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.

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Freaking Out

Is something freaking you out?

It’s the season! The trick is to find ways to get through the “freak out stage” whether the upset is a result of being in overwhelm, information that you just received and can’t wrap your brain around, feeling not listened to, or any number of other reasons.
The trick can easily become a treat. Your body doesn’t like being freaked out so it will easily make good changes when you try to correct the episode by bringing a special treat into the mix. It’s like being offered your most favorite and yummy chocolate or dessert and getting that “oh, my, I’m in heaven” result.
Instead of freaking out when an upset occurs, retrain your body. When you are in stress mode, your breath is often impacted. It becomes constricted and causes your lung and diaphragm capacity to be lessened. So it’s all about helping your body rediscover breath. Then the next step is to re-pattern your breathing, which will also create more fluid movement, even affecting mobility and flexibility. That’s where “the change has taken place” is experienced.

Treat Your Body

Here’s a super easy way (treat) to help your body let go of any unhappy experience and get back on an even keel.

Give yourself a hug by crossing your arms and gently touching your upper arms. This will open up lung capacity.
Move one hand to the base of your ribcage (keeping the other hand on the upper arm). This hold will help open up the diaphragm.
Move the hand that is on the upper arm to the outside of your knee. That connects with helping ease of movement.
Move the hand that is on the ribcage to the outside of the other knee. You’re now holding the outside of both knees. THAT is all about the re-patterning and helping your body accept the change.

Hope this helps you get through ANY “freaking out episode” you might be experiencing. Just know that it’s a moment in time and the trick is to help your body not take it on as “real.”
Wishing you a super Halloween! And hoping that the season is all about freaking out because of the haunted house, not because of an upset or stress!

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Breath Makes the World Go Round – Even for Kids!

Originally posted on Health at Your Fingertips blog.

Children Can Let Go of Stress and Be Happier

Stress can show up in lots of ways in our bodies. As adults we can often see what that looks like and feels like. What’s sad is how many children in our world are experiencing stress. Have you noticed a young person who is experiencing loss of energy, sleeplessness, extreme up and down emotions, chronic illness (even just ongoing colds), or inability to stay on track and focused? THESE are early symptoms of stress. What’s super sad is how many children get so stressed that they end up in the throes of anxiety and even develop respiratory and digestive issues.

I see these early signals of stress in so many of the children I work with. Their parents want to help them change that picture which is why they come to see me. What’s beautiful is that their bodies “decide” they don’t have to create the bigger issues. Instead, their bodies recognize that they don’t have to respond to the stress and the stressful moments that are in the world around us.

So, what to do? The trick is to let go of stress build up and “create” a body that doesn’t experience symptoms of stress. It’s all about getting the energy to flow and helping the breath be open and expansive. When the body is more open to receiving the inhale and letting go on the exhale, there is ability for the body to create the space for a healthier way of being. The children I work with recognize huge changes taking place when they do the Daily Clean Your House Flow. And many of them do it more than once a day — because they notice that their body is happier.

Here are some of the comments that I’m hearing from the children in my life:

“I’m going to sleep as soon as I go to bed.”
“When I wake up it’s easier to get ready for school.”
“I’m not falling asleep at my desk or when I’m studying.”
“I’m not missing school because I’m not getting sick like I used to.”
“I’m getting more done and getting better grades.”
“I’m not getting in fights with my brother.”
“I’m getting along better with my friends and we’re having more fun.”

So, folks — our bodies are hungry to be in balance no matter what our age! And our bodies want breath to be happening — easily, consistently and expansively. Do the Daily Clean Your House Flow whenever your body asks for it. Remember: “There is no such thing as too much self-help!”

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Breath Makes the World Go Round – Even for Kids!

Children Can Let Go of Stress and Be Happier

Here are some of the comments that I’m hearing from the children in my life:

“I’m going to sleep as soon as I go to bed.”

“When I wake up it’s easier to get ready for school.”

“I’m not falling asleep at my desk or when I’m studying.”

“I’m not missing school because I’m not getting sick like I used to.”

“I’m getting more done and getting better grades.”

“I’m not getting in fights with my brother.”

“I’m getting along better with my friends and we’re having more fun.”

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Your Body is Hungry for Balance and Breath!

Our bodies are hungry to be in a state of balance because they just want to be happy! We just need to give to them what they ask for and feed them with moving energy and breath. Maybe you’ve heard me say that we can prepare our bodies for what we’re going to ask them to do and prepare them for what might come at them. It’s actually very easy to do so! There are simple energy balancing points that you can hold in a few short moments to help your body be ready for the activity you’re planning to do.

And when you’re doing that, you’re also making sure that when “whatever happens” your body won’t go into reaction. YOU can make a difference in the health of your body: physical, mental and emotional. So here’s a simple pose: cup your left shoulder with your right hand and hold your left hand at your sit bone. Then switch your hands. You are helping your body “let go and get ready” and allowing your body to step into the activity easily without going into reaction.

To help your body “feel the breath,” all you need to do is help it fully experience the expansion that is possible. Simply hold your upper arms by folding your arms across the chest and then hold the inside of your knees.

My desire for you is to live in a body that is happy, healthy and responsive — ready for all you want to do! I’ll share more energy pointers with you in upcoming posts.

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A Breath of Fresh Air

Breath: it’s such an important part of living in our bodies. Have you ever experienced times when it doesn’t feel “totally there?” That feeling or realization has happened to most of us off and on throughout our lives. But we often aren’t even aware when it actually started or that our bodies developed consequences of not having total breath available.
So, what happened? I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “it took my breath away.” This has understandably happened to quite a few people in the last few weeks. There have been a few instances that maybe even stopped you in your tracks.

Big Changes

When we lost Robin Williams, most of us felt immediate sadness for his family, but we also felt the sadness for Robin and what he had gone through all of his life. But I think what really created reaction in our bodies was the realization of losing an icon that we saw as vibrant, vital, and so full-of-life. He had a way of being that he shared with all of us. He could make you laugh and laugh so hard you felt it in your very core. The realization that something big is no longer available to us is what “can take our breath away.” And where do our bodies experience that “taking or holding of breath”? Our diaphragms are where we get the reactions, the consequences.
Another BIG incident that was felt by those of us who live in Napa and Sonoma Counties was the earthquake on Sunday August 24^th. The jolt at 3:20 a.m. in the morning was enough to take MY breath away! Follow that with the shaking and rolling that seemed to go on forever and I had a full diaphragm tightening experience.

My BIG Changes

The day before, August 23^rd, was my birthday. I usually love everything about the birthday experience but this year was a bit different. My husband Randy’s birthday would have been the 22^nd. This year I really missed having our birthdays together – I think because I didn’t have anything big planned, so there was the realization that all of the traditions that we had created over the years to celebrate both days were never going to happen again. I felt the loss and the changes. I actually felt like I was floating in a tunnel at times. Follow those feelings with the earthquake and I really had a “taking my breath away” experience.
So, what did I do? I got up on Sunday with the sunrise and took a really long hot tub where I did the Daily Clean Your House Flow, as well as other flows that are all about “getting grounded,” creating vitality and discovering breath and joy. I spent the rest of the day in the garden. I remember feeling thankful and joyful that I had a way to truly be in touch with the earth, the same earth that had jolted me awake several hours earlier. And I left that “tunnel feeling” behind. I felt an awareness that all was right with the world, that there are moments in time that can affect us but we can still be “okay.”

Prepare

If you have had some “projects crop up” in the last week or so, and you don’t know what you did to have it happen, you are not alone. By the way, “projects” is the word I use instead of problems or conditions that are the results of the consequences of an incident, an injury, a trauma, etc. So, some projects that could easily be results of diaphragm tightness and “loss of breath” are back discomfort, throat tightness, chest and breath constriction, knee soreness, loss of clarity and focus, loss of vitality. The list can be longer, but I’m sure that you get the sense of it. I’ve seen a number of clients over the last few weeks whose bodies are showing up with these projects.
Read on to get some answers for what to do – to open up your breath, to release your diaphragm, to rediscover calm, to find joy, to release constriction, to help your body release discomfort.

For specific project release:

To open the breath, calm the whole being, relieve anxiety:

Hold thumbs
Hold index fingers
Hold upper arms by folding arms across the chest
Cross hands and hold inside of knees (or upper inner thighs)
Hold right fingers on base of right ribcage
and hold left fingers on right chest below collarbone

Switch and hold opposite sides

To release jaw, mouth or throat tension; to create space for breath and strong voice

Right hand cup the sternum just below the clavicle and
hold left fingers in a vertical pattern just below the naval

To let go of head pressure, headaches, “mind chatter”, tired eyes; to remove incessant (persistent) mental absorption (often creates forehead and/or eye tension)

For right side “project”

Left hand – hold forehead with fingers on right side
Right hand – cup back of head, fingers on left base of skull

For left side “project”, switch hands

To reduce back and neck discomfort, improve flexibility and mobility, improve posture, enhance vitality, experience more gain & less pain in all that you do

Sit on both hands
Sit on left hand with right hand on left shoulder (near neck)
- Sit on right hand with left hand on right shoulder (near neck)

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