What Are You Afraid Of?

Hi Creative Friends,

In the spirit of Halloween and in the spirit of my announcement yesterday that I am going to be doing a scary poetry reading on Thursday, I am going to talk about how you can use EFT to eliminate a fear of performing.

Let's use this poetry reading as an example. BTW, today I asked myself over and over if I was nervous and myself said "No." Funny, I keep waiting for the fear to well up but it just hasn't. Yay! So the EFT tapping that I did on this topic long ago is still holding.

Let's say that you think your poem is good enough to read. You have shared it with some trusted people who have given you positive feedback, but the idea of reading it in front of strangers is so scary just the thought makes your hands sweat and your stomach fill with butterflies. (So now we have physical evidence that you are afraid.) You could start there and tap that away.

The next thing I do is start listening to the internal critic, I call Blockhead. My blockhead is always full of helpful information that needs EFT. Suppose your blockhead says something like this:

Who do you think you are?

You'll just make a fool of yourself.

You don't know what you're doing

You're not a real poet.

I am afraid of being seen and heard.

You write out these negative beliefs with your version of what your Blockhead is saying in your head. Now you turn these into EFT statements and tap away the blocks to enjoying the experience of sharing your work and yourself with the world.

Even though my head says, "Who do I think I am," I love and accept myself.
Even though I'll just make a fool of myself, I love and accept myself anyway.
Even though I don't really know what I'm doing, I love and accept myself.
Even though, I am not a real poet, I love and accept myself anyway.
Even though I was always told I should be seen not heard and I am afraid of doing both, I love and accept myself anyway.

There are many more possibilities. Capturing what your blockhead is saying to you and tapping it away is a great way to get down and dirty with these outdated beliefs that are holding you back.

I hope this triggers ideas for you. If you used this material, will you share the outcome with me? How much do you listen to your blockhead?

Hugs,
Diana
Have a creative day!

Wow! Diana Takes a Giant Step

Hi Creative Friends,

I was going to title this post, "Diana takes a Leap," but I was afraid someone might misread it as, "Diana takes a leak," and that's not something I want to put out there in the universe for tomorrow night.

I am doing a poetry reading of my own poetry Thursday night at Waldo's Coffee House at 1030 Heights Blvd. in Houston, TX 77008 at 6:30 until 8:00 p.m. It is sponsored by the Women in the Visual and Literary Arts organization that I belong to. There are some very creative divas in this group. So I am thrilled to get to participate and act diva-ish too.

When I wrote the chairwoman of my intent to participate, I was making noises about being nervous and afraid because the topic is in the spirit of Halloween: What are you afraid of? Mostly I was just being clever because of the topic, but she was so kind in her reply to encourage me and tell me it would be alright, I could get through it.

If I did not know about EFT, this would be all the help I could count on. Positive self-talk. Not that there is any thing wrong with that, but we now have this new technique that can help "get through it" without the angst. And I vote for easy every time.

So many people list giving speeches as one of their biggest fears. If you had known me before I discovered EFT, you would know me for the big chicken I was when it came to sharing my work. The first time I read a paragraph of original work in a safe setting, my throat closed up and I had to get a drink of water before I could go forward, the fear was so great. I can to this day remember that I had the urge to cry and how my hands shook.

I have used EFT to overcome this crippling fear. The very idea that I am willing to stand in front of strangers and share this poem is amazing and life changing.

My goal for this blog and for Energizing Your Creativity, my business is to help other creative people have the experience of eliminating fear that keeps us from being who we really are in the world.

Life is miserable if you are someone who is creative and you make things that should be shared with the world and you can't because of fear. The inner critic, which I have named "Blockhead" tells us that nobody wants to hear what we have to say. We should be seen, not heard. We'd be better off not embarrassing ourselves. All that is hogwash, but it feels so real.

Come back tomorrow and I will post a list of EFT statements to use to help eliminate fear of sharing your work. It will also help me eliminate a few leftover fears that Blockhead has thought up since the last time I did this work.

If you don't know about EFT, be the first to write a comment to ask me for a session, and I will personally teach you if you will leave a way to contact you.

Have a creative day!
Hugs,
Diana