Travel Sickness EFT

At the weekend I went to see Steve Taylor speak in Hebdon Bridge. I was getting a lift with my good friend Elaine and her friend Sally. I've known Elaine for about three years. She's a counsellor but also taught Spirituality at Higher Education in Kirklees, of which I attended. Steve's talk started at 11am so I had to be at Elaine's farm at 9:30am, which would give us plenty of time to get there.

We set off in Elaine's brand new 4x4 KIA. A very nice motor. But something struck me about Elaine's driving; lets just say she knew how to put her foot down. It wasn't how I expected this calm and gentle person to be behind the wheel. I sat back and tried to enjoy the trip.

Ten minutes into the journey and we came across an injured crow bouncing around at the side of a very narrow country lane. Elaine, being the animal lover she is, stopped the car and we all got out to try and catch it. It was clearly evident it had a broken wing.

Both Elaine and I took off our coats and tried for several minutes to catch the crow. It was in a state of panic. Luckily, every time a car came the crow somehow knew to cower in the grass next to the dry stone walls at the side of the road. After several attempts we finally managed to get it.

Watching Elaine handle the crow, she clearly knew what she was doing. She slowly lifted up its damaged wing to find blood. It had either been hit by a vehicle or a cat must've had a shot at it.

Sally held the crow on her lap as we headed back to Elaine's farm. She spoke to it and stroked its small black head. I watched as it looked at her, making eye contact, as if it knew it was in good hands. It was such an incredible creature. I love bird watching anyway, so to be up close and personal with one was something quite special for me. The majority of us take birds for granted, but I can guarantee that if tomorrow there were no more birds, you would notice a massive difference in the sound of the outdoors.

Once back at Elaine's we placed the crow in her greenhouse with some straw and some water.

'Right,' said Elaine, 'we really must get a move on or else we'll be late. The crow will be OK. I'll look at its wing when we get back.'

. . . Skip forward 30 minutes . . .

Elaine's driving took on a whole new level.

'By the way, Gavin,' she said, whilst taking a sharp left, then right, then speeding up narrow lanes between parked cars, 'I used to be a racer.'

Just when you think you know someone, they tell you they used to be a racing driver!

I was sat in the back holding on for my life. I was chucked left and right, pulled forward and pushed back. I knew what was to come if this continued.

Travel sickness.

I've had it for as long as I can remember, which is probably why I hate being a passenger when going further than a few miles.

The symptoms are:

• Being quiet. This is because all of my attention is focused on not throwing up. And it makes it so much harder when that seed in my mind has been planted, because every corner waters that very seed.
• Cold hands. I have no idea why I get cold hands.
• Then come the sweats.
• Then comes the watery mouth.

It's truly awful. I just kept on thinking, I can't throw up in Elaine's brand new car. But what if I did? How would she react? Would we still go to Steve's talk? It's like my mind goes into overdrive.

Then Sally mentioned she could feel a migraine coming on.

Great, I thought. A bit of selfless compassion and empathy might divert my attention away from myself and alleviate some of sicky symptoms.

'Could you pass me my bag, please, Gavin?' she said. 'It's in the foot well.'

Now, there's one thing that you definitely don't do if you get travel sickness - look down.

I closed my eyes, held my breath and reached for Sally's bag and handed it her.

My attempt at compassion and empathy didn't work.

My mouth was filling up with watery saliva causing me swallow heavily every seven seconds - I was running out of time.

'Why don't you try EFT?' said Elaine to Sally.

EFT!! Why didn't I think of that?! So I started tapping the pressure point on the karate chop part of my hand, whilst repeating the term, 'Even though I feel sick I fully and lovingly accept myself.' If you've read anything on EFT, it's a phrase like this that you repeat whilst tapping certain pressure points on your body.

I was tapping like a mad man.

My tapping hand started to ache so I switched hands.

And would you believe it, it started to work!

The sweats began to cease, my stomach began to settle and I began to feel normal again.

Then Elaine accelerated up and over a hill.

The sweats came back. The sickness returned. I continued to tap like a crazy fool in the back of the KIA!

'Even though I feel sick I fully and lovingly accept myself. Even though I feel like shit I fully and lovingly accept myself. Even though I might throw up I fully and lovingly accept myself.'

It finally it began to work again and within minutes we arrived at Hebdon Bridge. I wanted to kiss the ground and roll around like Kevin Costner does in Robin Hood when he reaches the beach. I was so happy and relieved.

I'm fed up of getting travel sickness Every F&^*"!£ Time!

At least now I know a cure for it.

Oh, and Steve Taylor's talk was awesome. Check out his books: Out of the Darkness, Waking From Sleep and The Fall. Highly recommended.

(For information on EFT visit: http://www.eftuniverse.com/)

Happy Tapping!