Your Soreness May Not Be What You Think It Is!

By Stacey Vornbrock

One of the biggest challenges I’ve had with athletes is getting them to look at a sore part of their body in a whole new way and then tap for that. Athletes are so conditioned to think that if some part of their body is sore, it’s because they were over-using that part of the body either in competition or practice. (I’m not talking about soreness that accompanies a real injury or after workouts.)

I’ll illustrate this by sharing a great story. I worked with an MLB catcher for three seasons before he retired. During the season, we would do weekly sessions to stay on top of issues that arose. For three solid seasons we had the exact same conversation, and it went like this:

Me: How is your shoulder and how are your knees?

Him: Well my shoulder is a little sore because I’ve been catching a lot this week (or my knees are a little sore because I’ve been catching a lot this week).

Me: Your shoulder (knees) isn’t sore from catching, it’s because there’s something you are emotionally upset about that didn’t get processed out of your body and it’s sitting in your shoulder (knees). Do you have any idea what that might be?

Him: No, not really. (Sometimes he did know.)

Me: How are things with your wife? How are things with your kids? How are things with your teammates? How are things with management? (After getting to know him, I narrowed it down to this list of questions.)

Him: He would name what he was upset about.

Me: Okay, move your shoulder (or bend your knees) and tell me on a scale from 0-10 how sore it feels.

Him: It’s about a 6 (that usually seemed to be the level of soreness).

Me: Let’s tap on the emotional upset. We do the tapping and then I ask him to move his shoulder or bend his knees and now tell me the level of soreness.

Him: He giggles and says “that’s amazing, it’s gone.”

Me: Yes, that’s because the soreness wasn’t from throwing and catching, it was the emotional upset that got stored in your shoulder (knees) to get your attention.

On the very last day I worked with him, we had this conversation again and tapped one more time for his soreness. Only this time we had a different ending (after he giggled and said “that’s amazing, the soreness is gone”)!

Him: So what you’re telling me is that when I’m upset about something it can settle into my shoulder and knees and cause soreness.

Me: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you.

Him: So all these old retired catchers that are walking around all crippled, it’s not from catching all those games, it’s from all the emotional stuff that happened during the course of their career that never got processed and is still sitting in their body.

Me: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you.

Him: So what you’re telling me is that I don’t have to be crippled when I’m older.

Me: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you.

It brings tears to my eyes every time I tell this story. This man believed he would suffer the same fate as some other retired catchers and have to live a life crippled and in pain from years of catching. He now knows this isn’t true.

My experience with him is a common one among all my athletes. From golfers who believe their shoulders and backs are sore from swinging too much to runners that believe their legs are sore from practice, time and time again I’ve been able to show them it’s not what they think it is.

While emotions have an energy and frequency to them, first and foremost, they are chemicals that are released by the brain and flood the body. When you are angry with someone, that chemical of anger releases from your hypothalamus and floods your body, docking onto cell receptors made just for anger. I have come to believe that our body will place that anger (or whatever the emotion is) in a location that will be sure to get our attention. For athletes, that location is usually in the part of your body you use the most in your sport. It sure does get your attention!

With the use of Emotional Freedom Techniques it’s easy to speak to the body and release that soreness. The biggest challenge is the athlete’s conditioning around this issue. I spend a fair amount of time retraining athletes to ask this question when they notice soreness and their mind says it’s from competition or practice, “what’s happened in the last 24 to 48 hours that I’m upset about?” Your mind will do a “computer search” and pop up the answer and that’s what you tap on. Keep tapping on the issue and all the aspects around it until the soreness is gone. I promise you’ll be amazed!

Visit Stacey Vornbrock’s Websites at:

www.byebyeblocks.com
www.breakthrougheft.com

Recently, I was working with a baseball player in his fifties who is a “star player.” He has three MSBL World Series rings. The problem is that he’s been in a batting slump. This batting slump feeling was at a SUDS (Subjective Units of Disturbance Scale) of eight. Within five minutes his batting slump blues went from five to two to zero using EFT. What was behind his slump? It was his core belief in the expectation that he’d lose his athletic abilities as he got older. He was essentially letting the belief and expectation speed things along. I suggested that he set aside the belief and choose instead to stay attuned to his body. His body would let him know. I had him tap on the following phrases.

I am attuned to my body and constantly listen to its wisdom.

I make the mental picture and feeling of playing in my peak state.

My body is in a constant state of rejuvenation.

I cultivate strength, stamina, flexibility and energy in my body and mind.

I feel younger than my chronological age.

I am connected with the vibrancy of life.

EFT is an excellent tool for releasing limiting mental and physical blocks in all kinds of sports. My favorite EFT practitioner for sports performance is Stacey Vornbrock. Stacey is a pioneer in this field and has worked with both professional and amateur athletes for several years now. Check out her Website at www.breakthroughperformance.net. Also do a search at EFTUniverse on “sports performance” or a specific sport like “baseball.” Get out there and play!

You’re gonna wear this book out. Highlight it. Mark it up. It’s full of “how-to” gems. I absolutely love Maryam Webster’s book, Everyday Bliss for Busy Women. Let’s start with its user-friendly format. At 5×7, it’s a handy size that feels good in your hands. The book is nicely laid out and inviting to read.

I like that, Everyday Bliss is written by a woman especially for women. Sorry guys, but society expects women to play and juggle more roles in life than men. Women also have different needs than men.

Everyday Bliss starts out explaining why it’s important to create bliss in our lives and balance our energy. We can choose to take the time to focus our energy instead of reacting and dispersing it in different directions. Maryam talks about the toxic effects of negative energy as well as negative beliefs and how harmful and limiting they can be.

What I like best about the book is that Maryam shares her knowledge, providing specifics for cleansing and relieving tension, plus ways to create everyday bliss using cutting-edge methods like EFT, TAT, ZPoint Process and others.

Ultimately, this book is about getting in touch with your spirituality. Everyday Bliss is a soothing wave of caring and encouragement. I wish I had a beautiful tool like this when I was in my twenties or thirties. Maryam, thank you for sharing your life experiences and methods, reaching out to the women of the world to show us that there is a way of being, doing, and having a life of everyday bliss.

Oh, and you’ll also want to check out Maryam Webster’s Everyday Bliss Website. On the site you can read her blog, join and participate in forums and get a free Blisskit.

Yes, it did. What surprised me is that this gentleman had no previous exposure to EFT. He learned the basics of EFT from the book, Freedom at Your Fingertips, and applied what he learned to the issue. As he did the tapping, a negative memory he had with his elementary school teacher popped up. He was being scolded for his playing and he felt “bad.” This happens a lot with EFT. A memory locked away that you don’t even recall, bubbles up. Once you’re conscious of it, you’re halfway there to resolving it. Using EFT, you can usually erase it once and for all unless there are different aspects to it. This musician was both amused and amazed to find that “this stuff works.” He discovered that when he now played this previously difficult piece of music, he breezed through it as if the issue was never there. Again, that’s how EFT works. People frequently find it hard to believe that they ever had the problem.

It’s especially exciting to see someone new to EFT being open minded enough to try it and getting good results for a challenge that had plagued him for decades. No sense carrying something around any longer when you can let it go with EFT!

No matter what, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
No matter what, I deeply and profoundly love and accept myself.
No matter what, I choose to feel fully energized and alive.
No matter what, I choose to feel [whatever feeling you choose]
No matter what, I am enough as I am right now.
No matter what, I am enough and I am in the process of expanding to become even more.
No matter what , I appreciate and value all that I am.
No matter what, I am always doing my best.

There is something releasing about using the words, “no matter what.” Notice how using some of these phrases and EFT setup statements change how you feel. Try it. You’ll like it.