wants to
do is cry to just release the pent up
feelings, to release
the tension actually. Crying is really
good, Colleen. As a matter of fact I would
say you could stop right now,
shut off Facebook, go ahead and have a
good cry. You can come back and finish this up afterwards.
Crying is really important. I find myself, I don't
know, I'll hear a story of somebody who's
struggling and it'll just make me, it'll
it'll just make me emotional and I let myself sit down and
have a cry because it just feels so good.
It feels like it releases so much
tension afterwards. So yeah, several
people are saying that that's a good
thing. Let yourself cry. And laughing does
help, too. Yes, that also happens. And yeah,
Sheila says: I realized my inner child
from World War II was reactivated. A lot
of people right now are finding that old
losses and old trauma come up
during this time and that happens for a
number of reasons.
You know, I've certainly said many times
that when we experienced a loss,
and all of us are experiencing loss
right now. A loss of freedom, a loss of
routine, a loss of community and
connection. These are big things. A loss of a
certainty, security. Any kind of loss will
bring up the pieces of other losses from
the past that need more healing. Same
thing with trauma. Pieces of trauma or
trauma experiences that could use some
more healing. So that's why
I'm always saying Psychology Today.
There are a lot of therapists doing Zoom
therapy. I do the Zoom therapy with my
therapist. I have for the last two and a
half years and it's wonderful. I feel
like he and I are together in the same
room. It works and I didn't believe it in
the beginning.
It actually works. So getting some good
support in that way would be really
helpful to you. And I'll see if I can come up with any good, you
know it's hard for me to recommend a
therapist because the minute I post it
they're going to get flooded with a
whole bunch of people. So Psychology
Today's Find a Therapist site is
actually the best thing to do. The best
place to go. Okay, yeah. Laurie says: Now
I stopped crying and I'm kind of giggly.
Yeah, releasing energy is
what the Tapping does. So that's the
second thing I wanted to do here today
was to just do a Tapping Session with
you. I find the whole notion of
manufacturing anxiety, Tapping on that,
really helps. That was a little tip I got
from Carole Look, who was a real expert
in Tapping when I did Tapping with her
probably 10 years ago while I was
writing Stand Up for Your Life
and I was feeling anxious about my
deadline. And she used that phrase
with me: Even though I manufacture
anxiety, and boy I could completely
relate to it and I've used it ever since
both personally and with people. And it's
a very powerful thing to tap on. So
that's Tapping. So the first self-care
tip was closing your eyes, causing the
brain to create alpha waves so that you
automatically calm down. The second was
the Tapping Session that you see here.
And then the third is an assignment. I
have a little assignment for you this
week. I'd like you to become a Mayor of
Hope in your community. Now this idea
came from a coaching session I did with
a friend of mine who was really
struggling with anxiety and she's
somebody who has a natural gift of gab.
She can talk to any stranger. She can
instantly create a sense of
warmth and connection with anyone she
meets. It's a real gift of hers and she's
got a great sense of humor. And so I gave
her the assignment to go outside three
times a day to walk her neighborhood for
at least 10 minutes and to engage with
strangers and be a source of hope and
humor for them. And it worked!
She's been doing that and I know there's
a lot of people benefiting from it. So
I'm going to give you that assignment. In
whatever way that you can do it, whether
it's sharing good news with people,
posting things, videos to laugh
at. We've all seen them. Funny memes. I know that
Beth Stern, who I follow on Instagram who
fosters cats and runs this
beautiful shelter essentially out of her
home where she's adopting out cats,
posted a funny graphic of the
toilet being closed because there was no
more toilet paper. And she put a litter
box on the top of the toilet and asked
people to use that and to be sure that
they covered up afterwards.
You know, just funny things like that.
Being a source of humor and hope for
people is your assignment. If you're out
at a park practicing good social
distancing, it's okay to wave, to
smile, to to be conscious of the good
news that's happening. The cleaner
waterway channels in Venice. A lot of
us have heard about that. The dolphins
that showed up there that haven't been
there in years. Just this morning I read a little piece
about how the United States, the air over
the United States is so much cleaner. And
of course, a lot of us heard
about China. That reminds me. There's a
wonderful resource. Terry, we can put this
in the resources. Optimist Daily. It's
a daily newsletter that I subscribe to, I
donate to every single month. They have
lots of great news about what's
happening. We'll put a link to that on
here as well. And every night on Instagram on my
Instagram, the username is @coachoncall,
I share one great thing that happened
today and I invite readers to share one
great thing that happened to them. And
just reading through the posts will give
you a sense of hope and community and
connection and sometimes humor. Just
really lovely stories. So however you can
do that, whether it's sending,
being focused on don't spread the bad
news. We all have enough of that and
people are checking the news enough as
it is, more than they need to. Be a Mayor
of Humor and Hope. Let's just say a Mayor
of Hope and you can share humor. You can
share good news. You can share one great
thing that happened to you and invite
others to share with you one great thing
that happened to them. Be a Mayor of
Hope for people. All right? Okay. So I'm
going to stop there and start to look
through your comments to see if there
are questions that you have or coaching
that I can hopefully support you with.
Heather says: Beautiful tulips by the way.
Yes, right here. Are they the ones you
bought from the florist? Yes.
So my local florist who I love, Jan Laurie,
she's like a one-woman show. And
so she happened to be able to get local
tulips and she's driving around
delivering them. And so I said to her:
Great! Tell me how many bunches I can get
and I sent some to friends and I sent
some to my mother-in-law. I would send
them to my mom if she wasn't so far away.
And I bought a bunch for the
house here. And there's, I don't know,
there's nothing like fresh flowers to
just make me feel a lot better. Okay. So
if you have any questions or you need support in some
way. So yes. Let's see. So for people with
sleep issues, I mentioned before Insight
Timer. Terry, maybe we could add that to
the list. Insight Timer is a free app
that you can download on your phone. They
have some wonderful sleep meditations.
I've used them in the beginning when I
would wake up in the middle of the night
and couldn't go back to sleep. I would do
a sleep meditation and it made a big
difference. That's one thing. Number two,
if you can start to go to bed a little
earlier and earlier. The wake-up hormones
begin to kick in for most of us around
midnight. So the later you go to sleep
the harder it is to stay asleep. So even
15 minutes earlier, earlier, earlier.
Keep bringing your going to bed
time a little earlier and that might
help. If you're waking up in the middle
of the night with thoughts racing in
your head, you could leave the bedroom
and maybe pick up the phone and do the
Tapping Session that we just did that
might help. You can also do this. Just tap
the collarbone spot while you're in bed
and repeat: Even though I can't sleep, I
love and accept myself anyway. Or
actually do this: Even though my
mind is busy, I choose to feel peaceful
and calm. Even though my mind is busy, I
choose to feel peaceful and calm. And
just keep Tapping. You can try that. Of
course, caffeine. Try to really limit that. Caffeine adds to anxiety, of
course, everybody, whether you think it
does or not. It's actually stimulating
the adrenal system. So if you are
drinking caffeine try to drink it
earlier in the day. And also try to
see if you can stop eating earlier in
the evening because once again if you're
eating just before you go to bed or if
you wake up and eat, what you're doing is
stimulating blood sugar in the body and
it's sort of lifting the body up at
a time when you want to
to be restful. So I hope that's
helpful. For those of you that
are feeling out of control, it's quite
normal right now. So once again, you can
tap: Even though I feel out of control, I
choose to feel peaceful and calm. Even
though I feel so out of control, even
though I feel trapped, I choose to feel
peaceful and calm. Just keep trying that.
Yes, and: Even though the old
trauma or the old loss of X, whatever it
is for you, is up for me right now, I
choose to feel peaceful and calm. You can
keep repeating that as well and that
will help. Let's see. Yes. Sunshine says:
What if you feel dizzy all the time due
to anxiety? Will the tapping help? Without
a doubt. Dizziness is a common symptom of
anxiety as is frequently going to the
bathroom, dry mouth.
Some of these symptoms you
were maybe not aware of if you've never
realized or if you've not
experienced anxiety in this way. So
dizziness, Sunshine, the minute the
dizziness kicks in I would drink a glass
of water to make sure that the body is
getting the hydration that it needs.
Really important. And also just sit down and close your eyes. Let
your brain start making alpha waves. That
will really help. Okay. Let me see what
else we have here.
Yeah. Gabriela says: I'm in France and the
Mayor of Hope would be from one and a
half meter distance from the balcony.
That's all right.
Figure out a way to do it. Look at all
the people that are singing from their
balconies. I have some friends
who if they sang from their balcony
people would be laughing. They would just
have the best time because some of them
are just really goofy and funny. And so
let's get creative. You are the Mayor of
Hope. We need you right now.
How are you going to do that? Maybe you
can send letters or emails to two people,
excuse me, two people who wouldn't expect
it. Or here's another idea.
Maybe you can call friends who know your
parents or know other friends and ask
them to call your parents or to call
other friends. Make connections
between people so that somebody receives
a call from someone that they didn't
expect and then it ends up being
really fun. Okay. Let's see.
Getting out walking, of course, is so, so
important. Oh thank you for, thank you for accepting
the assignment of being a Mayor
of Hope. This is great.
I see lots of you are going to be doing
that. That's wonderful.
Awesome. Let's see. Phillip says: Can we
talk about Tapping for strengthening the
immune system? What a great idea, Phillip.
Yes. First of all, I want you to know that
just Tapping to reduce anxiety
automatically strengthens the immune
system. Why? Because we have an emotional
immune system. It's kind of an early line
of defense. And when that emotional
immune system is hyped up,
it then causes the adrenal system's cortisol levels to
increase. And when cortisol levels
increase and the body goes into fight,
flight or freeze, it's taking resources
away from the physical immune system to
support the immediate threat. So just the
Tapping that we did here, Phillip, will
absolutely calm the energy field down,
calm the emotional immune system down.
And that will actually, and we know
there are scientific studies that show
this Tapping sequence that we did
actually, or Tapping itself, in general,
lowers cortisol levels. I mean, we know
that there's been plenty of studies that
have shown that cortisol levels decrease as a
result. I mean, you can feel that in your
body. If you're amped up and panicked,
I've been with people having
full-blown panic attacks and I've gotten
them to just tap with me and sometimes
I've just been right in front of them
Tapping for them. And I've watched them
go from heightened fight, flight or
freeze to completely peaceful and calm
just by tapping. So I know the cortisol
levels are dropping in the body, which is
great. Looking
for ways to help coach my daughter who's
a senior in high school and is, of course,
so upset about everything being canceled.
That's the sad part.
I know. Stacy, show her the Tapping
and actually have her go through it with
you. That will not only help her in that
moment, but this is a really beautiful
tool to use with kids, to
teach kids. Even young kids. Young kids
respond to this really, really well and
they think it's a game. They just sort of
play it. They have a lot of fun with it.
So I would definitely do that.
This is a time for us to teach. This
is a time for us to build resilience
muscles, to appreciate what we do have. I
was thinking that this morning as I was
walking around the house watering a few
plants. I thought, Wow, I'm so
grateful for my home. I'm grateful for my
flowers. I'm grateful for my, let's see,
this light here that came from a dear
friend of mine who died in the early 90s
and she left me some of her antiques. And
even when I was putting the light over
here I thought, Oh, I'm so grateful for
this lamp and the things that I
have in my home that make me feel
peaceful and calm and comforted. So
helping, Stacey, your daughter to focus on
what she feels grateful for. You can play
the game. All right, let's each come up with
10 things we're grateful for. And say
them out loud one at a time. That helps
to kind of shift her perspective even
just for the moment. Those of you who are
energy absorbers, empathic, sensitive, it
is imperative that you limit your
news consumption. If you have a friend
who isn't as affected by the state of
the world as you are emotionally, ask
them to keep you posted with only the
news you need to know. For example, my
assistant Lisa called me this morning
and said: Just want you to know that the
governor has made an announcement
that tomorrow all businesses that are
nonessential should be shut down at
noon time. Great. Now I knew what was
going on. I knew what I needed to do to
put some things in place. And I didn't
have to run into other news that I don't
want to see as a sensitive person. So I
think it's really important to limit
your news intake. To stay well
hydrated. I keep saying that. To get extra
rest, to be willing to nap during the day.
You know, a lot of people have taken this
time, especially people who are used to
being busy, sort of plunged into this
time being at home and use things like
cleaning and projects to manage their
anxiety. Nothing wrong with that.
There's nothing wrong with
that and some people actually crash
afterwards. All of a sudden it's like you
just get tired and you've got
to pace yourself so that you rest and
you do something. Yesterday, I was working
on the weekly blog and then I went and
did some laundry. Then I just vegged in
front of the TV and watched a
documentary. Then I went back to working
on the blog again. And then vacuumed my
office and then just hung out for a
little bit looking at the birds
at the bird feeder. By the way, getting a
bird feeder is also a really great thing
to do. My wonderful assistant Lisa gave
me a window bird feeder and she has one
in her office. And you can just attach it
to a window. You know, birds don't know what's going on. Trees
don't know what's going on. The squirrels
in my yard are just doing their thing,
they don't know what's going on. And when
I look at them and I see the birds
flying around or I see the squirrels
eating out of my feeder, which I'm happy
for them to do, I think there's
a way that all is right with the world.
Even though it doesn't feel that way and
it certainly isn't that way in terms of
how we're used to living. So yeah. So
Nicky, you need to really also limit your
interactions on social media.
Facebook is a wild, wild west. You
never know what you're going to see in
your timeline, right. Isn't that true? Same
thing with Instagram,
Twitter, or all of them. Become a
curator of peace. Let me write that down.
Become a curator
of peace, which means you are going to
look for things that make you feel
peaceful and calm. And you're going to
begin to eliminate things. There are a few
things on my Instagram feed that I just
stopped following because the risk of
seeing things that upset me was too high.
And I thought, you know what? I don't want
to do that. I want to be a curator of
peace and that's what I want for you. So
Nicky, you want to really, really pay
attention to that. Yeah. Melanie says: A
positive thing about what's happening is
that Mother Earth is healing with less
car exhaust and airplane fumes. That's so
true. Let me see. Yes. So Judy says: I feel
pressure in my chest and have trouble
taking in deep breaths. I'm not sick but
I recently had a panic attack with
symptoms like this. What can I do? Yes. So
Judy, that's what panic feels like. What
we start to do when we're panicking is
we stop breathing high in the chest. As a
matter of fact if all of us started
doing that rapidly for a while we would
start to increase cortisol levels in the
body. So here's the thing, Judy.
First of all, close your eyes because
your brain is going to start making alpha
waves whether you direct it to or not.
And then if you can slowly breathe in
through your nose and make sure, I'm
looking down, make sure that you can feel
your belly moving out. So bring your
breath all the way down to your belly so that
your chest is the last place to expand.
And then go like this. Breathe out pursing
your lips. So in through the nose so that
the belly expands and it moves up into
the chest and it expands and then you breathe
out pursing your lips. That forces you to
breathe out more slowly. And I can feel
it already. Automatically, Judy, the body
will start to calm down. If you have
someone in the home with you, if you're
living with someone, ask them to remind
you of this. Because when we get panicky,
we forget and we start grasping
for breath and it just contributes to
the panic. So breathe in slowly through
the nose, all the way down to the belly,
and then out pursing the lips very, very
slowly. And if you were to
imagine yourself as a giant thermometer
and the red line is up here because your
cortisol levels are elevated, just
breathing like that will automatically
begin to bring that red line of cortisol
down and you'll start to feel better.
Okay. Crying is a good thing, people.
Remember that it releases, it releases
energy, which is a good thing.
Thank you. Sidney, who's been teaching
Tapping since 2008, says: The point under
the arm is to support the immune system.
Great. So then maybe you want to just tap
there. And you can be saying: Even though
I
feel tired, I choose to believe that my
immune system. Let's do it this way. Even
though I feel anxious, I
choose to feel peaceful and calm. But
Tapping that spot will also help to
strengthen the immune system. That's
great, thank you for sharing that with me.
I appreciate it.
I'm glad you're all accepting the
assignment of being a Mayor of Hope.
Let's see. People limiting news, which is
great. Helping out neighbors. We
have a local Facebook group here where I
live and some people have needed toilet
paper, some people have needed food,
some people's elderly parents live here
but they're two hours away. And neighbors
are visiting them using proper social
distancing. The
amount of love that's out there. This is
why being a Mayor of Hope means you want
to share this kind of good news with
people. Let's see. Yeah. Carol
set up a texting chain with other single women
or widows to check in every day. That's
beautiful. I love that. Lots of great,
great examples and advice here online. So
please, please be sure to go back and
look through these comments. I
have really, really smart people in my
community, really loving, caring, smart
people who share lots of good
information. So yeah. I'm just looking to
see before we wrap up here if there are
any other questions. Okay. I think,
good. I'm glad the breathing tip helped,
Susan. Great. Okay. I'm going to wrap up here.
I've been here for, gosh
sorry, longer than I expected. I like to
try and keep them short, but we'll have
the timeline set up so you'll be able to
find the Tapping. You'll be able to find,
the resources will be listed here on the
things we talked about and I'll be back
here again as well. If you're not
subscribed to my weekly blog, please go
to CherylRichardson.com and subscribe
because I'll announce when I'm going to
be on. And yeah. In the meantime, take
good care of yourself. Remember the
Tapping. Remember the closing your eyes.
And be a beautiful Mayor of Hope, please.
All right. Tell us what you're doing. Let us know in the comments
section, let us know what happens as you
become this wonderful Mayor of Hope for
the world. All right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you
for being here with me and I will look
forward to talking with you again real
soon. Take care. Bye
