Release the Fear of Needles by Tapping on the Sternum Point
Today is the day. The dreaded day has arrived. No more procrastinating and stalling. It is the day I need to have my blood tests done!
For as long as I can remember since childhood, I had a fear of needles. I have no idea when this started although looking at my 6 year old who refuses to have his age 6 immunization top ups done šfor fear that it will hurt, I can only imagine it came from painful immunization injections.
As a child I remember (or my memory has been forged by constant retelling of the story by my mother) I had tonsillitis and had to have my tonsils removed. During this process I had to have an injection but I couldn't relax for fear of the injection that I squeezed my muscles so tight the needle broke...almost! My mother has an arsenal of such injection stories to add to any conversation...and ENDLESS arsenal.
Well, now I am an adult and have had my fair share of injections over the years but I have at least had some great experience on how to just get it over with. However, drawing blood is worse. Every time that vial bets removed and the new vial is inserted for more blood to be removed, the needle moves and it is painful. Many years ago, I had to have blood tests carried out and something must have gone wrong as my entire arm from wrist to shoulder was purple and bruised for days. As I am writing this I giggle at myself wondering it my memory of this event was very factual and if I saw these bruises now, will it be much smaller and more insignificant than my fear made it out to be. However, I will leave this analysis for another post.
Anyway so off I go, collecting all my 'brave' that I possibly can muster along the way to the chamber of torture (also called the Nurses Station or Pathology Department). I anxiously await my turn in the line of patients while filling out forms and paying the fees required. My turn arrives and I am guided to a seat while a nurse gets the vials and needles ready for action. I notice my body and mind activating and the symptoms of fight, flight or freeze becoming more noticeable. My heart starts beating faster, heat rising in my body, my muscles tense and my jaw tighten, I am sure I can even feel my pupils dilating at this point.
It is time for some EFT to help me relax into this process of taking blood and I am just looking for some quick relief right now so I start tapping on my Collarbone Point. After about 10 taps and already feeling a bit of a shift, I move to my Sternum Point. This point is amazing to release heavy negative emotions very quickly and boosts the immune system. This point is located about an inch below the notch of your neck and sits in the middle of your chest on the central meridian line.
So when tapping on the Sternum Point I identify the emotion I need to tap out of my system. It is useful to work your way back to identify what the emotion is behind what you experience so for anxiety about needing to draw blood for blood tests, I identify that the emotion behind the anxiety is actually fear. So I tap on the sternum point and while tapping (and tap rather hard to really get that energy moving quickly), I say (in this case where I am waiting for the nurse while she preps my arms and the injection tools, I think the words instead of verbalizing them):
Injections
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| Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay |
As a child I remember (or my memory has been forged by constant retelling of the story by my mother) I had tonsillitis and had to have my tonsils removed. During this process I had to have an injection but I couldn't relax for fear of the injection that I squeezed my muscles so tight the needle broke...almost! My mother has an arsenal of such injection stories to add to any conversation...and ENDLESS arsenal.
Drawing Blood
 |
| Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay |
Anyway so off I go, collecting all my 'brave' that I possibly can muster along the way to the chamber of torture (also called the Nurses Station or Pathology Department). I anxiously await my turn in the line of patients while filling out forms and paying the fees required. My turn arrives and I am guided to a seat while a nurse gets the vials and needles ready for action. I notice my body and mind activating and the symptoms of fight, flight or freeze becoming more noticeable. My heart starts beating faster, heat rising in my body, my muscles tense and my jaw tighten, I am sure I can even feel my pupils dilating at this point.
Quick Relief Acupoints
It is time for some EFT to help me relax into this process of taking blood and I am just looking for some quick relief right now so I start tapping on my Collarbone Point. After about 10 taps and already feeling a bit of a shift, I move to my Sternum Point. This point is amazing to release heavy negative emotions very quickly and boosts the immune system. This point is located about an inch below the notch of your neck and sits in the middle of your chest on the central meridian line.
So when tapping on the Sternum Point I identify the emotion I need to tap out of my system. It is useful to work your way back to identify what the emotion is behind what you experience so for anxiety about needing to draw blood for blood tests, I identify that the emotion behind the anxiety is actually fear. So I tap on the sternum point and while tapping (and tap rather hard to really get that energy moving quickly), I say (in this case where I am waiting for the nurse while she preps my arms and the injection tools, I think the words instead of verbalizing them):
- I now release all fear;
- I now release all fear;
- I now release all fear.
Once I finished this, we were ready for action. I was noticeably calmer and actually was able to watch the needle going through my skin into my arm and the blood filling a couple of vials and then the needle being removed from my arm. This is massive progress. I have never been able to watch the needle and always would look away. It still hurt but not as bad as it would have done, had my muscles been tense and my mind acutely aware of the sensations that I dislike.
Strangely enough, I have never actually used EFT on my fear of needles so I think it is time I do. In a future blog I will give you some tapping script examples and include some of the wording I have used once I complete my tapping on needles process on myself. You can use the examples and scripts as ideas and guides to help tapping on the issue for yourself.
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