Tuesday, June 18, 2013

TUESDAY TAP: Tapping and Prayer

I had a great conversation with a leader in the tapping community yesterday. She was gracious enough to give me 17 minutes of her time and expertise. It was an eye opening quarter hour, plus.
I have been trying to get a publisher to pick up my book on tapping prayer. Chalice Press gave it a couple of looks but ultimately decided it was too New Age for their company. I don’t know what that means because I don’t see tapping prayer as “new age.” “New,” I get...but “new age” always strikes me as being a departure from mainline Christianity. I see tapping prayer as a continuation of that story.
Anyway, through a series of emails I was able to connect up with Carol Tuttle (My Energy Profile)  yesterday. Thanks to Cassy Elliott from thetappingsolution.com for making that possible.
We began our conversation talking about the importance of honoring everyone’s foundational belief systems, and then moved on to the wisdom of self publishing and how to reach the widest audience. Carol has developed something called; Energy Profiling, and it helps people understand their most natural state in relationship with other people’s natural states. The upshot is that knowing our profile helps us live in greater harmony with one another...not a bad thing. I am new to energy profiling, but Carol seemed to think that I am a Type 1 personality. You can read a little about that on her website by clicking here.
As the conversation was winding down, Carol shared that she did not believe that tapping was a form of prayer. She experiences tapping as an tool in energy psychology that clears away past trauma or negative beliefs so that we can experience hope...which ultimately leads to faith.
I knew that our time was limited, so I didn’t try and explain how I DO believe that tapping is a form of prayer...but I have all the time I need in this blog, so here goes.
Throughout my life I have witnessed  lots of different models of prayer. From my earliest years when I would kneel by my bed and pray, “Now I lay me down to sleep...” to learning how to hold my hands for the Lord’s Prayer, I have been exposed to different postures for communicating with God. More recently I have heard of and seen people who use walking as a form of prayer, dancing as a form of prayer, gardening as a form of prayer...even reading the newspaper as a form of prayer! The means to reaching out to God and experiencing God reaching back are all about that...interacting with the Holy. They are ways of communicating our holiest concerns to the holiest of holies. No one way is better than the other. They are just different means to the end of being closer to God. They all have some sort of ritual attached to them. They all have some sort of intention attached to them. They are all not that different from tapping prayer.
Tapping prayer utilizes a ritual motion that comes out of energy psychology and imbues it with a holy intention.
When we practice tapping prayer, we are calling on God to connect to our concerns through pathways that have been shown to be conduits for spiritual energy. We are asking God to travel those paths and with a sacred memory of our hurts, bring peace to places that have been troubling us. We are acknowledging where we are with our distress before and after the prayer, and as we experience healing, we are responding with thanksgiving to the one who facilitates that peace.
If you would like to learn more about tapping prayer (or try it for yourself) check out my website at: www.tappingintoprayernow.org . If you have any questions about tapping prayer, click the Interact page and leave me a note. I will try and get back to you as soon as possible.
There are a variety of gifts of the Spirit, and I am glad to share tapping prayer as one of them.
Peace,

todd

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

TUESDAY TAP: prayer tapping on success

4 The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
   before you were born I set you apart;
   I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
6 “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
--Jeremiah 1

Like the prophets of God before and after him, young Jeremiah resisted success. He made excuses. He pointed out why God’s intention for him just wouldn’t work.
“I do not know how to speak.”
“I am too young.”
“I’m too old.”
“I haven’t done this before.”
“What if my friends stopped liking me?”
“Success would take time away from my family.”
“I might have to change my boundaries if everyone recognized me.”

There are a lot of reasons why we sabotage the success God has called us to. The main reason to pursue it anyway, is that God has called us to it!

Take a moment to think about your gifts and/or ideas. Which ones do you feel God calling you to share with the world? What are the external obstacles to letting others know about your dreams? What are the internal obstacles to letting others know about your calling? Write down the obstacles that you can identify, and give each one a SUD. If you are new to tapping prayer,

After you have assigned a SUD to your objections to success, try and remember a time from your childhood when that issue first became an issue..For example: If my obstacle is that “nobody will want to hear what I have to say.” I could remember a time from my childhood when I had something I thought was important to share, and the people around me either dismissed me, ignored me, or yelled at me for interrupting them. Those specific events create a pattern of response in our spirit that says, “What you have to say is not valuable, and if you try and share it you will be punished...or ridiculed...or feel lousy for having tried.” Can you see how that message could get in the way of a present day project?

Once you have found an event (it may not be THE EVENT, but it will lead you in that direction) apply a round of the basic recipe to the issue. When you are finished, take a deep breath and assess your SUD on the event. Note what has happened to your concern about the event. If a new event “pops up” take a moment to give it a SUD and go back to God for relief. Keep going until you experience a SUD of 0-2. Then, you’ll be ready for the success the Holy has in mind for you!

Tapping prayer sends God’s spirit to that painful moment (or moments) in your past and places a healing balm upon them.
Tapping prayer releases the discomfort of that childhood experience and liberates us to experience our dreams without all that negative baggage.
Tapping prayer unleashes the power of God’s call to pursue our dreams and make a difference.
Tapping prayer lightens us to experience the joy and peace of using our gifts, anyways.

I received the quote at the top of this post on our church facebook wall. I believe that tapping prayer around “success” can help you bring Paulo Coehlo’s words to life.
I look forward to reading about your success.
Keep on prayer tapping. Enjoy changing the world, like all of the other prophets who received God’s assurance for their lives. Remember: You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

Peace,
Todd