It seems that the quest for happiness and fulfilment is as old as humanity itself. Happiness is a very subjective thing – it is a bit like the old cliché that one man’s food is another man’s (or woman’s) poison.

One Buddhist blessing contains the words “may all beings be happy”. The Self Help Industry is booming, lots of people are aware that something is amiss in their lives but they just don’t know what. We live in a time of unprecedented wealth and technological advances that even our parents wouldn’t have dreamt of – at least in the so called “developed world” – and yet there seems to be increased unhappiness and more suicides than ever before.

One intriguing healing method is called the MEM or Mace Energy Method, named after Dr. Mace. It has been around in one form or another for close to 50 years but has only come to the forefront and into the public eye over the last 10 years. We talked to Sherrie Hatfield who has been practising MEM for a number of years. You can find Sherrie and more information here http://www.themacemethod.com 

Want to go straight to the source? Dr. Mace’s website is www.macemethod.com
You can find a list of practitioners there if you are interested in having a session yourself.  Dr. Mace  has written a fascinating book – you can find it here:

What makes the Mace Method so attractive when you need to deal with emotional issues?

• it works with your mind
• there is no disclosure (you don’t have to talk about the old, upsetting and unresolved issues)
• the process doesn’t go round in circles
• the method is quick acting
• sometimes there are amazing results after only one session (depending on the issue of course)

I bet you are now as curious as I was when hearing all of above – so what is the Mace Energy Method and how does it actually work?

1. It works from the premise that you know yourself better than anybody else ever could (so you are in the best position to be your own therapist)
2. The only thing that stops you from being happy and reaching your full potential are unwanted feelings (guilt, shame, low self esteem etc.)
3.  Talking about whatever issues upset you makes things only worse, so there is no mulling over old issues
4. Focussing attention on negative events or feelings makes them grow and they get more entrenched
5. Negative feelings – if given enough attention and time – will create a negative identity
6. The more negative feelings we have the more negative identities we will create
7. The negative identities have to be de-constructed

The above points are all very interesting but how are we going to start the de-construction process without tearing the whole building down and getting ourselves into a much bigger mess? You also might be wondering what these negative identities actually are and where they come from.

1. The very first identity we have is our body at birth.
2. Usually our name comes a close second.
3. We assume a sibling identity depending on where we are in the birth order of the family.
4. We have a daughter or son identity
5. We develop a separate identity for each friend we interact with
6. We have a car driving identity, one for going shopping for groceries and maybe another one for clothes shopping….so each of us has lots of identities.

How many identities have you got?

Any positive identities we have feel good to us, there is no need to de-construct these. There are also lots of negative identities – the come about through stress, trauma, overwhelm of any sort, shocks, upsets – you get the picture. All of our identities get us to play certain roles in life. Imagine that each of these identities is a costume that you can hang into a cupboard. Now imagine that you hang all of your identities into the cupboard. You take off all roles. What is left? Have a good look. Try and answer this question before you go and listen to the show to find out!

Sherrie has also made a very generous offer for our listeners – she will give a 15% discount for the first session that any Stretchyourmindandbody listener books with her! Here is her site again:  http://www.themacemethod.com 

Till next time

Connie and Charly