By Daniel J. Benor, MD

TWR can be incredibly helpful with emotional distress of all sorts. Countless people are reporting that it helps them clear their anxieties over minor and major life challenges, phobias, distress over disappointments, lingering grief and bereavement, residues of serious traumas and more.

When clearing emotional distress there are times when people may become tired or may feel close to being overwhelmed. The most direct way to deal with anxieties about being stressed by emotional releases is to put aside the issues one is working on temporarily, and shifting the TWR tapping focus to the meta-anxieties about the intensity of the emotional releases. Once these meta-anxieties are released, and a replacement positive for these is installed, the issues that provoked the anxieties can again be addressed.

An alternative is to shift one’s focus first to images of being in a safe, pleasant place. A place of safety can be built from memories of an actual place or purely from one’s imagination. Here are several examples:

‘Bob’ had suffered physical abuse from his alcoholic father in childhood. His place of safety was in his maternal grandparents’ home, where he had visited frequently as a child and where he felt safe because they were doting and warmly supportive, and because his father wasn’t there.

‘Rose’ built a magical imaginary garden that she could visit by tapping her heels together twice and wishing herself to be there. A good fairy awaited her there and would comfort her over any stress or distress.

My own place of safety is in a bubble under the waters by a coral shelf. I enjoy watching the colorful fish and the play of light on the water surface above, as well as in the play of shadows and light on the sandy sea floor. This is a place where I don’t bring my worries and where I simply enjoy the peace and quiet that surrounds me.

Here is an example of how a place of peace and quiet was helpful during an intense TWR session.

‘Laura’ was 32 when she started using TWR for repeated sexual abuse she had suffered from an uncle in childhood. He had threatened to kill her and her whole family if she ever told anyone about it. Her anxieties were very high as she started to release her memories and feelings about the abuse.

We paused and Laura shifted her focus to her place of peace: a meadow full of flowers that she had enjoyed visiting while on holiday with her parents. This enabled her to set aside her anxieties until she felt ready to return and address them.

When Laura felt calmer, she then shifted back to using TWR on her high meta-anxieties about the releasing of the painful and frightening memories.  Her uncle’s threats had terrified her when she was a child, and their intensity was at a 10 on a scale of 1 – 10 when she started to address them. After returning from her place of peace, they were down to an 8. Within minutes she was able to reduce these to zero with the TWR tapping, and to install and strengthen positive feelings of confidence and cognitions of competence to deal in present time with the memories of these threats and her childhood fears.

Your place of peace need not be solely a refuge from stress and distress. You are invited to visit there just for the sheer pleasure of its attractions!

You may reproduce all or parts of this article in your journal, magazine, ezine, blog or other web or paper publication on condition that you credit the source as follows: Copyright © 2008 Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABHM   All rights reserved. Original publication at WholisticHealingResearch.com where you will find many more related articles on this and similar subjects of wholistic healing.