Episode Transcript
Think meditation is hard? Do me a favor, take a slow deep breath in and now breathe out. Congratulations, you just meditated. Hi, I’m Krystal Jakosky, and this is Breathe In, Breathe Out: a Weekly Mindfulness and Meditation podcast for anyone ready to own their own shit and find a little peace while doing it.
Krystal Jakosky: Welcome to Breathe In, Breathe Out. I’m Krystal Jakosky: and it is just amazing to have you here today. I got to interview Ann hints, who is a fantastic woman who is very much in alignment with me, and how I encourage you guys to dive into your emotions and not just the emotions that are on top, but everything that's below them. And she has had a wonderful experience with EFT and how it has literally emotionally mentally and physically changed her life. When Ann was 19, she woke up one morning to find her mother dead in her bathroom. 20 years later, the tears from that trauma were still just under the surface. Ann found a simple technique EFT that helped her release these emotions, but she went further and now she can put her awareness inside of her body. She's also changed the bone structure of her skull and grown half an inch at age 55 and found that seeking out our truth, what we truly feel, and accepting those feelings is the key to inner peace. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed it.
Krystal Jakosky: Welcome back to Breathe In, Breathe Out. I’m Krystal Jakosky your host, and I'm thrilled that you're here. This is a fantastic conversation I get to have today with Ann hints and you just get to eavesdrop and learn about fabulous new techniques and, um, ways for self-care. So welcome, Ann. Hello.
Ann Hince: Hi. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me, Krystal.
Krystal Jakosky: Ah, yeah. I'm, I'm excited to explore. I'm excited for people to connect with you. I'm excited to learn more about you, your journey, and the tools that you have learned to help you process and move forward because you and I are so well aligned in so many different things that we teach. And yet you have an extra tool that I haven't really used very much, and I'm excited for everyone to learn about that. So will you tell us a little bit about your journey and what brought you here?
Ann Hince: Sure. So I had a lot of, a lot of trauma in childhood, you know, most of us do and I don't know that was anymore, any less than anyone else, but it was my journey. So I was born with my right foot up against my right shin. So my first six weeks of life were physical therapy. And then I was given over for adoption into a family that had just suffered trauma because they had a two-year-old boy who had been adopted. And then they adopted another little girl and they raised her for six months. And then the birth mother changed her mind, which back then they could do up to six months. And so they had to hand her back and I was the replacement in the family for that. So that was a family already in trauma. Right. I don't know that my brother ever, he never realized he didn't know consciously, obviously what had happened, but I don't think he ever liked me probably because of that.
Krystal Jakosky: <laugh> yeah. Oh my gosh. That's huge.
Ann Hince: Yeah. And they would obviously be concerned that my birth mother was going to do the same thing, so they wouldn't have connected possibly. Plus they had that extra six months, you know, the first six months of a living child's life is so hard. Yeah. And then they have to do it back to back, so
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. Oh, wow.
Ann Hince: So that was the beginning.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. That's a lot of trauma to just be brought into in the beginning. Whoa.
Ann Hince: Yeah. And then, um, my dad worked in a company that traveled around the world. So worked for six months when they knew they were gonna keep me, and we moved to Barbados. And then from there, we moved to Sierra Leone in West Africa. And while we were there, we had a house fire. So I was probably around three at the time. And I woke to find the flames coming in through my bedroom wall. So that was a trauma, right? <laugh>
Krystal Jakosky: Yes.
Ann Hince: And then life continued. We moved on to Hong Kong. We lived in Hong Kong. And while we were in Hong Kong, I was sent to boarding school in England. And I was sent to my brother's boarding school, which happened to be at that time a boy's boarding school. Oh. So they had day girls who were there during the day, but I was the first girl boarder and my teeth were really awful at that time. And so I was teased mercilessly for two years. So that was more trauma
Krystal Jakosky: <laugh> right. Just on top of everything else. Yes. Right. Uhhuh <affirmative> more weight.
Ann Hince: Yeah. And my dad had anger issues anyway. And it was during my teenage years that they both became alcoholics. So my mom would drink a bottle of Sherry a day for the last few years. So, um, you know, that wasn't fun either. And then when I was 19, I woke up one morning. I was working from home. Well, I'd gone back home for an industrial period for my degree. And I woke up one morning and found her on the bathroom floor, dead on the bathroom floor. So that was another trauma. But by that time, you know, where we get trained, we get programmed how to deal with things. And our way of dealing with things was just to keep going to suppress it all and not talk about it and just keep going. And so that's what I did.
Krystal Jakosky: Just keep moving along, just yeah. Hold your head high. And nobody really wants to hear how you're really honestly, truly doing. It's just a no, I'm, I'm, I'm moving forward and you've been so conditioned with every other knock throughout life to just pick yourself back up and keep moving. But at some point that stuff's got to come to a head, right?
Ann Hince: Yeah. So I moved out to California when I was 21. I graduated with a computer science degree, became a software engineer, got married, and had kids <laugh>. And it was in my late thirties that I had a business altercation with a couple of other mothers at school. So they were very self-confident self-assured authority-type women. And I was the scared mother on the inside and they told me I had done something wrong and my mind just went out of control. It just started spinning over and over what they'd said, what the ad said, what had happened. And it was like about three days I couldn't sleep. And I realized, okay, I don't think this is normal. I don't think people, normal people would react this intensely to something that was really quite small. And that's when I realized it was a little bit like how I would react when my dad told me I'd done something wrong. Cause he was a very authority-type figure to me. Right. Self-confidence, self-assured. And when he told me I'd done something wrong, I would just fall to pieces. So that was the little opening that maybe there's something from childhood that's still affecting me to that day
Krystal Jakosky: As a mother, as a mother with kids in school. That is when you realized that some of your insecurity came from inner child work and something that happened way long ago. <laugh>
Ann Hince: Right. Yeah. I, and I just was not aware of it before. It took all those years of things happening to realize, oh, it's that childhood stuff. <laugh>
Krystal Jakosky: Oh, wow. So what did you do?
Ann Hince: Well, I didn't really know what to do at the time, but it was in that timeframe. And I don't remember how long, much long later, but I went to a doctor's appointment. I don't remember why I went to him, but it was nothing to do with emotions. I know that. But he happened to recognize that I was more stressed than I should be. And he was a holistic physician. So he knew some of these things. So he asked me on a scale of zero to 10, what my stress level was. And I said it was an eight. And then he asked me why. And there was that question that made me realize, oh gosh, it's finding my mother dead on the bathroom floor, which is now two decades earlier because the tears were still just under the surface. They hadn't gone anywhere. They were still sitting right there so he knew this technique. That's called EFT - short for Emotional Freedom Technique. And it's also called tapping because we're tapping on certain parts of our body as we're talking something through. So he tapped with me for about 15 minutes on my mother's desk. And I walked away from that appointment. Being able to tell a story in my mind, without the tears there anymore. And that was the first time I realized that we hold those memories and those emotions physically in our bodies and that we can let them go. I had no idea.
Krystal Jakosky: So I wanna know why were you with a holistic doctor instead of a regular practitioner?
Ann Hince: Huh? That's an interesting question. No, one's asked me that before. I've always been holistically minded. Right. So I felt that weight of what I was carrying around in my twenties and thirties and I approached it from outside of myself. Right. Okay. What can I change in my diet? That's gonna make me feel better. So I did a lot of things over those years to try and lift that weight, to try and make me feel better, but nothing ever worked. So I don't know. I've always been holistically minded and that's, I don't think that's from my adopted parents. I'm not even sure it's for my birth parents, but it's been part of me.
Krystal Jakosky: So there's this part of you that just recognized holistic was the path for you and you needed to, and you've always had a holistic doctor. You've always, how did you go about finding someone that worked for you?
Ann Hince: Well, I had my children at a Waldo school and he was a parent at the Waldo school <laugh> okay. So yeah, so it was relatively easy and I've not always had I actually tend to avoid doctors really. I, I, I haven't, I've been to one may be less than a handful of times, possibly in my lifetime. So yes, I've always, I've always felt, felt like I've been on a path of noninterference. I, I had migraines for decades and I wouldn't even take an aspirin. I would feel like I needed to work through it.
Krystal Jakosky: Okay. Understand what was going on and why it was going on so that you could work through it.
Ann Hince: Yeah.
Krystal Jakosky: And improve it.
Ann Hince: Yeah.
Krystal Jakosky: 00:10:55 Yeah.
Ann Hince: Yeah. So he Tapp with me that day and then I went home that afternoon and I, I wanted to check it out. I, I went online to learn about this technique EFT. Cause I wasn't totally convinced like this one time, was it just a fluke? Right. Was it ever gonna do anything ever again because I have this software, I have this engineering mind and background. It's like, I need to know something's gonna work before I invest my time in it. So I learned everything I could about it. And, and then I wanted to check it out. So I had at the time, a 17-year-old cat at home and he was starting to fail. His kidneys were starting to fail. So we were told he needed to have daily saline shots and I was gonna have to be the one to do that.
Ann Hince: And the first time I gave him a shot, my hand was shaking so badly <laugh> I was so afraid of doing this one thing. So I thought, okay, well let me try out this technique. Let's see what it does. So I tapped about it. I tapped about every aspect. So I tapped about my hand shaking, my fear of giving him the shot, and all the memories I had because I'd had many injections because we lived around the world. So I tapped about all those things, let it all go. And the next day I gave him the shot and the needle just slid right in. There was no more feeling left inside of me. And it was so exciting. <laugh>
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. Right, right. Oh my gosh. I can do this.
Ann Hince: <laugh> right. So it showed me two things. It showed me how deceptively powerful tapping is because it doesn't look like it's doing much, but I could tell it really was. And that's when I realized that freedom was on the other side of that fear. And that's where I wanted to be in every aspect of my life, because I pretty much lived with fear inside of me, even though, you know, from the outside, people probably couldn't see it, but yeah, that's where I was living from. So that started me on my journey. I, I started using it every day now, to begin with, you know, it's, it's hard to catch yourself being emotional, right. We tend to get caught up in our emotions. So even to be able to say, stand back and say, okay, look at me, I'm getting emotional, right. Even that is a step in itself, but it gets easier over time.
Ann Hince: So the first day, maybe I'd only catch myself once and then I would tap and I'd bring myself back to peace, you know? And as the days went by, I'd catch myself more and more with more subtle things. Like, you know, even if I was afraid of making a phone call, I might tap on that fear before I made the phone call. So that the phone call became easier to make or I'd catch myself after I was frustrated with one of my children or something that happened in the news, right? Yeah. I would, I would tap. I would bring myself back to peace and then carry on with my day. And I realized things were changing, right? My mind start started to become more peaceful and I was becoming less reactionary. I was less, highly strong and I just wanted more. So I knew that I could write down every emotional memory I had from childhood and tap through one each day, cuz I'd heard people doing that. So I did that and I taped through one memory or belief or something I'd taken on from childhood. I taped through one each day for about an hour to an hour and a half each evening. And over those months, just things just started to change. And it was, it was amazing.
Krystal Jakosky: What were some of the changes you noticed?
Ann Hince: Well, as we become more peaceful on the inside, we attract more peace on the outside. Right? So interactions day to day interactions with family members became more peaceful because I was more at peace inside. So, you know, they didn't pick up on my anxiety or my fear. So they were able to be themselves more.
Krystal Jakosky: Mm.
Ann Hince: So that was really fun to experience and just not getting triggered as much. Right. When I worked on a trigger, then the next time I experienced the same thing, I wasn't triggered in the same way. And then I would work with how I was feeling then, and then the next time I'd feel even less triggered. So it just started changing things.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. So it's that those that mirror what we talk about a lot, how your, how your feeling and your relationship with yourself is your relationship with others is also a mirror of how you are relating with yourself. So if you're dealing with your fear and your emotions and the things that are inside, you're reflecting a more calm and peaceful being out, and that becomes your relationship with the people around you. It just is more smooth and easy and at peace and delightful for lack of a better word. <laugh>
Ann Hince: Right. Yeah. I know a lot of people don't wanna take this journey because they think it's work, but really it is work. You know, you have to be determined to do it, but as you do it, things improve, right. Life gets yeah. Gets fuller. It gets, there's a deeper awareness that you develop over time, which you, which you see in the world around you.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. So as you were doing this EFT, um, as you were doing this tapping and working through different emotions, did you find that it was often one emotion, or were there more emotions like underneath what was going
Ann Hince: On? Yeah, we talk about the layers of the onion, right. In many, many different areas. Right? So this is one, so yes, there's often an emotion that's on the surface. And then as you accept that emotion, that's what EFT is really doing. It's accepting the feeling that you're having right now. And when that releases something underneath comes up. So yes, it will often be another emotion. It will sometimes be another memory. Right. So with my mother's death, when I worked through it with the doctor, the first time, that was really just a surface layer. So yeah, I can't remember the timeframe, but probably the next day some more came up. So it might have been some more details would come up of the, of the events that had happened, more different emotions, different parts of the day would surface. And then I would work on those and let those go. And then maybe another day or two down the road, some other little memory will pop up because it's opening up the subconscious mind.
Krystal Jakosky: Right.
Ann Hince: And that's what it's doing. It's expanding our awareness. So those two, excuse me, those two go together. The opening up of the subconscious mind and the expansion of the awareness kind of happens at the same time. So we became, become aware of that next layer in the onion as we let go of the first one.
Krystal Jakosky: So do you ever get to the bottom of all the layers, do you ever get to the core of the onion? What happens?
Ann Hince: <laugh> <laugh> well, I'm still working on it, but I'm working on it at such a deep level now. Right. Compared to where I started. So I think enlightenment is the end of the onion. <laugh> it's the core <laugh> but I'm not there yet. I don't know anyone who is, so yes, it's just, it's just, it just changes as you go.
Krystal Jakosky: Right? So it's literally a process. It's something you start, you learn, you apply, you get to use it and things get easier because you're no longer what I just saw a bunch of in my brain. I just saw like a two-liter bottle of soda with the lid on and you have shaken it up and it has all of these bubbles and stuff. And you've got to sort through each one of those bubbles, each one of those layers to try to get to the next one. And you're releasing that pressure with every emotion that you tap and every challenge that you face through the EFT. And eventually, it's not gonna blow off its top anymore. It's just gonna fizzle just a little bit. And you recognize that it's there, but it's not gonna be a problem because oh yeah. That's there. It's okay. It's not a big deal. Let's tap on that one and we're done again. So,
Ann Hince: Absolutely. Yeah. So that's, that's finding in a piece. That is how it happens. Yeah.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. And bottles can be good.
Ann Hince: <laugh> well, you can recognize that it's just the next part of the journey. Right? You don't have to get caught up in the emotion anymore. You just, one of the things I realized is that emotions, you know, we talk about emotion as being an emotion, like energy and emotion.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah.
Ann Hince: That, maybe the case, but it's energy and motion. That's stuck inside the body. So that's what I think of it it's energy. That's stuck inside the body. It just wants to find a way to get out. And once it does, it releases from the body and EFT, the tapping, the physical act of tapping on the ends, the Meridian systems, that is what allows the energy to release from the nervous system.
Krystal Jakosky: So can we, can you talk a little bit more about emotions being stuck in the body and what that can bring about like what that can cause or what it can feel like?
Ann Hince: Well, when it, when it's really stuck in the body, right. That's when we get caught up in the emotion it's cause it's so intense that energy, we, we can't stand back from it. We, we can't stand back from it at that point and say, oh, look at me, I'm getting emotional because it's so much energy that's moving around. So yeah. If we're able to find a technique like EFT at that point and tap and just let some of that energy out. Yeah. Just let it, let it flow out of the body. Then we can start to become calm and recognize. Okay. Yes, it is just emotion. That's stuck in the body. Let me find what the next emotion is. Right. Then we can name it. Okay. Really underneath I'm afraid. I'm afraid of doing this thing. And then we can work on accepting the fear. Right. We can name it. And then maybe once we've let go of that fear a little bit then may we? Okay. Well, it's, I'm actually afraid of, I'm afraid of going on this journey because I'm afraid something might happen. Right. So we can, we can pinpoint it more. We can give it more detail because deep underneath it's actually stored physically in the body.
Krystal Jakosky: Yes.
Ann Hince: And as we pinpointed it, we're actually focusing, we're learning to focus more on that place in the body. Even though we might not realize it at this point, we're just using words to focus our attention. We are actually working in the physical body, but we're not aware of it at this point because our awareness has not expanded to that depth yet.
Krystal Jakosky: Right. Right. I think of someone who's like stressed out and waited and they're slumping over because they're emotionally just drained or whatnot and tapping can literally help release some of that. Weightedness and lift them up a little bit or think about when you're, you are, um, angry and how your body reacts. Like you might pull into yourself or your muscles might tighten up. And, um, I'm just thinking about all the different ways that our body reacts when we start to feel a specific emotion and those in themselves are an ideal trigger to say, Hey, maybe I should look at what's going on. It's this precursor to, oh, I just reacted that way. So now what do I do to help release it? How do I help shift from wanting to yell and scream to getting all of this energy out of me and moving into an understanding of, yeah?
Krystal Jakosky: I feel that way because I'm afraid of abandonment or I'm afraid of this, or I'm feeling upset about this other thing and taking it back, you know, I love how EFT lets you help you personally look at this one thing that had been years earlier and then you keep, I mean, it was, it was that moment in the doctor's office, but you got to go back to your mother's passing and then you get to go back even further to all of the other stuff and you get to really learn and understand all of that trauma that you went through from birth to here and be able to heal that to be at more peace. Now piece. Now
Ann Hince: The EFT helps to open up the subconscious mind and expand awareness. Now, when I started, I did not have much awareness. I, I was not aware of how I felt during the day because had suppressed it or so, you know, someone asked me, how do you feel today, Ann? I would say I'm fine because that's what I would always say. I didn't really know how I felt. Right. And I think a lot of people do that, but as you keep going with the tapping, it opens up that awareness. So I become aware of my emotions during the day. And then I kept going and then I became aware of the physical sensations underneath the emotions. So we used the phrases, right? We used the words, sadness or anger, or frustration. But what we're really describing is where we're holding that tension in our bodies.
Ann Hince: So, you know, if someone's angry, we can normally tell just by their posture, by the whole, the way they're holding themselves. Well, we can actually become aware of those sensations of where that tension is. And this was all new to me. <laugh> I think a lot of maybe, maybe empaths, right? Have this awareness already. And I think maybe I did as a child, but I had lost it because I'd I had so much baggage I was carrying. Right. So at the time I was in a group, we were studying a course in miracles and the kind of guru in the group would say every week now I, now I know you like meditation, but <laugh> he said, you don't have to meditate. It's all about feeling your feelings. And I didn't want to meditate at the time. So this felt good to me. But at the time I didn't know what my feelings were.
Ann Hince: Cause I was just starting this journey with tapping with EFT. So as the weeks went by and he said this every single week, <laugh> at one point, I thought, okay, well I know I can feel my feelings now or I can feel fear. I can feel anger and frustration. So one day at the kitchen sink, I thought, okay, I'm gonna try and feel my feelings. It should be simple. Right? It sounds right. So basic <laugh>. But for me, it's like I had, I had suppressed them for all these decades at this point. So I had to teach myself how to do it. So I would find myself thinking of thoughts mostly for me it was a fearful thought. So I recognize, okay, this thought makes me afraid. So then I would feel where that fear was in my body. And for me, it would be in my solar plexus normally.
Ann Hince: So I recognize when, when I felt that fear in my solar plexus if I moved or even if I took a deep breath, I would lose my focus on that fear. And he told me I'm it's about feeling or feeling. So I have to be able to feel them. So I realized I actually had to hold myself like a statue. The soon as I could feel this fear in my stomach, I'd hold myself like a statue and stop breathing. I wouldn't take a deep breath. I would stop right there in my breath where I was when I could feel this fear. And then I would just feel it. And I would even talk to it because I wanted to keep my focused attention on this feeling. So I would say things like, okay, I can feel this fear. I can feel you sitting there in my solar places.
Ann Hince: I just want you to be felt. I want you to be felt. I want to accept you the way you are. Don't want to change. You just wanna feel you. And then at some point, I'd have to take a deep breath and I'd let it out. And I would notice there would be a shift in that fear. It would've diminished slightly. So then I would think the same thought again, this fearful thought, feel the fear again, do it again, hold myself like a statue. Just feel it, allow it to be felt, and take another deep breath. And it would've shifted again. And I would just do it again and again with the same thought until it no longer had any fear sitting inside of me at which point it was free.
Krystal Jakosky: <laugh> Right.
Ann Hince: But some Buddhism, maybe I need to research this a little bit more, but I think there's one of those teachers that said, it's the attachments to thoughts that are what provide the suffering in our lives. So this is releasing bad attachment from that thought and that sort.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah.
Ann Hince: Yeah. So then I'd start during this every day instead of tapping because it's a deeper level of awareness. So now I would lay on the sofa at night and I'd work through my childhood with the tapping with EFT at night. So now I moved on to laying on the sofa and I would bring a collective thought to mind like an experience that we all went through. Something like 9/11, because we all have our own individual experiences of those traumas. And then I would feel all those emotions or those sensations in my body and just allow them to be felt, which was, you know, this was a new thing for me because I'd always held them tight, held them inside. And, it was really relaxing to allow this energy just to leave my body. And this felt like a whole nother step from the EFT. So, you know, I talk about it as being the second step.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. It means that you're sleeping better. It means just the fact that you're able to relax and enjoy that moment and let it go in such a beautiful way. You're gonna feel fear again, related to a different memory, but you know exactly what it feels like, which means that then you're gonna be able to sit with it and do the exact same process. And you're tapping to release it and find a new piece because you were able to do that, which is really cool recognizing where you hold it and how you hold it and how it feels when it's present and how much better you feel when it's not there anymore.
Ann Hince: Right. I mean, this is that weight, that burden that we've been carrying around all those years, or I certainly had that's. I started to feel it all released. You know, we talk about, um, a deer or something right after it's been chased by a mountain lion and then it, it gets away and it shakes everything off. Right. That you just feel those feelings and let them go. Yeah. <laugh>. And to me, that's what this technique was doing. It was allowing those feelings that had been held in for so long just to, to, to release out of the body.
Krystal Jakosky: So you don't meditate, but you do focus on different parts of your body. You do relax, you do take a moment to let everything else go and tune in. So you don't meditate.
Ann Hince: Well, some people have said to me, this could be called a way of Medi a form of meditation <laugh> so, so yes, I don't say that as much anymore. <laugh> but it's I know, you know, I used to think of meditation as being mind work. Right. Trying to quiet the mind. Yeah. And to me, I'm actually out of my thinking mind, I'm in my feeling or my sensing mind, which is different.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in this more of a mindfulness presence mind than that, the brain that just keeps going on, everything else that you've done throughout the day.
Ann Hince: Yeah. And my mind, you know, at this point was pretty quiet and I think it had to be in order to be able to get into the senses more, my mind used to be very noisy, like very busy, very negative, very judgemental. And I didn't like it being that way. But through the process of working with the EFT, and letting go of my childhood, my mind actually became so quiet. It felt foreign to me. I didn't even know that those voices in my head were judging me and criticizing people. I didn't realize that those voices, those words had been my dad's words that I had been programmed with in childhood. And I just replayed them over and over again. I couldn't see that until they had gone and I could look back and see, oh, oh gosh, those, those were words for my dad.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. They weren't your own. They were someone else's that you had adopted as your own reality.
Ann Hince: Right. And when they disappeared, what was left was peace. I didn't replace them with anything. Right. It just became peaceful inside.
Krystal Jakosky: Well, I think that's because your own personal voice, your true personal voice is actually the most loving kind, encouraging voice, your higher self, your connection to source or your whatever your spiritual or religious higher power is. I think that when we tune in to that, we recognize our own personal one is loving and kind and encouraging on so many different levels. And yet that voice gets drowned out by all of the other conditioning that we've received throughout our lives. You know, everything that's social through school and church or not church and culture and the family and everything else that we are experiencing as we grow up from an infant until whatever age we are at right now, we've had all of these other influences coming in and saying, this is where you're at. And it's easy to accept that as our own. And once we realize that that's not our own and start looking at something different, it says, oh wow, life is so much better when I stop listening to those and start hearing something so much more kind.
Ann Hince: Right, right. I mean, as I kept doing the tapping and getting deeper with it, I realized that as I would let go of these negative thoughts, more positive thoughts would naturally arise and compassion and understanding would arise. And I did not feel like I had a lot of compassion in the past, but as I let go of all these resentments and everything that happened in my childhood, it was just there. It was there underneath all this that you said, all this programming that we have had, it's naturally under it's naturally there underneath as are those positive thoughts, which is really incredible to experience right. To, hear that it's possible is one thing. But to experience it, it is another <laugh>.
Krystal Jakosky: And that's what I love. That's why I'm excited that you're here on this program right now because I think the people have heard a little bit about EFT or about tapping. And I think that it's easy to dismiss it because it sounds like really just tapping myself in some species that just doesn't sound like it's gonna do anything, but to have somebody who has had their lives completely transformed on so many layers, be able to really speak to the human transformation that has happened on so many different, beautiful levels. That's a gift to help people understand that it is possible. And it could be a beautiful self-care tool for them to dive into right.
Ann Hince: Yeah. As can feeling your feelings, if you have that level of awareness. Right. Cause you could do that. You could do feeling your feelings anywhere, tapping, you know, you're tapping on your body might not feel comfortable doing that out in public, but you can always just sit and feel your feelings. So I feel that is really powerful too, but I couldn't have done that, to begin with. I had to work through EFT and develop that level of awareness before I can do that. Yeah. Yeah. So, so then should we carry on and talk about the deeper level that we can get through?
Krystal Jakosky: I, yes. I wanna talk about the physical changes that you have experienced since choosing to dive in and find this piece.
Ann Hince: Okay. So this is the next step that I didn't know was possible before. I didn't really know what I was doing, but as I was doing this work, lying on the couch, feeling these feelings, at some point I noticed I could keep my awareness inside my body after the tension or the emotions had dissipated, which is really weird to say it was very weird to experience. I'd never felt it before. So let me try and explain it. So imagine that you have a toothache or a stomachache you can pinpoint with your senses, right? You could feel where that pain is coming from. Right. Mm-hmm <affirmative> but once the pain has dissipated, you can't really feel it anymore. Cuz there's nothing calling your attention to it. Yeah.
Krystal Jakosky: Right.
Ann Hince: Well, I found that I could, I found I could keep my awareness inside my body, which I mean, it was just really weird and I just started to play with it while I've done it once. Can I do it again? And I found that I could, and then, well now I can do this thing. What can I do with it? <laugh> so I, I tried, I was like, can I move my awareness around inside? And I found that I could, and then I could find a place with tension or no tension. So I found a place with tension and I focused on it and I noticed it would shift. So I would do it again and again and again, doing the same thing now at a deeper level than I was with feeling the feelings and even a deeper level with the EFT. Cause EFT was going through the same thing with words again and again until the energy has left the body.
Ann Hince: So now I'm at the awareness inside the body and I'm releasing tension directly in the body. So I would move around my body and I would feel tension, release it, feel tension, release it, it felt really good. It's got to be right. You're releasing tension. That's been in the body for decades. It's gonna feel good. Yeah. And it took, it took many, many months, but eventually, I was able to put my awareness inside my head, which was pretty eyeopening for me because there was so much pain and tension. The pain in my left cheek was just incredible. And the forces that I could feel that were pulling my bones outta the alignments, which I think had been there since I was born with my right foot up against my right shin, my whole body was twisted.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah.
Ann Hince: I had just not had the awareness that that pain intention was there all those years. It had been there. I just didn't have that awareness. Cause I remember an orthodontist one year, many years ago, he'd actually said to me, you must have a lot of tension in your head because I was getting these migraines. And I, I laughed at him and said, I don't think so. <laugh>
Krystal Jakosky: <laugh>
Ann Hince: Which is so funny. Cause there was so much tension in there, but now I had this technique, right. So I would put my awareness on this pain only for a couple of seconds, to begin with. Cause it was so intense and it would release and then I'd do it again and again and again. And at some point, I actually heard, because now I mind in my head, right. I'm near my ears. So I heard and felt something release. This was another kind of scary part of the journey. Am I, am I damaging myself? Right. I didn't know what was happening. It sounded and felt like all fabric ripping. So I researched at that point and realized it was an adhesion in the connective tissue that was releasing.
Ann Hince: So mm-hmm <affirmative>, I think it allows awareness to move through it. <laugh> uh, and uh, so I just kept going and I would feel more and more adhesions release, and eventually, I could actually feel my skull bones relaxed because I had released enough tension or dis-ease in the connected tissue. And it just felt like really deep relaxation. So it was really nice to get those x-rays taken last year and compare them to 2013 and see that the bones themselves have shifted. Right. My eye sockets have aligned. My jaw was way off to the side. It's more centered and my neck, which used to be totally bent I'm from scoliosis. It's now way straighter and I've grown half an inch as a result.
Krystal Jakosky: Oh my gosh. <laugh> that's amazing. That is so cool.
Ann Hince: Thank you. Well, I think all this work, I think even the EFT is releasing tension in the connective tissue. We just, I just was not aware at this level back then. So I don't think many of us are, but I do think it's releasing tension physically in the body. We're just not aware of it.
Krystal Jakosky: No, it's um, it has also to do with the fact that you were, I, I say it's, it's um, exercising a muscle, right? When you need to improve or learn something, you have to do it over and over and over again, you were already going inward by listening to your emotions and figuring out where they were held and what was going on physically with them so that you could release them and pulling your awareness inside. Like that then is what led you to be able to explore other areas. And if you think about it, whether it's conscious subconscious, whatnot, your awareness is, uh, exploring those muscles that you have. There are so many muscles around your skull that hold things in place and they can be so tight and out of alignment and whatnot. And just because you, your brain fires all the synapses to work with all of those muscles, your brain is allowed or able to say, Hey, let's release this muscle or release this muscle because you've brought your awareness to it. And you got there because you learned how to go within. And it started with paying attention to your emotions. It started with one thing and then it just built on it and it built on it and it built and it got so beautiful. And so transformational by one little tiny, I tell people it's a tiny step, a little step. What little step can you do today? That will make a big difference tomorrow. And you have, I mean, your story is amazing. It's just, wow.
Ann Hince: <laugh> any, anyone can do it though. Right? Because I started out, I didn't have this awareness when I started out, the focused attention has developed over time. Even when I started doing this work, laying on the sofa at night, to begin with, I would fall asleep almost straight away <laugh> but over the weeks, my focused attention just started to get better and better and better. Right. So now, right. I can focus my attention inside my bones. I'm releasing the attention in my pallet and my tooth routes and my, my, um, jaw bones. That's what I'm working on now. Yeah. And I can release tension in just a few seconds. Whereas when I started out with EFT I'd have to, you know, tap on things for a lot longer than a few seconds. So it just develops over time. It's not hard work in many ways, it gets easier and it feels really good. I think that's what a lot of people miss on the journey. They just think it's gonna be hard work, but it feels really good.
Krystal Jakosky: Right. It's just amazing. If someone had told you when you were, I don't know, 30, that simply tapping on your body would be the answer to all of your challenges. What would you have told them?
Ann Hince: <laugh> I would not have to believe it. Totally there's no way. I mean, gosh, back in my 30 <laugh> when I was 30, I was at that point I was still a software engineer, so yeah. I mean I had no interest in real spirituality and nothing in religion, so no <laugh>, I mean, even five years ago, I wouldn't have believed what I could do now was possible. That's part of the reason I'm sharing my story. I want people to know this is possible because I didn't know it was possible <laugh>
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like it really honestly sounds a little hokey when, when people first hear about it, they're like, that's just, there's just absolutely no way the cons the misconceptions of it are that that cannot be real. And yet it's the intention and the purpose and the focus behind it that helps it move through you. And it's amazing as a self-care tip to help you own what you're feeling, go deeper to find what else is really there, and then heal yourself on such an almost cellular level. <laugh>.
Ann Hince: Yeah, indeed. And there have been many studies done on EFT now, so I don't think it's as hokey. They do use it in, in some hospitals, they use it in some schools, they use it on, um, veterans. So, you know, I don't think it, it looks, it still looks hokey. It does still look hokey. Even the name to me, emotional freedom technique, I thought was a really hokey name. <laugh>
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. Like
Ann Hince: About going through it enough to realize, oh yeah, it really is providing emotional freedom. So it really is actually named pretty well
Krystal Jakosky: <laugh> yeah. It, I mean, it's named really well. And yet the name of it is kind of what, what really,
Ann Hince: Um, yeah.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. So, wow.
Ann Hince: And to me having those x-rays right. To having the x-rays having something physically that you can look at to say, okay, she's not just talking off the top of her head, but right. There's actually something physical that you can see. I mean, to me, I was blown away. If I had seen those x-rays right. There were someone else's x-rays and I looked at them and saw the changes. I would want to know how to do that.
Krystal Jakosky: What did, what did the doctor say when they saw it?
Ann Hince: Well, I was from an orthodontist, um, and I, okay. I, I got them. They, they sent them to me, so yeah, he, he, I don't think he would believe that I had done that. I think he might believe that, oh, well, it's got to be due to the orthodontic work. Um, but, but, you know, I knew what had changed. I could feel my bone shifting, so, um, I didn't need him to corroborate <laugh>
Krystal Jakosky: How are your migraines now?
Ann Hince: I'm pretty much non-existent. Yeah,
Ann Hince: Yeah. Yeah. One of the things I, I love to, to tell people these days, I think of our skull as our echo chamber for our voice mm-hmm <affirmative> now I had a lot of things going on with my voice over the years, my dad used to tease me about it. You know, I had all that teasing at school. So I held my voice back a lot. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and I, I didn't have a good singing voice. You know, my scholar's always been pretty much deformed, right. It's not been symmetrical in any way. And so I couldn't sing very well. I loved to sing to myself in the car or in the shower, but there were actually some notes that I couldn't get to like some mid notes. I could get high and get a little bit in the low, but, there were some notes I couldn't reach, but this releasing of tension in my skull has actually changed my voice. So I can sing a full range now and I enjoy singing. So, you know, that's, to me, that's a fun thing.
Krystal Jakosky: Right. That's fantastic. Um, well, and not only that, but it also lets you feel freer to speak. The fact that things have shifted and opened up, means that you are, and I mean, even the emotional work, it means that you are better able to speak your truth and speak up when things are not the way that they should be or people aren't treating you the way that you deserve to be treated. So you're able to stand up for yourself and speak more freely.
Ann Hince: Absolutely. Well, we talk about being in alignment, I think. Yeah. We use that phrase quite a lot. Right. So I had, uh, understood the concept of being mentally in alignment with something mm-hmm <affirmative> but there's a physical alignment too. Right? I am becoming more symmetrical. I am more balanced on the inside. And as a result, I am more balanced on the outside. So yes. So being able to tell my truth, that kind of thing, that is, that is a reflection of that change as well. Plus one of the other fun things is the x-rays from the side, which I've got on one of my YouTube, um, videos, the person in 2013, right? That skull, that is a person you can tell, they're not that confident, right? They don't have a lot of self-confidence compared to the x-ray from 2021. That person in that x-ray is more confident. So just to know that this work actually changes the whole posture of the body to become a more self-confident physical structure. And that to me is huge too, because if I had known doing this work was actually gonna change my self-confidence. That would've been a huge incentive for me back then.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. Yeah. It shifts so many wonderful things. So if you had one thing to tell my audience if you had one thing that you really wanted to bring out and really impress upon them, what would that be right now
Ann Hince: That you have a lot more power over your future than you think you do, and that you can take control of that by working out how you feel right now and bringing yourself back to peace because we attract our future based on how we're feeling right now. So at any moment you can try and attempt to bring yourself back to peace, whether it's just taking a deep breath, breathe in, breathe out, or working with something like EFT and bringing yourself back to peace because that itself is changing your future.
Krystal Jakosky: Oh. Into that. And you have written a book about this, right?
Ann Hince: Yes. Yes. It's my story. It's the steps that I went through that anyone else can do as well. Yeah. It's called a pathway to insight.
Krystal Jakosky: And where can they find that
Ann Hince: You can find it on Amazon or you can ask your local bookstore to order it for you.
Krystal Jakosky: That is great. And then how else do people find you?
Ann Hince: Well, I do have a YouTube channel that has videos. So it has an EFT demo video and a feeling your feelings video. So you can start anytime. And I also have a website where you can see the x-rays, which is Ann hints.com. And I have a public Facebook page that I love to try and explain things on.
Krystal Jakosky: Fabulous. Ann, what is your favorite possibly unique type of self-care
Ann Hince: <laugh> well, I'm working on myself all the time, right? With this technique, right. I'm relaxing my body at a deeper and deeper level. Yeah. I do love sound baths. I go to a sound bath once a month, which is really fun. And that's part of the that's part of this process because you feel at a deeper and deeper level. So to actually feel sounds deep inside and throughout the body is just blissful.
Krystal Jakosky: I love sound baths, the vibrations as they float through you and feeling where they hit and how they hit and letting them just if you haven't been to a sound bath, evidently Ann and I both highly recommend them.
Ann Hince: <laugh> yes.
Krystal Jakosky: And then we also like to journal a lot on this, um, podcast. A lot of my listeners are journalers. So do you have a journaling prompt for them to maybe contemplate writing about
Ann Hince: <laugh>? How am I feeling right now?
Krystal Jakosky: Ah, that's easy, and yeah. That's good. Although, yeah, it sounds easy. You guys, it sounds easy to answer the question. How am I feeling right now? And yet I encourage you to go a little deeper, write down the first thing that comes to you and then sit on that for a minute and then expand on it and sit on that for a minute and expand on it. Go a little deeper, not I'm fine. It's I'm feeling this. And if you want to add, add movement to it or make it like I'm feeling pushed down by, or I'm feeling uplifted like this, or I, you know, if you need to add imagery and whatnot to it, go for it and expand a little bit so that you can better express yourself. It's a beautiful journaling, prompt for people to dive into and try to feel into what's there.
Ann Hince: And notice if you're deflecting a lot of people deflect, it's not really their truth. They're writing down they're deflecting from their truth. So see if you can find a more specific truth.
Krystal Jakosky: Yeah. Aim into that. And you are a delight and I love your story. I love the new truths that you've found and I've loved hearing about how it just expanded and has become something that is so much more and such a gift for you. And I really hope that my listeners take that to heart. And if EFT has struck a chord in your heart, I really hope that you look into it and find someone to teach you. If it's Ann or someone else, I just encourage you to reach out and find what helps you find that inner peace. So thank you, Ann, for being here today.
Ann Hince: Thank you. It's been really fun.
Krystal Jakosky: Oh, take care of yourself and all your listeners. We'll see you here again next week on Breathe In, Breathe Out.
I hope this moment of self-care and healing brought you some hope and peace. I’m @krystaljakosky on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and I hope you check us out and follow along for more content coming soon. I look forward to being with you again here on Breathe In, Breathe Out. Until next time, take care.
