THIS IS AN UPDATED POST (APRIL 2019) based on an interview about EFT tapping for guilt and shame with Cheryl Richardson during the World Tapping Summit 2014.
If you want to TAP-A-LONG on this topic, I have added a video at the end of the post showcasing EFT wizard Brad Yates doing exactly that entitled: “Clearing Guilt and Shame”.
Generational Shame
Coming from South Africa where many people could be carrying the legacy of shame from apartheid years – and possibly from the colonial past – I was riveted to hear Cheryl Richardson in the interview she did with with Jessica Ortner during the World Tapping Summit 2014 discuss how we may be carrying generational shame within and can tap this away!
EFT Tapping for Guilt & Shame: [My Summary]
We start “guilting and shaming” ourselves as kids – and can continue this toxic habit all our adult lives.
Cheryl Richardson says it is vital to heal and release patterns of guilt and shame forever with EFT Tapping – the super effective way to effectively dissolve the toxic guilt and shame stories we tell ourselves.
CONTROLLING US AS KIDS
Our parents and the educational system were quick to use shame to control us as children. And it can affect us with lifelong patterns of perfectionism for instance – not wanting to invoke the shame of criticism of others because of traumas from childhood.
Or putting up with bad behavior from family and friends because we want to keep the peace and be liked by everyone – people pleasers.
It’s a way of staying safe.
Image by Lisa Runnels, Pixabay
What about Inherited Shame?
Carrying cultural guilt and from our family lines could explain a tendency to seek punishment and self-sabotage.
For more on this topic of generational inherited trauma read this blog post with video:
Is “inherited Family Trauma” running – or ruining – your Life now?
Take weight issues and overeating food, for example. You may want to get healthy and fit yet you keep consuming things that sabotage that…guilty and punishing yourself…not even aware of where it comes from.
The answer says Cheryl is to tap on guilt for present-day issues – plus for any “legacy of guilt” you may be carrying.
What about inherited guilt as a woman?
For centuries women had to keep their mouths shut and keep themselves in place – suppressing feelings of guilt or shame if they desired freedom from their given roles as mothers and housekeepers with very little power in the family.
Women now have far more freedom of choices than our ancestors ever had.
Some of the EFT tapping scripts Cheryl and Jessica offered in this interview were tapping for:
- Debilitating guilt – that haunts me – hurts so much – that just won’t go away – feel bad about myself – can’t stand being with – this guilt – this horrible guilt.
- Carrying a legacy of guilt – like a back pack on my back – I choose to release it now. For my parents and their parents – people who came before – profoundly accept myself and them and this history.
- What prevents me from moving forward in life – choose to take a deep breath, release this weight and take a step forward.
- Can’t identify – choose to release it now…my mother had, father had, their parents had, any authority figure who influenced me as a child…
- I feel lighter, freer, ready and able to live my life more fully and completely.
Addressing the “LITTLE KID INSIDE”
- She thought she was the cause of everything – interrupts my movement forward by believing she is in charge of everything and the cause of everything – choose to let her go and play now.
- Kid deeply connected to my guilt – release her and live my life more fully.
- This little kid inside who feels so guilty – responsible for every bad thing – this little kid – who trips me up today as an adult – by making me feel guilt – and then I seek self-punishment.
- Because of this shame spiral from the past…I may eat things I shouldn’t, hang out with people I shouldn’t, stop myself from doing things I really want to do – formed by this little kid just trying to stay safe.
- Safe now – release this guilt – this child
- I am free from guilt – I feel at peace with the unfolding of my life.
Cheryl ended her talk on how EFT Tapping can heal guilt and shame with these words of wisdom (which I am paraphrasing)
We are souls on planet earth having human experiences – doing the best we can…as we grow and evolve…we can look back and release and diffuse that shame and stop beating ourselves up for it.
So there is real hope for healing with EFT tapping for guilt and shame – whether from childhood or inherited family patterns.