Free From Bad Memories

    The sixty-year old woman sat in front of me crying softly as she spoke.  "It was terrifying!  We were driving in the dark, in the rain, and didn't realize that there was black ice on the highway.  All of a sudden, the car spun around and headed directly for the tractor-trailor in the next lane."  Her hand was shaking now; it was hard for her to breathe.  Her voice trembled as she continued,  "I could see we were going to crash - maybe die - I froze.  Then the car rammed into the truck, spun around again, and began to roll over and over."  Now the tears were coming heavily; her face was flushed and she was in great distress.  She continued, "We were crushed inside the car.   The rescue workers had to pull us out……."
    Ruth was describing an incident that occurred fifteen years ago, an incident that left her with a severe phobia of driving in the rain.  In order to treat the phobia, it was necessary to treat the precipitating event - a horrifying car accident.  Modern, innovative techniques in psychology such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR), Neurolinguistic Programming and Thought Field Therapy (TFT), among others, can provide rapid resolution of traumatic memories such as this.  Indeed, after only a few minutes of treatment with Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), a variation of Thought Field Therapy, Ruth's upset was completely resolved.  She was able to talk about the accident calmly, without any distress at all.  It was "history" now, just a factual recounting of the events without emotional arousal.  Esther remembered all of the details, but it seemed like a story that didn't have anything to do with her anymore.  She was free at last.
    Mrs. White, now in her mid-seventies, also found relief from Thought Field Therapy.  As a young girl, she left her home to make a new life in a new country.  The parting from her parents was intensely painful, so much so that for the rest of her life, she recalled the anguished look on her mother's face with heartbreaking sadness.  In talking about it now, Mrs. Whitesobbed with pain as fresh as it was all those years ago.  Within minutes of treatment, however, Mrs. Gold was filled with a peaceful sense of completion.  At last, all those years of pain were resolved and put to rest.  The torture was over.  Once a memory is successfully treated with one of the power therapies, the pain will not return.
    What sorts of memories can be treated?  Any memory that is still activated - that still generates upset and pain - can be treated.  Mr. Kim sought relief from the trauma of a horrible flight experience in which the plane had to make an emergency landing.  Miriam L. came to resolve her pain over a broken engagement, so that she could get on with her life.  Dr. King could not stop obsessing about the day her mother died and how she was unable to say goodbye to her.  Amy Stone came to resolve the grief over her stillborn baby.  Arnold W. wanted to break free of childhood humiliations.  Mrs. Starr  had been a victim in a bank robbery and couldn't get it out of her mind.  Mr. Wilson wanted to be free of recurring nightmares he suffered from.  Ronnie G. still remembered with pain, the fights his parents had when he was small.
    Some people wonder how the pain can be removed from painful memories and even wonder if it should be removed.  If someone died, if something terrible happened, shouldn't we feel pain?  Of course.  And we do.  However, unresolved pain and anguish is suffering that doesn't end.  Two years later or twenty years later, the pain is still alive inside our bodies and we can experience the hurt anew with each thought or retelling of the memory.  This pain is like a broken record, stuck and unprocessed.  Besides hurting, it can cause problems for the mind-body system such as nightmares, anxiety,  phobias and depression.  And no matter how much it hurts, the pain cannot bring back that which was lost.
    Pain that is properly processed brings about a cognitive, emotional and spiritual shift.  The awful aching stops and a deep sense of acceptance and resolution sets in.  God's will is accepted peacefully and with a solid trust.  The incident and its meaning is viewed calmly and positively.  It is put in its place in life and energy is freed up for future endeavors.  Although the clock cannot be turned back and events cannot be undone, the suffering is finally over.  You can be free at last.