A couple of weeks ago, my son, Paul, who we call PT approached me with the news that there was an important aspect of homework that he had neglected to do over the Winter Break. It was a presentation, of all things. I was sitting in my office around 8:00 last night and he came to me and showed me a xeroxed copy of about 30 speeches on the subject of freedom. He said that he was not even sure what to do about the homework since he was not certain of what the directions were.
I looked at the pages and saw that he was supposed to take one of the speeches and memorize two paragraphs from one of them. I told him that and he started to panic. In fact, he started to freak out. On several occasions in the past, I had asked him if he would allow me to tap on him and he always refused thinking that it was too “weird.” I figured that I’d try and ask him again and lo and behold he said “Yes, Mom you can tap on me.” I’m so scared you can do anything to help me.
Well I started tapping on him and used set up statements like:
Even though I’m really scared and angry with myself for not doing this assignment, I am still a really cool kid
Even though I’m really pissed off and hate everyone and everything that contributed to making me forget about this assignment including me I still love and accept myself just the way that I am
Even though I am really worried that I will bomb out and get a bad grade on this assignment and it will mess up my English grade I still am a really good guy
Even though this is the stupidest thing that I’ve ever done by tapping on my body to feel differently I’m still a really great kid
Then I took him through several rounds of tapping acknowledging the fear he had, the anger and his feelings of being all alone since he chose not to get any friends phone numbers
As I released his fear around the project, I noticed that he cracked a smile and when I got to his armpit, even giggled. That’s when I remembered that he has an outstanding ability to memorize. I built that into the resources, using these phrases
Eye Brow: I’m a really lucky kid
Side of eye: It takes the average kid two weeks to memorize this stuff
Under eye: Lucky me. I know that I have a photographic memory
Under Nose: I can just read something and it automatically becomes a part of me
Chin: Oh man, I can do this
Collarbone: This is my moment to shine
I added other resources like role model speakers who he admires and we were off and runnning. Within about 3 minutes, he was ready to rock and roll. He was beaming, a huge smile on his face. He told me, “Mom, I can’t believe this stuff works.” I laughed and said, I know what you mean, this does look really weird but it works. It’s undeniable. It really works. I wouldn’t build my reputation on it and design a practice around it if I did not really believe that it works. He smiled and we high fived each other.
He said that he was ready to get started on the memorizing. I said that I’d run downstairs and get us both a glass of water. I dashed downstairs to the kitchen to get some water. By the time that I returned, he had a big smile on his face. He asked me to sit down and showed me that he had memorized both paragraphs. It was less than 5 minutes that I was gone. I was amazed at the transition of this boy. He had memorized both paragraphs with an 85% accuracy with spirit and pizzazz. I was completely awestruck at the ability to absorb the information with so little time. This experience was really a beautiful testament to the power of tapping with someone who was a total skeptic. Before this happened, my son would never let me touch him and made fun of me each time I showed his sister, Cara how to tap. He would always make a joke that “Mom’s a witch. There she goes again with that weird tapping.”
As a mother, I am thrilled that my son finally got a chance to see the miracle of this process and experienced the supreme ability to take control of his own feelings with a simple self administered process that he controls. It was a beautiful thing to see the lightbulb turn on in his eyes and see his realization that “this stuff works.”