Preparing People for the Future

EFT pioneer Michelle Hardwick has been teaching the modality for the last ten years, but is taking it to the next level with her customized workshops, including Releasing Stress and Frustration, Releasing Blocks to Abundance and Releasing Your Mask. She combines Emotional Freedom Techniques with NLP and Hypnotherapy to achieve top results. She speaks to Vivienne Tang about the ripple effect of her work and reveals what one can benefit from attending one of her workshops.

How are you taking EFT to the next level? How are the new workshops different from EFT levels 1-3.

There’s a lot more spiritual content. It’s giving people an understanding about what’s actually happening, not only personally but also globally. So really the key for me is to help people change or become lighter in vibration, that they can actually survive 2012. And by sharing the tools that I have, they’re able to deal with some of the issues that come up. People are able to release the stuff from the past and really anchor awareness into the present, and then I also share tools with them so they can co-create the future. Initially it was all about teaching EFT, which I feel really blessed to have done for the last ten years, but now I’m really preparing people for the future, giving them more tools. And even the people who do study EFT, they’re not necessarily going to be practitioners. Some of them are using it in schools. One lady opened up her own yoga practice. So she’s integrating EFT with that. There are people using it at home, with their animals, with their children, with family members. That’s really what I’m looking for, a ripple effect in terms of helping people and spreading that word of a tool that helps people to raise their vibration in readiness for 2012.

What are the benefits of attending some of your workshops?

Some people are attending because of the actual energy. I get feedback from people who feel the positive and divine energy in the room. I call in various masters before I actually start the work. Also, the sharing in the group is so profound. People are finding that they’re able to get through a lot of their old issues much quicker in a group setting. And I have seen that. I don’t know if the time is speeding up now. I feel things are shifting much faster. One student said that she had eight issues that she wanted to work through, and they all got resolved in that workshop. And those were major issues. So by setting the intention, we’re uncovering some real root causes. What I love about the workshops is, that everybody that gets attracted to that particular workshop at that particular time shares the same root cause. So it’s almost a bit like detective work as part of the group to find out what it is. And it’s unreal what comes up. As people start sharing their stories, people start to chip in. It’s a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle. You put your piece in the jigsaw and other people’s pieces come to light and they recognize certain things. It’s a major switching on of awareness. And I get very excited about it, because that again has a ripple effect. Those 20-30 people go out into the community. And they are completely transformed. They look differently. They respond differently. They’re no longer triggered in those old situations. And I’m astounded as well. I just go, “Wow, this person looks incredible.” There are lots of things that happen on many levels. So the key is change. If someone is really at a point where they feel that they’ve had enough, “I don’t want to keep doing this anymore”, then they should come to one of the workshops. Then they have the awareness why certain things are happening, and they have the tools to apply, not only for the present situation, but also for any other future situation. There is interaction, and there’s a lot of fun. When we have humour it raises the vibration. Often we get lost in that negative downward spiral. With the tools that I use it’s more about working through and then releasing it, rather then falling into it and having painful stuff triggered. So if they want change, and they want to have it in a nice lighthearted way, with practical tools that they can take away with them, then they should come and do a workshop.

Many people are afraid of doing group work. What would you suggest in such a case?

People can actually do the process silently, so they don’t actually have to share. But they’re still holding the intention to change. I recently had one lady, and I was doing a section on past lives, and she said from my background of Christianity I don’t really believe in past lives. And I said, “That’s fine, but you could possibly look at this from a genealogical point of view.” The feedback from a lot of people is how beneficial the group work has been, and they didn’t imagine how incredibly similar all those people were, all holding the same root cause. Each workshop has its own flow, its own energy, its own dynamic. It’s very organic, whereas the training for the levels is very structured. But in the mini workshops there is much more flexibility. I really love to tailor make the workshops.

How could one benefit from the Abundance workshop, especially in these economic times?

There’s a lot of stress around what’s going on at the moment. I’m addressing a lot of unconscious beliefs that get passed down. I’m going to ask some NLP questions that flush out those unconscious responses that just pop into your head as soon as you finish your sentence. I’m looking at some unconscious patterns and programs, perhaps our father’s blueprint, or our mother’s. Often there has been a trauma that has happened around money. So we go back using EFT and actually look at releasing that trauma. That tends to be like a safety mechanism, driving the person, propelling them in the opposite direction, moving them towards the survival mode. The hypnosis part of the workshop is releasing those old programs, and installing new ones. It’s almost like adding new software into the computer. So we add positive suggestions. It’s basically about trust. Once you have the trust, abundance will flow. So it’s really coming down to that root. If you trust yourself, you trust the universe. And everything you see is something that is going to help you achieve whatever goal you set for yourself. Often we hit a brick wall, but often that’s also a gift in disguise, and you turn the corner and you go, “Wow, look at that view.” I tend to look at these blocks to abundance and start clearing those. Again I use lots and lots of tools to come away from the vibration of fear and come into a vibration of trust. People can work on their personal/professional goals. And we create a 30-minute hypnotic recording, which is just bombarded with positive suggestions. And the participants can use this later to positively reinforce the mind towards the direction they actually want to go in. Usually we start with a relaxation, then we drop into a deeper state. In that deeper state the mind is open to more creative things, where things are flowing and where they see abundance. A student of mine just sent me an email saying, “In one week I’ve tripled my income, found the perfect business partner, healed the relationship with my mother and let go of a past lover!” People are really rolling with it, going for it. That’s awesome.

Tell me more about the Stress Release workshop. Who should attend?

It’s for anyone who is really stressed or suffering from the effects of stress. I just seem to feel that at this particular time with so many shifts happening on the planet, people have been incredibly stressed out. I really want people to have take-away tools that they can really master their emotions. So they can be calmer even though the situations are going on, but they’re not triggered. They’re more confident and more accepting of what’s going on within their lives and within their families. It is going to get more stressful. I can’t even believe we’re in May already. It just doesn’t stop. So I want to give people tools they can use through the day or at night, using some relaxation too, which will reprogram the mind away from that stress response into a more calm, relaxed state, where they are in control of themselves or the situation. They will feel more capable to cope with things that come up. Life is going to throw all sorts of things at you, but you will be able to deal with it.

What are the benefits of the Releasing the Mask workshop? Can one truly understand their own jigsaw puzzle?

This is going to be a brand-new workshop. It takes a lot of courage to release that mask, but a lot of people realize that it’s not serving them at all. As we head towards 2012, when there will be instant manifestation, absolute telecommunication and where everything will be amazing and flowing, the more we can let go of anything that is not authentic about our behaviour, our beliefs, our relationships, then the better it’s going to be. It’s a way to find out more about yourself, to get more clarity, to have more happiness in your life, and to really be who you really are and not who you’ve become. I’ve played the doting daughter, the dutiful wife and all those kinds of masks. It’s really about being real now and about being more real with our relationships.

Do you have any success stories you could share?

I think it’s fabulous that my students are all kind of finding a different niche for themselves. One is going into working with kids who are learning to drive, teaching them the tools to release all the fear and anxiety of doing the test. It’s about following your bliss, and that’s where the abundance and the flow will come in. One lady is doing corporate workshops in Shanghai, adding EFT along with coaching and she’s getting great results. One lady is doing yoga classes, and she’s got private clients now and all her classes are full. One person said they opened their heart chakra, one said they felt more connected to themselves. And if people aren’t enjoying the work that they are doing currently, it gives them a tool to be able to change that. It’s just wonderful. It’s just getting that taste of freedom, instead of being trapped by whatever is going on in your life. Finally you have the tool to discover what freedom really feels like.

For more information go to www.michellehardwick.com

Michelle Hardwick will facilitate workshops and individual sessions at the Shakti Healing Circle from May 11 - 26. See her workshop schedule below.

Free Talk on Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), May 11

EFT Level 1, May 12-13

EFT Level 2, May 15-16

Release Stress, Frustration and Anger, May 18

Releasing Blocks to Abundance, May 20

EFT Level 3, May 22-23

Release Your Mask, May 25