Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Brad Yates On EFT Tapping Into Your True Self EP 39

Episode Date: June 25, 2021

What is the key to tapping into your true self?  Thank you for listening to the Passion Struck podcast. In this powerful Momentum Friday Episode, John R. Miles interviews Brad Yates, who is one of the foremost experts on EFT tapping and the art of using emotional freedom techniques (EFT). We used this discussion to uncover how EFT tapping can help you overcome trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as helping you overall with your mental health. We explore how to use tapping and Brad does through with verbal and visual cues (if you want to check out the YouTube version) so that you can understand how to start tapping into your true self. Like this? Please subscribe, give me a 5-star rating, and join me on my new platform for unleashing peak performance: https://passionstruck.com/. Please share this podcast with others (thank you!), then visit https://passionstruck.com/coaching/ What is EFT? Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a form of counseling intervention that draws on various theories of alternative medicine – including acupuncture, neuro-linguistic programming, energy medicine, and Thought Field Therapy Please remember to take full responsibility for your own well-being - practice great self-care, and seek appropriate professional assistance as needed. I encourage you to take a look at this video as well: https://youtu.be/6Tx5eX2t7Ag Thank you. :) New Interviews with the World's GREATEST high achievers will be posted every Tuesday with a Momentum Friday inspirational message! Connect With Our Guest Brad Yates Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TapWithBrad Instagram: http://instagram.com/tapwithbrad Twitter: http://twitter.com/tapwithbrad Success Beyond Belief Newsletter: https://www.tapwithbrad.com Brad's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/eftwizard ENGAGE WITH JOHN R. MILES * Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles * Leave a comment, 5-star rating (please!) * Support me: https://johnrmiles.com * Twitter: https://twitter.com/Milesjohnr * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Johnrmiles.c0m​. * Medium: https://medium.com/@JohnRMiles​ * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john_r_miles   JOHN R. MILES * https://johnrmiles.com/my-story/ * Guides: https://johnrmiles.com/blog/ * Coaching: https://passionstruck.com/coaching/ * Speaking: https://johnrmiles.com/speaking-business-transformation/ * Gear: https://www.zazzle.com/store/passion_struck   PASSION STRUCK *Subscribe to Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-passion-struck-podcast/id1553279283 *Website: https://passionstruck.com/ *About: https://passionstruck.com/about-passionstruck-johnrmiles/ *Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast *LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/passionstruck *Blog: https://passionstruck.com/blog/  

One of the last videos that I released was about talking about mental health, because there is this stigma just in general in society, not just in the military. It could certainly be much more toxic in the military, because there is this machismo and this thought of, you know, there's something wrong with you. There's a group that I'm involved with who talk about mental health stigma. And they say, well, you know, people give the statistics that one in five people struggles with mental illness and their statement is, no, five in five people. It's like physical illness.

Everybody feels a little off. People get cold, people get, you know, have a sore muscle or something like that. Nobody is at 100% physical health all the time. Same is true with mental health. Hello visionaries, breeders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders of all types. Hi, my name is John Miles and I wanted to welcome you to this episode of the Passion Star Podcast, where it is my job to interview high achievers from all walks of life and unlock their secrets and lessons to become a passion star. The purpose of our show is to fervue the listener by giving you lessons, tools, and activities that you can use to achieve a passion driven life. Now let the journey begin.

Welcome to episode 39 of the Passion Strike Podcast and this very important momentum Friday message. Similar to last week, I am repurposing my solo episodes, given that it is post-traumatic stress disorder month, to focus these discussions on those who are out there were facing trauma, anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues in their life. And I was so excited that I was able to have Brad Yates come on the show, or he's going to talk to us about EFT or otherwise known as emotional freedom techniques and how they can be so applicable for anyone out there who is suffering from PTSD or other mental

illness that is impacting their life. I'm going to start out today's episode by giving you two quotes. First is from Gary Craig, the founder of the EFT movement who said, EFT is an emotional form of active hunter, except that we don't use needles. Instead, we tap with the fingertips, stimulate certain meridian energy points while the client is moving into the problem. And Dawson Church, the founder of the EFT universe, said, move confidently through your day in the secure knowledge that you are a child of the universe.

Full of joy, our creativity, and love. And I think those are both great starting points for today's episode, because in one I described what EFT is and then the other I described the connection that it has similar to an acupuncture to the universe all around us. And if that was going through today's episode Brad explained that as you're tapping you say a phrase. And that phrase typically goes something like this. Even though I have this fear or problem when served what it is, I deeply, and completely accept myself.

And I think that last part is the most important message for us to have today is for those of us who are facing mental illness, thanks such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, that we look at this as an opportunity to rewrite our self-narrative and to completely and ultimately accept ourselves. And that's exactly what Brad and I are going to talk to you about today. We're going to go through his journey where he started out as a drama student. The finding is calling in light purpose to help people through this EFT technique. We're going to discuss why it is

so difficult at times to regain that self-narrative of being kind to ourselves, but why it's so vitally important. We're also going to talk about some of the trauma that I've been through as it allows for us to have a different context for how I possibly could use BFT in my own life. And then most importantly, Brad goes through about a 20-minute segment of the show where he walks us step-by-step through BFT technique and how you can apply it in your own life. Now let me tell you a little bit more about today's guests. Brad Gates is known internationally for his creative and often humorous use of emotional freedom techniques called PFT. Brad is the author of the best selling book, The Wizard's Wish, no author of the best seller,

freedom at your fingertips, and a featured expert in the film It's Append solution. We have also been a presenter at a number of events including Jack Canfield's breakthrough to success had done Palace seminars with the secret stars Bob Dull and Dr. Joe Vitale and has been heard internationally on a number of internet radio talk shows. Brad also has over a thousand videos on YouTube that have been viewed over in astronomically high 33 million times. And more info about Brad is available in the show Let's become Passion Start. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ [♪ [♪ OUTRO MUSIC [♪ is studying to become a social worker. And she knows that I have gone through post-traumatic stress disorder in my past.

And given that it's post-traumatic stress disorder month that we're in, she happened to see a video that you did on a via about breaking free from trauma. And I wanted to tell you, it was such a great video that I immediately looked for you on LinkedIn and sent you a message straight away. So thank you for doing that.

Oh, my pleasure. And I meant to say it earlier, but I'd rather say it on video now. Thank you for your service. I'm greatly appreciative of the men and women who put themselves out there to keep us safe. Well, thank you. And in honor of PTSD Month,

I've been trying to do a number of shows relative to people who suffer from it including one that we have upcoming this week on veteran suicide and overall suicide and the length that they're finding to people who suffer from PTSD or who once have and how it can create as much as a 13 times greater chance of a person. So very happy to have you on today to help people better cope with Prama and also issues with their immune system, etc. showing that using this tapping work, emotional freedom techniques, or EFT that we're talking about, has been very effective with so many that's suffering from PTSD

and how going through a treatment with it has brought them down below the clinical evaluation for PTSD. So it's very promising. Well, that's great to hear. And I can't wait to explore more in today's episode. But I wanted to start out as I typically do in these shows with kind of unpacking a little bit of your journey for how you how you got to where you are today. And as I told you when we were talking beforehand, the latest episode I just released was with a gentleman named Nirbashan.

And Nir actually had a similar entry point to you. He started at the University of Southern California as a music major, and then eventually got a master's in film. And looking at your bio, I see that you started at University California Irving, if I'm correct, and got a degree in drama. So you kind of wanted to start there because it's very different, but probably helpful in what

you're doing today. So can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, certainly. Yes, the, the old question of how does a grown man find himself tapping on his face for a living? Especially if that's not what he went to college for. I, because that wasn't a thing when I went to college years ago, but I had planned to be an actor and had traveled the world doing theater, and then I came to Hollywood to be a movie star as one does. And while I was living in L.A., I met a woman fell in love and got married as one does. And when our first child was on the way, I realized I should probably have a backup job because I wasn't quite making it as a movie star yet.

And so I had always been fascinated with the power of the mind and I trained at the hypnotherapist. I saw an ad in the paper for hypnotherapy school and I thought, hey, that would be a really interesting career. So I started doing that. And for the next couple of years was still pursuing my acting career while doing hypnosis.

And after a couple of years, when our second child was on the way, I realized that as much as I loved acting, that doing personal development work was really my calling. It's really what I was meant to do. So we left Los Angeles and moved to the California to be closer to our parents. And through some other hypnotherapists

heard about this energy work and this conference where Gary Craig, the founder of VFT, was given a training. So I went and just found the process fascinating and started incorporating it into my hypnosis sessions. It's a little by little they became tapping sessions, a little bit of hypnosis at the end. And then as I was doing this, YouTube came along and I thought, hey, wouldn't it be cool if there was a tapping video that people could start their day with? And I'll call it tap of the morning. And that's all I ever intended to do. It was just that one video. And it was like six months later that I finally thought,

no, I should do a video for people to end their day. And I'll call it tap of the evening. And then another idea came and another idea. And now I have over 1,000 videos on YouTube. And it's interesting because I think one of the things that has made my video channel popular is because I had that background as an actor. So I was very comfortable being in front of the camera.

I'm performative in trying to make things entertaining and so while it's a big step away from what it seemed like my life was going towards, it absolutely incorporates all those years of training. Well, that is a great story. Going from film school to where you are. And I actually, as I was reading your bio, along that way, I heard that you actually had some parts in some different productions.

I'm not a doctor, but I played one on TV. I helped save Sammy's life on days of our lives. What was that experience like? It was it was fun. You know, some of it was fun. Then there are the soap operas are an interesting beast in terms of the whole federal world because you're creating, you know, like a movie, you may create two minutes of film in a full day of filming. In television, you may create

an hour of film over a period of a week. And in soap opera, you're creating an hour-long show every single day. So it's moving, moving, moving. But there was there was one day where all I did was adjust the blanket on on the patient. I said to someone, I can't believe I went to eight years of fake medical school for this. I must be the most useless doctor on television. But it was fun. There was always fun things. I got my first line in a film to Robert Downing, Jr. in Chaplin as a favor from Sir Richard Attenborough. I had some really amazing experiences and don't regret any of it. But much happier doing what I'm doing now because it's passions truck. I'm much more passionate about the work that I do now, as much as I love acting. And the next thing is always finding that opening.

And there are times where I say, hey, I'm open to the possibility that something may come along and will feel even more like what I'm supposed to do. But it's definitely where I've been guided to. Well, I have to go one more place with you before I'm gonna take you back to hypnosis. And given that I live in St. Petersburg, which is just a half an hour from Sarasota, I happen to see that you went to the other brothers,

Clown University, a place that I visited and as a kid went to the circus many, many times, but it's such a sad thing to see the end of the big top and the way that it was for so many many decades. Yeah, while I was in LA as an actor, I heard about the auditions for Clown College and you can just barely see it over there, the corner of my diploma,

which still proudly hangs on my wall, Bachelor of Fun Arts. And it's just, it's a seemed like, wow, this would be a really fascinating experience. And I was there, there was a four year period where clown college was being held in Baraboo, Wisconsin at the home of the Ringling Brothers at Circus World Museum. So I wasn't in Sarasota,

but I know that was the winter homes of the circus. And yeah, it's unfortunate that things happen and things move on. I was actually driving down the freeway last week and went by a big top and saw that it was Circus Fargus. So there are still circuses going on. Well, I have something to admit to you. Maybe a little bit Tim Ferris like here, but for a number of years, I gave Acro Yoga

or Acrobatics a try. It was a very interesting community because many of them might as well have performed in a circus. In fact, we would have these meetups in grass areas around where I lived and people would be doing everything from juggling to macro to almost doing type walking on bands to everything you could imagine. So it people would come and just watch because it kind of looked like a bit of a big tent. And partly. Still a circus, even if it's not under a tent. And definitely a younger person sport.

So don't know how Tim Ferriss still does it, but good for him. He is a unique entity. Gonna segue there to some more of the important topics. And I did want to start with hypnosis because that may be something that some of the watchers or listeners may be interested in before we get into tapping because I've heard that hypnosis can be used to help with smoking cessation and other habits. And I was hoping you could explore that a little bit and give your thoughts on what you've seen by doing the treatments. Absolutely and that's where hypnosis and EFT are similar in that they're both ways of

reprogramming the mind. So with hypnosis we take the mind into a more relaxed state, a more open state to where we are more able to look at change, because here's what happens. We get into a certain set way of being. And the body craves homeostasis. It wants to keep things the same, because even when things aren't ideal, they're familiar. So we might say, well, okay, my life is crap, but it was crap yesterday and I handled it. So I know that I can handle the crap. And so there's a part of us that goes into that fight or flight when we perceive threat, that part of the brain called the amygdala responds to that

threat and puts us into fight or flight. I'm sure that something you're very familiar with, and this is, and this is where PTSD comes in is because that part of the brain goes into such overload about that, that there becomes that hyperalertness and this feeling of, I can't afford to not be alert. And so we feel this, we sense this threat, and that can be a threat from an enemy outside, but can also be a threat from just the idea of change. So when we say, I want to make more money, I want to lose weight, I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to stop smoking, something inside of us perceives that as a threat.

So what are you trying to do? We've got this all set up, we know how to do this. Yeah, it's not ideal. Yeah, we know that if there are risks to smoking cigarettes, but there's risks to not smoking cigarettes at this point in time. And so we go into that fighter flight. So both hypnosis and the tapping calm down that response and give us that room to look at, okay, what's another way of handling this?

What's a healthier way of handling this so that we can make those positive changes? Can hypnosis, Ocel help with someone who's struggling with alcoholism to wean off of it? It's looking at what are those things that we're trying to soothe with the alcohol or the cigarettes or whatever other unhealthy behavior we might be engaging in and including keeping ourselves chronically under or unemployed. There are all kinds of different things over eating. These are all ways that we try to keep ourselves in a situation that feels normal and safe and sooth our anxiety or our stress and things like that.

So with hypnosis, we're able to calm down that stressful situation and then allow ourselves to look at what else can I do? What is a healthier way for me to take care of myself? Well, I'm going to give you a little bit of my background as we go into a deeper dive into EFT. As I talked to you before the show, I was a military veteran, had experienced physical assault trauma and then combat trauma and then more physical assault trauma. And then in my case, at that point in time, you really couldn't go get mental illness,

pulp, when you were in the military. And for me, there were a couple different factors to it. One was I had a very high security clearance through the NSA and was told that it would be revoked. They have demonstrated some of these things. It was also a stigma in the military By other peers if you were going and they found out and by your military command And I and that's something that I found not only in the military I also found it in the civilian world where people would look at people who have depression anxiety or other trauma and Look down upon them, because a lot of people, unless they've experienced, don't believe these things impact people the way

that they do. So, to be honest, with you, I struggled with this for literally decades, and I kept trying to self-absorb it, not even talking to, at that time, my spouse loved ones or anything. I didn't want anyone to understand, you know, the darkness that I was in. And so over time, you know, I didn't start out being depressed, but over time depression kicks in, you start losing your emotions and becoming emotionally numb. And for me, an event happened, unfortunately, in November of 2017, where I have always

been a person who has to work out. If I don't do it, my anxiety just goes off the rails. And I used to work out at Orange Theory, and this day I went in like I would any other day, had dropped my daughter off from school, and they had an electrical fire. And I remember being so upset about it because I was I wasn't going to get that jolt energy exertion that I needed. And I went home and I walked in the house and I noticed that there were a pair of workmen shoes in front of my stairs and they weren't mine. And so at the time I was renting and thought,

it was just a worker from my rental company. And so I started to shout out, heard no response and then went up the stairs to try to see what was going on. And as I ran the bend, there was an arm to sailant pointing me gun at me. And that trauma experienced not in the matter of, for the next 24 hours to several weeks,

I couldn't go back into my bedroom, I had to sleep on my couch. But over time, I found that I was trying to internalize this as well. And I reached, personally, a breaking point where it kind of just surfaced so much of the trauma that I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, et cetera. And so I have gone through now periods

of cognitive processing therapy and other therapies to try to deal with this. So when I heard about this, it's happened, and I'm sure there are other listeners, whether it's been sexual trauma, physical assault trauma, combat trauma, you name it, could benefit from this. And I was hoping I could benefit from as well.

So I wanted to give you that as a backdrop because I think it's important for you to understand that and to be vulnerable with you about that. And the hopes that my story will help others, you know, if they're dealing with the same thing, not ignore it like I did, but actively try to get therapy for it, because living in that, in that world of darkness and of self-blame is not the place I can tell you, you want to be. No, and not coincidentally, one of the last videos that I released was about talking about mental health because there is this stigma just in general in society, not just in

the military. It can certainly be much more toxic in the military because there is this muchismo and this thought of, you know, there's something wrong with you. There's a group that I'm involved with who talk about mental health stigma. And they say, well, you know, people give the statistics that one in five people struggles with mental illness. And their statement is, no, five in five people. It's like physical illness. Everybody feels a little off. People get cold, people get, you know, have a sore muscle or something like that. Nobody is at a hundred percent physical health all the time. Same is true with mental health. And but we have, we have these ideas we don't look at, we don't look down for the most part at people who have a physical illness.

It's like, oh, that person's got the flu. Oh, they're mentally weak or they're, they're son wrong. But we have all of this stuff about mental unhealth. And when it gets to that place where it's a disorder. And part of, and for the most part, it's about fear. Because we have the stories of, oh well, people were hurt, you know, so many people were hurt by somebody who had mental illness.

And so we have this identification of, oh, people who are mentally ill are dangerous in a threat to society. And so anything that has to do with mental illness is to be shunned. And so we can't talk about it. And so I greatly appreciate you being willing to talk about it because that is what normalizes

the conversations that people can say, you know what, I'm a little off today. I'm feeling a little depression today without feeling like, oh, if I say that people will classify me as manically depressive and therefore should be locked up or put on heavy meds or something like that. And it's just allowing ourselves to look at that and be accepting of that so that people can get the help. And it's beneficial because if you have all the people in the military pretending that

it's not there, you don't have the most effective force. You want people on their best game and that have the most effective force. You want people on their best game and that we limit our ability to do our best in whatever we're doing by trying to deny this and then self-medicating in whatever way we are. Yes. Well, in my opinion, to be combat effective means that you have to be well physically and mentally. Yes. And you don't want to go into battle and be in the fossil with someone who's not mentally there and ready to fight. It can be even more dehabilitating than someone who might have a physical injury. And I'll tell you a staggering statistic to put this in perspective. I recently interviewed my Naval Academy classmate, he's a Marine officer, Charles Smith,

and he did a TED talk that's now been viewed by over 2 million people on the growing rise of veteran suicides. And in our discussion, he unveiled a statistic that just blew me away. And these figures were verified by Ted Talk because they won't let you on the show unless they can verify the content you're providing. And he found that from the period of September 11th until now, so this war on terror, there

have been somewhere in the neighborhood of about 5,500 lives lost in combat. And during that same period of time, they were able to pinpoint that there have been 115,000 veteran deaths. So almost 20 veterans are dying by suicide compared to everyone that's dying in combat. And then research did even further, and that doesn't include active military members who've taken their lives, which accounted for another 38,000 during that period of time. Yet, as you're saying and talking about it, it's something that no one appears to want to deal with. And it has to be dealt with in both of our Chuck and my opinion at the highest levels.

And one of the ways I thought you could do with it by making a mandate that everyone has to go through regular mental health checks and that it is an accepted reality that if you're in combat, especially if you're doing multiple tours, or if you're in combat, especially if you're doing multiple tours, or if you're a first responder, or an IC uners, or whatever it may be, that you are going to come into situations that are going to cause you to have greater mental health issues

because of the job and perils of it that you have. And for me, it's just such a tragedy that we're not doing enough to address this, and so many are people are impacted. And that was the primary reason and backdrop for why I started Passionstruck and maybe why you got into tapping because I am trying to help what I call the Bruce battered, broken, and bored of the world regain themselves and the passion that they can have. Because if you've got mental trauma and illness, there's no way you can perform to the top of your capabilities. You just can't do it because your mind is constantly focused on the

demons that you have inside and other things going on. So I think exactly what you're saying is point on. And it's recognizing what you're saying is point on. And it's recognizing that we're all susceptible to that. Well, we only put people into active combat who are not susceptible to bullets. We only take people who are bulletproof, which would be wonderful if people were, but unless you are impervious to harm, unless you're

impervious to being your physical by being damaged, we're not going to have you. Because obviously we know that we are, and obviously in the military, build up as strong as possible, but the human body is not impervious to damage. And the human mind is not. And we can certainly build resilience. But it's understanding that it's not a weakness. If somebody gets shot in the leg and goes down, we don't say, oh, come on, just walk it off. And so it's recognizing that. And this yeah, and this is, and that's then having the tools, just as in combat, you have the medic, you have somebody who can take care of those physical things. It's having tools to be able to deal with the mental stress and the emotional damage that can occur so that

we build resilience. Yeah, that's a great point. I was talking to someone earlier and I was tell her how difficult it is for me sometimes to do these discussions because it's not easy being in front of a camera. And I showed her a YouTube video because she asked me, do you have one of me publicly speaking? And it was one of me with Salesforce.com founder, Mark Beningoff, speaking to thousands of people in Paris, and it was around 2009, and I detest this video because I'm about 35 pounds heavier than I am now, but she said, you know, you should absolutely use that video because I love it because if you look at that video, were you happy? No.

Were you focused on your health and wellness? No. Were you good mentally? No. And to me, her point was loud and clear. And that is we can transform. But it's only when you start making that choice and doing the work to do something different that you're going to change anything about yourself, which is exactly

I think what you teach your students as well. Yeah, valuing yourself, acknowledging how awesome you are and then treating yourself that way. And yeah, we can look at ourselves at different times and say, I'm obviously not, I obviously wasn't thinking of myself as awesome at that point. And from that place, the more we acknowledge our awesomeness, the better we take care of ourselves, but also the more willing we are to share our gifts and talents with the world

and make the positive difference that we can make. Did you know that Forbes Magazine recently cited that 70% of individuals who do personal development masterminds and one-on-one coaching benefited from better work performance, increased communication skills, and overall better relationships? And we at PassionStruck are obsessed with self-development, coaching, and mentorship. That is why we've created a free resource to help you unlock your hidden potential. Because people doing great things in business and life

are just like you, only they've had a coach along the way. And we've got that covered too. Let us show you the systems and frameworks that we teach, both minded individuals, help them step into their sharp edges, execute on their passion journeys, and get predictable results time and time again. Go to passionstruck.com slash coaching right now, and let's get igniting.

I just came through a training program with Florida State University, and while we were going through this entrepreneurial program, each session was started by Lady Debbie Lundberg. And when I first heard, she was going to do these sessions, I was like, this is a bunch of BS, because they said she was a kindness coach. And I said, what the heck is a kindness coach?

But as I got further into it, it was one of the more valuable things that I've experienced recently because she has this framework and it starts with, you can't serve and be kind to others unless you're kind to yourself first. Amen. So she took us through all these exercises where you had each week to be kind to other narrative and be happy with who you are. Love yourself regardless of whatever you've been through. You're not going to be able to take the strides that you want in life. And one thing is for sure, as I've worked with more and more people, the point that they become successful is when they stop serving themselves

and their own ego and being a showman and start focusing on helping others. And I'm sure you've seen that as well. Absolutely. I think that we are ultimately here to be of service to each other, but at the same time, or and at the same time, to ourselves. It's not about being absolutely altruistic. And even when we're doing things that are altruistic, it's because we have belief sane, this is how I take care of myself. So there's no completely altruistic act because no matter how self-sacrificing we are, it's

because I feel like I'm a good person if I'm being self-sacrificing. And so that's benefiting us. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's not a judgment for anyone who's hearing that is, oh, I think on myself is altruistic. It's not you're not bad or wrong or selfish. That you're not 100% altruistic. It's human nature because we're designed to also preserve ourselves. And that's important. It's just like when you get on the plane and they say, put oxygen mask on your own face first because if you don't take care of you You're not gonna be around to take care of anybody else So it's a win-win situation and and we need to give and we need to receive So it's allowing ourselves to do that and yeah self-love is is so important and if we don't love ourselves We limit how much love we can share with others

So it's really important as as you said, to unconditionally love ourselves, even with all of the things that have happened to us and all of the things that we have done to be able to say, I'm still worthy and deserving of love. And it's so amazing for me that the people I've had an opportunity to already interview with on this podcast, how many of them, that was the first step.

And unfortunately, for some, it took having a major event, such as cancer or stroke or something like that. And for others, they kind of just woke up and made a decision, but either way, I think so many of us hide this self narrative that is really how we feel, which is an highly negative perception of who we are,

and that's what leads us to pursue these things in our lives that are so unhealthy, instead of taking the time, which is becoming more and more difficult with all those distractions around us, to do the work that it really takes, to truly understand herself, and to reach that point where we accept our self-narrative and don't dwell on the past, but look towards the future. So I try to make these short videos between five and 10 minutes. It's just something. To me, it's energy hygiene.

So we have physical hygiene, like brushing our teeth and taking showers. And most of us do it on a regular basis. We don't wait until we need it. You know, we don't look at them at our teeth in the morning and say, oh, there's nothing green growing between my teeth. I don't need to brush my teeth today. You know, no one's holding their nose around me. I don't need to take a shower yet. We do it as an upkeep. But because we know that dirt fills grows. It compounds until it ends. So we need to maintain it.

Same with stress, especially in this day and age, where we're walking around with cell phones that are constantly saying, hey, here's something to be upset about. So we are bombarded with this. And we always have at least an ambient level of stress if not outright horrible stress. And most of us don't have any way of dealing with that,

or the ways that we have dealing with it are really unhealthy. That's why I love tapping because it's so simple. It's such a simple way of down-regulating the stress response. I mean, there's all kinds of benefits that we're finding from tapping, including how it enhances positive gene expression. And, I mean, there's all kinds of subtle benefits that we're learning. But the main thing is that it downregates the stress response. It calms down that fight or flight response in our mind and in our body.

So that it's a very simple way of dealing with the anxiety that can come up from the obvious things in our lives, from past things, from future things we're afraid of, and just the things that we're hearing about. We hear about somebody else's stress, and we have a stress response ourselves. And so having this simple technique of using our fingertips to tap on getting acupuncture is I'd rather go to the dentist 20 times than have to go to the acupuncture at once. It just seems like torture to me. But as I was reading about EFT, it seems that many of the points that you use in EFT are similar to the trigger points that you would use. And some of the reading I did can actually replace what you're doing in an acupuncture second.

Yeah, we are using the same points. And so rather than using a needle to stimulate these points and these are real points, these are points you can measure with a galvanometer. They're points on the body that have lower electrical resistance than other points. So, you know, we can scientifically verify that there's something about these parts of the body as opposed to just any part of the body, although there are acupuncture points all around the body. And so rather than sticking needles in them, we're just stimulating that same area

with our fingertips and gently tapping on those points. And that comes down, that that's stress response. It balances our energy in a much more positive way. So for the listener who's out there because the viewers are going to be able to see it, can you describe throughout your body kind of where these points are and what makes them so meaningful? All of the points that are used are correspond to points on the meridians. So in acupuncture, for thousands of years, they've been saying there is this flow of energy through the body along these pathways, just like we have the blood runs through our veins and arteries. Energy flows through these meridians and the different meridians correspond to different organs in the body, and those organs

tend to correspond to different emotions. So there are some practices that will tap particular points in order to stimulate that meridian and deal with that particular motion. And the origin, the original process called Thought Field Therapies used specific points for specific issues. Then when Gary Craig came along thinking like an engineer, he was like, well, let's simplify this. Let's use these eight major points

and we'll just tap them in a row. And then we don't have to worry about which point is necessary for which issue. We're discovering all the bases. It's okay if we tap a point that's not necessary. It's not harmful if you want to go in and get something fixed in your car and you weren't sure what it is. And it didn't take any more time or money to just replace everything in the car.

Then why wouldn't you just do that? It's like, we're not, we don't think it's the radiator belt, but let's just replace that anyway. And so that's what we're doing with it with tap and is just going and covering all the bases. So the basic process is you you look at what's bothering you in the moment. So for instance, let's say you're really angry at a friend. Bob has done something just really bonehead mistake and you're feeling this anger. And so we'd say, okay, I'm really angry at Bob on a scale is your to 10. How strong is it? It's an eight. He was a real jerk. And then we'd say, where in your body do you feel it? I feel it in my in my shoulders. I

get really tense in my shoulders. So we would start by tapping on the side of our hand. So we tap with the index and middle finger, with the finger tips. So we take care of that. And why do you use those two fingers? Just, there are, there are acupuncture points in the fingers. And so to, to be able to stimulate that area, and you can use more fingers, the two fingers tends to just cover that area

because with an acupuncture needle, you're very specific in where you're going. With the fingertips, it just covers a larger area and so it makes sure that we're stimulating around that point. And there are people who have used other things, but because there are acupuncture points in the fingers as well, when we're tapping these points, then we're getting double duty and we're stimulating more areas. So the first place we started on is the side of the opposite hand. So right between the wrist and pinky and that's a spot that is called triple warmer and it's not gonna do it. I'm gonna do it with you. Yeah, excellent

And I encourage other folks watching or listening to go ahead and do it. So we generally tap there and we start off by saying, even though I have this issue, so even though I'm angry at Bob, I choose to love and accept myself. And we'll repeat that three times. We'll just creating this level of self acceptance because there's a part of us that says, in order to protect myself, I need to be angry at Bob. Because if I don't get angry at Bob, then I'll be walked all over or whatever it might be, I will be harmed in some way. So I have, my programming has told me that anger is the necessary

and appropriate response. So I'm saying, even though I have this anger, I love and accept myself. The next point we're going to tap is right at the beginning of your eyebrow. So right, right near the center of your face. And generally we tap these points between five and ten times, but it's not an exact science. And we would repeat the issue, this angry Bob. And we say it out loud because that keeps us emotionally engaged so that we know where

it is causing us the stress. And then we can calm that down. And the tapping is like cutting the wires So like if you're at work and you come out of a heated meeting and you're stressed out about it or your medical professional and The patient's late or you've got a very difficult patient that just totally is thrown you off These are something that you can do very quickly to offset that. Anytime your experiencing stress, and anytime I feel a little bit off, I'll start tapping.

Yeah, it'll start to calm down. Sometimes it's very quick. Sometimes it's a little more gradual, but just the physical act of tapping on these points is gonna start to down-regulate that stress because in most of these situations, we're going into that fight or flight response. Now, if you're in combat,

that might be an appropriate response. You know, when this system in our brain, the sympathetic nervous system was developed in our brain thousands of years ago, hundreds of thousands of years ago, we were engaged in life-threatening situations more often. But your client showing up late is not a life-threatening situation. And so your body is going into a harmful state, because we're pumping cortisol, which is great if we need that to escape a dangerous situation. But otherwise, it hampers the immune system, it makes it difficult

to digest food, and so we gain weight. There are a number of harmful effects of having cortisol that's not necessary in the body. And that's one of the great things is that modern research has shown us that the tapping process dramatically lowers the cortisol in the body. So we have scientific evidence that this is downregulating the stress. Okay, so for someone like me and I have both night terror and at times I can have day terror as well. I'll be in the middle of a conversation and then I will tune out, but my mind is focusing something triggers a traumatic moment to happen.

And then I kind of zone out and you might be talking to me. My girlfriend hates it because she'd be talking me for five minutes and I'm looking at her but I don't have a clue as to what she's saying. How can you use something like this to bring back into the moment and get yourself out of that situation? Because you were trying to escape a situation that doesn't feel safe.

And it may not be what your girlfriend is saying. It's just that whatever thoughts might have, whatever thought has been triggered. And there's a part of you that is trying to escape. And so the tapping allows us to calm down and say, OK, it's safe. It expedites the Paris sympathetic nervous system. So the sympathetic nervous system is when we respond to a threat and go into fight or flight. The Paris sympathetic nervous system is the process by which we say, okay, all clear, and we're able to calm down. And so the tapping allows us to get back there and go, okay, whatever is going on,

whatever is triggering this response, I'm okay. I'm okay right now. And for those who aren't watching, and if you are listening to this, it will be posted on YouTube. And the part that we talk about, EFT actually starts somewhere around the 45 minutes spot. But I've been watching Brad throughout tap just it seems just around you're between your just the color. So it's the collarbone. So so you're

quickly take you through the the eight main points we go through. So the first is the eyebrow point. So right to begin of your eyebrow right in the center of your face. When you fall your eyebrow out to the side of your eye, so the corner of your eye socket. It doesn't matter which eye. No. And the meridians run up and down both sides of the body. A lot of people tap both sides at the same time. I tend to tap with my right hand in the videos because I'm a trained film actor and covering your face while tapping is not good film technique. So I just use one hand on the side. So then the corner of the eye, then right under the middle of your eye, just above your cheek, then right under your nose, just above your upper lip,

then right below your lower lip, just above your chin. The next point is your collarbone point. So if you feel your collarbones just about come together, there's a little bit of a U shape at the base of your throat. And you can actually use more fingers to cover a larger area there. And some people use a fist to tap right where the collarbone is just about come together.

Next point is about four inches below your armpit. Try about a bra strap level, and even us guys can figure out where that is. And finally, the top of the head. So use all of your fingertips, just tapping around the crown of your head. And so as you're doing all of this, what is bothering you, you want to keep repeating? Right. And if you're in a really stressed situation, probably don't need to say anything

because your body is like totally aware. If I'm really angry at Bob, I don't need to say I'm angry at Bob. I know I am really angry at Bob. I can see a Bob's face in my head. So, but in general, it is best if we can repeat this angry a pop, this angry a pop. Now, the way I do EFT, it's an intuitive process and I'll start to explore and I'll say different things in order to explore what might be behind the upset and why we might be hanging onto it. But just the tapping on its own will downregulate stress. So if you're in a situation where you can't say anything out loud, like maybe you're on a phone call with somebody who is upsetting you, that's a great time to start tapping before you do or say something that you're going to regret. I just have to calm down and go, okay, this person's having a bad day. This is not about me.

This is not a judgment of my worthiness that this person is behaving the way they are. And whatever, whatever might be causing the stress, I'm just going to allow myself to start calming down so that I can handle the situation in the best way possible. This is why in the military, you go through so much training to be able to handle this stress. I forget the quote about, let's use, I think it's primarily in the Navy SEALs. You don't rise to the level of your ability,

you fall to the level of your training. And so it's allowing yourself to be so well trained that in that situation, you don't freak out and you just naturally respond in the way that you've been trained as the best way. Well, for most of us, we've been raised by people who are not perfect. And so our level of training is often not helpful. It may be from our parents, and maybe from what we saw on television or got from teachers or wherever. And so we have all of this unfortunate training about how, you know, when you need to take a break,

smoke a cigarette or have a drink or whatever. And so in that moment of stress, we're looking for those behaviors that we have learned that are our training. We are more highly trained than a navy seal in terms of, you know, so many of our unfortunate behaviors, but it's trying to deal with a stress response and trying to protect ourselves. And so having a simple tool like tapping, and that's why I was doing the de-taping on the collarbone. As you were telling the stories, and I had forgotten that

there are people who are going to hear this that won't be able to see what's going on. But as you were telling the statistics from your buddy Chuck, and so I tapping for myself and also because everything is energy and we're all connected, surrogate tapping for you and anyone else listening to try to down-regulate stress there

so that we can be in a place of rather than just going into a place of upset saying, okay, what can I do about this? I want to be in a place where I have I'm so clear that I look at this and go, what can I do? And if we can do nothing else, just allowing ourselves to deal with our stress will be helpful to the world at large. deal with our stress will be helpful to the world at large. And the more people who are doing this, then the world becomes a calmer place. And we are able to handle situations in much healthier and happier ways.

And is there any similarities between having for pain and how you can use acupuncture if you've got chronic pain or pain points. Can EFT help with people who are facing chronic pain situations? Yeah, there are a lot of great case studies of dealing with chronic pain and research being done on that. Again, we're using this the same system and we're not, it's not 100% clear on what the exact mechanism is because it seems to work on a number of different systems. You know, I in acupuncture for thousands of years, it was based on this idea of energy flowing through the body. we know about the adrenal glands and then the sympathetic nervous system. We know about the vagus nerve and the polyvagal system and how that regulates emotion and how emotion affects our body because, you know, mind body are connected and our feelings aren't just things we're

thinking about. So, it's, we feel in our body and most, if not all of the issues that trouble us are either caused by or worsened by stress. So even if tapping was only a stress relief technique, so much of the pain, the physical pain that we experience is aggravated by stress. So by calming down the stress response, we are going to naturally be calming down the pain experience. I will have to research that more because unfortunately I deal with chronic pain as well, which is why even more than the mental health reasons,

the doctors and physical therapists want me to do acupuncture to try to help with pain points. And then I'll do some... We can also clear the fear of needles. Even though needles stress me out, tap, tap, tap. Yes. Yeah, the funniest, funniest things, stress different people out. And then the last thing I wanted to cover before we go is you also

talked about how EFT can help with your immune system. And I wanted to understand that just in a little bit more detail. Because when we experience stress, that compromises our immune system. When we go into fight or flight, when we have cortisol going through our body, that that compromises our immune system. So as we allow ourselves to calm down, we give our body the freedom to do what it needs to do. Our body has remarkable healing abilities. It has a powerful immune system. And so there are various things that can compromise that, and some people have stronger immune systems than others. But stress is definitely one of those things that can compromise anybody's immune system. So by doing the tapping, we are able to get into that calmer place where our body has

the freedom to function in a much healthier way. And is this something that if you did it in a routine before you went to bed, might help you sleep better as well? Absolutely. might help you sleep better as well. Absolutely, because one of the things that hamper's our sleep is anxious thoughts and this disturbance in our body that we're telling ourselves it's time to relax and our body mind is saying, are you kidding me?

We can't relax now, we have to be worried about this and there's that and this. And so a lot of people use tapping as a way of calming down the system so that we can find it much easier to sleep. And also if we wake up in the middle of the night to then say, all right, something's going on and I'm going to address this such that we can calm down again. And I have videos covering almost all of these issues. And I have videos covering almost all of these issues. Go into YouTube and type in EFT for sleep, for insomnia, for chronic pain, for anxiety, and you'll find videos by myself and by colleagues of mine.

Okay, and Brad, I always like to give the guests an opportunity to tell the listener or watch her where they can locate you. So I'm gonna put this in the show notes, but can you give yourself a couple shout outs? Thank you. Yeah, you can find me at my website tapwithbrad.com. And it's the same on social media, on YouTube, tap with Brad, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

So, and then you'll find these resources, links to thousands of videos, or not thousands, but over a thousand videos on all kinds of issues that might be stressful, and how to calm that down, and give yourself the freedom to feel better, do better, and live better. Okay, and my final question for you is for those listeners who might have children, I understand you're the author of a children's book called The Wizards Wish, and I was just

hoping you could tell the listeners kind of a plot of that book. That was, yeah, that came out of doing the film, the tapping solution, and we were talking about tapping, about how when we're tapping with adults, so many of the issues that stop us as adults happen as children, I thought, fully I could find a fun way to introduce tapping to kids. And having my own kids, I thought, well, we always loved to read them stories. So if there's a storybook way, so it's the story of a wizard who discovers a way to help the villagers with these yucky's, these uncomfortable things that are happening to them and finds that by tapping with his wand on different

places, he helps the yucky's go away and then discovers that since not everybody has a magic wand, that their fingers will work as magic wands as well. Great for the listeners. A great way to teach children and this technique early on, something that they could use their entire life to help with them is because Lord knows having two kids myself, there were many situations in middle school and high school

that they face a lot of more anxiety than I think we faced when we were growing up. The world is a more stressful place because we're more aware. It's we're constantly being bombarded with stressful messages that we used to be blissfully unaware of. Well, Brad, I absolutely loved having you on the show and I think that guests are gonna truly get so much

information from you. It's probably one of the most helpful sessions I've ever done on the podcast. So thank you so much for coming on and I hope our paths will cross again in the future. Well, thank you, John. I greatly appreciate what you're doing. I greatly admire how you have transformed your own personal challenges to do something really positive. And I greatly appreciate this opportunity to share this work because I know how beneficial it can be to others. And I'm very appreciative of everyone who's willing to listen or watch and try this out as a way of setting yourself free to be of greater service to yourself and others.

Thank you so much again. And I will definitely go and check out your YouTube channel. What a fantastic interview that was with Radgates. Probably one of my most favorite ones I've had on the show because he gave such useful information that you can take action on right now in your life. And during today's episode, I also talked about an important episode that we released just a week ago

where I interviewed my Naval Academy friend and classmate Charles P. Smith on the rising importance of us dealing with suicides with veterans in the military and in the general population. And if you haven't listened to that, Chuck did a TED Talk on veteran suicides that has been watched by over two million people today.

And he and I interview used PassionStruck as a platform where we can give a voice to the voiceless. And in our discussion, we go over the rising number of suicides that are happening up 47% since 2005 and why it is such an imperative movement that all levels of the government need to take on, and we need to take on in our local communities as well. And I have also some outstanding guests that are coming on the show, including Steph Lee, who's going to talk about when she was 31, suffering a very rare disease,

and how over the past seven plus years, that disease has allowed her to completely rewrite her life and the way she lives it. And I also have Australian trap bell on the show. Otherwise known as the bucket list, it gives a great interview about how not only you can break your bucket list, but how you can live them. And then in the near future, a long-term friend of mine, Jason Kubinsky, asked me to do some episodes that after this month of PTSD awareness is done, I'm going to do on ego and humility,

which are both becoming major contagions throughout all society. I also wanted to give you all a huge shout out. Because of you, we have now had over 42,000 downloads of the podcast and are now over 110,000 views on the YouTube channel, which means that in just a few months, we have already touched 150,000 lives with the content from the show. Thank you so much for helping me make Passion Go viral.

And remember, if you love this episode and you've got some friends who may be suffering a mental illness, may have PTSD for our growth seekers, please send them a link. I would so much appreciate it because our purpose with this show is to help people by giving them information, tools, and actions that they can take to light that passionate drive to change the course of their life and to live to their full capabilities. Remember, make a choice or card instead of

your sharp edges. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make passion go viral. for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make Passion Go viral. And we do that by sharing with you the knowledge and skills that you need to unlock your hidden potential. If you want to hear more, please subscribe to the Passion Start podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast ad. And if you absolutely love this episode, we'd appreciate a five star rating on iTunes, and you sharing it with three of your most growth-minded friends, so they can post it as well to their social accounts and help us grow our passion start community. If you'd like to learn more about the show and our mission, you can go to passionstruck.com where you can sign up for our newsletter, look at our tools, and also download the show notes for today's episode.

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