Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABIHM

This is an extension of the previous WHEE-kly article.

Who has not exclaimed, "Oh, my God!" or "Oy Vey!" when faced with unexpected and serious challenges? We may feel overwhelmed because the challenges are great or because we feel that our resources are too limited to meet them.

In either case, the OMG feeling in and of itself may cause or worsen our feelings of being overwhelmed. Within the WHEE system, this is a meta-anxiety. It is when we are upset over being upset.

When in worry or in doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout.

              - Anonymous

Meta-anxieties like these may wind us up beyond our capacities to think clearly and to deal with stressful situations. They may lead us to make poor assessments of what is happening and poor decisions about what to do to resolve them.

Pausing briefly to do the WHEE tapping and reciting an affirmation to focus our mind on the meta-anxiety can rapidly reduce our stress and anxiety levels. If you have practiced WHEE, you may well be able to just tap to calm yourself. Meta-anxieties often respond to WHEE much more quickly than primary anxieties.

The negativity we initially perceive when we are in challenging situations often dissipates as we work on our stress levels. We may then find that what had appeared to be negative was actually an invitation to grow and deepen our awareness, stress management skills, patience, trust in ourselves, and trust in the wisdom of our inner guidance that leads us into such challenging lessons.

With time and practice, we may even develop and strengthen our meta-positive awarenesses and beliefs. Challenges may cease to stimulate OMG responses.  Instead, we may react to challenges with the confidence that we can deal with whatever difficulties we face and come out better on the other side. The OMG may be replaced with "I wonder what lessons this situation is going to bring me?"

You may reproduce all or parts of this article in your journal, magazine, ezine, blog or other web or paper publication on condition that you credit the source as follows: Copyright © 2011 Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABHM   All rights reserved. Original publication at WholisticHealingResearch.com where you will find many more related articles on this and similar subjects of wholistic healing. 

Further information about WHEE

Basics of the WHEE process

WHEE Videos

Appreciations for benefits of WHEE

Problems helped by WHEE

Book on WHEE for Pain 

WHEE workbook

WHEE workshops

Articles:
   Introductory WHEE article

   WHEE for trauma and re-entry problems 

   WHEE for children

   WHEE-kly brief articles

WHEE research