Listen + SUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcasts + Spotify

The Power of EFT Therapy in Conquering Stress and Cravings

Feeling overwhelmed by stress and searching for calm and happiness in your life? Tune in as we explore the powerful modality of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) with our special guest, Cindy Johnston, founder of Soul Sobriety Coaching and Retreats. Cindy shares her personal journey of overcoming a problematic relationship with alcohol and how EFT has helped her and countless others manage stress and find emotional healing.

Learn how this powerful technique can reduce cortisol levels, depression, and anxiety while assisting in overcoming cravings and weight issues. Cindy walks us through a step-by-step guide on how to use EFT to communicate with your body and release stress. Discover how EFT has transformed the lives of individuals dealing with everyday stressors, PTSD, and even cancer, helping them shift their perspectives and gain confidence.

Finally, we discuss Cindy's work with the Look Good, Feel Better organisation and her upcoming Long Table Lunch fundraiser, supporting those going through their cancer journey. Don't miss out on Cindy's EFT Taster Bundle, offering a $200 discount for June and July, making it easier for more people to access the healing power of EFT.

Join me in this enlightening conversation with Cindy Johnston and discover how EFT can help you overcome stress and create a life you no longer want to escape from.

Main Points

• 0:00 Overcoming Stress With EFT Therapy

• 4:55 Overcoming Addiction and Practicing Self-Care

• 14:17 EFT for Stress and Emotional Healing

• 24:45 EFT for Stress and Cravings

• 37:52 Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

• 43:09 EFT and Fundraising for Cancer Patients

Do you have BIG Dreams?

Download the
Brilliant Business Beautiful Life Playbook
and start designing the business and life you deserve today!

Links and Resources

• Escape the 9-5! Get your 9-5 Exit Plan HERE

• Cindy Johnston’s EFT Taster Bundle Special

• Cindy Johnston’s Fundraiser for People with Cancer: Long Table Lunch Event Tickets

• Cindy Johnston’s Dry July Fundraiser: Donate HERE

• Visit Soul Sobriety Coaching & Retreats: Go to the Website HERE

• Get the Podcast straight to your inbox! Never miss an episode!

• Are you ready to start building the business and life of your dreams? Get the Brilliant Business Beautiful Life Playbook and design the life you deserve!

• Want to craft the perfect brand voice? Our free Brand Voice Framework will teach you the steps to define your unique brand voice so you can communicate with clarity and confidence - uniquely you!

• Do you want a high-converting website? Download Ultimate Website Content Checklist. It’s free and will guide you through all the content you need for a high-converting website!

• Check out our Services and get started building your brilliant business: Squarespace website design, copywriting, branding & organic online marketing

Did you enjoy this episode?

I’d love to know your biggest takeaway from today’s episode and how you can take action today in your life. Pop a comment below!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to hit that subscribe button wherever you listen to the Brilliant Business Beautiful Life podcast and be sure to share it with someone else who may also find it helpful and inspiring.

Plus, I’d be forever grateful if you left me a review. I read each and every one and love hearing from you.

Thank you so much for being here! I look forward to seeing you for the next episode.

LISTEN + SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS + SPOTIFY

The Brilliant Business Beautiful Life Podcast is dedicated to you - because you deserve the business – and life -
of your dreams!

PS. Download the Brilliant Business Beautiful Life Playbook and start designing the business and life you deserve today!

LISTEN + SUBSCRIBE ON APPLE PODCASTS + SPOTIFY

Hi, I’m Samantha Bell

I’m all about helping you build the business – and life – you’ve always wanted.

Listen in for the simple, actionable strategies, mindset shifts, and practices you need to make your business thrive. Plus, a healthy dose of self-care, health, and wellness so you can live the life you absolutely adore while building your beautiful business.

RECENT EPISODES

CHECK OUT THE TEMPLATE STUDIO

Transcription

00:00 Samantha Bell, Host

Do you feel stressed Is juggling all the things holding you back from enjoying your life Is overwhelm your constant companion. It's so easy to get caught up in starting or running your business that you can start to lose yourself in all the business And this developed a stress response within your body And over time, that stress can build to really unhealthy levels and create mental and physical problems in your body. Today is a special bonus episode of the Brilliant Business, beautiful Life podcast, and I'm squeezing it in in between our three part series on SEO just to mix things up a little bit and to address that elephant in the room Stress. We're exploring a natural therapy that can help you to feel calm, happy and in control and kick your overwhelm to the curb. I'm talking to a very special guest, cindy Johnston, the founder of Soul Sobriety, coaching and Retreats all about the wonderful modality EFT. So let's dive into our chat with Cindy and how EFT can help you. Welcome to the Brilliant Business, beautiful Life podcast, where we share simple, actionable strategies plus the mindset and wellness practices you need to build the business and life you love. Head to 16thavcreativecom forward slash playbook and download your free guide to design the business and life you deserve

01:32

I'm your host, Samantha Bell, and this is the Brilliant Business, Beautiful Life podcast. Are you ready for the business and life of your dreams? Let's get started. Welcome to today's podcast. I'm so incredibly excited to have my very special guest today. She's a client of mine and also just one of the most gorgeous human beings you'll ever ever meet, so I'm so glad to introduce her to you today. Her name is Cindy Johnston, and she's the founder of Soul Sobriety Coaching and Retreats. Cindy is a life coach who specialises in grey area drinking. She's also an accredited, certified emotional freedom techniques practitioner, and she's a strong advocate for women's health and wellness. She provides empowerment coaching with a difference, and it's all about helping high-functioning women, in their midlife, heal the disconnect within themselves, to change their relationship with alcohol and create a life they no longer want to escape from. Cindy is a wealth of knowledge and she has a lot of goodness to share with us today, and we're going to be talking about specifically EFT and how it can help with stress.

02:57 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Thank you so much Sam! I'm so happy to be here, and thank you so much for the invitation to participate. It's quite a privilege, thank you.

03:04 Samantha Bell, Host

It's my pleasure. I just love having you on the show and I love everything you do. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

03:12 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Sure! So, when you read all that back to me, it's like, well, yeah, there are quite a few things that I added into my toolbox And really it's only in recent times, and just to share a little bit of my backstory, I suppose it might be a little bit helpful to know how I came into the coaching side of things. Back in 2018, I for some time had realised that I myself had a problem relationship I would say it was called, with alcohol. I grew up with my whole family drinking, all my friends, everyone, pretty much everyone drinks. And it was just normal. And alcohol has always been part of my life. It's normalised in society. It's just something that I did. And what I found, like a lot of women, I just used it as a stress tool, which I didn't realise at the time, but that go-to my like whenever I was stressed. Oh God, I need a drink, I'll have a glass of wine, it's five o'clock, and I need, I need some wine. You know I've had a hard day with the kids or you know work or something.

04:18

And and then in 2018, I did realise that you know, I think alcohol has a little bit taken over my thinking instead of me being controlled. So every evening it was like five o'clock was wine o'clock, whether I felt like a glass of wine or whatever it was, just like it's become a habit I have to have that glass of wine now. And because it is so accepted it, you don't even think about it. No, I never even thought about it, because it was fine. This is what you do, and I suppose when I looked back, going years ago when my mum died, it became my coping mechanism. Then, yeah, once again, I didn't even realise. My husband was in the Navy. The same week my mum passed, he went overseas on deployment for four months. I had two small kids at the time I think they were four and two, and, being a Navy wife, had no support. I was in like a, a country town.

05:16

I find it very isolated. And so, yeah, I functioned during the day, very high functioning. Nobody ever knew I had a problem, I didn't even think I had a problem. But once it came to, you know, back then it was like seven o'clock. I actually could stretch it out to seven PM and and get the kids into bed, and then it's like 'my time, I need to relax, I'll have some wine' It was just a glass of wine back then. So this is 20 years ago.

05:44

And but what I found over the years the creep started happening, so that one glass became two, became three, and I didn't know anything about alcohol and its effects on the body back then. But what I was setting myself up for was self-sabotage. In myself thinking alcohol was helping me. But it wasn't. It was actually doing the opposite. And my anxiety started to increase. I then got depressed, was diagnosed with depression. Once again, my husband still away, kids Well, I just need wine. So then I was mixing wine with medication as well, because my doctor never said don't drink. But still, very high functioning. Yeah, I got the kids off to school in the morning. I went, and I was a makeup artist back then. I was still doing, all of you know, brides and wedding makeup and whatever I needed to do, and I didn't even think about the alcohol side for many, many years and, as I mentioned earlier, it was 2018 that my depression had escalated, my anxiety was through the roof, I had put on so much weight, I just generally wasn't looking after myself and I just felt not well in myself.

07:02

But I knew I had to stop drinking or cut it down, but I didn't know how. I had no idea how, because it was so ingrained in what I did. I'm a big believer in the universe. You know, send you signs, and I ended up getting this big rash on my face that would come and go. So it sent me this sign that I could not ignore any longer You need to do something. And then when I went to my doctor, he was like, how much stress are you under? And I was stressed. I mentioned about, you know, the drinking alcohol. And he was like, no, that's fine, yeah, just cut it back a little bit, you know it'll be fine, okay. So, once again, I had that go ahead to still keep drinking, Yes, but I knew inside me.

07:53

So when he actually did some tests. He was testing me for lupus, which was an autoimmune disease, but he didn't tell me. I just sort of read something. He wrote butterfly rash on what you take to have the blood test done. And I just went home, and I googled what does butterfly rash mean on the face? And that's how I found out he was testing for lupus.

08:21

And when I read everything about lupus I'm like, oh my God, this is a life altering disease. This, and you know, this could really affect my future. I got really scared. I really. It really jolted me into thinking about my health. Up until then I hadn't even worried about myself. I was too busy looking after everybody else. I'm working, kids, you're in survival, by the way, pretty much I had been for a very long time without realising it.

08:49

And but everything that kept coming up when I looked at lupus was do not drink alcohol. Do not drink alcohol. Okay, I'm listening. That's my sign. So that very week that was on the Saturday, on the Monday, I had enrolled in a course because I still, as I said, didn't know how to not drink. I had no tools, I had no support, I had nobody. And the other thing that was going on for me was the shame. I felt so much shame internally, yeah, that I couldn't tell anybody that I think I've got a drinking problem, because automatically it would be like, oh, you're an alcoholic, and I didn't feel There's a saying, you know vodka on my cornflakes in the morning or anything like that. I was just five o'clock as wine o'clock and I need that. You know glass of wine, but that glass had become a bottle by that stage or more Some nights. If I was more stressed, well, it was a bottle and a half, yeah, but still high functioning.

09:51 Samantha Bell, Host

That's the thing. And that's, I think, a trap a lot of women fall into because they're high functioning, they think it's not an issue and they just hide because of the guilt.

10:02 Cindy Johnston, Guest

So that guilt and shame that I didn't want to admit to anybody. Actually, tomorrow will be 1800 days alcohol free and next month it'll be five years. Five years ago nobody was talking about it at all, there was nothing out there. And to find some support, it was just you went to AI or you just, it was nothing else. And I actually went to an AA meeting.

10:30

I thought then it's like, as much as it's fabulous and it really does support and work for a lot of people, for me it just didn't work for me. I went to one. I thought this is not me, I am not that bad, and I really wasn't that bad, yeah, but I did need some support. But so, anyway, I found some support and it just got me thinking along the lines of well, I needed to challenge those beliefs of I need wine, I need wine to relax, I need wine to socialise, I need wine for all the reasons that we say we need to have a glass of wine.

11:07

And I challenge those beliefs. Do I really need this? Is this really serving me? And I knew it wasn't. So I then had to find the tools in myself to support myself for better health. Yeah, best thing I've ever done. I just wish I had done it a long time ago. However, it's not. You know, your journey is your journey and things happen for a reason and people come into your life for a reason as well, I believe, after I six-week this online course, which I didn't tell anybody about, not even my husband.

11:37

I didn't tell anyone because of that shame I yeah, I started to implement what I needed to do and self care was something that really came up. I never even heard of self care before either. You know, wine was my self care.

11:52 Samantha Bell, Host

It's a trap for a lot of women, that they don't practice self-care. They Don't understand it and feel guilty for even thinking about it.

12:04 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Totally, and and that's something that I believe that we all need to to bring into our life more, and it doesn't have to be all you know day spas and pedicures and things, which it does help, but just taking a little bit of time from self. It was a self care, and part of my self care was meditation. I'd never meditated before. What's that? So I thought, okay, I'll try this. I can't switch off, you know, without a glass of wine, had to switch off, so, but I just got the headspace I think it was at the time set five minutes aside in the evening, and that was becoming a practice. So, but basically, meditation got me learning a little bit more about just taking care for myself and it actually sparked something inside me that got me more interested in the energy side of things. For some reason, I was drawn to Reiki and I wanted to learn about Reiki. So I became tuned to Reiki, theta Healing as well, which is another meditation-based practice.

13:09

And in 2020, so when we're in lockdown, during one of these remote times that we're sitting at home and I'm like, okay, I'll do some more meditation, and it was during that time that it just came to me that I needed to be coaching. I needed to help other women who were like me, and because I felt there was no support out there. I didn't have anyone to turn to, anyone to talk to. I thought there must be other women that were like me out there. Honestly, when I stopped, I thought I was the only one. That's a problem. How silly of me to think I'm the only person in the whole world that has this alcohol problem.

13:49 Samantha Bell, Host

Oh, it's not silly. I think most people think they're alone and the only person and that's because there's no conversation.

13:56 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Exactly. And that's what I felt I needed to do. I thought, well, I needed to help other women in my community even if it was just other navy wives because I lived in a navy town. I could help them not feel so isolated as well. So coaching, life coaching came to me as meditation. So I looked into that, and yeah, that's what happened. Then I started the next month through the life coaching college and did the training for six months, got a diploma in life coaching, which then opened the door for me to be a grey area drinking coach. So through another sobriety mentor based in London, she introduced me to Jolene Park, who is a specialist in the grey area drinking coaching. She's based in the US. So I became one of her master coaches through the grey area drinking. Then I met another ambassador for Be Sober. So Be Sober is also UK based, but they had a lady who was based in Perth who was an ambassador for them, and she did EFT.

15:05 Cindy Johnston, Guest

So I met this beautiful lady in Perth, and, as I said, the universe brings people to you for a reason, and we got chatty, and I just knew then this was the next step that I needed. She was an EFT trainer, a master trainer I needed to learn how to do this as well. So then, when I realised just how amazing this modality is and where I could bring this into my coaching for women in the sobriety space, it would just be so helpful and really just cut through the reasons why women want to drink in the first place.

15:44 Samantha Bell, Host

Can you explain to us what EFT is?

15:47 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Yes, So emotional freedom techniques basically is the long term, and it's based in traditional Chinese medicine in that if you think of acupuncture, where they use needles to tap into the meridians in the body, so the meridians are energy centers in the body. But what emotional freedom techniques is, i'll just say EFT or tapping, is that we're tapping on the acupoints in the body instead of putting the needles in.

16:19 Samantha Bell, Host

So it's perfect for people who are scared of needles.

16:25 Cindy Johnston, Guest

And so basically it's a self-help tool that, once you know how to do it, you can use it anywhere. It's portable, it's easy to use, it's painless, it works so effectively. So over the last 10 years we've had a doctor based out of Bond University, Dr Peter Stapleton, who's a psychologist, who has been leading the world trials and research on EFT. Studies have now proven there's over 300 scientific studies out there just how effective that it is. And, for instance, cortisol, which is the stress hormone that gets released in the body, it's proven that EFT will reduce that by 37%. And it actually reduces depression, anxiety. It's been very effective for post-traumatic stress disorder as well.

17:24 Samantha Bell, Host

So any emotions that you're feeling, that are holding you back or making you feel not quite yourself, or depressed, sad, anxious, any of those types of things you can use EFT for.

17:38 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Yes, totally So, with the energy centers in the body and it's linked also to the brain and how the brain functions. So if we think about the brain, inside the brain, at the base there's what's called the amygdala. So that's our stress response, and what's closely near that is the hippocampus, which holds our memories and stores the memories. So what's been shown is that by calming the amygdala it calms the stress in the body. So it calms and that then influences the release of the stress hormone, cortisol, in the body. So when you calm amygdala, that will then calm the stress.

18:23

Top of our forehead, all in behind there, that's what we call our prefrontal cortex. So that's the thinking part of the brain, but where I mentioned the amygdala, it's sort of like the primitive part of the brain. It's our subconscious and our subconscious drives about 95% of our actions. Stress is a good thing to have and it keeps us safe. It has a purpose. If you think way back, like when we're in tribes and cavemen and there was Sabertooth Tigers and things like that, when you activate the stress response, that keeps you safe And the blood will flow to the limbs so you can get up and run quickly and that type of thing. But also that stimulates that fight-flight-freeze response in the body. But often there's no Sabertooth Tigers chasing us. Now, we don't have that anymore.

19:19

You've got a deadline for work, your boss says I want this done right now and that type of thing. So our stress is different these days, but our body's reaction isn't.

19:30 Samantha Bell, Host

It reacts to stress like we're running from the tiger Exactly all the time.

19:36 Cindy Johnston, Guest

So that's what we need to have a look at and think well, that's not really that stressful, but our body still thinks it is. So if we can then work on calming when we feel moments of stress or anxiety or even just little things like before I come on here today, just that little bit of nervousness about having a chat, well, I'll do some tapping, just calm everything right down. Yeah.

20:01 Samantha Bell, Host

You're in a safe space here. We can tap together.

20:06 Cindy Johnston, Guest

So basically it just really works on just calming that, so it reduces the emotional feelings that are going on. So you might feel really angry about something. Oh, my husband just did this and he didn't unpack the dishwasher properly or something, and it made me really angry. So instead of having all the anger, we can just tap and it just reduces it And in the long term that's just helping your body, it's helping your cells, which then helps with all sorts of other health benefits and just keeping you calm, because we don't want to be in a high state of stress all the time. It has negative impacts, yeah.

20:48 Samantha Bell, Host

And it would help if you're reducing your stress. It'll help reduce your blood pressure, your heart rate. It'll make you feel more calm and centered.

21:00 Cindy Johnston, Guest

And then that just has a flow and effect as well, whether it's internally or whether it's people outside that you're interacting with. If you're not all that anxious and cranky and whatever just no reason It also then helps you make better decisions because you're responding. You're not reacting, So, whether it's in the office or whether it's in the home, you can make decisions from a more calmer place.

21:27 Samantha Bell, Host

Which is only ever a good thing, isn't it? If you're in reactive mode, you make decisions you never would under other circumstances.

21:35 Cindy Johnston, Guest

That's right. And then you have all these regrets later, and again to the same, absolutely. And once again, it's that circle going around. So it can then also help, as we said, with the clarity making decisions. It helps your mindset, it can help to release limiting blocks and beliefs as well, because often how we react and how we deal with things and from our perspective, is based on past experiences. Yes, and sometimes those past experiences may not have always been a good ones.

22:08 Cindy Johnston, Guest

And then we make decisions based on those past experiences And by releasing the emotional charge related to those past experiences, that can then set you up for better decisions again Once you can clear that out. Just a quick what's coming to mind quickly for me was I had a lot of people a phobia of the dentist. Yes, for many, many years, and it goes back to when I was about three and they put me under gas and ripped out all these teeth. And then I was in the Navy. I was in the Navy myself.

22:42

I had this very traumatic experience where I went for a checkup and I walked out of the dentist chair surgery after having been given a direct order to stay in the chair and not leave for wisdom teeth later less, and it was very traumatic. So ever since then I've had this fear of the dentist. Through EFT I've been able to work through that fear using one of the different techniques that we have, which is a trauma based technique, because it was a big trauma for me to do this, and so recently I've had to have some dental work major dental worker crown, because I never went to the dentist for a long time. I've had to have some dental work done And I was just amazed I've been able to tap my way through. So before I went in when they did the initial work, i've ended up having a selfie in the chair with the dental technician like Hey, look at me, i can go to the dentist.

23:41

And then having some major work done. Just recently, i tapped before I went in and I tapped the whole way in the chair. So it was a different way of tapping. I just used my fingertips, because we have a lot of acupressure points in our fingertips as well, so, but I just felt I was so much more calmer, relaxed. He was able to get the treatment done much more quickly, because normally I would just tense and cry, and I was. Yeah, it wasn't a pleasant experience, but this way it was all done And afterwards I felt so much better within myself that, hey, i did this.

24:20 Samantha Bell, Host

Yes, wow, that's an amazing difference, isn't it? Such a more positive experience for you and for the dentist too. He would have been really impressed with seeing the difference and just having you so much more calm and in control of yourself. You still would have been having those feelings and fear, but it wasn't controlling you as it normally would have.

24:45 Cindy Johnston, Guest

So EFT did help me with that, but it can also help with cravings, but any sort of cravings, so it does. You know, I've worked with a lady recently on her chocolate craving. Ah, I spoke with her yesterday, and it's only been 10 days or so. She said no, no desire. You know, once she had a piece of chocolate she would eat the whole block and she couldn't stop at one. She couldn't stop at one piece of chocolate. That's fine if that's okay with you, but it was becoming a problem for her, with the sugar aspect and different things. So cravings, weight issues, sports performance, physical pain, we can actually tap to reduce physical pain as well And headaches, illness, addiction, as we spoke about. So there's a lot of areas that EFT can be a benefit in your life.

25:43 Samantha Bell, Host

That's quite fascinating. It's wonderful that it's such a non-invasive natural tool that you can use that has such huge effects on your mind, body and soul and has lots of scientific studies to back it all up as well. So for women in business and in life in general, we have a lot of stresses, so obviously we could use EFT to help manage the stress and not go into that fight or flight mode quite so much. And I know that you work with a lovely organization called Look Good, Feel Better, and that's helping women going through cancer deal with the stress around that. So can you talk to us a little bit about how EFT can help everyday women in their life deal with stress and reduce stress in their life and maybe dealing with their business or health issues by using EFT?

26:48 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Yes, so, so, just in like everyday life. So women in business it may be just leaving the house, you know, with the kids and just getting in the car or traffic. You can tap at any time And it just might be, oh, even though I'm just feeling really stressed right now just thinking about that, the business meeting. I've got in an hour's time and I haven't done all the preparation yet And you can just it's better to be specific Instead of just saying, oh, I'm always stressed, you know, I just have to tap because I'm always stressed. So that wouldn't work too much because it also then confuses the body. The brain needs to know specifically what you want to tap on, right, okay, so just to explain a little bit about tapping. So basically all you do is we use, say, two fingers and just on the side of the hand that's where we would have a setup statement. So whatever the issue is or what the target that you want to talk about at the time, so you know whatever the stress is. So I feel so stressed about this meeting I have to go to, so you bring up what is actually stressing you.

27:59

So that's the whole idea is that we need to focus on the negative. So you might be thinking, well, why focus on the negative? Because that's what needs to be released. So it's all about telling the truth to your body. Your body tells you so much. And if we can tune into our body and listen to what's going on, so it might be you have the flutter in the tummy, or you have a tightness in your throat, or you know, your back is tight, or normally sort of from the hips up. Your body talks to you all the time. So if you can just have a listen to your body and just say, okay, I've got this headache or my jaw is clenching.

28:43 Samantha Bell, Host

That's a good sign of stress, isn't it?

28:46 Cindy Johnston, Guest

And just really focus in what the problem is. Then the other side of the coin. What we need to do then is the acceptance of it. Okay, this is what's coming up for me, but okay, i accept that's how it is. So what we would say is something along the lines, even though I feel the stress just thinking about that meeting coming up. I completely accept myself, or accept that's just how I feel right now. So some form of acceptance.

29:13

We tap on that setup statement three times on the side of a hand, and then there's acupressure points that we use in EFT, that we go around the body. We start at the top of the head. There's points on our eyebrows, around our eye, under the eye, under the nose, under the lip, and then on our collarbone and under the arm, and for any of your listeners, there's plenty of YouTube videos out there that they could have a look at or that type of thing, just to see where these points are that I'm talking about. But we do a round of tapping, and before we do that round of tapping, we'll gauge just how stressed we are on a scale of zero to 10. So, zero being no stress at all, 10 is like off the charts right. So you just sort of just have a guess. You know it doesn't have to be accurate, you know you just sort of oh yeah, i feel it's about a seven out of 10.

30:06

Right now I'm feeling a bit stressed. So we do a round and then just take a breath and then sort of have tune into your body again and it's like oh, how am I feeling now? And it may stay the same, it may go up, but often you'll find it'll go down, okay, and then you think, okay, i don't feel as bad, let's do another round. So generally, if we can get it down like to a zero or a one, that is great, yes, yeah, but and that's just that basic tapping. So you're acknowledging the problem and then you're accepting it. There are other techniques and what I would suggest. If there are other issues going on that need to be investigated a little bit more, it's better to work with a qualified EFT practitioner than to try and do these things on their own.

30:58 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Because things can change exactly And what you might be tapping on initially, various other aspects might come into it, and because your memory plays a part here as well And it's like, oh okay, well, it's just taking me down the road to when I was five years old. At school I had trouble speaking in the class and I got, or I got, bullied or something like that, and then that affects your subconscious and that brings us through as well. So it's all linked.

31:27 Samantha Bell, Host

What I really like about the EFT is the acceptance. It's very much in line with the self care that you were talking about before, so it's quite a gentle approach, isn't it? There's no judgement, there's just sitting with the feeling and acknowledging it and not judging it, not wishing it to be anything other than what it is, just acknowledging that it's there and then letting it go.

31:52 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Exactly. Yeah, and your body is feeling this inside as well, and these energy pathways, and sometimes I just want it easy to think of. So all this stress, it's like if you've got a hose and normally the water would flow through easily, but when you get a kink in that hose or a knot, it just all builds up in one certain area, doesn't it? And it just builds up and builds up and you can see the hose getting wider and wider in that area And but as soon as you unkink that hose, it just flows normally again. So that's pretty much what is happening to the energy in our body. Energy needs to move, energy needs to flow. I'm keeping that energy flow, exactly, and energy and motion, that's our emotions. We need our emotions to flow, so we, instead of storing them up and holding onto them, letting them go. And AFT is just a powerful tool to help let those emotions go And it leaks then to the brain, the subconscious, and it all works and flows together.

33:05 Samantha Bell, Host

That is so important to know. And for people who don't practice self care and don't stop to think or listen to their body. Their body is probably screaming at them in a way to say, hey, listen to me.

33:45 Cindy Johnston, Guest

You know things that are happening to your body. Your body is trying to tell you and something is not right here.

33:53 Samantha Bell, Host

Exactly, And with a buildup of stress you actually develop physical ailments because of it, And you might get a cold, you might lose your voice, you might start getting. You can actually have quite severe consequences, can't you?

34:09 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Totally. It impacts your immune system, creates hypertension which leads to stroke, heart attack, you know, and even just other subtle things like affecting your sleep. But then, if you get into sleep, sleep then affects other aspects of your body as well. So managing stress is just so important in our day to day lives, and that's where the tapping can become just something that's easy to include.

34:39 Samantha Bell, Host

And you can do it anywhere, can't you? It doesn't matter where. You can do it wherever you are.

34:44 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Yes. It might look a bit strange like when you first start tapping around. You know your head and your body. But there are other ways that we can do what I call stealth tapping. So if you're on public transport or if you're out, you know somewhere that you don't want to be seen tapping, you can just use some of the like. If I'm just using the collarbone point, you might just sit there and just tap that. Or you can do just as I did at the dentist, I just tapped the end of my fingertips. And you can have your hands underneath the desk at work, like if you're stressed and the bosses yelling out for something. You can just sit there and Under the table, under the table and tap.

35:28

There's another particular technique that I like to use sometimes and it's called tap and rant. So you can actually tap just on the side of your hand and then just yell and scream. So if you're particularly frustrated, angry, let it out, don't keep it in the body, because we all have those moments. Maybe not in public or on public transport to do this one, but perhaps if you're at home or in the car driving, turn up the music really crank it up so no one can hear you and just let it all out. But tap as you do. Yes, because you're just moving that energy through your body and you're releasing all that stored tension and stress. And, yes, so much better thought. So tap and rant, tap and rant.

36:18 Samantha Bell, Host

I like that one Tap and rant and then opening all this beautiful space for good things to come in, aren't you? How can you incorporate EFT into your daily life? if you need to be specific about things, but if someone's just moving through their day and they're feeling a little heightened or anxious or sad, what can they do through the day to use EFT and to help them deal with that?

36:49 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Tap when anything comes up. Yeah, just acknowledge it, so you could just be sitting at your workspace or whatever and like something comes up As you say look, I'm just feeling really frustrated right now, say, even though I feel frustrated just thinking about what's just happened. Or you know, I've got to have this deadline and I'm not ready. I can accept myself And you can just tap on any of the points, whatever it is acknowledge it, accept and tap.

37:22 Samantha Bell, Host

You know there would be different people have different belief systems. Does EFT work better for some people than it does for others? Do you have to have a particular mindset for EFT to be effective? Can it just help everybody?

37:38 Cindy Johnston, Guest

It can just help everybody. I think if you are more open to accepting that it could be more benefit. They've tried it on all sorts of people in the scientific tests that they've done, and I have seen videos that where they've used it on people that have no belief whatsoever. You know, total skeptics. Some trials that were done over three days, took a group, all different random people, away for three days and some had some really major issues and PTSD, war veterans, there was sexual abuse, there was like really serious trauma.

38:29

And a lot of those people had no idea about EFT, a lot of them were skeptical, but by the end of the three days all of them had changed their beliefs. All of them had changed, had moved through whatever problem. The PTSD was gone, neutralised, it just neutralises all the emotions.

38:53 Samantha Bell, Host

That's powerful, isn't it? Because emotion is such a heavy driver in everything you do, how you think, how you act, your perceptions of things and, like you said, it's that instant reaction. You don't necessarily need to respond to things in the way you always have, just because it's a learned behavior. So dealing with their emotions in such a lovely, calm, accepting way is quite freeing.

39:27 Cindy Johnston, Guest

It is I suppose it's the name emotional freedom And then just being able to shift, as you say, your perceptions around your thinking. that has such a big impact as well. Absolutely, but you can just look at things in a different light. Yep, and it doesn't have to be that all beliefs that you've always had and The beliefs a lot of us have, and a lot of women, you know that I deal with Like I'm not good enough, like these, what we call tabletop beliefs. I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy and that can affect how we then deal with other things in our life and everyday basis, like our confidence.

40:09

It could be applying for a new role or a new job or something, but oh no, I'm not confident, I can't do that, I'm not good enough, they wouldn't take me on. But if we can tap into what set up those beliefs in the first place and just eliminate them, move it along. We talk about the tabletop of beliefs like I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy, but often holding up that table and lots of legs, yes, and the legs can be from anything, from how my, my mother or my father spoke to me when I was young, saying oh, you know You can't do that, you'll never be good enough for that. or you know Just the influences, particularly from when they're growing up, from zero to seven. whoever our main care givers are with sponges, we just soak everything up and that's where we start to learn.

41:04 Samantha Bell, Host

And our personality and our self-belief forms.

41:08 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Exactly so. It could be a teacher, it could be, you know someone, if you're in a church group, someone just spoke to you in a different way, or, and just as young children. We just take that on and then, oh well, I'm not good enough, i can't do this. Oh, i ran last in the running competition. You know I can't keep up. You know others are better than me. And then we take on all these beliefs and They are just not true, but they just affect how we think they do.

41:37

We get older and moving forward And we hang on to them as though they are our truth, exactly so this is amazing that it can just free you from all those, those blockages that are holding you back and often once we might take down one of these table legs and, as I said earlier, it's about being specific on an Incident or something that happened or how someone spoke to you or how it made you feel at the time. If we can then take out All these table legs, what you'll find is a lot of it then, or just collapses, a lot of all the other thoughts that we have about ourselves and The lips just Collapse with it.

42:17 Samantha Bell, Host

They lose their power, so much.

42:20 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Yeah, that's wonderful. You just have this whole shift in perspective and you gain confidence, or whatever it is that you're working on. It's, it's amazing, it really is it's fantastic.

42:32 Samantha Bell, Host

I think everyone should give EFT a try and obviously, I recommend they get in touch with you to book a few sessions and work on some things that are holding them back or some issues that they're having in their life, or just just getting through the day sometimes.

42:50 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Yeah and we can't stop stress from happening. We can't stop life from happening. Happen all the time, but it's how we can deal with it in a productive way.

43:00 Samantha Bell, Host

Yes think this is a very nurturing, productive way because it really unkinks that hose as you mentioned before. I did touch on earlier, that you do a lot of work with the Look Good, Feel Better organisation and you do tapping EFT with the cancer patients to help them deal with stress, and you're also having a fundraising event coming up, which I'd love you to tell us a little bit about.

43:33 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Oh, thank you, Sam, for the opportunity for this too, and can I just mention that I just feel so privileged now to have become an EFT practitioner, to move into this space of helping people going through their cancer journey. It's something that I hadn't even thought of that I would be doing. Because for such a long time I've worked in this space, volunteering for Look Good, Feel Better, as the makeup person, helping them face their cancer with confidence through the appearance related side effects of their treatment, through the makeup and the skincare. But on the other side of going through their cancer journey is all the emotions behind it and how much the fear, the resentment, theres' just so much that impacts them. And If we can then also help them manage the stress, the fear, everything that's going on through this journey, it will help them be able to then go through their treatment much better.

44:48 Samantha Bell, Host

It's such a terrible, frightening time for them and their loved ones. As soon as anyone hears the word cancer, it just puts the fear of God into them. And to actually be going through it yourself, and then all the physiological changes and the losing your hair and feeling like you're losing your identity, it's just quite horrifying.

45:05 Cindy Johnston, Guest

So you can just imagine the plethora of emotions that Deal with on a daily basis. The event that I have coming up is because most people may be aware that next month, July, is dry July month, and it's just I'm speaking about the alcohol piece. It's just a great month to raise awareness around taking a break from alcohol even if it's for 30 days, and just to give your body a break and to feel the benefits at the end of 30 days, just how good it can. And while we've got I'm spotlight on July, I'm holding a long table lunch and It is supporting Look Good, Feel Better. So if anybody's in the Sydney area, Wollongong, South Coast, please come along. It's at a beautiful venue called Willow Farm at Berry.

45:58 Samantha Bell, Host

So glorious, such a gorgeous location.

46:02 Cindy Johnston, Guest

It is. It's so peaceful and tranquil. But there's a gorgeous big rustic shed, because we know July on the South Coast or anywhere in many places in Australia It's winter, right, so we've got to be comfortable. So there's a beautiful big rustic shed with Heating and fires, so it's gorgeous long table. It's going to be a beautiful meals three, three course meals, but we've paired non-alcoholic lines and drinks, autumn loose drinks. There'll be outdoor games as giant Finska and bocce, and lots of fun and we're gonna have lots of prizes and options as well. So just a really good opportunity to support a fabulous cause and look after yourself as well. Take a break during July. So, if anyone is interested, tickets are through event bright. If you go to event bright, just type in long table lunch. That will all come up there. Come along and support a great cause.

47:01 Samantha Bell, Host

That's wonderful, and I will pop the link to the fundraiser, to the long table lunch, at the bottom of the show notes too, so anyone who's listening can just click the link and go straight straight to that Event and buy their tickets to come along. I wish I was down there. I'm up in Brisbane. You always put on a fabulous event. So no doubt this will be amazing and lots of fun. And you've also got some EFT tapping packages, some specials for June and July. Would you like to tell us a little bit about those?

47:38 Cindy Johnston, Guest

I do because I really want to get this modality out there to the public, because there's still so many people Haven't even heard about emotional freedom techniques.

47:48 Samantha Bell, Host

I mentioned it to my husband the other day and he said 'What, a money transfer, banking?' I said no, nothing of the kind.

47:54 Cindy Johnston, Guest

That's what most people think it is. So I've started just running some little free workshops in my community as well, just to get the word out there, just get people tapping and they're loving it, just along the lines of just managing stress and it's just amazing. So what I've decided to do is just for June and July is to have an EFT special. It's an EFT Taster Bundle, I call it So. Normally it's $497. That's for four sessions. So the first session is a discovery session and just to have a chat and to see what's going on, and then three mini sessions, so four hours all out. But if you want to have a look and just have a little try for yourself, I've got a $200 discount. So instead of $497, it's $297 and that's for the four sessions.

48:51 Samantha Bell, Host

That's brilliant. That's such a good deal and really a nice way for people who are curious to have a little go and get to know you a bit more and how you can support them with EFT and all of your other coaching and retreats and all the other wonderful things you have on offer.

49:14 Cindy Johnston, Guest

I just believe connection is key and, as women, helping other women just to, in whatever way that we can, it's just something I think that we all need to do just to help each other out, no matter what way.

49:27 Samantha Bell, Host

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today, Cindy. It's been such a pleasure talking to you, as always, I always learn so much from you and you've got a lot of really wonderful gifts to give the world, and I really encourage people to get in touch and learn a bit more about how you can help them.

49:47 Cindy Johnston, Guest

Well, thank you so much, and thank you for the opportunity. It's just been really lovely, fabulous, talking to you as well, and you are one of those beautiful people that the universe has brought into my life for a reason too, so thank you so much.

49:59 Samantha Bell, Host

Thank you, Cindy.

Wasn't that fantastic! Did you know about EFT and how it can help you manage your stress before today's episode? On a personal note, I have done some EFT sessions with Cindy, and for me, I found that the specific topics we worked on that were filling me with some stress and anxiety have had an amazing shift. I've experienced a lovely expansion and brightness entering to open me up to new opportunities and a more positive way of moving through life. Now this might sound a little woo-woo, and it is, but I love all things woo-woo. But for me, it was like a physiological change happened. I had a really cold, compressed blackness inside for a couple of topics that I won't go into here. But after doing some EFT sessions with Cindy, those cold, black feelings were replaced by a beautiful, warm white glow. It just seemed to roll in, unfold and fill up all those dark places and expand into my heart and mind, and it truly was amazing. It was a physical feeling. I encourage you to give EFT a go. All the links to Cindy's EFT Taster Bundle, her Long Table Lunch Event and her Dry July fundraiser are below in the show notes. So jump on those and get all the goodness you can from Cindy. You're just going to love it.

51:37

I've also got something new I'd like to share with you. So many women are stuck dreaming about leaving their 9-5 to do something more fulfilling with their lives, but they've got no idea if they can or how to start. So I've created a free guide and it's called Your 9-5 Exit Plan. It's a really practical, but super unsexy plan, for ambitious women so that you can plan your transition from being a corporate hostage into an empowered corporate escape. It's not just a typical download that's going to leave you disappointed and thinking you've wasted your time downloading it in the first place. It's full of truly actionable steps. You've got a calculator, even a transition planner, so that you can ditch your 9-5. You're just going to love it. It's the five things you must do right now if you're serious about escaping the 9-5 to build the business and lifestyle of your dreams. It's the opposite of what you've been told and it will set you up for success. You can literally map out your freedom in three hours. So hop on and get it. I've got the link below. It's at 16thavcreativecom forward slash 9-5-exit-plan. So grab your copy and start mapping out your freedom in three hours.

53:00

Next week we're back to schedule and into part three of our three part series on filling up your website with SEO juice to attract more clients and get more sales in your coaching or service business. So thank you so much for being here. I hope you enjoyed this special guest episode with Cindy and are curious about EFT and how it can help you deal with stress. Thanks so much for listening. I'd love to know your biggest takeaway from today's episode, so leave me a comment below or send a DM on Instagram. If you enjoyed this episode, hit the subscribe button wherever you listen to the Brilliant Business, Beautiful Life podcast and feel free to share it with someone else who'll love it too. I look forward to seeing you for the next episode and remember the time is now for your Brilliant Business and the Beautiful Life you adore.