Is pain taking over your life?
I understand all too well about life altering pain! I’ve had times when a part of my body hurts so much that it’s all I can think about.
I remember what transpired in my garden when I lifted too many heavy pails of water one afternoon. I should’ve known better. Right? Well, I injured my shoulder and arm by doing too much.
We’ve all done it. And afterwards, we can be so hard on ourselves! “Why wasn’t I smarter than that?”
But when the pain really kicks in and starts to affect how you’re thinking and what you decide to do and not do, it’s time to investigate possibilities of “what can I do about this pain and help my body heal?”
It’s one thing to have pain resulting from a physical injury like what I just described, or pain from a physical ailment. We can usually wrap our minds around those kinds of issues that create pain in the body. And if we don’t push our body to keep on doing, and if we help the body let go of the inflammation, we can often help healing take place.
It will usually take some extra attention, and of course, I’m suggesting you make use of self-help acupressure to help get on the other side of a pattern of pain.
Emotional Anguish
What if you’re living with the pain for so long, and it just becomes what you expect? And then what happens if your mind and emotions play into that way of being?
What if the pain is happening because of emotional trauma, like losing a loved one or exposure to violence? Or what if the pain is a result of feeling lost and isolated and maybe anxious and depressed?
That kind of pain can be just as debilitating because it’s often harder to figure out what is hurting and how to fix it.
Pain can create such deep, intense feelings that the senses get all caught up in “this way of living.” Well, your body would appreciate if you had another way of dealing with it and helping it not go in that direction.
You CAN change the patterns of how you talk to yourself and how you treat anything going on in your body and help it release old physical, mental, or emotional traumas.
Read on…
Self Conversations
Here are some possibilities of conversations you could be having with yourself about emotions and feelings in association with living with pain:
** Concern and worry
“What is happening with my body? What do I need to do to get rid of this pain?”
This state of unknowing can lead to extreme nervousness and then confusion. And then it becomes almost too easy to go to “what am I doing wrong?” And, when you get caught up in that place, you start questioning yourself about almost everything?
When you’re stuck in that negative mode, it’s important to change your way of thinking to “what are some other possibilities?” That way you’ll increase your chances of getting answers as to how to take care of the pain and many other issues going on in your life. You and your body are now living in the space of believing that you ARE doing everything right to take care of you.
** Major fear that life is going to get really impacted
“What will happen if this pain doesn’t go away? What if this leads to something even worse?”
That sense of “feeling and being out of control” can lead to anxiety. And that’s one pattern we want to help our bodies not experience because it will cause aggravation of pain. Anxiousness is more like a “moment in time.” Being in a state of anxiety can become an issue that can become a project that then needs to be remedied.
The key is to help your body recognize that you and your body together CAN change the trajectory of thought patterns and improve your emotional state of being.
** Frustration and anger
“This pain is driving me crazy. I’m so frustrated that I can’t do what I want to and need to do.”
Significant irritation at how you have to live day-to-day with pain can create belief patterns that cause you to feel like you’re unable to change something that could make a difference in your activities, relationships, and life – personal or business.
** Sadness and grief
“Life is so empty, and I can’t find a way to be happy.”
When pain takes over your day-to-day existence, you can all too easily begin to “miss how things used to be.” When the energetic body recognizes that you’re missing an integral part of yourself and can’t locate what you’re searching for, the body starts feeling like something has been lost. Then comes a state of sadness and grief for what’s missing.
A life that doesn’t seem happy creates an unhappy body. A body that’s experiencing lots of pain is most likely not in a state of experiencing joy and happiness.
** Trying too much and trying too hard – efforting
“My body doesn’t want to do what I need it to do. Everything seems too hard to do, and there’s just not enough time to do it all.”
When pain takes over the body and causes life to feel overwhelming, even expected and often simple daily activities take too much energy and can deplete your overall vitality. If you had vitality and the ability to be an “energizer bunny,” and now that’s missing, you and your body are experiencing a significant sense of loss and not knowing how to live in the world.
Energy Balance
So why this lengthy description of emotions and feelings when we’re discussing pain?
Pain causes so much “stopping us in our tracks” that emotions need to be addressed as we travel the journey of helping our bodies release the symptoms of pain and what is holding the pain IN the body.
When you dive into all that can be affecting your body, you’ll travel through all the systems and places that are being reactive –
- Respiratory
- Digestive
- Elimination
- Muscular
- Skeletal
- Vascular
- Cognitive
- Emotional
Additionally, you will connect with your
- Adrenal
- Endocrine
- Immune
- Lymphatic
- Nervous systems
so they can easily support your WHOLE body fully.
For instance, you may notice that when you’re experiencing a stretch of pain, it’s harder to get a full inhale and exhale. Your breath MUST open up to help spread the energy and be able to let go of ALL that’s in the way of change and healing.
Breath
Do this energy flow to open your breath AND to release the tendency for inflammation to be present in the body when there is injury, ailment, trauma, distress, and the emotions that are talking back. Doing this energy flow will also help your body rediscover easy and comfortable movement:
Right hand – hold fingers on the left elbow
Left hand – hold fingers on the right elbow
Left hand – move fingers to the base of the right front ribcage
Right hand – move fingers to right chest below collarbone
Inflammation Release
Do this simple energy hold to remind the body that inflammation can let go and not be a pattern.
Left hand – hold fingers on the outside of the left knee
Right hand – hold fingers on the outside of the right knee
Be in Flow
Follow with this simple energy flow to remind your body to be in flow and breath and calm!
Right hand – cup your sternum directly below the collarbone
Left hand – hold your fingers on your tummy below your navel
Use these acupressure flows using light gentle touch to get back into an energy balance for your body, mind, and emotions.
What I just shared with you is just the tip of the iceberg that I will be covering in the upcoming THE GREAT PAIN ESCAPE workshop!
>> Get all event details and register<<
April is Stress Awareness Month
Isn’t it crazy that we actually have a “National Stress Awareness Month”? Guess that shows a lot of people are dealing with some sort of stress in their worlds.
What is stress?
How do we best define it when it is so different for everyone? What can we do to reduce the effects of it so our bodies don’t go into reaction? And what can we do to actually have a sense of control so stress doesn’t seem to be running the show?
I’ll give you some historical background about how stress came to be recognized as a “condition” in our country. Then, I’ll share some easy-to-use self-help acupressure energy tips for changing how we can transform stress from a negative to positive. Transforming stress is a bit different from how Western medicine suggests we can manage it! And, when we get to that place of management, we truly are partners with our bodies.
Stress Awareness Month
It has been held every April since 1992. Sponsored by The Health Resource Network (HRN), a non-profit health education organization, Stress Awareness Month is a national, cooperative effort to:
- inform people about the dangers of stress
- successful coping strategies
- harmful misconceptions about stress that are prevalent in our society.
Medical Definition of Stress
In a medical or biological context, stress is a physical, mental or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension. Stresses can be external (from the environment, psychological, or social situations) or internal (illness or from a medical procedure). Stress can initiate the “fight or flight” response.
The state of mental or emotional strain or tension from adverse or very demanding circumstances can be so recognizable that others notice. We even hear comments like “he’s obviously under a lot of stress” and “she really needs to figure out how to manage her stress.”
Stress can cause or influence the course of many medical conditions. These include psychological conditions such as depression and anxiety. Medical problems can encompass poor healing, high blood pressure, headaches and migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, and many others. We now have “stress management” recognized as an effective treatment for many medical conditions.
To read more about stress and how the Western medical world defines it, go to
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=20104.
Transforming Stress
Articles that include tools for self-assessment, resources, and programs, can be found on the website for The American Institute of Stress. The organization is all about awareness, education, and collaboration.
Go to https://www.stress.org/what-is-stress/.
Stress as a Project
Personally, I like to look at “stress” as a “project that can be transformed.” The term stress was coined by Hans Selye in 1936. He defined it as “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”. If we look at stress as “the rate of wear and tear on the body,” it makes sense that increased stress can actually accelerate the aging process.
And who wants that? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather walk around in a body that does not have major reactions to stressful situations. All of the experimental and clinical research confirms that the sense of having little or no control is always distressful, and that’s what stress is all about.
Energy Tips to Manage and Transform Stress
Here are my self-help acupressure energy tips that you can use to manage stress. They will allow you to be a partner with your own body. Because stress can take the breath away and cause us to wait with bated breath, follow along to learn how you can have full expansive breath. You’ll be way ahead of stress and its ability to affect you.
To help let go of stress, open up breath, release tension and increase vitality:
1. Hold upper arms by folding arms across the chest
2. Right hand — cup sternum directly below the collarbone
Left hand — hold fingers in a vertical pattern on your tummy
3. Right hand — hold the base of the right front ribcage
Left hand — hold fingers on the right chest below the collarbone
4. Gently cup thumbs
More than an Ounce of Prevention
The Daily Clean Your House Flow helps you stay in balance and get in front of stress. Doing the Daily Clean Your House Flow prepares your body for what you’re going to ask it to do now and for what might come at it (even major stressful traumatic events). Do the Daily Clean Your House Flow at least once a day. It will create a strong foundation for you to be able to be the best partner you can be with your body. I have been doing it daily for more than 20 years, as have many of my clients, friends, and family. This one practice is the best antidote to stress and you can do it anywhere, anytime. The more you do it, the better you will feel.
Do your part to Make Stress Awareness Month Obsolete
Share this post about the Daily Clean Your House Flow with the people you care about through your social channels, like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You’ll be glad you did your part to lower the stress in the world.
2017 Calls for Patience
Patience
Now doesn’t that sound like a different way to approach a new year? Determining your goals and objectives and figuring out your timeline is still a big part of the picture. But what I have discovered is that if you don’t include patience in the equation most of what you want to happen gets lost in the shuffle.
Learning Patience
My beautiful kitty Topaz has been giving me a lesson in getting and keeping patience as part of my daily practice. Topaz will pounce upon the windowsill to wait for the birds to land on the feeder. She knows that there actually is no way that she can get to the birds, but it’s all about the eye candy. As soon as the birds are at the feeder, she will chirp at them, get a bit excited and then either lie down and just look or decide that she’s gotten her fix and go on to other escapades.
When I watch Topaz, I see that her goal is “be in the moment and enjoy what’s right in front of me.” Then it’s all about “be patient and see what happens.”
And that is where I see the correlation. I have lots of ideas for new projects, especially for my animated video program, for new books and workshops. To get each of those ideas into a step-by-step plan that are realistic could be pretty overwhelming. What I’ve discovered is that to be ahead of the game I need to let go of effort, be in the moment, do what I can in that moment, find the fun, and be patient – especially with ME! The key is to allow time to be my friend, see what happens and then to remember to take the some time to celebrate the successes.
Energy Tips to Enhance Patience
I find that doing the following easy-to-do energy tips can get me into the space of ease and patience:
- Fold your arms across your chest and gently touch your upper arms.
This pose will connect with your breath and allows for ease of the whole system.You have now completed the first step of the Daily Clean Your House Flow!
- With one hand cup your sternum directly below your collarbone.
With your other hand hold your fingertips in a vertical pattern on your tummy.This pose connects with breath, with the release of tension, and with allowing for ease and being in the moment.
- With one hand cup the base of your skull.
With your other hand cup your forehead.Feel the letting go of mind chatter, of the “to do list” and the new space of clarity and focus and ease. - Hold your fingertips on the outside of your knees.
This helps re-pattern old ways and brings on the patience that was eluding you.
Add Patience to Your Daily Practice
Watch for signs of an impressive and prosperous New Year as you add in patience to your daily practice.
A Dragon Eats the Moon
I’ve been watching the moon get eaten by the dragon! It’s truly a ‘blood moon’ as it has turned from a bright glowing sphere to a burned red color. The ancient Chinese believed that solar eclipses occur when a legendary celestial dragon devours the Sun. They also believed that this dragon attacks the moon during lunar eclipses.
Well, I can see why they had a tradition to bang drums and pots and make loud noise during eclipses to frighten that dragon away. They must have been totally freaked when such a big orb in the sky became “nothing.” Just minutes ago, I experienced a change that was magical. The sky had been glorious with the stars shining bright and the moon changing colors and shape. And then the sky turned pitch black and the night sounds became silent. Even the stars went into hiding – they don’t have the same sparkle.
In October 2014 we know what is happening. We even have websites and Wikipedia to give us all sorts of information in the moment. But 2000 years ago, and even 200 years ago, the eclipse would bring fear and a sense of foreboding because they thought something bad was transpiring. Today, I’m not tempted to beat the pots and pans. Rather, I am in awe that such magic can be happening and that I’m awake to experience it. I am in awe of the quiet. There is no sound. Even the owls have gone to silence. There is no movement. I can’t see my hand in front of my face.
No more than twenty minutes have passed, and it’s not quite as dark now as the moon starts showing a sliver of light. That light allows me to see that the moon is still red, but it won’t be for long. And the sky is just a bit lighter as the stars shine a bit brighter. The dragon is almost gone, and I didn’t have to bang any pots or fire any cannons to chase it away.
I am blessed to experience magic.
