Two Saturdays ago I was doing 8 things at once (as usual), one of which was reheating my coffee in the microwave.  I “nuked” it twice just to be sure it was hot enough and, YEP, it sure was!  Pretty much hot enough to qualify as lava, although I didn’t know it at the time!

So I reached in and absentmindedly grabbed the ceramic mug, jostling it in the process and inadvertently sploshing a bit of SCORCHING coffee on to my poor, unsuspecting hand.  A shock wave jolted through my nerve endings right to my brain which instantly made the brilliant decision to tell my hand to jerk away violently– and that resulted in a second wave of searing hot coffee spilling over and onto my hand and fingers.

I often tell my husband that he’ll know when I’m really hurt if I don’t say anything at all.   I’m always announcing my little bumps and bruises with an, “Ouch” or “Ow!”  That’s the drama queen in me, I guess.  But when I’m really in pain all of that goes away and I am struck silent!

So, that was what it was like on Saturday– Me screaming at the top of my lungs – inside my head – while wildly trying to get that coffee off the back of my hand.  I immediately knew that this was bad.  Not like ‘burned my tongue on hot soup’ bad.  No.  Really bad.  I thrust my scorched hand under cold running water and started to tap with the other. And I tapped and tapped and tapped.  No Set-Up Statement or fancy wording.  No.   Just,

“Holy crap this is bad.  Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! I can’t believe how much this hurts!  I’ve never felt anything like this before!  I’m so stupid!  Why wasn’t I paying attention?!  I’ve never felt pain like this before!  How am I going to work?  I NEED my hand!  I’m an idiot!  I should have known!  It’s still burning!!!  I can’t take this! This pain! This Pain!  THIS PAIN!!!!!!”

I just tapped and expressed exactly what I was feeling inside and out.   After about 15 minutes of tapping and the waves of pain coming and going it finally subsided into the “just bearable” category and I was able to inspect the damage.  I fully expected to see horrible fluid-filled blisters from my knuckles to my wrist but instead I only saw an angry redness.  By the evening the pain had diminished to about a “3” (from a 10++!), and by the next morning to a “1”.   Over the course of the next week the skin scaled up, flaked off and is now almost back to normal with zero scarring.

So, why the dramatic story?  Because I fully believe this burn was serious– probably a 2nd degree burn that should have produced blisters, much longer-lasting intense pain, a longer period of healing and possibly even permanent scarring.  (To see what I mean Google “coffee burn” – but be prepared for some pretty gruesome pictures!).  I can’t prove it but I am convinced that the tapping I did released not only the pain but the physical and emotional trauma, the self-criticism (which only serves to get in the way) and the fears all of which set my body free to heal itself quickly.

Our bodies are designed to heal!  What happens when we get cut?  Our bodies go to work stitching it up!  But because of all the stuff we carry with us– the limiting beliefs, past negative experiences, self-criticism, fears, traumas, etc., our body’s ability to heal is often stymied.  Because I was able to tap in the moment (and tap and tap and tap!) I think I cleared the hurdles as quickly as they were set up!  And so my body did exactly what it was supposed to do– Heal!    Below is a shot of my hand just a few days after — By this time the redness had disappeared from my fingers, knuckles and wrist and the pain was gone as well!