Cover Page Article in the Bayfield County Journal on April 16, 2009, covering a presentation by Tap Roots Healing on Balancing Your Life.

Press Release:

“Balancing Act

for a Better Life”

(Photo Description) From left are: Marion Vaughn executive director of the Bayfield Economic Development corp., Debbie McRoberts of Tap Roots Healing, and Mike Martino, president of the area’s Inventor and Entrepreneur Club where McRoberts spoke. (Photo by Dan Satran Jr.)

Balancing for this group might usually be how much time to spend, for example, on a flying car or a canoe paddle for the handicapped.

A special program last week by Bayfield’s Debbie McRoberts of Tap Roots Healing was about a different balance, in a person’s day-to-day life.  She confessed this was her first time speaking on this before a group, as her practice involves one-on-one and small group consulting.  She had trouble getting out of the Iron River Community Center very quickly, besieged by those in the audience who were stirred by her ideas.

It was a monthly meeting of the Dreamscatchers, Inventors, and Entrepreneurs Club of the Bay Area that started with what all agreed was a delicious meal of lasagne.  Then there were some reports from members of the club, led by its president Mike Martino who heads Iron River’s Digital Data Destruction Service and Marion Vaughn, Executive Director of the Bayfield County Economic Development Corporation.

Kidding that they were running out of time for the program in a meeting that only lasted a certain amount of time, McRoberts was introduced.  A 20-year resident of Bayfield, she has worked in tourism and education, teaching for eight years, before earning her certification as an NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) practitioner and Professional Life Coach. She then started Tap Roots Healing, LLC.  It’s described on the business card as ‘a place to re-source naturally’ and a mini-brochure states that NLP is one “technique to help people improve the quality of their life, designed to provide greater personal freedom in the way they think, feel and act.

As a facilitator, she said she guides people through working with something in their past that affects them presently, or assists them with creating something they want to manifest in their future.  Appropriately for a group called Dreamscatchers, she said these techniques also help integrate dreams into reality.  ”It’s a matter of being in touch with all your available resources,” she said.  She continued, “We want to be in control of how we are thinking, which affects how we’re being, and, in turn, influences how we’re acting.”

Once the group had a chance to say what a balanced life looked like to them, McRoberts asked how long did they see themselves living?  She said the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine in 1990 has predicted life expectancy of 120-150 years of age for the baby boomers and the next generation.  Its president at the time, Ronald Klatz, added, “Half the baby boomer generation will live to 100 in excellent health.”

Because of this, the group was able to rethink their predictions. McRoberts said, “The oldest person alive in the United States is 115 years old, a woman living in California who other than arthritis and some mobility restrictions is in excellent health.  In 1997, the oldest recorded woman died.  She was French, lived to over 122 years, was riding a bicycle at age 100, and had met Van Gogh.”

This was the start of looking at how thoughts have a powerful influence over how, and how long, we’re living.  She pointed to a chart showing 10 NLP presuppositions, one that states “The mind and body are one cybernetic system.”

A question came up about the internal thinking that can get in the way. McRoberts acknowledged the importance of recognizing an internal voice that can be either negative or positive. When an inner voice is critical, she said to think about where it is coming from and what it sounds like.  Then imagine that voice is coming from where your normal voice would come from, your lungs and up through your throat. Generally, by moving it, the voice becomes softer and more friendly and begins with “I” instead of “you”.  This is the difference between a a voice saying, “you blew it!” to a voice saying, “I can do better.”

Continuing on the mind/body connection, she added that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has indicated the number one disease for the 21st Century is depression.  Also, the World Health Organization sites stress as the number one killer in the 21st Century. Finally, Positron Emission Tomography, or PET Technology, has shown that negative thoughts create stress chemicals in the body.  ”These are not diseases, they are states of mind,” McRoberts stated.

Then the group did an exercise where they could change their state of mind simply to a more resourceful state.

Asking the group to suspend their beliefs for a moment and explore some ideas, she said, “It’s essential we think of ourselves as energy beings.”  She noted Einstein’s formula, E=mc (squared)2, where matter and energy are really different forms of the same thing where matter can be turned into energy and energy can be turned into matter.

McRoberts quoted physicists and mathematicians such as Planck, Von Neumann, and Wegner, as saying there is a conscious mind behind the manifestation of matter.

Further citing the dictionary’s definition of balance as ‘an equipose of differing elements’ she had a chart of four elements of personal energy: mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual energy.  She added “the challenge for any human being is to acheive personal balance through relationship to personal energy where inspiration flows”. She concluded, “My practice, among other methods such as, walks in nature, a beautiful sunset, prayer, meditation, yoga, massage, acupuncture and healing touch, are all means to support an individual in achieving that balance and thereby live in their own inspiration and their own success.”

Helping in this process she used as an example, “If a person is thinking about frustration, they will be frustrated, thus they’ll act frustratingly, and the world will give them frustration.”

A short balancing technique to relieve stress that she recommended is a breathing mechanism with a normal inhale and an extended exhale.  ”This prolongs the carbon dioxide, a natural tranquilizer in your blood stream.  We all get our buttons pushed from day-to-day.  It’s good to have resources available to calm down and keep us in a resourceful state of mind.”

The group asked about past memories that are difficult or paintful.  If there is a memory of something that is causing trouble, she offered some ways to structure the memnory to give you some breathing room to gain perspective without the overwhelming emotional component.  She added, “often when people are depressed, they have a tendency to remain totally associated, re-living the bad memories, playing them over and over in their minds, in an emotionally draining mental loop.”

This led to the first presupposition on the chart, “Every Experience has a Structure,” meaning every memory or future dream has a structure based on our five senses: how we see it, hear it, feel it, smell it, and maybe even taste it.

Another presupposition brought about much interaction, “Behind every action is a positive intention.” Naturally, Hitler’s actions came up and eventually the group reached some understanding that although he committed horrific actions, it’s possible there was a higher intention of “protecting his people”, or, “being in control,” yet for some this presupposition was too hard to accept.  She added this is where you’ll find forgiveness and compassion.

Using a drawing of the brain, she explained: “Humans are information processing systems designed to take information in at the energy level.  Everything we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell is in the form of energy.  Our brain’s subconscious, the superbrain processes up to seven trillion bits of data per second.  Our left brain, the conscious mind, gives this energy boundaries, language, and the ability to process in the here and now. Positive resourceful states of mind allow us to respond in the moment as opposed to re-acting based on prior mental programs.

McRoberts summarized, “Balance isn’t something we attain.  It’s something we try to maintain in our personal and professional lives every day.”

Adding to an old proverb “As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is” Proverbs 23:7.  She said, “how I wish it was Proverbs 24:7.”

References:Books

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The Sourcebook of Magic: A Comprehensive Guide to NLP Change Patterns, L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Crown Publishing, 2008

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The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles, and Belief, Gregg Braden-Best selling author of The God Code and Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer, Hay House Publications, 2007

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