When Pain is Gain

I didn't think I was getting older. Inside I felt about 25, even though my actual age is 55. I was just aware that I was getting more and more annoyed about the odd aches and pains that used to come only now and again and had then somehow gradually crept up on me - after all I was a busy woman, too busy to pay attention to 'minor' details like a pain in the hip or foot that made me walk a little lopsided at times. Then the nuisance factor worsened. It became this awful consistent pain in my right foot and a raw jagging at the hip while walking which made an enjoyable day out virtually impossible.

When it all began to reach critical mass, my body started shouting "Do something, for God's sake!"

�I started to become aware of myself groaning, for example, as I tried to extricate myself from the back seat of the car, or get off the sofa after an hour's stint on the laptop, or wincing at the foot pain when standing in one place for too long. These things add up over time. I searched for what might be available treatments for hip pain, exercises to prevent back pain, bed rest and all kinds of things. I'm not a one for popping the pills - imagine all those chemicals and what they might be doing to my body, ugh!

Then a miracle happened! I came across a new breakthrough in energy medicine, a technique I could apply myself called Eft, 100% natural and it worked literally within minutes! I was amazed at how quickly the pain disappeared. And now I am back to being '25' again and loving every minute of it!

What I found was that EFT firstly offers a way to get immediate relief of the pain to then go deeper to the very root of what put it there in the first place. It is based on the idea that all negative emotions come about as a result of a disruption in the energy system of the body. And this often manifests as pain, discomfort or emotional or physical illness and disease. As you relax using this process, resistance is released and you become more open to exploring what emotional factors might be at the root of the pain or what messages the pain might have for you. You learn how to take control of your body and feelings instead of letting them control you. In this way you are enabled to make more empowering and happier choices for yourself.

EFT or 'Emotional Freedom Technique' is a combination of Einstein's discovery -that everything is ENERGY, including the human body and even our thoughts - together with the practice of acupressure. It is considered to be one of the most successful health innovations of the last 100 years and often gets results where nothing else works. I find it to be especially powerful when combined with humour, laughter and positive thoughts and affirmations.

As well as beings of matter we are beings of energy. Whenever we have been traumatized, hurt or betrayed in the past, our body records the feelings at both a cellular AND an energetic level. In other words whatever you do, think, feel etc "your body keeps the score."

If we have registered in our bodies lots of painful thoughts and feelings we need to look at rewiring or undoing the old and re-programming ourselves with a new more positive and healthier program. I think the main message for me was to slow down - good message for a workaholic! And to allow others to support me instead of trying to do it all by myself. My past traumas had taught me not to trust and that may have been a good strategy at the time but now it was no longer needed and I could let go and STEP FORWARD with confidence.

�EFT can be used to rebalance the body's subtle energies that flow through the body (like blood flowing through the veins). Certain set points on the body are stimulated by tapping with the fingertips at the same time as repeating certain phrases or focusing on certain feelings. By taking steps to tap on and release your negative thoughts, the way is open to clear pain, restore happiness and begin to enjoy life once again

This article is written by Joy Idries

Generate Higher Returns from Your Innovation Investments: 4 of 10

From our series of highly informational articles, companies will learn: how to treat innovation as a cross-functional business process, how to align innovation execution and business strategy; how to create sustainable innovation; how to train your senior executives to successfully execute innovation initiatives; how to effectively manage process and project management; how to measure performance of your processes; how to ensure broad stakeholder buy-in; how to understand the importance of product roadmaps; how to provide the tools necessary for successful product innovation; and finally, how to ensure that portfolio management coincides with process management.

Here is one of the ten practices that leading innovators use to increase the payback from innovation spending: Training Your Senior Executives to Successfully Execute Innovation Initiatives.

Training Your Senior Executives to Successfully Execute Innovation Initiatives

It's imperative that senior management comprehend and actively support the processes that govern and drive innovation within your organization. Unless your executives know the role they need to play in those processes, it's unlikely that your organization will see anything more than incremental improvements in its return on innovation spending. Senior leaders need to understand:

1. The benefits of having a structured, automated innovation process.
By providing a common framework for executives and process owners to review and discuss project information, you will enable them to make better, more informed decisions. This provision will also help development teams execute more efficiently on product plans.

2. How to prepare for ?go/kill? decision meetings about proposed new products.
If an executive has visibility to key projects in your development pipeline, and understands the impact (positive or negative) that those projects will have on the top and bottom line, he/she will make investment decisions more quickly and confidently.

3. The function and value of using specific, consistent scorecard criteria to evaluate new product ideas.
This practice dramatically heightens the probability that your organization will end up focusing on winning, high-value projects.

4. How to manage gate meetings to get the information needed for sound investment and resource allocation decisions.
It's imperative that executives be willing to play an active role in facilitating project decision-making. Your organization can help them to be proactive rather than reactive by involving them in projects from the start.

For more information on the top practices that leading innovators use to increase their returns on innovation spending, look for the next article in our ten-part series: Effectively Managing Process and Project Management.

This article is written by Bryan Seyfarth