Let Go of Back Pain

Help Your Body Let Go of Back Pain

Back pain is absolutely no fun! Are you discovering that there are activities you don’t get around to doing because your back hurts? If that is the case, it’s time to help your body be happier and less reactive.

The Cost of Back Pain is Huge

In the United States, the impact of back pain can be measured not only in discomfort but dollars, time lost, decreased productivity and on-the-job performance.

“The prevalence of pain has a tremendous impact on business, with a recent report by the Institute of Medicine indicating that the annual value of lost productivity in 2010 dollars ranged between $297.4 billion to 335.5 billion. The value of lost productivity is based on three estimates: days of work missed (ranging from $11.6 to $12.7 billion); hours of work lost (from $95.2 to $96.5 billion); and lower wages (from $190.6 billion to $226.3 billion).(1)”

The research cited is from Institute of Medicine of the National Academies Report. Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research, 2011. The National Academies Press, Washington DC. (page 260)

http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13172&page=260

You can read the full article on http://www.painmed.org/patientcenter/cost-of-pain-to-businesses/
The economic, physical and psychological impact of back pain is enormous as shown on paindoctor.com.

“Beyond the impact of the sheer number of people who suffer from back pain every year, the burden on the healthcare system is enormous. A study by researchers at the Duke University Medical Center found that patients with back pain spend $90 billion a year on medical expenses, with over $26 billion of that total spent directly on back pain-related medical care.”

“While specific figures are difficult to come by in the United States, a review of available data in the Medline database found the following indirect costs associated with back pain between 1996 and 2001:

Workers missed 149 million days of work due to low back pain alone, as compared to 101 million days missed due to a work-related injury.
Chronic low back pain cost approximately $1,230 for each man and $773 for each woman in lost work days, with an annual loss of productivity total of $28 billion.
The reported average number of days of work disability due to back pain ranges, from 75 for the first incidence to 337 days of total compensated missed work days.”

Read the entire article at https://paindoctor.com/the-impact-of-back-pain/

“Health economists from Johns Hopkins University writing in The Journal of Pain reported the annual cost of chronic pain is as high as $635 billion a year, which is more than the yearly costs for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.”

American Pain Society. “Chronic pain costs U.S. up to $635 billion, study shows.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 September 2012. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120911091100.htm.

Scary Costs of Pain

If those numbers don’t scare you, think about how back pain interferes with your happiness.

A Cooperative Back

I don’t know about you, but if my desire to hike, garden or exercise is being usurped by a body project, it’s pretty likely that I’ll end up in a funk. I want my body to cooperate so I can do whatever I want to do! If you are staring at a long to-do list and have a cantankerous back ache, it might be affecting your fun activities as well as getting in the way of taking care of computer projects or office work. For most of us, if we can’t get something accomplished because our body is talking, we can be pretty hard on ourselves. And that makes everything worse. The mental and emotional states of feeding the physical imbalance and everything gets even more exacerbated.

Chronic, Acute or Nagging Back Pain

Whether you are experiencing chronic or acute pain or whether you have a persnickety nagging project that talks to you once in a while, your body is getting a message to you that it is time to ease the tension, tightness and imbalance.
When your back is in a state of blocked energy, your sense of well-being can be impacted because your core balance has gone awry. Low back connects to foundation and sense of safety and security. Your mid-back connects to breathe and natural transitions that allow for easy transformations. And the upper back is often connected to “too much on your plate” and confusion in the system. Any of that sound familiar to you?

You Are Now Entering the State of Comfort and Ease

The long and short of it is that our backs need to be in a state of comfort and ease so we can “put our backs into it” and easily do what we want to do and accomplish what we set out to do. The key is to have the phrase “put my back into it” be a positive statement and that we have a positive mindset. The body will sense any negative. For you to be fully in the present and a positive state, there are some simple energy points you can hold to help you move through your day.

Practice Makes Perfect with The Daily Clean Your House Flow

Consider doing the Daily Clean Your House Flow as your daily practice. It helps create a firm foundation that prepares our bodies for what we are going to ask them to do and prepares them for what might come at them, even if it is totally unexpected.
Then the following energy tips will be that much better and faster received by the body. The changes you want to take place will more easily happen so you can do all you want to do.

Back Pain Relief is at Your Fingertips

Holding these energy balance points will bring smooth movement and flow and help release any back and neck tension:

Right hand – cup back of neck with fingers on the left side
Left hand – hold fingers on the coccyx (base of spine)
Left hand – hold fingers on outside of left knee

And holding these points will connect with breath and easy transition:

Right hand – hold fingers on left elbow
Left hand – hold fingers on right elbow
Left hand – move fingers to base of right ribcage
Left hand – move fingers to outside of left knee

Wishing you easy movement so you can have fun AND get things done! Let me know what transpires!

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photo by Olenka Kotyk

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Changing Patterns

I love being around young children. One reason is that I’ve never grown up, and I love to play! Could also be because they can so quickly go from one project to another and just have fun! They can change patterns with ease.

Another reason is that I love how they so easily step into whatever they notice is making a positive difference in their lives and make sure they keep on doing it. I see that in every family and every classroom that starts using the Daily Clean Your House Flow™.

Ask young folks what they’re noticing different in their lives and you’ll get answers!

When I was in Minnesota visiting family, I showed my two great nieces the Daily Clean Your House Flow animated video. The 7-year-old was thrilled! Presley loved the video itself and with a great big smile said, “Aunt Deb, I’m feeling this buzzy happening.” Morgan, the 9-year-old was introduced to self-help acupressure through her mom, and grandma saw that it was a fun way to do her energy work. And she loved the book I’ve written.

The next day, Morgan shared what she had learned with her teacher, and he invited her to teach her classmates. They sat around in a circle, and she walked them through the Daily Flow. The next day the same scenario took place. That happened to be the day of standardized testing. The teacher noticed something different in the room. His students were calm, focused and not in angst over the test. And they did better than ever before.

Show and Tell

Mr. Weiss asked Morgan whether Aunt Deb would be able to come to the classroom, show the video and teach them about self-care. Well, of course, I’m going to show up for that and luckily there was one more day before I had to leave.

Mr. Weiss and I had a great conversation before the students filed into the classroom. He said that it was noticeable how centered the kids were for the test the day before. And how the Daily Flow had helped with calming and breathing.

Meet the Author

The 4^th graders were thrilled that a “real author” was in their classroom, and they had lots of questions about writing a book. They, of course, were all over the animated video. I had to tell them I wasn’t the illustrator! But we spent time talking about how the video came about. And they loved how much fun it was to do the Daily Flow to the video.

And then came the questions about acupressure and what they can do for themselves. Keep in mind that this group of kids were never previously introduced to acupressure or energy balancing. They did not know about acupuncture so I couldn’t make a comparison. So I had lots of fun teaching and sharing. I loved that the kids realized that THEY can make changes happen. Changing patterns is easy when you know how. Questions revolved around aches and pain, studying and tests, doing better in sports and activities.

In the end, I said, “So you’ve now done the Daily Clean Your House Flow three days in a row. I’m getting that many of you plan to continue doing the Daily Flow. Right??? So what change have you seen that makes you WANT to do the Daily Clean Your House Flow?”

What Kids Say

Their responses brought smiles to my face:

One girl said, “I slept last night. That is different.”
Another said, “My brother and I are getting along. Now that’s crazy.”
And a young man said, “I don’t like tests, and I never do good. Yesterday I did good on the test.”

Now, really? Nine-year-olds not sleeping? Nine-year-olds stressed over studying and tests? Kids recognizing that a relationship had changed in three days? That had to be a significant shift for it to be aware of it.

Changing Patterns

I’m excited that kids are seeing changes happening when they do their Daily Clean Your House Flow! Check out the website to read more comments from the children, their teachers, and their parents. Go to www.dailycleanyourhouseflow.com to see the first 90 seconds of the animated video and see how easy it is for both kids and adults to learn and then want to do their daily energy work!

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Kids Notice Changes In Energy

Kids Notice

Kids Notice all kinds of things. Ask young folks what they’re noticing different in their lives and you’ll get answers!

When I was in Minnesota visiting family, I showed my two great nieces the Daily Clean Your House Flow™ animated video. The 7-year-old was thrilled! Presley loved the video itself and with a great big smile said, “Aunt Deb, I’m feeling this buzzy happening.” Morgan, the 9-year-old who had been introduced to self-help acupressure through her mom and grandma, saw that it was a fun way to do her energy work. And she loved the book I’ve written.

In the Classroom

Mr. Weiss and I had a great conversation before the students filed into the classroom. He said that it really was noticeable how centered the kids were for the test the day before. And how the Daily Flow had helped with calming and breathing.

A Real Author

The 4^th graders were thrilled that a “real author” was in their classroom, and they had lots of questions about writing a book. They, of course, were all over the animated video. I had to tell them I wasn’t the illustrator! But we spent time talking about the process of making the video. And they loved how much fun it was to do the Daily Flow to the video.

Questions and Answers

And then came the questions about acupressure and what they can do for themselves. Keep in mind that this group of kids had never been introduced to acupressure or energy balancing. They did not know about acupuncture, so I couldn’t make a comparison. So I had lots of fun teaching and sharing. I loved that the kids realized that THEY can make changes happen. Questions revolved around aches and pain, studying and tests, doing better in sports and activities.

In the end, I said, “So you’ve now done the Daily Clean Your House Flow three days in a row. I’m getting that many of you plan to continue doing the Daily Flow. Right??? So what changes have you seen that makes you WANT to do the Daily Clean Your House Flow?”

What Kids Noticed

Their responses brought smiles to my face:

One girl said, “I slept last night. That is different.”
Another said, “My brother and I are getting along. Now that’s crazy.”
And a young man said, “I don’t like tests, and I never do good. Yesterday I did good on the test.”

Now, really? Nine-year-olds who are not sleeping? Nine-year-olds stressed over studying and tests? Kids recognizing that a relationship had changed in three days? That had to be a significant shift for the kids to take notice.

I’m excited that kids are seeing changes happening when they do their Daily Clean Your House Flow! Check out the website to read more comments from the children, their teachers, and their parents. To see the first 90 seconds of the animated video, go to www.dailycleanyourhouseflow.com and see how easy it is for both kids and adults to learn and then want to do their daily energy work!

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Going Down Memory Lane

Life is made up of memories. In fact, it can be said that what we remember creates our lives. From the moment we start remembering our experiences our brains create memory pools that get accessed when we revisit information, behaviors, activities, and especially when we get reconnected to people from our past.

Connecting with the past

I am accessing those pools of memories this week! I’m visiting my hometown in Minnesota and spending time with my mom, my siblings, and their families. Just being with them easily brings up “do you remember this?” conversations and going down memory lane. I’m sure each and every one of us has that happen when we’re with family and friends we haven’t seen for a while.
This time around Mom brought out boxes of old stuff that my sister and I needed to go through. I was blown away by the stories that pictures, dolls, stuffed animals, books, and keepsakes brought up. We had fun sharing our memories!

Creating memories

And then there are the fun times with my grand nieces and nephews ranging in age from 5 to 9. I’m a big kid at heart, so my suitcase had all sorts of projects to do with them. I have to admit that I had an ulterior motive! I wanted my time with them to be memorable, so when I talk to them on the phone, they know who I am and how important they are to me.

Creating the desire to be healthy

A big part of that for me is introducing them to energy work and especially to self-help acupressure. I want them to know how easy it is for them to feel healthy, productive and happy. So I’m teaching them the Daily Clean Your House Flow and showing them how to feel good. They love the Daily Clean Your House Flow animated video, and that puts a smile on my face. I know that we have created some great memories, especially when the 6-year-old says to her mom, “I love how Aunt Deb spoils me. I’m going to do the Daily Flow now.”

Teach Your Children Wellness

Spoil your kids! Teach them how to be their care providers. They deserve to be healthy and happy!

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January is National Mentoring Month

Where is time going? Have you heard that question from your children? Time is passing so fast and it seems like every minute is filled with stuff that has to get done. No wonder our children are experiencing stress and the feeling of “not enough time.” We’re the best models of that behavior!

Here is a suggestion that I would like to share with you. Be a mentor to your very own children! Mentoring is simply a way to ensure that our young people have the support they need to discover success. It’s an attitude and a way of being.

What Makes a Mentor?

A mentor is an experienced and trusted adviser who can be instrumental as a guide, counselor, confidant, trainer, teacher, or tutor. Granted it wold be great to spread the wealth and mentor others as well, but if you can’t fit it in to your schedule, at least discover and utilize the skills with your own children.

Or maybe you mentor another family and those parents mentor your children. Sometimes it really makes sense to get different perspectives and who better than someone you already know and trust? At the very core, mentoring children guarantees that there is someone who cares about them and makes them feel like they matter.

Reasons to Be a Mentor

What better person than a mentor to help a child, no matter their age, to move forward towards goals and objectives that YOU help them realize?

Mentoring, at its core, guarantees young people that there is someone who cares about them, assures them they are not alone in dealing with day-to-day challenges, and makes them feel like they matter. Research confirms that quality mentoring relationships have powerful positive effects on young people in a variety of personal, academic, and professional situations. Ultimately, mentoring connects a young person to personal growth and development, and social and economic opportunity. Yet one in three young people will grow up without this critical asset.

When you’re spending time with your own children or others in that mentoring mode, plan on doing the Daily Clean Your House Flow before you “get down to whatever is happening that day.” It will help everything go smoother, even homework!

Photo credit: Northern Ireland Executive viaFoter.com / CC BY-ND

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Mentoring is a Way to Create Success for Our Children

Mentoring is a way to share with our children. It seems appropriate to contemplate what we can do for the children in our communities as we celebrate National Mentoring Month during January.

How You Can Help

Mentoring doesn’t have to take a huge amount of time. It can easily be a short period of time in your week. Contact one of your local schools to see how you could participate in any of their programs. Or go to www.mentoring.org to see how that organization can get you on the mentoring track.

Everybody Wins with Mentoring

When you’re contemplating the possibility of becoming a mentor, consider these positive effects noted on their website:

Students who meet regularly with their mentors are 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school and 37% less likely to skip a class. (Public/Private Ventures study of Big Brothers Big Sisters)
Young adults who face an opportunity gap but have a mentor are 55% more likely to be enrolled in college than those who did not have a mentor. (The Mentoring Effect, 2014)

In addition to better school attendance and a better chance of going on to higher education, mentored youth maintain better attitudes toward school. (The Role of Risk, 2013)

If you decide to become a mentor, let me know how it goes! And a suggestion is to make use of the Daily Clean Your House Flow when you get together with the young person you’re working with. Both of you will discover how much more you get accomplished and how much better you feel!

Life Is So Very Full

And yet it is so very important to find ways to help our children discover success at home, school, and in all of their activities.

The children, parents and teachers I work with have found that doing the Daily Clean Your House Flow (a self-help acupressure flow) helps increase focus, attention, and productivity. It reduces stress and anxiety and helps balance emotions. So imagine what benefits are being seen when a classroom of kids are doing the Daily Flow together! And it takes less than 10 minutes to watch the video!

Mentoring is another way to ensure that our young people have the support they need to discover success. At the very core, it guarantees that there is someone who cares about them and makes them feel like they matter. A mentor is an experienced and trusted adviser who can be instrumental as a guide, counselor, confidant, trainer, teacher, or tutor. What better person than a mentor to help a child, no matter their age, to move forward towards goals and objectives that YOU help them realize?

Photo credit: opensourceway viaFoter.com / CC BY-SA

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Disneyland Express Fires Up My Imagination

I’m on the Disneyland Express, heading there for the time of my life! It is like a train that has a mind of its own with its engine pulling me along for the ride. I’ve been called a big kid many times and yet, this is a whole level of excitement that I haven’t experienced for a long time. I totally get why it’s so hard for kids to concentrate on the day-to-day stuff when there is a big exciting event coming around the corner. Because that is exactly where I am!

But I need to get some stuff done before I leave so it’s all about creating focus and attention. So, realizing that the teacher needs to make use of what she knows, I’ve been doing what I’ve taught elementary school teachers and parents and kids.

Tools To Use When Excitement Wants to Take Over

Here are some of the tools that have helped me and will help your kids, no matter what exciting adventure is being planned. AND it will even help them get in the mode for returning to school. That in and of itself can be an adventure!

Do the Daily Clean Your House Flow. It helps create the foundation for easy and effortless “being in the flow”.
For an extra boost of clarity and focus, with right hand cup the back of the head so fingers are on the left base of skull. And with left hand cup the forehead.
Discover how easy it is to balance emotions and feelings by simply doing the Jumper Cables. Hold each thumb and finger for several good breaths. By the way, holding the middle fingers helps let go of frustration and anger! And holding the thumbs helps decrease worry and anxiety.

And consider checking out the animated video of the Daily Clean Your House Flow. It’s a fun way for teachers to make a difference in the classroom and for parents to see how much smoother family life can be.

Wishing you LOTS of adventures for 2016 for you and your kids!

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Colossal Disneyland Excitement Makes it Hard to Sleep

Yep! I’m a kid at heart and that has been totally apparent for the last several months as the departure for Disneyland has been getting closer and closer. Though we’re arriving late on the first day, I talked my kids into getting a park pass for that day because “Why on earth would you even want to miss the opportunity to start the enjoyment?” And, of course, we’re doing the Hopper Pass so we can go to both Disneyland and California Adventure.

For someone who has always loved amusement parks and has super clear memories of the last time at Disneyland (it’s only been twenty plus years!), I’m ready to see and do as much as possible. I’ve been asking everyone who has been there what rides and attractions absolutely must be experienced.

Thrill of Anticipation

Have YOU ever had the level of excitement in which you get all wrapped up in the pictures in your mind and the anticipation of the thrill of what you have planned? At this moment in time I totally get why it’s so hard for kids to concentrate on the day-to-day stuff when there is a big exciting event coming around the corner.

I’m pulling out the “energy tips” to get my brain engaged so I can get at least a few things done before I’m traipsing all over Disneyland.

Here’s What I’ve Been Doing To Create Productive Space

Since it’s the beginning of a new year, it’s especially important to be “doing the steps” to meet my objectives and goals. If you want to get more out of your days, here are the flows I use:

Starting the day doing the Daily Clean Your House Flow. It helps create a solid foundation for the day.
Hold the mid-back near the kidneys, right hand on right side and left hand on left side. This creates space for “flow and manifesting”. Hold for several good breaths as you open up the energy and allow for new possibilities to come your way.
With the right hand, cup your sternum directly below the collarbone and with the left hand hold your fingers on your tummy. This will create energy movement that will bring in breath and ease and ability to “take in” all that does come your way. AND it will, because you’ve created the space that allows ALL to happen.

Wishing YOU all the excitement and joy of the New Year as you create and allow possibilities of transformation and expansion!

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I’m Truly a Kid at Heart!

I’m truly a kid at heart!

I saw Santa last week with some good friends and I know I had a really big smile on my face. I was right back at that place of total excitement that Santa was coming to town. As a kid growing up in a very small town in Minnesota (population 500), it was a big occasion with lots of planning and hype about the event. And, of course, sitting on his lap and telling him what I wanted for Christmas was a super big deal.

So, this year I didn’t tell him what I wanted when I sat next to him on his sleigh. Instead, I told him “thank you” for creating so many happy smiling people, both children and adults. He was the ultimate Santa — red and white suit, white beard, twinkling eyes, nose like a cherry, and a big smile in the midst of those rosy cheeks.

I felt like I was a character in ’Twas the Night Before Christmas and I found myself laughing in spite of myself as I watched him being Santa.

He and Mrs. Claus have created the ultimate Christmas Winter Wonderland. The outside is beautiful with all of the lights and decorations and the sleigh that he pops in and out of. But what is different from any other decorated house in any other neighborhood — they open their door to thousands of visitors every year. The entire house is filled with Christmas music and some of the most beautiful displays I’ve ever seen — Santas, villages, snowmen, a holiday train, a carnival, a whole room of angels.

Edmundo, Mary Jo and Kathy start decorating in September to prepare their Christmas House. And they do it because they love to create magic and see the smiles and hear the laughter. Last year they had 44,700 visitors. How do they know? They handed out 44,700 candy canes.

Most of us aren’t going to go to that extent to bring the magic of the season into our homes and neighborhoods, but we can create the energy of joy by just being in the space of happiness and love.

Ready to see the Rombeiro’s Christmas House and get filled with magic? Their address is 34 Devonshire Drive, Novato, CA . They’re open every night through January 6^th, including 12/24, 12/25, 12/31 and 1/1/2016. And every single night Santa will turn on all of the lights at 6:00 pm, walk out to his sleigh and greet his visitors. Kathy waits at the front door, welcoming each and every one who walks through the door. Mary Jo (Mrs. Claus) waits in the kitchen to see the smiles and have short conversations with those who just want to say thank you.

Yep. This Santa and his family are remarkable. They share the joy of the season and you can’t help but accept their gift. I hope you and your family have found ways to experience the magic of the season!

Joy and Magic

And remember — each of your family members can have balance and harmony by spending time every day doing self-help acupressure. You will find it much easier to have everything on the list done, to be rested, and to see smiles on each and every face. Keep it simple. Do the Daily Clean Your House Flow and remember to Jumper Cable as often as you think of it.

Sending you lots of balancing energy!

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Practicing to be Santa!

The act of giving is a big one for children to discover. It truly can become an art — but to get to that point we have to do a lot of practicing. It’s like practicing to be Santa!

Artful Giving

When you were a child do you remember ever having that moment when you were supposed to give someone else a gift that you really wanted to keep for yourself? That was a big one — to go through that experience and then to realize that once we got over the trauma and drama, we really could feel good about it. It was the memory of the “feeling good” that created the space for more of the same to occur. And from there, the pattern of artful giving was shaped.

Experiencing Joy in our Bodies

The journey to feeling good and experiencing joy is one that is super important. All parts of our bodies (physical, mental, and emotional) want to be happy and be in a place of energetic balance and harmony. A body that is in balance doesn’t have to work so hard to not have unhappiness or stress or anxiety. It just more easily moves to that place — without effort!

Once the pattern for “feeling good” is part of our make-up, the body will find ways to be there — including that place of “giving just because it feels good.” And, let’s face it — this is the time of year to feel really good about giving because it’s such a big part of the holiday season.

To help your children more easily discover that “I want to give” mode and be like Santa, try these energy tips:

Gently cup middle fingers to help let go of frustration. (Helps let go of frustration, including any that is about giving when “I don’t want to”).
Hold upper arms by folding arms across the chest. (Helps bring in breath which will let go of any anxiety. Anxiety can come from being uncomfortable with what is happening which will cause breath holding).
Hold right fingers at area of heart and hold left fingers at base of ribcage. (Helps connect feelings of happiness and love with breath).
Hold right fingers on left cheek and hold left fingers below left collarbone. (Helps with ability to fully express feelings, thoughts, words).

Doing the Daily Clean Your House Flow on a daily basis can go a long way to helping your children be happy and healthy. That will create a firm foundation. The extra energy tips create even more “letting go and finding balance.”

Enjoy the season! And have fun giving and being Santa!

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