Getting over BFS in most cases I believe a multi-faceted approach will be required. I say this because my recovery required a multi-faceted approach. The most important ingredient to successful recovery I would say has to be an open mind. The alternative medicine approaches that have worked for me and the people I have referred all operate outside of the mainstream conventional medical model, which basically treats the human body like a biological machine. The alternative models incorporate energy into the equation, which conventional medicine ignores. This I believe is why conventional medicine is failing to help so many people, because energy is our foundation and therefore usually the root of the problem. You don't need to believe in this energy necessarily, but you do at least need to be open to the possibility that there is something there. Without that open mindedness, you cannot proceed to the next step.The different facets of the approach that wound up contributing to my BFS were diet, allergies, toxicities, ability to cope/manage stress, and emotional traumas. I had no idea just how important our diet and digestive health is to our immune and nervous systems. I'm not sure I can convey just how strong this relationship is here on this forum to you. I did not believe it until I experienced the relief after the changes I made, and so I cannot expect anyone here to believe it either. I know from my own reaction that I had to the news that I was going to have to make changes to my diet that it is not an easy thing for anyone to do. Foods are a comfort to us and to be asked to make a diet change when you're already suffering enough seemed like too much to bear. To be honest I'm not sure how I had the strength and conviction to do it. I suppose I was just so desperate to feel better I said 'to hell with it, I'm going to try this.' Because our diet in America sucks and we are exposed to so many toxins in our processed foods, our digestive health is poor. Even if you think you are doing everything right based on the literature and propaganda put out by health food organizations and the FDA, you are in for a rude awakening. I wish there were an easy way to break the news. Genetically modified crops are wreaking havoc on our bodies. All the chemicals, preservatives, and pesticides do get into our systems and take a toll on our natural detoxification systems. The anti-biotics in our meats and even in our municipal drinking supplies kill off helpful bacteria in our digestive systems further wreaking our body's natural defenses. Yogurt proclaims probiotics but they are too few and rendered negligible next to the sugar that is contained in it. Sugar feeds yeasts that crowd out the probiotics in our digestive systems. The biggest hurdle you will run into on diet is deprogramming all the things that you think you know about what is healthy based on what society has taught you. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. The easy thing to know and understand is that fresh organic fruits and vegetables are always good. Meats that are raised range free and anti-biotic free are good. Just about anything processed is going to be bad or marginal. The reason people develop allergies to things they never used to react to is because of that strong relationship I told you about with your immune system and digestive health. The more abuse your body takes, the more confused your immune system will get. Soon it begins to interpret things as threats that it never used to. While allergies are not permanent, the most important thing is to remove anything inflammatory from your diet so your system calms down. I believe you are reacting to a food because what you describe is exactly what happened to me initially. I went to a hypnotist to calm down and felt great during the session and shortly after. It was not long though before my anxiety was back with a vengeance. I decided to mentally go through her hypnosis method in my mind on my own, which was essentially a meditation. I would feel good during but the anxiety always came back. I later learned that this was because I was reacting to gluten and dairy. It was chemically impossible for my body to remain calm because as a reaction to these inflammatory foods I was pumping adrenalin into my system. This is why I said multi-faceted. If you meditate and can’t stay calm, you probably have a physical reaction taking place. If it were purely emotional, the meditation and tapping would work better. So my advice is to try going cold turkey on the gluten and dairy for a few days. Gluten is in just about everything processed, so you might have to eat like a caveman for the next few days. I still recommend at least 15 minutes of meditation every day. 2 times is even better. It helps to have a regular schedule or you will not stick to it. I know because I tried. I do at least 15 minutes at night before I go to bed. I found that bringing myself down to the alpha state helps me fall asleep faster. You’re half way to theta at that point. Since it is part of my routine of going to bed, I do it every night. Even if I’m really tired and don’t feel like it, I have conditioned myself to know that its helps me get to bed anyway, so I might as well. If you can it may help to do a meditation first thing in the morning too, but do what works best for your schedule. Maybe lunch time is better if you need to calm your mind down. Its an investment, what you put in you will get out of it.There really is no set way to meditate. I like to sit upright in a chair with my feet flat on the floor. I learned from my acupuncturist who studied in China under some Buddhist monks that it helps to hold your hands in your lap with your hands in a mudra position. Hold your palms facing toward your stomach with your four fingers overlapping the other four fingers. For men the left hand fingers should be on the inside and for women the right hand fingers should be on the inside. Your thumbs should be touching tip to tip so that as you look down your hands form a circle. This mudra position connects the acupuncture points on your hands to complete a circuit in your body’s energy system. This forces energy to flow through your body as you meditate in a certain direction which promotes health and vitality. As you meditate you should rest your tongue comfortably against the back of your top front teeth. As you breathe in you should inhale through your nose and use your diaphragm to bring air into your lower lungs. If you do this properly your stomach will rise and fall, not your upper chest. As you exhale breath out through your nose. Each inhale and exhale should be at a three or four count (up to you). Focus your attention on the point located about 2 inches below your belly button, which is called the lower Dan Tien. As you focus your attention on this location try to clear your mind of any thoughts or worries. Try to just think about nothing except your breathing, the counting and the spot below your belly. At first this will be hard because your mind is used to being a runaway freight train. Don’t get frustrated though. Just let the thoughts leave like clouds on a warm summer day. Always return to the breath. The counting should help keep you occupied. Also important while meditating is to remove all metal from your body, cell phones, keys, magnets, etc. Although the energy that flows through us is not electromagnetic it is influenced by electromagnetic energy, microwaves, etc. Cell phones are mini microwave generators. Batteries from key fobs, magnetic strips on credit cards in our wallets all will subtly affect the flow of our energy. As you breath with your hands in the mudra position what you will actually be doing is focusing energy or chi to build in your lower Dan Tien, which is your foundation. The more you practice this the easier it will get. The more you work on clearing your mind the easier it will get to overcome your fears. Now regarding tapping, I would try focusing on one feeling or one fear at a time. Tap a session or two for each and every one of them. You don’t have to do it all in one sitting, nor should you. Give your body time to process through them. You feel each one for a reason. Over time you should notice a profound difference. It will take time though. You didn’t get to where you are in a day, nor should you expect to get better in a day. Tapping is sort of a shot-gun approach to clearing emotional traumas out of your energy system. Since you aren’t an expert in acupuncture, you don’t know how to tune into where the stuck energy is and how to clear it. A trained acupuncturist might be able to zero in on these things and treat one or two points to clear out a major blockage. The reason tapping has you tap so many points is because they are treating every major meridian your body has. If there’s no blockage on that pathway, nothing happens. If there is then you treat it.
