Candy Widdifield
Sep 6, 2021
3 min read
Q: What is your advice for rewiring and incrementally training on EHS?
A: From my experience, the biggest hurdle for many people retraining with EHS is to stay out of fear. People retraining with EHS often engage in a lot of body checking and a lot of scanning the environment for potential sources. We want to stop these behaviours and the automatic negative thoughts that go with them, as much as possible.
One of the tricky aspects of working with EHS is that there is a lot of information about the potential harmful effects or risks associated with higher levels of exposure. While that may be true, we also know that our brain is picking up on exposure and seeing it as potentially life threatening to us, which is what is causing our symptoms. This is something we do have control over and we can intervene to re-teach our brain that our lives are not under threat in these circumstances. As I heard Bruce Lipton once say, there are waves all around us in our environment all the time - radio waves, micro waves, etc. We also have our own electromagnetic fields from our heart and our brains (the one around our heart is much bigger). My point being, there are energies and vibrations happening around us all the time. We have some control over what we tune in to or what affects us based on how we direct our brain and our own electromagnetic fields. I read somewhere (and unfortunately I cannot remember the source at this moment) that if we create a strong enough field coming from our hearts, it acts as a buffer against what may be in our environment, lessening the effects of what is around us. This makes a strong case for us to stay out of fear and in an elevated state of emotion as much as possible.
It is also helpful to remember that our bodies were designed to live in less than perfect environments, and that we have systems and capacities in place to help us adapt to these environments and allow us to thrive despite less than ideal circumstances. Tap into this inner resource through visualizations and cultivating feeling states of wellbeing.
From a practical perspective, really become aware of the automatic negative thoughts and behaviours that may be operating that keep your limbic system in a state of fear or threat. Incrementally train by slowly increasing exposure combined with elevated emotional states, positive self-talk, or rounds of practice. If you find that you are fine during the exposure and then notice symptoms later, redirect and practice the retraining steps as soon as you notice the symptoms arising, in addition to elevating your emotional state during the exposure. If you are constantly exposed and as a result are continually outside of your training zone, then do your best to elevate your emotional state and stay out of negative thoughts, body & environment checking as much as you can.
I've witnessed brain retraining programs work incredibly well for many people with EHS, as soon as they were able to overcome their fears, have confidence in their retraining, and become active directors of their thoughts and emotional states.
Until next time!
Next week: Training with OCD
If you have a question, please email me at dearcandyquestions@gmail.com
Candy Widdifield is Registered Clinical Counsellor, Wellness Coach, and Registered Reiki Master Teacher in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. She works with people all over the world, helping them to optimize their wellbeing and thrive in their lives. Her modalities include coaching, therapy, Reiki and the Safe & Sound Protocol. More information about Candy can be found at www.candywiddifield.com
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