Marian Buck Murray

EFT and Matrix Reimprinting for Sensitive, Empathic, Creative People. Step out of the shadows and share your gifts and talents.

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What Your Inner Saboteur Really Wants

February 16, 2022 by Marian Buck-Murray Leave a Comment

Sabotage is tricky.  It’s seductive.  It can trap us, making us feel like we have no way out.  Often it feels shameful, so we hide it from others.  It disrupts our lives, our plans, our happiness.  And yet, sometimes it feels so safe, so incredibly comfortable, that we give in without a fight.

This sense of safe comfort is why we keep going back for more.  The pull is sometimes too strong to resist.  Afterwards, we beat ourselves up for doing it again.  Or perhaps we’ve become so numb we no longer notice the impact sabotage is making in our lives.

Based on my personal and professional experience, I’ve come to understand self-sabotage as a form of protection.  It aims to protect us from rejection, failure, judgement, pain, grief, and more.  Most often it stems from childhood, or young adulthood, when we needed coping skills to handle painful circumstances.  

To heal these sabotaging coping strategies, we need to proceed with love, compassion and understanding.  In fact, love, compassion and understanding are crucial for transformation. It’s exactly what our younger selves needed during painful experiences.  Additionally, it’s especially crucial for our adult selves, as we dive into the work of healing. 

Sabotaging behavior can be traced back to earlier painful experiences.  For example, a young child, eager to show off his singing voice, might be hushed  or teased by family members.  This experience, especially if repeated, could lead to beliefs that it’s not safe to sing in front of people, or that he isn’t important, or good enough.  A natural response to this would be to protect himself from further pain by sabotaging, or squashing, his desire to sing.  He might use tactics such as playing small, busying himself with work,  or refusing to participate in musical endeavors.

Other examples include:

A child who experiences the pain of neglectful parents, might believe that no one shows up for her, or that she’s unlovable.  Later in life, she might attempt to protect herself from further rejection.  For example, she might avoid  or even sabotage social situations, neglect self care , or adopt some form of addictive behavior.

A child who grows up with a highly critical parent will likely develop a hefty critical voice, and tend towards perfectionism, procrastination, and dependence on others for validation.  All to protect against the pain of criticism. 

A traumatic event can feel overwhelming for all of us, especially children.  Common feelings resulting from trauma include shame, helplessness, and grief.  When not processed, these often unbearable feelings can lead to substance abuse, self-neglect, and other risky behaviors.  As harmful as these behaviors are, they’re a form of protection against difficult feelings.  It’s important to reach out for help to safely process these feelings.

It’s clear that all of these situations call for love, understanding, and healing.  Action and discipline are certainly necessary to create new behavior patterns.  The real work, however, is giving ourselves the help we needed in the first place.  Without healing, action and discipline will have far less impact.  

Suggestions for going deeper:

  • Journal to dialog with your younger self to get to know her and what she needs.
  • Write a compassionate, loving letter to your younger self.
  • Join a support group for your particular form of self-sabotage.
  • Reach out for help. Contact a Mental Health Professional.  EFT Tapping and Matrix Reimprinting are effective tools for releasing the painful emotions that can lead to sabotage.  Contact me if you’d like to learn more.

Sabotage can show up in a variety of behaviors.  You’ll know it’s sabotage if it consistently gets in the way of your success and happiness.  It can hide itself in seemingly positive behaviors such busy work, care-giving, and perfectionism. Or show up as risky behaviors, procrastination, self-neglect, and more.   No matter how it shows up for you, your inner saboteur is asking you to look deeply within.  It’s reaching out for love and compassion, and, most of all, healing.   

Take compassionate care of yourself,

Marian

 

Filed Under: EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques), Uncategorized Tagged With: busy work, coping strategies, EFT, EFT tapping, inner saboteur, love and compassion, matrix reimprinting, Perfectionism, Procrastination, sabotaging behavior, self sabotage

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What my clients say:

I started working with Marian over four years ago when I was experiencing recurrent miscarriages. It was an extremely vulnerable and traumatic time and I was lucky to find Marian through a friend’s recommendation. I had never done anything besides talk therapy previously and I was unfamiliar with EFT but I knew I needed something different. Marian educated me about EFT and its benefits. She tailored each session to my unique needs depending on what was going on for me emotionally and also used visualizations and breathwork. These are skills that I  also used on my own outside of our sessions. Marian is extremely skilled, grounding, empathetic and insightful. Even when I didn’t know what I needed, she listened and intuitively knew what to do. Her guidance helped me heal and move forward in my quest to be a mother. Our work together has truly been transformative for me and I continue to value our work now that I’m a new mother and am faced with new challenges.

~Susanna

We have been honored to have Marian’s presence at our Company to learn more about stress reducing techniques like tapping and heart breath meditations.  Marian empowered many employees to utilize such an accessible technique to help manage emotions in the corporate setting.

~Zena Kim, Head of Wellness Passion Group, A+E Networks

Our session was incredible. I’m still in absolute awe at how quickly you led me to the core issues that were tangling me up. So often I would feel the impact of the inner critical voice on my emotions (I’d FEEL depressed, overwhelmed, stuck, anxious)…but I never knew what the core limiting beliefs exactly were. That you exposed them so effortlessly amazes me. I’m blown away by how good I feel – truly it is like I’m breathing deeper, feeling lighter, clearer– an everyday-kind-of joy just feels so much more accessible right now. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your work- I can’t wait to continue further with you!

 ~ Lisa Grace Byrne, MPH  Author of Replenish, Founder of WellGroundedLife.com

Thank you so much for the session yesterday. It’s so freeing to feel grounded and energetically unblocked at the same time. You’ve been such an incredible guide and support this past year. I’m astounded by how much I’ve learned and how far I’ve come.

~Diana F.

Thank you so much, Marian!  I have held such appreciation in my heart for you and for the powerful work you have done with me.  I want to come see you for some more matrix reimprinting and EFT.  The more I expand the more I see. And I see more opportunities to release old ways and adopt new patterns that will serve my fullest expression of my soul's journey.

Leslie Goldman, Fine Artist www.wildcherryart.com

 

Thank you for agreeing to speak at NAO Wellness! I loved hearing your story, it’s so captivating and inspiring.  The feedback from the workshop was amazing – participants said it was transformative, that the energy in the room completely shifted, and more. I was truly blown away, I’m still feeling all the good vibes. You are such a gift.

~ Nikki Ostrower, Founder and Principal Nutritionist at NAO Wellness.

THANK YOU.  I'm sure you must hear testimonials all the time, but just your presence, voice and spirit make a huge difference in the way I think and do things - and I change! It's really a miracle, and you are the catalyst. Your guidance is invaluable.

~D.G.

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with nature.

Joseph Campbell
Certified EFT Practitioner

Disclaimer: The information and concepts presented on this website are for educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any disease or condition. It is not intended to substitute for the advice, treatment and/or diagnosis of a qualified licensed medical professional.

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