"The amazing thing about EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is it really reduces and transforms the cortisol. It calms the reptilian brain." — Todd Denny, M.S.W.
Today’s episode taken from a recent workshop in our Freedom Circle membership group, featuring Curt Mercadante and Todd Denny, M.S.W.
This workshop is designed to educate and show the power of “Tapping” therapy, also known as “Emotional Freedom Technique.”
Todd Denny, MS.W. is a university professor, author and master healer who has presented thousands of lectures and workshops across the nation. As featured on NPR, PBS and on Entertainment Tonight, Denny uses the power of tapping into Sedona, Arizona energy for remarkable healing. He has conducted more than 1,000 lectures, trainings and educational workshops in universities, with Native American tribes, public schools, and in a variety of other community settings.
FULL RAW TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE:
[00:00:00] Curt Mercadante: Well, welcome everyone. Now, many of you are familiar with the freedom circle and you are members. Some of you are not, and you've jumped in for this event, which is great. The freedom circle is my private group, where we do everything from things like we're going to do today, which is emotional freedom, technique, lowering anxiety, stress.
[00:00:16] We've done branding sales, we've done breath, work meditation. We'll do some of that in the future as well. Next week, next week from today, we have a priority and time management session going on as well. And I'd like to introduce Todd Todd. I don't know, several months ago we spoke at a health and wellness conference and Todd, I'll let you dive into your background, but 30 years of coaching life mentoring, uh, I don't hold that against you.
[00:00:40] Uh, that you're have been affiliated with the university of Illinois. Um, and I'm an Iowa Hawkeye. Um, but you've worked with people affected by domestic abuse, uh, drug addiction.
[00:00:54] Todd Denny: Um, and so
[00:00:55] Curt Mercadante: Todd. Kind of share your background, who you are. And, uh, Todd gave a [00:01:00] wonderful presentation at this health and wellness conference.
[00:01:02] We've gotten to know each other. Um, we've run into each other out on the trails. Todd's taken a dip in Oak Creek and I was there with the boys and we were hiking around. So Todd would, we'd love for you to introduce yourself
[00:01:13] Todd Denny: and we are great.
[00:01:15] Hey, welcome to the medicine bubble, a Sedona as we call it. Um, I'm, uh, I'll talk briefly about myself, but I want to, we want to move more into what will really serve you, support you in terms of reducing stress, being grounded, being present.
[00:01:34] Um, I'm most interested in understanding our minds and, and mastery, and I really draw on ancient wisdom. Uh, I went to the university of Illinois, one of the top 20 programs in the nation at the time, uh, in graduate school. And I've learned more from one book, uh, on ancient wisdom than I learned in three [00:02:00] years at grad school at the university of Illinois.
[00:02:02] And, and my, my degree was split in both mental health and schools, but I'm most interested in, um, Metal mastery, understanding our mind. And it's so amazing if you think about it on a very simple, yet powerful way. The mind is the source of all happiness in the minds. The source of all suffering. Think about that.
[00:02:24] The mind is the source of all happiness and the source of all suffering pain comes from if I was to hit Curt that comes from our body temple. Um, so. That's a little bit about me. Um, I only discovered the emotional freedom technique. A couple of years ago. I worked with the real master who was in the wilderness of New Mexico.
[00:02:47] And I'm when I find something that will really changed my life. I'm all in at a 10, unlike a lot of people. And I'll be honest with you. I work with a lot of clients and I'm like, you know, if you make a [00:03:00] commitment to three to five of these distinctions, I'll teach you it'll change. But not all of them do the work and it's really, it's really disappointing.
[00:03:08] Um, do you want to talk about that at all? Current a little bit and get just about commitment and diligence?
[00:03:13] Yeah, I think it's, I think
[00:03:15] Curt Mercadante: it's, um, you know, I, and I harp a lot and, and, and people who have been those of you been through my, uh, bootcamps. I really, if I, if there's one word I repeat over and over and over and it's consistency and it's not about hard work is just about, it's about consistent work because when you're consistent, You don't need, I was just actually talking to a client this morning about diet, for example.
[00:03:37] And I said, I don't need a cheat day if I'm consistent. Right. It's it's not like something where it's like, I'm going to have a cheat day where I eat a lot of sweets. No, if I'm consistently 80, 20 the right way, then I, this morning I happened to sleep in, I woke, I S I saw, you know, me sleeping in is like 5 45, but the kids are up and it was, I didn't meditate this morning, but I didn't [00:04:00] get down on myself for doing it.
[00:04:01] It was like, okay, well, I've done it every day for 14 days, even while traveling. It's okay. And I'll do it later today. But when you're consistent, you don't need days off. You know, when you're consistent, it's like people who go to the gym and they like work out hard for three hours. And then the, I need four days off.
[00:04:17] It's like, just go for 20 minutes a day. And I find with what we're going to talk about today, uh, whether it's meditation or whether it's tapping and emotional freedom technique. It is the hardest thing is just for meditation is just being consistent with sitting. And just going through and not just going through the motion, but just being consistent about it.
[00:04:38] And it's not hard to do, but often the things that are easiest to do, we don't do because it's easy not to do as well. But with, um, it's realizing that if you get caught in the vortex, uh, different vortex and we're here in Sedona, but the vortex of kind of the hamster wheel of I'm stressed and I'm anxious.
[00:04:55] And I, I have all these clients and done it on a. I have [00:05:00] the, I don't like to call it the discipline, but have the awareness to be able to stop what you're doing and say, okay, I'm going down this path and I'll do this with what we're going to talk about today. Emotional freedom technique. Okay. We're going down this path.
[00:05:15] My brain is on fire. I need to stop right now and tap away. What is causing you to be on fire. So that takes awareness, but it also takes the ability to stop, which is hard in our society. Right? Because it's all about, go, go, go talk about the yin and the young, it's all about the young, right? We got to punch, fight, hustle, grind.
[00:05:35] And sometimes it's like having the discipline to not do that is counterintuitive to what we want, because we feel, if we're sitting meditating, then we're not doing something and we're not, we're not tackling our to-do list or we're not, you know, and I think it's that way with anything. Regarding mental and spiritual growth, where stopping is often harder than.
[00:05:55] Because we've been conditioned to fight, throw punches, go as hard as we can, [00:06:00] 20 hours a day. And if you don't
[00:06:01] Todd Denny: feel good, uh,
[00:06:03] I would say create space and live in grace. We're always trying to add more and, and I'm no different. I read a lot. I'm always interested in connecting with people that are wiser than me, but create space and live in grace.
[00:06:19] We don't always need to add more and more and more. We need to create space space for breathing space, for quietness a space for new things to come in. And by the way, everything is already within you. It's just unraveling all the cultural conditioning. I used to say monkey mind, but now I say vortex, mind Kurt.
[00:06:38] Cause we're in, in Sedona. But creating space and that really deep meditators, um, it's just incredible what they're able to do by creating space on a more pragmatic level. I worked as a music producer, right? Stevie wonder one of the great musicians of all time, [00:07:00] transcendental meditation, most of his life at one point by creating space.
[00:07:05] And just going within him, he wrote seven albums in one year and then released them over 10 years. That's what happens when you tap into your innate genius urinate, brilliance, that's all within us, but most of us are not able to tap into it. And, you know, in, in the context of the tapping, um, that allows you to.
[00:07:27] Not only space, but I think better mental circulation in terms of, um, reducing cortisol, moving the meridians, the shock rows. Um, so I'll tell you a brief little story, um, regarding me in the emotional freedom technique. And by the way, how many of you folks do do the emotional freedom technique? Raise your hand if you're doing.
[00:07:50] Okay. Um, so I mentioned, I worked with a real masterful teacher in New Mexico, in the wilderness. It's, it's amazing. [00:08:00] I found her, I was all in with her and I did some really deep stuff regarding, uh, childhood trauma stuff we don't ever want to go to. And by the way, Um, when we don't address the really deep stuff, the developmental stuff, as we get older, it manifests as disease, heart problems, cancer.
[00:08:22] The molecules of emotion. It's so important to understand when we don't move the energy and the cheese in and spend time with the really difficult stuff. And I'm not talking about 20 or 30 years of talk therapy. I'm talking about for me, it was three months, three sessions a week for three hours. This one was world-class.
[00:08:43] She said, you're done. You don't need me anymore. Partially because of the work we did, but also because of my diligence or consistency regarding, Hey, I can do this on my own. I can immerse myself in it. And, uh, I continue to do it today. [00:09:00] I was tapping right in the way over here in the car, just in terms of, uh, you can tap in a lot of different ways, but I was tapping in terms of, I command my sub-conscience to guide me.
[00:09:14] And to empower the individuals in this session to realize their greatness, to make a breakthrough, um, but tapping into my sub-conscience. So that's a little bit how I got introduced to it. I found it was the most powerful I found in my life. It's the most powerful approach in terms of moving energy, which gets stuck, stuck in our body temple.
[00:09:41] Curt Mercadante: Yeah, and I, and I think someone someone's car, I don't know if you can hear it is tapping away something right now.
[00:09:46] Todd Denny: Um, the, you
[00:09:49] Curt Mercadante: know, in, in the freedom business bootcamp, one of the ways that we talked about it was, you know, if, if you walked into your kitchen and you're like, I want to have a drink of my favorite [00:10:00] beverage, And you want to it's noon, right?
[00:10:03] And you wanted to have a water and you walk in there and it's filled with, uh, let's say you really hate whiskey, right? And it's filled with whiskey. You wouldn't just pour the water on top of the whiskey to drink it. What would you do? You wouldn't just empty out the whiskey. You would clean out the cup, right?
[00:10:19] Empty it out. You would clean it out. So there's no traces of that. You would pour the water and then drink your water. And so what I compare it to is positive thinking is. But if you can, you all hear me over that car? Is it louder for us probably than it is for you? So the, um, uh, it has reached a fever pitch.
[00:10:38] Now. I don't know how someone doesn't hear that when you, with yourself positive talk and positive thinking is great, but if you just take the positive talk and you put it on top of the crap, that's already in the cup, it's not going to do it.
[00:10:54] Todd Denny: Right.
[00:10:55] Curt Mercadante: You have to empty out the cup and go back to zero. Right.
[00:10:59] And when [00:11:00] you get back to zero, then you can fill it in with the good stuff, but you got to empty it out. And so for me, EFT and tapping is about emptying out some of the crap. Sometimes you got to get very specific with it. Like if I have a discussion with my mom on Sunday night and I wake up anxious about that discussion, I get very specific about, and we'll get into how you do it, but I tap that away to empty it.
[00:11:24] Otherwise, it puts a block on your energy, on your mind, on everything that you have. And so getting back to zero, emptying out the cup, so then you can refill it with the goods. And we had just in our bootcamp, incredible results where I know, uh, I, Jennifer, you shared some of your results. Um, we had a guy, uh, using Alberta who, who was trying to come up and, and, and go, we were going through visioning activities.
[00:11:52] Right. And he had a block. Right. Because he, there were. Kind of traumas past conversations he had with people who didn't hire [00:12:00] him. So every time he tried to think about the future kept going to the past and these conversations, well, he started tapping away those conversations. You know, even though Jack told me, like I said, it's focused specifically on that person who didn't hire you because they told you this.
[00:12:15] And he focused specifically on that. And he said for the first time in weeks, his wife noticed as he was writing, he had a smile on. I said, which is he's like, it may sound normal for you, but I never have a smile. Um, there was another guy who said he did it and he was having trouble
[00:12:28] Todd Denny: focusing
[00:12:29] Curt Mercadante: on his vision because he's in a job where every Thursday has to go to the office and he hates it when he works with, he would tap away those thoughts specifically, even though.
[00:12:37] I don't like spending time with Jim. I love and accept myself and he would tap it away and then he would go and he had this lightness about him. And so, you know, kind of in what emotional freedom technique is, um, you know, I came about it, reading a book by a Dawson church. He's got a great book. One is mind to matter.
[00:12:58] Todd Denny: And just to interject [00:13:00] my masterful teacher, her teacher's Dawson church.
[00:13:04] That's it, he he's epic and he's got a really good heart too. Yeah. I listened to him on a, on a
[00:13:09] Curt Mercadante: podcast and me talks about heat. Now he combines the Ft with this eco meditation that he does, but the FTM heat, they have tested. They've been working, working with, uh, uh, veterans with PTSD.
[00:13:22] Uh, they've tested cortisol levels before and after. Uh, tapping and at a very basic level and you can correct me, but at a very basic of, I tell people it's a combination between acupressure, meditation and affirmations.
[00:13:38] Todd Denny: Um, you know, but yeah, what I would add to that Curt is, um, so. Tesla every, if you want to understand the world, everything is energy, frequency and vibration.
[00:13:50] And so I think of tapping as some of you had acupuncture before. It's us being able to do acupressure on ourselves. With our [00:14:00] meridians and chakras and moving the energy. But typically tapping is used with a Western psychology, which I'm trained in, but what I like to do Kurt, and you probably, yeah, you're probably a little bit aware of this is I like to go beyond the Western psychology and I was training, you know, Freud Angele Erickson young.
[00:14:18] Oh my God. Just very confusing with the ancient wisdom in the truths of interconnectedness. Non-duality in permanence. Most people are seeking, uh, not even happiness, but to feel good outside of themselves, the rushing, the struggling, the chasing for sensory pleasures, when it comes back to everything is within us.
[00:14:43] And I began this whole podcast by saying all happiness comes from here and also. So at a deeper level, I like to combine the, the energy work of the meridians and the acupressure points with a little, best, little bit of Western [00:15:00] neuroscience, but more with the ancient wisdoms and the universal truths on a deeper level.
[00:15:08] And, you know, you've gotta be willing to really, if you want to look at what's not working in your life. Um, all you have to do is typically go back to childhood to find out why you've got anger. You got money issues, you work too hard or whatever, but on a real deeper level, you can tap, uh, using the acronym of rain and rain is recognizing your thoughts.
[00:15:32] Okay. That recognition, it creates a space consciousness. That's so powerful. Oh, I recognize I'm I'm anxious right now. Not to get triggered, but to go. Oh, that anxiety you're back again. So you've got the recognize, accepting it. It doesn't mean it's going to take over your life, but it means like I recognize anxiety.
[00:15:53] I accept it. You know, I'm going to transfer. The deeper work than almost nobody wants to do is the [00:16:00] investigating. Where's the anxiety coming from, you know, you, you could attribute it to, to business or to work, but on a deeper level, what are the really underpinning downloads? What are the issues? A lot of our childhood, and then the end being the neutral or the, uh, kind of the neutral approach of, oh, that's interesting.
[00:16:22] Anxiety you're back again. I know you, you spend time with me. You're not going to take over my life. I'm going to do some tapping to transform you, but the deeper work. And I'll be honest with you. It's difficult for me too, is the investigating, not the, not the outer perimeter emotions, but what is the real deeper work to do in terms of the, um, having to be busy all the time or working a job that you don't like, you know, is there a.
[00:16:50] Are there subconscious concerns about money and survival, you know, with your root chakra. Um, but, but to answer your question in terms of tapping, I [00:17:00] like to think of it is, um, my teacher Jane said it was emotional surgery. I said, I said, no, Jane it's non-invasive. Yeah,
[00:17:11] Curt Mercadante: it's interesting. It, it. You know, I've had back issues for 30 years and you know, that caused me to sit up straight.
[00:17:19] Yeah, right. Yeah. I didn't like going to, to, to physicians because they do, uh, cortisol or take a drug and then go sit on the couch. Well, if I had to sit on the couch, I would go nuts. Right. So. I I've seen a chiropractor for years and going to the chiropractor, but it also dawned on me. The chiropractor w is, is a little bit invasive as well.
[00:17:40] And at some point I'm like, how long do I have to do this before you stop manipulating me? Um, and I know someone actually who went for years and actually it was like, I compare it to my kid's Legos. Once you, once you put them back and forth together, a lot, all of a sudden the Lego's are looser. And I have a friend who swears that his.
[00:17:59] Just over time [00:18:00] of manipulation is now just like murder. Right? So this last time maybe, uh, some of you remember, uh, Jennifer, Dan, you might remember in my, um, during the freedom, one of them I did seated because I had hurt my back and, and I know what did it physically, but having, not only the recognition that okay.
[00:18:18] My back hurts, but going beyond the, my back hurts because I just have a bad back and the investigation of, okay. Yeah, I did something physical. But there's been a number of times where my back went out, where nothing happened. Right. And I look, nothing happened. Right. And I look back and it's like, no, my back went out because I had an event that Thursday and it was stressing me out.
[00:18:44] And I know now that my energy gets caught in my back and it's like, imagine you dam up a river, that energy just keeps building up, building up and can't. And so that would be in my back and I would actually get calf cramps. I mean, there was nothing like the blood flow, everything wasn't [00:19:00] going down. So that investigation in investigatory is that a word, a process allows me to say, okay, wait, I'm not a victim of jeans or a bad back.
[00:19:11] I have to have awareness that what's up here is affecting what's happening in my body. And for the first time, I mean, this just happened a month ago.
[00:19:20] Todd Denny: Uh,
[00:19:21] Curt Mercadante: Acupuncture and not being stupid and lifting while, while in the midst of it, it helped it without any manipulation in my back. And your, your body can heal itself.
[00:19:32] If you allow space, like you said, starting up here for it to heal itself. It's, it's absolutely amazing. Um, and it's counterintuitive to just about everything we're
[00:19:42] Todd Denny: taught. Yeah. Th th th the great opportunity is when you. When you spend time with the really difficult thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and often they're the childhood stuff.
[00:19:55] And you do it in tandem with tapping. You don't have to spend 20 or [00:20:00] 30 years in talk therapy. For me, it was three months to change my life. Um, a lot of people don't want to go there. Uh, and they want to kind of look more at where they're at in life now, but you know, you mentioned it in your presentation regarding the, the Jesuits and, you know, give me the child from the ages of zero to seven and I'll show you the man, but those are the reasons.
[00:20:23] Profound years where we get the downloads. Now there's nothing wrong with it. We're in more of an alpha or theta state when we're kids. And that's how we learn about the world. But most of us didn't come from the best families. Um, and. We have the great opportunity there, the opportunity and the paradox is when you spend time with the really difficult thoughts, feelings and emotions, often from childhood in tandem with energy work, not just talk therapy, you can transform it.
[00:20:54] You can shift them. Um, and they, they lose their power and they go back into [00:21:00] your subconscious mind is a seed. That's not being watered as opposed to continually watering the seeds of suffering of anxiety. My mom, my parents, my childhood, et cetera. Um, so I like to do the deeper work. I walk my talk and once again, the messages in three months, I was able to create a tremendous shift of old blocks and old energy.
[00:21:23] From adverse childhood experiences, which we all have. So before
[00:21:27] Curt Mercadante: we get into actual tapping and looking at how it's done, I'd love to throw it open to any questions that you have about anything we've, we've discussed thus far or anything that, you know, you'd like to, to kind of deal with with it. Um, you know, I will say that that, that I've used tapping as well on cravings, uh, you know, uh, kicking my two glasses of wine a night habit.
[00:21:48] I'll tap it. Yeah. Um, and rather than having guilt and shame about something, about feeling like I want this, I tap it away and then I'm cool with it. And it's amazing how, how that works, [00:22:00] uh, cravings, uh, you know, thoughts, anxiety in the morning. Um, uh, so before we kind of hop into it, I want to see if, if anyone has
[00:22:09] Todd Denny: any question.
[00:22:11] Or comments or insights Stephen. There was a, there was a, you mentioned earlier on that there was one book that did more than three years of graduate school. What was that one book? Well, one of my, so one of my great masters, his name, his name is techno hon. And he is, uh, from the lineage of the Buddha. The Buddha is not a religion.
[00:22:32] The Buddhist said, take what I share with you. If it serves you. Use it, if it doesn't discard it, but it is based on Buddhism. Um, but a really great one from tech, not Han. Uh, one of his more current ones is called anger and it's sold 1 million copies in South Korea alone. Oh, that's a good one to share with my clients, not North Korea, [00:23:00] South Korea.
[00:23:01] I don't think they can get it North Korea, but, uh, but tech not in Han. And I've read a lot of workup, uh, regarding the Buddha, but, you know, in grad school and as an undergraduate Freud, Angele Erickson , there was some merit, but it got me really Freud really confused me, man. He messed me up, but, but Buddhism with the universal truths of non-duality.
[00:23:25] Interconnectedness everybody is rushing, struggling in grasping outside of themselves for sensory pleasures. When all happiness, everything is within us. It's just those universal truths. Um, most recently I'm studying, I go really deep, a guy named Miller rapper, who was one of the great, great yogis of Tibet.
[00:23:50] And. He would go beyond meditation, uh, with the voidness of the mind. Um, one of the true great masters. And [00:24:00] they could do supernatural feeds, but they weren't into showing them off. But you know, he'd go back a couple thousand years and people were so much more wise that they understood their minds so much more than today.
[00:24:12] Why are you laughing Kurtz?
[00:24:13] Curt Mercadante: Well, and it's funny because you, you bring up, uh, I have, uh, one that I just read from called be here now. Yes. Which is very helpful in terms of meditation and getting in that state. But when we, when we bring. Like Buddhism. And I want to go back to something you said was it's not a religion, right?
[00:24:31] It, and I'll bring up Taoism. And I had a guy who was trolling me on LinkedIn, about how dare you do that. The only truth that you know is Jesus and the gospel. It's like, I grew up Catholic and I was always told if you read Buddhism, if you read a book in Taoism, you are sinning and you're going to go to hell.
[00:24:49] What I urge people is take off the team jerseys for a little bit, right. And read it and with an open mind, and what you realize is first of all, they were all at about the same time, [00:25:00] 2000, 2,500 years ago.
[00:25:02] Todd Denny: And if you read
[00:25:03] Curt Mercadante: each of these texts with an open mind, especially the books that were stripped out of the gospel and like 3 35 or whatever in the council of Nicea, and I won't get into that.
[00:25:14] You see that they're
[00:25:15] Todd Denny: all saying the same thing.
[00:25:17] Curt Mercadante: You know, when you go back there and, and you realize that this isn't about us versus them and my team versus your team. And if you read the Dow, then you're sitting and you're going against a family and all this. If you read it with an open mind and realize that there's some great life advice in all of these texts, um, and a lot of them are about things that we've talked about today, slow down.
[00:25:39] Have compassion for yourself, um, create that space that, uh, there is, uh, do you know Jason
[00:25:46] Todd Denny: aims? Uh, he's
[00:25:47] Curt Mercadante: here in town. He had a great quote. It was over at Mark's that thing that, yeah, there's a place called the Sedona quantum consciousness center and there's a guy talking and he said, you are, we all ended as individuals, our creators creating.[00:26:00]
[00:26:00] And to realize that you realize whether it's the gospel or the Dow or Buddhism, it's all about the fact that we have the power of whatever creator we believe in that we have that power as well. And it starts up here. And, and we, you know, growing up Catholic, we always said the, our father, right. And it was a, as you grow up, it's like give us this day, our daily bread, which to us, we were programmed.
[00:26:24] That means you go down, you get on your needs. You beg and plead with a big man with a beard, you know, up on a throne to please throw me some scrap. And now my mom and people would argue. He never said that. It's like, no, but I, I share this with fellow people who grew up Catholic and they're like, yeah, that's pretty much it.
[00:26:43] And what you realize when you read a lot of these texts and you step back and you give yourself that space. And the awareness is maybe the daily bread was given to us when we were born. And it's our creative thinking and our ability to create and do these things that starts up here, whether it's [00:27:00] creating health.
[00:27:01] Prosperity, uh, you know, whatever it is that it starts up here. And, and none of that
[00:27:07] Todd Denny: is metaphysical or woo. It's just
[00:27:10] Curt Mercadante: the amount of people who spontaneous here at Lee hill, the amount of people who, who, uh, uh, you know, um, go into remission, the amount of people, uh, addictions dealing with addictions, the amount of people who, through their thoughts.
[00:27:24] Change their businesses, right? Because on days on weeks, I don't meditate. I don't get clients. How do I explain that? I can't explain it other than the fact that I'm more in tune, you're like a radio, right. And if you're driving through the desert and you want to get 97 5, but you have it at 97, 4, you're not going to get it when you're.
[00:27:47] Match up the dial on the radio with the frequency is out there, which might be your ideal clients, your ideal job, et cetera. What happens? The radio comes in an HD quality, right? So, uh, it's [00:28:00] that simple? It's it's not it it's, it's based in science. It's not, it's not woo. If you don't want it to be an EFT, I got to tell you, there were some people in the bootcamp who I didn't think, uh, not you Jennifer, but that there were some people in the bootcamp I'm like, they're never going to go for this.
[00:28:15] And they did. And they're continuing to do it. And they're like, wow. You know, I, I thought this stuff was crap, but it works.
[00:28:22] Todd Denny: So the amazing thing about EFT is it really reduces and transforms the cortisol. Okay. It calms the reptilian brain. And you talk about this Kurt and I do too. We've still got the reptilian brain, but if we turn around, we don't have a, a grizzly bear, which actually we're the bad-ass here and we're killing people here about a hundred years ago.
[00:28:44] Um, Our brains are not wired for happiness. We've got a negative bias, the negativity, it sticks to us the goodness roles office, like, um, you know, like Teflon. So we've got to be, you talk about consistency. I [00:29:00] talk about diligence. We gotta be diligence in our practice. W sure. We've got to be on the grind with our work, but we also gotta be diligent in creating space in living in grace.
[00:29:12] Breathing deep, experiencing peace. I like to use incantations. That's the way to remember. It's not affirmations. Um, but we should do a little bit of tapping here. I think Jennifer
[00:29:23] Curt Mercadante: had a question. Yeah, go ahead. Jennifer went green there for a little bit. I did.
[00:29:26] Todd Denny: I wasn't, I didn't have a question. I was just going to say one of the, my experience with EFT, it was in the bootcamp and it was something that I knew about.
[00:29:34] And we've actually watched documentaries where we've like, you know, learned about it and all that, but I never practiced it. And a difference for me. And now I kind of, I don't, I balance it with regular meditation and EFT my mornings. Um, and I kind of asked myself, what do I need today? Because what I find with EFT different from meditation, when I'm struggling bling on [00:30:00] tuning in and going inward, um, I, the EFT helps me do that cause it helps me focus differently with meditation.
[00:30:08] It's already, like, I feel already inward a little bit and it almost like can help sink into it. But the EFT helps me, um, center faster and get to that point where it's almost like I need to do EFT before I go into a meditation state to get the benefits of it.
[00:30:26] Curt Mercadante: So,
[00:30:27] Todd Denny: yeah, th th that's wonderful. And you know, Jennifer, everybody's different, there's universal tourists, but everybody's different.
[00:30:33] And so you found for you the distinction that helps you to get. Into your meditation more effortlessly with grace in, at a deeper level. And that's beautiful, you know, and we don't hear that from a lot of people. I think you, you said you do that also Kurt. Um, and you can also, so in, in terms of the meditation, Jennifer, that's about creating space.
[00:30:56] Coming back to being tapping into yourself, [00:31:00] uh, which is great. It's moving beyond the vortex mind, but you can also tap around wonderful life of life, empowering opportunities, possibilities, or realities. And so, as I mentioned, coming down here today, I was like, you know, I was moving a little bit of energy, but I was also like, you know, I command my subconscious to guide me in empowering these people.
[00:31:22] Um, I tap into all my master. Um, you can also do tapping regarding, uh, have you ever done this one, Kurt, something Great's coming to my way. I wonder what it is. Wow. It's already happening. Wow. I'm going to be so excited. I'm going to cop Kurt say you won't believe, but you can have fun with it in terms of moving the energy.
[00:31:44] So it can be the difficult stuff can be the higher vibration, um, uh, you know, energy. And once again, Tapping it's about moving energy, energy, frequency, and vibration. Uh, that's what [00:32:00] runs the world. You mentioned earlier when, when you don't meditate, you're not being as engaged or getting new clients, but when you create space, new clients are appearing or you're writing seven albums.
[00:32:12] You're writing 10 albums in one year that you're releasing over seven years. So I'm really interested in unraveling the monkey mind and tapping. To the wisdom within us and just another adage. It's really true for me, Kurt. Uh, if I don't meet someone who is wiser than me or my equal, then I choose to move on a solitary path than to associate with food.
[00:32:37] Okay. Now that's not being egotistical. I want to be around people. I can learn from people that I can evolve from. And that's the amazing thing about being here in Sedona. When you first came to the conference, it was kind of like, whoa, man. But, but Kirk found some of his people there and he's like, wow, I'm not in South Carolina anymore.
[00:32:55] You know, I'm homeschooling my kid and tots. That's wonderful. They're [00:33:00] not going to have to unlearn a whole lot. Right. But the environment, right. There's the set and setting, there's the mindset. And then there's the environmental setting. And I would say just personally that you've created an incredible shift in moving here to Sedona and being able to connect with other people.
[00:33:20] That are master to you that you can learn from, that you can connect with. Right. Um, and it's difficult during these times, but a question for everybody involved here, do you, is that one of your, uh, approaches, do you seek out people that you can learn from that that can be, uh, mentors to you that that can, um, help you to, uh, evolve to transform?
[00:33:48] That's one of my great intentions. That's why I connected with Kurt. How about you? Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's why I have a coach. That's [00:34:00] why I do networking. I connect with people who I know are, um, they've attained what it is that I'm working toward, you know, they're being the person that I'm, uh, moving into, uh, as a, you know, as a ever evolving being.
[00:34:17] So, yeah.
[00:34:19] Curt Mercadante: And Stephen and I like the text about Gaia network. So we're both, we're both crazy too. It's a, is it, you know, the Sedona, you know, tin, foil hat, exactly, right? Yeah. This is a
[00:34:29] Todd Denny: transparent tinfoil hat. You just don't see
[00:34:31] Curt Mercadante: it. Hey, by the way, as I, as I, the sun has shifted, I don't know. Do you only see like shadows of us or is it just me?
[00:34:41] You see. Okay. Yeah.
[00:34:43] Todd Denny: Doesn't that look like? We're, you know, we need
[00:34:45] Curt Mercadante: make, but it's not bad. What if I, uh, is that better? Oh, look at that.
[00:34:52] Todd Denny: Oh my God. Um, so we should do a little, uh, [00:35:00] happy. I want to give you a, just real brief. Uh, we're so we're all looking for happiness, but we're always chasing it with sensory pleasures.
[00:35:10] People are rushing, struggling, looking outside themselves, but just real real briefly, um, just to kind of change the neural pathways here in shifted up, I'm gonna give you four quick images regarding a unified theory of happiness. Okay. The first one and this fits so well into what we were talking about is to have self advocacy skills.
[00:35:30] Is that. Can you see that folks? And this is what the tapping is all about. It's about emotional regulation, having ways of moving energy through our body. Secondly, incur this fits in. So with what we're talking about, you want to have a daily practice. Jennifer, you've got your daily mindfulness practice.
[00:35:52] Okay. Kurt does too. Stephen, do you have a practice? How about, how about Chris, Chris, or [00:36:00] Tammy or Tammy? Do any of you have a daily mindfulness practice
[00:36:04] Curt Mercadante: and you can put it in the, in the chat if you're
[00:36:07] Todd Denny: daily mind? No, I don't really, maybe like a five minute one in the morning, actually. Okay. Uh, so third component of the unified theory of happiness and I'm kind of wired this way is to have positive perspective.
[00:36:21] Okay. Kids laugh and have a lot more fun than adults. You know, I'm kind of wired that way, but I wasn't always, you know, as, as a, as a kid, I was pretty angry at the world and everything, but I've let it kind of come out. And one of my real great attributes just to create joy and it's all within me, unleashing it.
[00:36:43] And the fourth component of unified theory of happiness, uh, right here, it says, get. But I'm kind of shifting that into the universal truth of interconnectedness non-duality. Um, when we give in and share, not only does it make [00:37:00] for a better world, it takes us out of our monkey mind and it releases feel good chemicals within our brain that bounce out the cortisol.
[00:37:09] So that's just kind of a quick snapshot of a unified. Theory of happiness. That's influenced by the ancient masters.
[00:37:17] Curt Mercadante: Yeah. And I think it, Chris wrote I do, but I'm not finding it beneficial. One of the things that personally that I had to, and I've worked with some folks on their daily mindfulness practices, don't go into it.
[00:37:28] Like you're going out for a run and want to hit a certain time on your run. Right, right. Don't go into it with a goal of, you can be intentional without being, uh, I gotta, I gotta, I I'm, I have to, I'm going to meditate and I have to become. You know, and then it's like you force it. Um, it take not hon, you know, on the meditation piece.
[00:37:48] One of the things that he focuses on is you focus on the breath in and a belly breath. You bring it up. He took to bring himself into it, especially if you, if you recognize that your mind's going [00:38:00] off thinking about your to-do list or something is he says on as I breathe in, I smile as I breathe out, I relax.
[00:38:09] And by focusing on the word, smile and relax, all of a sudden I lose myself. And that's when I, when I'm fully. When I wake up in the morning, there's some mornings where I'm like, I don't want to meditate. I don't want to go and sit because that's too. And I just said, just go and sit, just go and sit, don't have any goal for it.
[00:38:27] And when you don't have a goal and you sit there and you just focus on your breath, that's when you know the Chinese have the term, Ooh way, which spelled w U and then w I E, or EDI, and it's effortless. And it's doing without doing. And so that's on the mindfulness practice. The thing that I have, I don't go in like, like, I'm like, I'm going into work where like, I gotta go, I gotta go crush it.
[00:38:50] I gotta go do this. I have a goal for it. I just go and sit. I don't have an expectation for it. And when I don't have an expectation, I get more out of it than [00:39:00] well, Kurt said, mindfulness is good. And he does mindfulness. Jennifer said she got this re this result from it. And so I got to get that result.
[00:39:06] Just go and see. And bring it back to your breath and be present. And with EFT, it's the same thing. It's not like it's not working. I tapped one or two times, and I'm still anxious about that. Call with my mom. Just focus on and be intentional without obsessing about.
[00:39:22] Todd Denny: And, you know, I, I would also add, um, there we go.
[00:39:25] You know, I've got, um, unlike a lot of people, I've got a really active mind. And so if you can't sit, you can do walking mindfulness and you can learn how to walk with your feet and not your head. And you can walk and just breathe. You can walk and know that you're touching the earth. That's something that I'll do here often, even when I'm going on a hike, Kurt, or I'm out by Buddha beach, which of course is an amazing spot.
[00:39:49] I'll be like, I'm getting caught up in the destination, what you talked about earlier and it's like, Nope, slow down. So I start my breathing practice for 15 minutes [00:40:00] walking in, I'm touching the earth. And then when I sit down there, I'm able to go in and do my own work for like 30 to 60 minutes. And I can not, I I'll be honest with you.
[00:40:09] I don't do a deep meditation, but I'm able to do the breath. I'm able to come back to my body, body and mind are interconnected and to create that space so I can live in grace not to add more for 30 or 40 minutes out of my day, because we're always adding, adding more and more information, more work, you know, back out, gone soon, busy back.
[00:40:32] We call them back soon back soon. Busy's the towel Pooh. Yeah.
[00:40:37] Curt Mercadante: They're busy, busy backs and yeah. Have you read the towel of food? That's another great book. And he talks about Winnie the Pooh. There's a thing about the backs in and busy backs and it's
[00:40:46] Todd Denny: a it's back. Some biz activism. Is that back out gone soon, busy back soon that, yeah.
[00:40:52] Right, but just creating space. To live in grace, breathing deep to experience peace, and then finding what [00:41:00] you can tap into within you. But we should probably do some tapping here. Let's do it. Um, does everybody know the tapping points now? Why don't we, why don't you? Okay, so we got the first one is the karate chop point.
[00:41:12] You know, you got ha I use a lot of humor in my work, but just tapping right here with what, how,
[00:41:19] Curt Mercadante: how many fingers does it matter? I
[00:41:20] Todd Denny: like to use about three and it's like homeopathic, uh, work less is more, but, um, and just, uh, you could repeat after me, uh, taking complete ownership of my life,
[00:41:34] Curt Mercadante: taking complete ownership
[00:41:35] Todd Denny: of my life.
[00:41:37] I love and accept myself completely. I love and accept myself completely. Okay. Dwelling in the present moment. Dwelling
[00:41:45] Curt Mercadante: in the present moment.
[00:41:47] Todd Denny: I'm at peace. I'm at peace gratitude,
[00:41:53] Curt Mercadante: gratitude.
[00:41:55] Todd Denny: Another day, another day. I'm so grateful to wake up. [00:42:00] So grateful to wake up. Okay. And then the next point, we're going to kind of move up to the eyebrow here.
[00:42:04] Do you want to do this in tandem? You want to share some stuff? Kurt take lead.
[00:42:08] Curt Mercadante: Yeah. Sometimes let's say you had an anxious moment last night, right? I'll say even though I'm anxious about that call with my mom, I love and accept myself, even though I'm anxious. And then I'll repeat that a couple of times, you know, uh, before meditation, you know, to Jennifer's point.
[00:42:26] If I, if I wake up and my mind is on fire, Everything of the day before I meditate. I'll just say, even though my mind's on fire, I love and accept myself, even though my mind's on fire, even though my mind's on fire. And sometimes I got to slow myself down because I get really, I lose track and I get aggressive and I'm going like give myself a concussion.
[00:42:47] Todd Denny: So less is more, but, um, let's just go through it and kind of a nice, simple one. Uh, so, um, please repeat after me moving into. Moving [00:43:00] energy, moving G moving cheap, reducing cortisol, reducing cortisol. How wonderful. Okay. We're going to move to the side of her eye here. I choose grace. I choose grace. I choose breadth.
[00:43:17] I choose breadth. I choose being grounded. I choose being grounded. I'm here. I'm here. I'm learning, I'm learning and I'm evolving and I'm evolving. Okay. So moving down here, ah, just taking a breath, everybody. I just did that. Organically taken a nostril breath. Kurt taught me that I was doing the mouth breathing, taking a deep breath while you're tapping and breathe out.
[00:43:49] Anxiety people keep tapping here, taking a nostril breath. If you can. And breathe [00:44:00] out stress.
[00:44:04] One more time, taking a deep breath and release stress from your body and your mind. Okay. We're going to move down here to the lip.
[00:44:19] My life, my life. There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on, but I choose. But I choose to create space,
[00:44:29] Curt Mercadante: to create space, to come back, to come back to me, to me, to dwell,
[00:44:36] Todd Denny: to dwell in the present moment in the present moment, because that's all there is because that's all there is not getting lost in the past, not getting lost in the past, in the past, in the past, or worried about the future or worried about the future, the present moment.
[00:44:54] The present moment, a moment of power, a moment about power. Okay. So moving down to the [00:45:00] chin here, grounding, grounding, anchoring anchoring in balancing and balancing better mental circulation, better mental circulation, better, cheaper, better cheap in my body. In my body, in my mind and my mind. Okay. Next point is here.
[00:45:21] This is kind of by the heart, my heart, my heart. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful. Thank you for keeping me alive. Thank you for keeping me alive all these years. All these years. I never think about. I never think about you. You work for me, you work for me day and night, day and night. And I haven't always, and I haven't always
[00:45:47] Curt Mercadante: treated you with.
[00:45:48] Todd Denny: Treated you well, and I'm sorry, and I'm sorry. I love you. I
[00:45:53] Curt Mercadante: love
[00:45:53] Todd Denny: you. I accept you. I accept you. I honor you, I honor you and I take better care
[00:45:59] Curt Mercadante: of you and [00:46:00] I take better care
[00:46:00] Todd Denny: of you. Little bit less wine. Okay. I have here where this next point is is here. It's kind of a. Balancing balancing healing, healing, aligning, aligning, moving energy, moving energy, better circulation, better circulation in my mind, in my mind, in my body, in my body.
[00:46:24] They're interconnected.
[00:46:25] Curt Mercadante: They're interconnect.
[00:46:29] Todd Denny: And I'm grateful and I'm grateful for moving this energy for moving this energy in this day, in this day. Okay. Next point I like to use, I don't know if some of these are esoteric view, but it's like a. Handcuffs or whatever, uh, releasing, releasing the past the past, releasing, releasing the future, the future, releasing, releasing old stories, old stories, old pain bodies, old pain bodies, and stress and stress coming back.
[00:46:59] And [00:47:00] coming back to the here and now to the here and now. Okay. This is triple burner. This is a real esoteric. Do you know this point? It's really esoteric, um, balancing, balancing healing, healing, and aligning and aligning. I'm grateful. I'm grateful. Preparing myself, preparing myself for a wonderful. For a wonderful day by creating space by creating space and living in grace and living in grace, breathing deep breathing, deep dwelling and peace and dwelling and peace.
[00:47:31] And finally, we go up to the crown chakra. I choose, I choose presence, presence, wisdom, wisdom, being grounded, being grounded, being grateful, being grateful in being here and being here right now. Right now. This moment creates, creates a powerful future, a powerful future in body and body. So, so in spirit and [00:48:00] spirit.
[00:48:00] Okay. And just take a moment, everybody. When we're done, keep your eyes closed, taking a nostril breath and just notice what you feel. Just take a moment of space here.
[00:48:25] Just a couple of breaths,
[00:48:33] another deep nostril breath, if you're able to.
[00:48:47] And if, if anybody wants to share, um, the experience of us doing it collectively, which is very powerful,[00:49:00]
[00:49:00] let us know what's on your mind, Todd. There's
[00:49:03] Curt Mercadante: if you, if you Google it or you do certain things, there's different pressure points. And I have one guy did each finger, you know, and, and then I'll sometimes I'll do this one here. Is the order important and you know, the D the various pressure points, does it have to be repeated?
[00:49:23] You know, obviously the sayings we said today that can differ, but, but the, the, the different
[00:49:28] Todd Denny: pressure points, well, everybody's different. I like to experiment and I'm always, you know, we need to wire new neuropathways, so I've experimented in, but in terms of the protocol, I like to go, I'd like to start here.
[00:49:42] Uh, it's the basic protocol. And I shared a few esoteric esoteric points that came from Dawson church, kind of an insider in. This, the triple burner, the crown also a really deep one. Are you aware of this one here where you put your hand? Go ahead and do it just to demonstrate, but not put [00:50:00] your hand there.
[00:50:00] Everyone can try this and then triple burn on top of that, that's very powerful for releasing emotions in our heart. Like sadness. Pain or grief, but to answer your question, I do like that protocol, but I'm always experimenting. Have you ever experimented with going and then trying different sides? Well,
[00:50:21] Curt Mercadante: not on purpose.
[00:50:22] I'd forgotten and went back and down. Yeah.
[00:50:24] Todd Denny: But I'm always like trying counterintuitive way. Um, I know a woman who's a, you know, a very busy professional woman and she goes to board meetings sometimes it's blah, blah, blah, you know, didactic, genic. Um, and she'll just do some light tapping on her heart.
[00:50:41] Nobody people don't really notice. Right. Um, you can also do this underneath the table if you need to at a meeting. But I like to use that protocol, but I'm always interested in the esoteric parts when I'm driving. Sometimes I can't tap certain points, so I'll kind of come back. Um, [00:51:00] when I worked with that real masterful woman in the New Mexico wilderness, she intuitively knew, and she wouldn't do the protocol.
[00:51:08] It had a lot of the distinction that we've shared, but she would just kind of customize it cause she was tapped into me and she kind of knew that we need to go here. We need to go with. Um, but she would almost always close with the crown chakra there.
[00:51:25] Curt Mercadante: Anyone have any, any questions or, or feedback as we, as we ran through that.
[00:51:33] And about other ways you use it. Yeah, Tammy, I have a question.
[00:51:36] Todd Denny: Um, just, you know, how you remember all of it or just, I have, I, I, I know that valuable is I definitely helps me. I felt very relaxed after doing that with everybody. Um, but it's. Sometimes I like to turn off my technology to help me chill or calm down and which way do I write this down?
[00:51:53] Like how does it actually practically become a practice? That makes sense. Um, well, T [00:52:00] Tammy, um, once again, it's just to trust the process. I use some video tutorial. Um, from people online from my, my masterful teacher, but then I went to some tutorials, but then it just becomes innate. It becomes wired in, and in terms of new pathways, once again, that the really deeper work in terms of transition in transform your life is releasing.
[00:52:26] The old blocks that we carry primarily from childhood, if you really want to change your life, if you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, if you want to, um, clear the headaches or, and on a deeper level. And this is so true, the, the grief, uh, from the, the, the divorce or the abuse, it's going back tapping.
[00:52:50] Going into it, but the wonderful thing is you don't have to do 20 or 30 years of talk therapy. And, you know, I was trained in talk therapy. I think it's great. Short-term but [00:53:00] Curtis. For years and years. And I know a wonderful woman who did it for 40 years and she, when she passed away, she'd never cleared anything.
[00:53:08] All you're doing with talk therapy after 10 or 20 years, I shouldn't laugh is you're, you're rehearsing the story and you're firing the same neural pathways, the pain, my mom, my mom, I call, I call
[00:53:20] Curt Mercadante: it marinating and bullshit. You know, it's like it's seeps into the intermediate, past the skin and then you just keep reliving it rather than clearing it out.
[00:53:28] I think Tammy one thing is, you know, the wording that Todd used don't you don't have to memorize that. And, and for me, when I got started, it was very kind of targeted and, and I kept it simple too, even though I have back pain right now, I love and accept myself. So I would go in very targeted about that.
[00:53:50] Something that was bothering me, you can do it positivity, the exact word. To me isn't as important. Like you didn't have to memorize everything Todd did there, [00:54:00] but there are certain pieces of it that you can, and you can mix and match for what works for you, you know, on the negative side and clearing out the negativity.
[00:54:08] It can be very. Even though, uh, I have a migraine right now. I love and accept myself even though, you know, whatever, but you can also mix in, I'm very grateful this morning I'm, you know, into a relaxing piece. So on that piece, I don't think it's right,
[00:54:24] Todd Denny: but, but what are the deeper work folks is? Um, let's say anxiety.
[00:54:30] Okay. So, you know, I'm taking complete ownership of my life. I'm feeling anxious about. Anxiety, why I've been feeling that for 40 years it's come back. I recognize it. I accept it. I'm investigating it. That's the deeper work I'm moving the energy. But the deeper work that I did was anxiety. Where does the anxiety come from?
[00:54:56] Oh, it's an old pattern. It comes from childhood. [00:55:00] I learned it from my mother, the anxiety, the world. Isn't say there's money struggles, but to go to do the deeper work. Tammy. And once again, you don't have to do it for years and years. For me, it was three months. And I'll be, I'll be honest with you was three hour sessions with this woman.
[00:55:18] I was blown open when we were done. I just went back home. But how many of you are willing to change your life in three months and to drop stuff that you've been carrying for 30, 40, or 50 years? That's the commitment or the diligence, and also. The risks you've got to take. If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired.
[00:55:36] If enough is enough, if you want to transform your life, if you want to heal, if you want to evolve.