Dear Friends,

Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. Please accept my love and thanks. The tender, connected quality of our community is lovely.

I’ve been surprised at how much has gone on between my mom and me since she left her body.

One central thing I did TAT about not too long before she left that body was something about completely accepting what’s real for me in the moment…not trying to bend my experience even a tiny bit to suit someone else’s ideas. For instance, at one point, I had the strong feeling that I was going to be in the house with my mom till she died. I couldn’t have consciously known when that would be and there were many times in the past year that I felt pretty certain she was going to die soon. But one day, I felt “I have to be with her till she dies”…not knowing how long that might be. So I did it. I immediately left my then current happy surroundings to be near my mom. In fact, one person said something like, “Oh, this has happened so many times before with your mom. Don’t you think this is a false alarm?” I didn’t. So, I recommend you do TAT for believing in or accepting your own experience just as it is, completely independent of anyone else’s thoughts.

You know how when you think of someone, your feelings and thoughts start to roll with whatever’s there in the relationship? Unfinished business usually gets stirred up. I found that, because the business between my mom and me was finished, what was there when I’d think of her was…her! Our loving, current, connected relationship is present — not my memories or fantasies, but she herself fills my feelings.

It’s just like when I read an email from each of you, you fill my heart and thoughts and feelings with your individual love and being. It’s similar with my mom now. I didn’t know it would be so clear and simple. It’s also similar to dreams wherein conversations are conducted by thoughts and feelings being exchanged. Once I accepted that we’re together and I can put my attention on our being together whenever I want, I felt relaxed. It felt like, “OK, Mom. I know where to find you now so I can go back to the business of living my life.”

When I was a little girl and it was summer, my mom would pack up a lunch and snacks and take my younger brother and me to the beach. We’d take the bus and soon, we’d be playing in the sand and water. My brother and I were always on the lookout for pretty shells. When we found them, we’d run up the sand to where Mom was on her beach blanket and show her the shells and give them to her to keep for us. It’s like that now: I can run to Mom with whatever I want and she’s here.

While she was alive and pretty close to dying, I’d go to her and tell her thoughts I was having like, “I can’t live without you!” Then I’d laugh hearing how it was a thought from a child part of me and I really could live without her. I also did the first two steps of TAT about thoughts like that and they’d clear up.

I told her things that would be important for her to know so she could feel at ease about letting go. For example, she loved her dog, Sadie. Up until shortly before she died, we didn’t know what would become of Sadie when she died. We had a couple of OK possibilities, but nothing great. When my niece, Jennie, offered to take Sadie, our family felt at ease. I sat next to my mom at her bedside and told her about it even though at that point she was completely unresponsive. I told her that everyone here was taken care of and she could feel at ease and free about moving on whenever she wanted.

One of the easiest ways to explain how it is now with my mom is this: it’s just like right now, as you read this, you’re open to me, have feelings about me and are taking in these thoughts. Right? Same for me with my mom only there isn’t email being read or out loud conversation (well, sometimes there is on my end). It was just surprising because I haven’t heard or read people talking about it like this very much. It’s kind of not a big deal. On the other hand, it’s a total big deal in the same way that it’s a total big deal that we are truly connected this moment by our thoughts, feelings and attention on each other. Isn’t that amazing???

Like I first said, it has been really surprising that it’s so easy to be in touch. She also isn’t appearing like a ghost or something eerie or “other worldly”. She’s just on the other end of a thought. Pretty cool.

I’d never felt my mom as an angel/fairy/delicate being like I do now. I knew her as a hard-working lady — lots of cooking, laundry, cleaning, service to others and being with her temple community. Visiting my brother recently, he showed me a photo of Mom I’d never seen. It was from 1934 — she was 14. Oh my gosh. Gives me chills thinking of it. In this picture, she looks like she feels to me now: so delicate, feminine, and spiritually present. Wow. It was very confirming to see a picture of what I was feeling since she left her 89-year-old body. I’d like you to see her with me. Here’s the photo my brother showed me:

My mom came to me in my kitchen the other day — I was missing her. I saw her holding my hands, standing before me, with two great angel wings. She showed me she was standing a few inches off the floor. Then she showed me that I also had the same wings and was standing off the floor. I understood that we are together in that place now and that I’m also here now. I felt freed to put my attention back more fully into the flow of this life I’m in here. It was the sense of multi-dimensions and multi-time happening at the same time as this life. I’m feeling more relaxed — both with my mom and with this life we share. These are unexpected gifts and learnings — it’s a great time.

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It’s a good time for me to share with you what I’ve learned through my mom’s death, so I’m offering you a teleseminar on Moving from Grief to Inner Peace and Happiness .

We’ll do TAT together on our own beliefs about:

• someone who’s died,
• a relationship we’ve lost, or even
• a part of our life that is in our past that we’ve now moved on from but are having trouble letting go of

- beliefs that keep us from inner peace and happiness.

The teleseminar will have three sessions: Tuesday, February 23; Thursday, February 25; Tuesday, March 2. The sessions will last an hour each and will begin at 10:00am PST (18:00 UTC/GMT).

Letting go of what was and embracing what is can be full of ease and sacred beauty. I’d love to share this with you. Just click here to register.

Please join me in warmly congratulating the following people who have recently completed our program and become certified TAT Professionals. You can read about them by clicking on their names.

• Simcha Ajzner
• Carla Austin
• Renee Bourg-Giarrusso
• Eli Gur-Ari’e
• Brigitte Hansoul
• Marilyn Holt
• Pernilla Kristiansson
• Jenny Lee Lynarko
• Ahulani McAdam
• Shmuel Munk
• Claudia Schecter

Certified TAT Professionals are a great resource if you’d like support working on something, you don’t know how to use TAT or where to start, or you want to experience doing TAT with someone who is calmly present with you and witnesses your healing. Most TAT Professionals work over the phone as well as in person, so help is available wherever you are. To see the list of all TAT Professionals, click here. You’re invited to call and interview Professionals to find someone you’d like to work with.

If you’re interested in becoming a certified TAT Professional, click here to read more about our certification program.

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I have the deep pleasure of working directly with Professionals who are becoming Trainers. Working with these two individuals has been a joy. I’m happy to announce the following new TAT Trainers:

• Yves Wauthier Freymann
• Nancy Gnecco

The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (ACEP) will host this year’s annual conference June 3-6, 2010 in San Diego California at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort. This conference is always very fun and very enriching. People come from around the world to attend this event, share their innovations in mind-body healing and to participate in the community of open, inquisitive, and funny people. The conference is a highlight of the year for many people.

Again this year, I’ll lead both a one-day pre-conference workshop and a session during the conference. The one-day session on June 3 is entitled, “Using TAT to Heal Your Relationship with Food and Weight”. In this workshop, I’ll teach participants how to use TAT for lasting weight loss and a healthy relationship with food. With TAT, negative emotional patterns can change into a radiant life free of the need of excess weight. You’ll have time for your own healing experiences while supporting each other and having fun!

On June 6, I’ll lead a session on “Celebrating Your True Self with TAT.” I’m really excited about sharing this. I’ll teach everyone how to be present to your true self, rest in your spiritual center, and see your clients as whole and complete, even in their current state. This spiritual grace helps effect huge shifts for your clients and is a natural outcome of TAT.

I’d love to see you at the pre-conference workshop and at the ACEP conference – I think you’ll have a great time.

Register before Feb15th for the best price. The next price break is March 31st.

The keynote speakers for this year’s conference are:

• William Bengston, PhD Researcher in Energy Healing of Cancer
• Norman Doige, MD Author of The Brain that Changes Itself
• Dean Radin, PhD Author of the Conscious Universe
• Donna Eden Author of Energy Medicine
• David Feinstein, PhD Author of Energy Psychology Interactive
• Debbie Ford Author of The Secret of the Shadow

For more information or to register, click here or call 619 861- 2237.

Thank you again for all your love and caring.

Sending you my very best wishes and lots of love,

Tapas

Dear Friends,

On a recent flight home, a little boy in the row ahead was fussing and crying, turning around to peer through the space between the seats at his dad. I offered to switch places so he could sit next to his dad. Wow – those two were instantly smiling and chatting, looking so happy to be sitting together.

In the row ahead, I took the middle seat. The man to my left was a black man. As I chatted with him, I noticed that something in me was missing. It was a very lightweight, invisible attitude that used to be present – a slight trepidation I had never even noticed existed. It had been all mine, and it was entirely gone. Couldn’t really say where it had come from — too much TV maybe — certainly nothing from my own personal experience. The important thing was, it was gone. I felt grateful for the Practicing Presence workshop I’d just led.

At the workshop, one of the participants talked about being raised as a Nazi and how hated she was as a child…and didn’t know why. She was a little kid living the way her family raised her. I guess her story made a big impression on me because in my growing up, the Nazis were talked about as the worst thing ever. This woman transformed right in front of my eyes. She went from looking shadowed and withdrawn to being absolutely radiant. I loved that woman with my whole heart. I never thought I’d love someone who’d been a Nazi. Doing TAT on each other’s behalf in a group supports our ability to be more compassionate, loving, and accepting.

In Boston at last year’s Practicing Presence workshop, Velma Alford (one of our TAT Trainers) told about how she’d been raised to hate blacks, Jews and Germans. Another woman told about how she wasn’t accepted because she wasn’t “French enough” for her mother-in-law. A Jewish man shared how he’d felt isolated because of being Jewish. These three people ended up working together for one of the small group TAT sessions (Velma thought the French woman was German). Their personal traumas related to prejudice dissolved, allowing for openness and connection with each other. They each shared their experience with all of us at the workshop after the small group session. The fact that this incredible shift in reality had happened in the space of less than two hours brought many of us to tears and gave us hope for the stunning possibilities.

Because of the cultural identities we were raised with, the prejudices we inherited from our families, and the emotionally-painful personal experiences we’ve had of being discriminated against, we find ourselves with a whole load of beliefs and thoughts that make it impossible for us to simply be present in our lives. Our Practicing Presence workshops provide a safe place for voicing the traumas we’ve had and beliefs we have so that we can watch them dissolve. It’s really heart-breaking to hear some of our stories and touching to witness the courage we have in admitting these rotten attitudes we live with.

We all put everything into one “pot” together and then do TAT for ourselves, each other, all our ancestors, our families, all the parts of ourselves and anyone who’d like to benefit from this healing. Oh my gosh – the density of what we start off with is so thick. Then, step by step, the air clears, faces start to shine, and these troubles are lifted forever. Oh, you should feel the air in the room then; it sparkles with love, compassion, connection and clarity. My whole body thrills just thinking about how it is. With all we’ve shared together, the bonds between us are vibrant and strong. And that’s just after a couple of hours.

Several of our TAT Trainers shared their experiences of attending a Practicing Presence workshop. Click here to listen.

The Practicing Presence workshop also gives you an opportunity to clear up whatever’s in the way of your being completely present at work. Think of what a joy it will be to have nagging, bothersome, work-related thoughts and uncomfortable feelings about co-workers gone and simply enjoying work and the people you’re with.

We also do a TAT session on whatever’s in the way of being present in our intimate relationships. It’s possible to have more love and better sex.

These changes last and life keeps getting better. Your inner world is immediately reflected in your outer life… and the person next to you can feel like a dear friend from the moment you see them.

Our upcoming Practicing Presence workshops are scheduled for:

Toulouse, France - March 15-16
Manchester, England - March 21-22
Redondo Beach, California - April 4-5
Boston, Massachusetts - June 12-13
Bali, Indonesia - July
Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio - July

Please click here to sign up for the Practicing Presence workshop that’s most convenient for you. We have a monthly payment plan for Redondo Beach and Boston, or you can pay in one payment. Registration for Hocking College and Bali will be available soon. Register now to get the best deals – we have early bird prices in place that will expire, and we’d love for you to attend at the best price. I’ll see you there.

Here’s a story about how it got easy to clear out junk from a friend in New Mexico.

I recently closed down a storage unit I’d had for the last three years. I put things in there after selling my house, and after being extremely ill for three years. As I took things out of storage, I began culling out what was worth keeping and what was not, and I was struck by certain files I had kept for a number of years:

• an entire box of documents and keys from a condominium association that had fired me
• a large file of medical records from having broken my wrist at work at another company
• voluminous files on 4 car accidents

As I contemplated tossing them out, I realized that the reason I had kept them for the last 5 to 10 years was the thought that they would be useful if I decided to sue the offending parties. Throughout this time period, I had been too ill to seriously take the legal offensive against anyone, no matter how justifiable. So I thought about it and realized I really had no intention of ever doing that (suing), but I didn’t want to throw the stuff out. And then it hit me: I could “TAT that.” So I made a chronological list:

1999 - fired from condo job
2000 - car rear-ended and totalled by young boy with no driver’s license and no insurance
2001 - car side-swiped by drunk driver
2003 - break wrist at work
2004 - car rear-ended by distraught young girl with no driver’s license and no insurance
2005 - car side-swiped by elderly driver passing me on the right as I was turning right

I just started going down the list, about 1 a day or every other day as I felt moved. I used the new phrasing “Everything that contributed…….” and very soon realized that I could do that and the traditional phrasing “That happened.” So for each accident, I did the statement “That happened” followed by, “That happened, it’s over, and I’m okay.” Next, I used the statement “Everything that contributed to my resonating, identifying, and connecting with that happened” followed by “All that happened, it’s over, and I no longer resonate, identify or connect with that.” I liked the effect of using both – the “that happened” version dealt effectively with the incident, while the “everything that contributed” version dealt with my part of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I had done TAT about 2 years ago for all the car accidents combined, and I haven’t had one since then. So it definitely did the job at that level, but all those files were telling me that it wasn’t “over” on the internal landscape. It felt complete and fantastic to clean up/heal each one of these.

An interesting thing began happening on the final step of integration - the accident would visually disintegrate in my mind, like something turning to ash. Now, as long as I can still “see” what I’m working on, I know it isn’t really over yet.

I thank you profoundly, Tapas, for this gift you have brought into the world.

JLC
Taos, NM

As we clear out more and more limiting beliefs, old identitifications, and negative thoughts from our interior landscape, our physical surroundings naturally become more organized, uncluttered, and pleasing. And it’s easy!
	If you’d like to learn how to use TAT for letting go of old stuff, then get the Letting Go of Emotional Baggage recording. In addition to the teaching and demonstrations, the recording includes Tapas leading you through a nine-step session, which you can use again and again as you continue to lighten your load.

I’m happy to announce that the following people have become certified TAT Professionals. Please join me in welcoming them.

Elisabeth Crawford - Sydney, Australia

Paula McGuire - Oakland, CA

Chavah Spetter - M.P. Ephraim, Israel

You can get to know our new Professionals by clicking on their names and reading more about them.

Certified TAT Professionals are a great resource if you’d like support working on something that feels really big, you don’t know how to use TAT or where to start, or you want to experience doing TAT with someone who is calmly present with you and witnesses your healing. Most TAT Professionals work over the phone as well as in person, so help is available wherever you are. Just click here to find a TAT Professional that you’d like to work with.

We now have our policy regarding certification, trademarks, and copyrights posted. You can read it by clicking here.