EP18: Tapping Into Your Power With Sandra Griff

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Welcome everyone. I'm so excited to have you back for another episode of winning with wellness. And I am thrilled to have Sandra gruff with me here today. And we're going to get dig into some really amazing things around tapping and energy and holistic support. So Sandra, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Jenny. I'm so excited to be here as well. Oh, so I'm going to share you guys a little bit about Sandra so you know more about her and what she does in her background. But I'm invite you and encourage you to dig in and search her through the links in the show notes. If you want to find out more but Sandra is she's an amazing human being and I've been blessed to work with her in different occasions and speak at different summit, so I can't wait to introduce you guys to her. So as an energy movement facilitator, Sandra gets your energy moving, which she does. Besides being a Reiki Master, and EFT master practitioner, intuitive medium star, tarot reader and professional organizers. She is also a speaker and best selling author. And I believe I'm blessed to actually be co authored in a book with you Sandra if I'm not mistaken. Change is the only way to grow and thrive and it can be uncomfortable. But without it there are no butterflies. And Sandra as we know butterflies are a huge symbol for you. Can you share with everybody what what butterflies mean for you?

Oh, for me, butterflies are transformation. Butterflies start from the cocoon, they actually start from caterpillars. They're not even winged creatures when they start. And for me, it's the symbol of even babies growing from the womb, they start as little an egg and sperm, right, a little little dot and a tadpole. And they form to create something so magnificent as a human being. butterflies are the same. They start as a caterpillar and then they cocoon themselves and then transform. So I feel like that's what I did. I started out as a caterpillar and I was just slugging my way along. I needed to cocoon, which I did for far too many years, but we'll get into that I get turned in cocoon, and then push all of a sudden there's this beautiful butterfly that I never knew could have existed. So that's why butterflies are so important to me and they are everywhere in my life. butterflies

are everywhere. And they truly are a symbol I you know, it's hard pressed to find somebody out there that doesn't there's a butterfly that doesn't get excited about when they see a butterfly so for whatever that reasoning is thank you for sharing that you know at this with this podcast, one of our goals is to always try to connect the listeners to a story that that resonates with them in their own personal life and I always like to ask the guests on the show because we're really trying to help people champion their wellness and and redefine what wellness means for them. And I'm curious for you What does what does wellness mean to you? What what what does that exact sentence mean to you? Oh bless you oh my goodness. I love it.

It seems like every time I get on you get onto the zoom with with the microphone these days. I sneeze I don't know maybe I'm allergic to the foam on the microphone. Microphone. Maybe dust in it there might be dust in it. Well quite honestly. There's construction right outside my window there triple waiting my road or whatever it is they're doing so there's a huge amount of dust in the air right now and I'm not allergic but man It sure has been sneezing like crazy. So what does all this mean to me? A sneeze does not

actually I was like it's kind of a good lead in that doesn't mean you're healthier sick.

So wellness for me is changed. Over the years, I grew up in traditional Western medicine. And it always frustrated me because I could never ever get them to help me with the difficulties I was having. The only thing they really helped me with was was the emergent stuff like when I had a gangrenous appendix, and my appendix wasn't where it belonged to. So I actually had to lie to get them to, to operate on me and have I not lied and said, Oh, yeah, the pain is where my appendix is, I would have died. And I just about died anyway, because they had to dig for my appendix and left bleeders, and they had to go back in a second time. So wellness now means to me to be balanced. It really is a case of how you feel not how someone else tells you how you feel or what you should be feeling. But how you actually feel paying attention to your body, and adjusting what you do, to listen to your body to help your body do what your body does. Because our bodies are miracles, then we lose sight of that, don't we? We do. Our bodies were designed to do great things, our bodies were designed to heal themselves, consider a paper cut, you don't have to run to the doctor to have a paper cut, heal, you get a paper cut, it hurts, it bleeds, please, later you wait was there, your body did that. And your body does that inside as well. It's not just for the surface stuff, you get a cold, your body heals that you get the flu, your body heals that you get a migraine, I had one a couple days ago, which for me is now very, very unusual. But for whatever reason it needed to my body needed me to slow down. So it said stop this, if you're not going to slow down on your own. Here's a headache.

When I think it's interesting, too, I love that you bring that up, because we kind of lose sight and forget, we forget, you know, when we have a fever, it's actually a good thing. our body's doing what it's supposed to be doing. But due to maybe how we've been raised or what we seen on TV and all of those, you know, different experiences. We think a fever is a terrifying thing, you know, or it's an awful thing. It's not comfortable going wrong. I don't like having but it's my body doing its job. So you know. And it's so interesting when we think about it, what I loved is you said emergent care. And I think that's what really we want to dig into and tap in today in our conversation is that proactive care, that piece so that when we need emergent care, we need allopathic medicine, or westernized medicine, because it's more of a raft of model that were strong and healthy when we get there. So even if we are sick, and under the weather, or whatever that looks like when we need them, you can survive surgeries that don't go well. Or you can you know, you can be in a place where you're you're stronger all the way around. So I would love to to tap into no pun intended, maybe it is I don't know maybe it is upon. I would love to tap into topics.

Or anything that you want to talk about in reference to your modality your methods of holistic wellness that you support people with, how do you feel that there's different ways like I would love for you to share with the listeners some tools or tips or tricks that they could do some of their own healing support at home in you know, outside of what they would consider maybe westernized medicine.

There are so many different ways to help your body heal. And it starts with your mind flat out. I mean, it doesn't matter what you do with your body if your mind is not right. And by that I mean calm and you're not the one in control, then you can see mine not quite right. Right right out of my head. Let's tap into some stuff here. If your mind is not functioning, well, then if you're not calm, then you're not able to actually deal with what's happening. in any situation, let alone your health and tapping. I know you said tapping into it. That's a great question. I love using it. One of the modalities I have or use is called Emotional Freedom Technique. And it's also called tapping and it can help so many different things simply because it actually works to calm the mind down. And when you calm your mind down when you calm your fight flight In free center down the amygdala, you can actually function better and differently than you were. And when your body is calm, your body is no longer trying to protect itself. So it can do the healing things that it's supposed to do. So just a simple tapping technique that you can use that anyone can use anywhere, for anything, just simply to calm your mind down, which will then calm your body down, is to tap on where your wrist bends, when you bend your wrist on that spot, right where your wrist bends. So your wrist is kind of over, you keep your wrist upright, but you're going to tap with three or four fingers right on that wrist area. And that will help calm your amygdala down.

So just so for those that you those that are listening, you can't see Sandra and I are actually tapping right now. So we're on the inside of our wrist. And what's interesting is, I didn't know this, I, you know, I'm fascinated with how the brain works. And and all of these, literally, our primal brain is our power brain. It's the one that takes over. And people don't realize, and it's okay, because I didn't realize this either. That when we are in state of high stress at work, because of too many emails, because of overwhelmed with our schedule, because we have to take Bobby to here and Susie to here and we're all over the map that actually puts our amygdala on alert. So that fight flight or freeze brain that you were just talking about. What I love about this little tip about I hope everybody heard that you just take your fingers and tap. Now I'm going to start coughing. Holy smokes. We're in this smoke situation here in BC. Sorry about that. Um, I'm assuming it's the rhythm that slows us down. Is that is that what what like? What? Can you explain how come the tapping works?

So if you've got meridians running through your body, and where what are you tapping on when you tap on your wrist? Is every meridian that's running through your body?

Can you mean what meridians are for people?

So meridians are, they're kind of like roadways, they're like nerve pathways that are running through your body. And there's tons of them. I can't even I read off the top of my head. I can't tell you how many there are. But they literally run through every portion of your body right down to your fingertips and your toes. And when you tap tapping works on acupuncture points, but we're using acupressure, no, okay. Okay, when we tap on any of the points that we tap on, and the wrist is actually not a common point. It's just one that I really like, because you can do it while your hands are under the table sitting at a meeting, you're stressed. So you can put your hands under the table and tap. Now, the meridians that are running through your body actually carry all of the signals that your body your brain is sending out. So you're sending a signal back to your brain through your meridians to say, calm down, calm down, calm down.

That's powerful. And correct me if I'm wrong, I believe I read somewhere that EFT was actually developed to support veterans with PTSD, is that correct?

That's one of the extremely spectacular uses that it has. Right? Yeah. So it was around since World War Two or something? No, it's only been actually around for about 30 years, it was developed by an engineer, actually, who was working with a psychologist or therapist, and this therapist had developed this therapy that was kind of like a repetitive thing. So it was more like, more like therapy of, oh, if you're afraid of spiders, spiders here, I'll show you a spider. So it was it was more like that kind of therapy rather than this therapy, which he said, Oh no, there's got to be an easier quicker way to do this. Why can't we use combine several things, which is how some of these great modalities have been created. Mm hmm. How can we improve this? So this engineer said Oh, yeah, no, I think if we use the acupressure and it's connecting to the amygdala will then will get quicker results. So he of course, started studying that and found that yes, in a very short period of time, you can release phobias that you've had for years and years. You can reverse PTSD. You can calm your whole system down so that you just function better. You can release fear you can release Pain. Did you know that 85 to 90% of your pain is actually psychological.

I didn't know that. But that doesn't surprise me at all.

Or EFT can actually help calm your brain down so that you don't feel as much pain rather than taking chemical drugs.

You know, it's so interesting that you share this because when I think back to think it was 2009, so my daughter, my youngest daughter was born in 2005. I was diagnosed probably about seven months later with graves disease, which is basically hyperthyroid autoimmune situation. And I was immediately because I was in really rough shape, not realizing, I'll give you the Coles notes version here, ended up on medication was not happy about having to be on medication, but it was kind of a life saving measure. So this is where we started. So Madison is so valuable, because we have resources. I think this is something that you know, for our listeners, it's so important. We're not here to tell you which path you should take, but to know that there are multiple paths. And, and that's what's powerful. So I'm an advocate for all things. I'm advocate for choice, though, that's the ultimate ultimate thing. And what I realized, though, was I was on my healing journey from that point, I literally woke up one day, I was like, I'm not doing this anymore. You know, I've been on medication for about four years. And this is when I was coming into my, my awareness that I wanted to do things differently for my my diet, my health, and all those kinds of things. And when you talked about your mind, that really triggered in me, I literally spent six months, every single day, maybe it might have been a year, but it was within that six month to a year period every single day telling myself my body was going to heal. Now, in all transparency, I was on the smallest dose that you could possibly take for the medication that I needed at that point. But you know, at that point, they're like, you have to come off medication, we're going to have to they were going to radiate my thyroid, or I was going to go have to go on some type of replacement. And none of those options. I was like, I'm not I'm not, I'm not doing any of that. So I asked them, What would be the worst thing that happens if I go off the medication. And they said, you know, well, nothing, we just still have to do the end result. And I'm like, Okay, so I'm like, I'm going off all the things and I literally told myself every single day your body's going to heal your body strong, your body's going to heal, and I've been in remission ever since. So whether whether the mind over matter really had an impact or whether my strength and knowing that my body could do the work. And I didn't result into stepping into that whatever that is pet, let me do a pathway were all my stuff is still my own. My thyroids are still mine. And I'm in a place of remission. And it's been, oh my gosh, I guess almost 11 years now, if not longer. So the mind if we can calm the mind and focusing energy in the mind, I think, you know, what you share is so powerful, so powerful. How many times in a day I wish people listening could raise their hands. But if you guys listening, how many times in the day do you feel out of control?

Right? How many times do you feel out of control? And you know, as much as I would like to say I tap just just about daily, I would recommend daily tapping to anyone, and not just tapping out the bad stuff. But how in the good stuff. Oh,

I love that. Did everyone hear that? We got to reinforce the good stuff. It's not always about the bad, right?

Right. But it's not just about reinforcing the good stuff. Oh, Louise Hay. I don't know if you or your audience knows her. She she is no longer with us. But she was extremely famous for her. What do they call the Happy, happy thoughts, affirmations, affirmations. So she was really and then she had she. And then she built a publishing company, and has helped other people publish as well. But her affirmations that saying the good stuff has helped hundreds of 1000s of people. There's tons of books out there with her name on them telling you how to do affirmations. But what she also says is, when you tap, you tap on the bad stuff, so why would you do that? Why would you keep saying the bad stuff when you tap? You say, Oh, I'm afraid I'm stressed. I'm angry. I'm frightened. Why would you do that? Because you need to get the dirt out first. You can't clean a house if you can't see the dirt. If you don't ever lift the carpet. How do you That dirt Thunder they're not there, right? When you

make such a good point, so many of us oppress and don't acknowledge and don't see and, and honor the feelings. We don't have to be the feelings we don't have to take them on. But it's important that we, we look at them, acknowledge them, because stuff compressed as we know, it can be very unhealthy for us, when they are going to come o ut.

They're going to come out stuffing it down. It's like stuffing the clothes hamper. Yeah, you stuffing a clothes hamper, you put that shirt in, you put the pants in, you put the towel in, you put the sheets in, and pretty soon it's overflowing. So you put your hand in, and you stuffed it down. Pretty soon, it's splits at the sides. That's what's happening to us. As human beings. We're not actually splitting, but it's coming out as anger and frustration and fear. So you have stuffing it down doesn't work, you have to let it out.

So when we think about so let's just say we have somebody listening right now that that is feeling overwhelmed, that feels that their laundry hampers about ready to burst at the seams? What are some with the tools that you know, use and share in practice? What are some of the things is there one or two, three things you could recommend for the audience's listening to to create some change in their life or you know, step into some new habit,

the first thing I would recommend is to breathe. Because what happens is we tend to when we get frustrated, angry, fearful, we tend to stop breathing, we hold our breath, we breathe a very shallow way. So first off, take a deep breath. Nice, big deep breath, several of them, remember to breathe, our brain will not function without oxygen, you cannot create a solution for your problem with the same mind that created it. So you have to calm your mind down. And breathing is one of the easiest ways to do that. So first off, breathe, breathe deeply, then speak out loud. Get into a room by yourself, if you don't want to actually talk to someone speak out loud what you're thinking in your head. When you keep all this stuff bottled up, it sounds so differently than when you hear it out loud. So it needs to come out of your mouth, speak it out loud. And that sometimes will just be enough to help you release it. And once you've spoken it out loud, if that's not enough, well, then you do need to find some other techniques. Tapping is one of the great ones. Meditation is fabulous. Yoga is another great one. I can't even list all of the great modalities that are out there that can help to just calm you down. Your first goal is to calm down because you can't properly function. If you're all hyped up.

Well, in our minds, again, we're talking about that amygdala brain, it actually impacts our our ability to rationalize, because its whole purpose is to protect us. So yeah, calming down. Our brain actually functions at an optimum when we're in a calm state.

They'll say, Oh, no, I don't have time to calm down, I have to keep going. Well, that's not actually true. Because when you're all hyped up, you're actually not thinking correctly, which means that you're not doing things as well as you could be doing them either. So if you took the few minutes to calm down, you're going to find that you actually are going to make more progress.

So you you know, we were before we press the record button, and we're sorry, everyone that we didn't record our conversation beforehand, because it was quite juicy. We were talking about, you know, life. We're talking about how we're enlightened and we still ourselves finders going like, Oh, I know about her. So, you know, when you think of people that are listening right now, and thank you for those that are here and listening with us. When you think of people right now, when you think of where you were, let's say even 10 years ago, if you could give yourself one piece of advice, or maybe two, what would it be?

The second piece of advice would be to find a routine. No matter what you've chosen as your path for keeping yourself healthy, or your wellness journey. Find routine. Find those 10 or 15 minutes a day, half an hour or an hour if you can make it happen, but have a system in place that you repeat diddly Doo, our teeth don't stay White and bright and cavity free unless we brush them every day. Our hair doesn't stay nice and shiny and beautiful unless we repeatedly wash it, we start to smell if we don't have a shower, we have to do wellness over and over and over. It's a repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. So that would be the second thing. The first thing would be to let go of some of the fear that you're holding on to now I've lived my whole life in fear. And the fact that I'm sitting here talking to you today is nothing short of a miracle. Because I was literally in a place where if someone said to me, hey, I want to talk to you, I would be bolting for the door. And I had to stop being afraid, long enough to realize that there was nothing to be afraid of what is the absolute worst thing that could ever happen to you, you're going to die. Nobody is getting out of here alive. We are already

expiry date and we do not know when it is. So we need to recognize that we are in a position to live every single day. Rather than sitting here waiting to die. Stop the fear and step outside of your comfort zone. And learn about something that you know nothing about.

We love that. Nothing inspires like learning. I'm addicted to learning. I'm a life learner for sure.

The problem with learning though, as you can learn all this stuff, but if you don't put what you've learned into practice, it's completely useless.

100% 100% Oh my gosh, right. It needs to become integrated. Absolutely. And whatever you think, you know, there's always more dig in, you know, and you talk about habits and building habits actually just recorded an episode I think it aired might have aired. I don't know when it aired, but it's Episode 17. And I talk about, you know, digging into habits and how to make that happen. So for any of you that are like I don't know how to make a habit. Don't hesitate to listen to that episode, it'll help just give you some insight on to either redefined a habit because it's all about redefining or implementing because yeah, I don't think twice about brushing my teeth. I probably brush my teeth at least three times a day, if not more. I don't even think twice about it. I'm blessed. I work at home. So I eat food. I brush my teeth.

guilted into your system, though. Yeah, it's my habit. It's my lifestyle. It's what I do. Only repetition. Yeah, habit is only repetition. So whether your habit is good or bad completely depends on how you define it. But if you want to succeed, you need to have a habit. You need to build it into your system so that you can make it happen without thinking about it.

Well in the beautiful thing about habits and what I love about a good habit is there's no motivation necessary. You know, this is the one thing that we kind of forget about is once you get through that need to motivate yourself to do it. It takes no energy because you just naturally do it. We just naturally do it. I mean, you put your shoes on before you go outside for a walk. You don't think about that, oh, I gotta put your shoes on. You just do it.

And how that happened was you either challenged yourself to make that happen, or someone was helping you to say Did you like this?