ACEs, Paper Tigers, Resilience, and Thanksgiving

Please Note:  Winter Blooms is an educational website in no way meant to replace building a relationship with a trained EFT practitioner, counselor, or therapist.  To find an EFT Practitioner, visit the AAMET website, the Gary Craig website, the EFT Universe website, the Tapping Solution website, or contact Jane for EFT coaching support.

We are all, in one way or another, involved in the struggle to offer kindness, love, and understanding to ourselves and the larger world.  This is easy to forget in these media-saturated times where focus on the least admirable human traits influences almost every radio, television, and internet story line. My search for stories documenting human compassion and positive agency has led me to Adverse Childhood Experience studies (ACEs) which statistically document how early childhood trauma is a predictor of later chronic disease including autoimmune and mental health disorders.  But all is not lost, for coupled with these bleak health studies are numerous stories documenting the resurgence of resilience as even the most traumatized of children and adults relearn the magic of loving attention to the Self.

Paper Tigers Stories

Paper Tigers, a documentary by KPJR films, tells the story of students and teachers in an alternative, Washington State high school where ACEs – Adverse Childhood Experiences – are at the root of widespread academic failure and violence.  When the school principal makes the decision to offer students the opportunity to develop resilience through the loving attention of staff, violence diminishes and graduation rates soar.  Even more important, through loving and respectful relationships with teachers, counselors, and health care providers, Lincoln’s students learn to value themselves, make life affirming choices, work through conflict, and mentor one another in the tough business of thriving during adolescence.  To learn more about Paper Tigers and Lincoln High School’s remarkable students and staff, please visit http://kpjrfilms.co/paper-tigers/ .  In a world filled with discouraging stories, this film tells a big, joyful one.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Quiz

We underestimate the suffering our children experience when our families are unstable.  Poverty, violence, and neglect deeply affect a child’s sense of self worth and increase his or her chances of failing in school and developing serious illnesses in later life.  If you are curious about your personal ACEs score, or if you simply want to know what circumstances put children at risk, you can visit any number of ACEs sites.  For example, at http://www.acestudy.org/the-ace-score.html you can take the ACEs quiz and determine your risk for certain illnesses based on your childhood experiences. Far from being discouraging, the ACEs study is designed to shed light on family patterns with the intention of changing these through positive shifts in awareness and practice.

Resilience and Tapping

Studies are proving that simple interventions such as mindfulness, mentoring, journaling, individual counseling, and support groups nurture feelings of self love and self worth in even the most traumatized children and adults.  Tapping, one of the most innovative physical, emotional, and psychological supports of resilence, can be used before, during, and after any of other resilience supporting methods of calming the nervous system and building healthy neural connections.  Placing the hand on the heart, for example, while imagining a magnificent field expanding out to create a bubble of love and caring around us as we tap on the back of this hand, can be done on the bus, during a meeting, and even on the brink of serious conflict.

The tapping we do daily increases our own resilience, especially when we do this work with loving kindness and deep compassion for the suffering self.  Over time, this process of loving attention helps to shift whatever attachment style trauma might have prevented secure attachment, that relationship with the self that brings love and optimism to every situation.   Simply  tapping gently on the back of the hand placed over the heart while feeling  or saying “I am love; I offer love” makes us part of the rising tide that is lifting all boats both psychologically and spiritually.

Thanksgiving and Earth Love

With abundance in the very air we breathe – abundance of beauty in our northern hemisphere fall landscapes and abundance of food at our farmers’ markets and coops – there is no better time to remind ourselves to participate in the ongoing struggle to be Love through kindness and respect for ourselves and all beings who together weave the story we know as Life on Earth.  When we care for ourselves daily, with tenderness and intelligent support, we learn that no one is beyond hope and no negative outcome is set in stone.  The current harvest of stories illustrating the return of resilience, including our personal tapping stories, proves we are evolving psychologically as well as spiritually.  We now know the brain is plastic and capable of repair and that each heart’s field has the capacity to bring coherence to troubling situations.

This abundant harvest of material proves we can indeed be the change we want to see in the world.  We can do this by refreshing our vows to offer Understanding, Tenderness and Love to ourselves and others, and to use our tapping skills to be faithful to this vow every day.

Happy Harvest, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy High Holidays.  It is a glorious moment in our shared evolution to remember how each one of us is called to be an agent of positive change.  All the supports are in place to become more resiliently connected in every part of this beautiful world.  Whether we whisper yes, or shout it, the Universe brings us, abundantly, all we need to nurture ourselves, others, and our place in every season.

Until next time

Jane

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Jane Buchan, MA, AAMET Advanced Practitioner, jane@winterblooms.net, 802-533-9277

Jane is a Learning Coach specializing in neutralizing cultural age, gender, and race constructs to support learners of every age.  To engage her coaching services, please contact Jane by phone (802) 533-9277 or email, jane@winterblooms.net.  Be sure to put Coaching Query in the subject line.