“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, an no tonic as powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow.”
– Orison Swett Marden –

I wrote this article in 2011 (gosh, 14 years ago?!) and published it on my original website. That website sadly went to heaven about 8 years ago, so this article is seeing the light of day again, with a few edits to make it more current.

Fear of pain

I’ve feared pain and physical discomfort for as long as I can remember. Now that I know I’m an HSP and my nerve endings are just a tad more sensitive than those of many others, I do have more compassion for myself. And yet, I also wanted to point out that sometimes, we can get stuck in a “I am this way and I have to put up with it.”

It’s my intention, though, that this article give you ideas about what’s possible, even if you might think “This is the way I’m made.”

Because of this fear, I avoided going to the dentist and physical examinations where doctors have to use scary, cold instruments to peer into all sorts of uncomfortable places.

When I wrote this, I’d had stomach discomfort for a while. Even though I knew it would be better for me to have it checked out, I was too afraid to go. I wanted to avoid the discomfort or pain I might endure during the procedures.

EFT with no help

And yes — I had using EFT tapping for these fears up to this point. Now, 14 years after writing this article, I can report that one of the big missing ingredients was to go to a practitioner for help about this issue, and stop trying to heal it all by myself.

When I wrote this, my experience at the dentist was already a lot better than it used to be bfore all the tapping I’d one. Still, whenever I ended up on the dentist’s chair, my heart started beating like a train on a track from the mere thought of what was about to happen.

I must admit that the fear and trepidation was far, far worse than the actual experience. My heart was usually beating so loud and fast in my chest that I could hardly breathe.

One time I clearly remember clutching my hands together — with one hand I tightly gripped the other hand’s EFT points to relieve the anxiety while enduring the inevitable. Agony.

Laser treatments

In 2011, I had a series of laser treatments for hair removal, every 6 weeks.

Would you believe that the hair-chair looked exactly like that of a dentist’s chair? And of course, there was pain involved when the poor hairs were zapped with a red-hot flash of light.

I could sometimes smell the hairs being scorched. It’s a really unpleasant smell, which reminded me of when my dentist cauterised an inflamed gum. Ughh!

So even though I really wanted the laser treatments, it took courage and determination and trembling hands to go and sit in that chair.

My hands always started to tremble when I sat down, and the inevitable beating heart tried to get me to run for my life down the passage instead of sitting passively waiting for the pain to start.

New support: Matrix Reimprinting

Then, in March 2011, I attended a Matrix Reimprinting Course in South Africa with Karl Dawson (creator of this technique).

Back home with this new skill, I cleared (healed) 3 memories of childhood pain. One of them was quite early on (about 4 or 5 years old) and the other two as a teenager. As I worked on the memories, it became clear to me: they had left deeper scars than I was aware of. No wonder I feared pain.

The fascinating outcome

The next week I went back to the ‘torture chamber’ to have more hair zapped. It was exceptionally painful this time — the laser lady had to turn it down a notch. Apparently our bodies can respond differently due to hormone fluctuations.

As I walked back to the car, wondering whether this was really worth it, I thought, “I must be mad to want to torture myself like this”. And suddenly, another thought struck me…

Not once during this exceptionally painful experience did I feel anxious! My hands did not tremble beforehand like every other time, nor even during the treatment. My heart never started beating fast. I felt the pain ever so clearly. Even though I said a few choice words, there was absolutely no anxiety or fear involved.

Wow.

What a profound change!

I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was the few Matrix Reimprinting sessions that did the trick. This deep work had created a big change in my fear levels in a very short space of time.

I continue to be amazed at and grateful for the vast possibilities. I’m forever grateful to those below. They made available these empowering techniques and information.

• Gary Graig (creator of EFT),
• Bruce Lipton (author of Biology of Belief, talking about epigenetics),
• The Heartmath Institute and
• Karl Dawson (creator of Matrix Reimprinting — where he brought together EFT, Heartmath and epigenetics)

Change is possible, even if we think we’re stuck with something

What fear and anxiety are you putting up with? Is there a fear you have come to accept, painful as it is? What if it were possible to be free of that?