Using Acupressure Through a School Gun Threat
Let’s face it. School staff shouldn’t need to figure out what to do if something goes haywire, like a gun threat. That craziness shouldn’t be happening at any school, especially a Kindergarten-Grade 6.
But that’s what did happen at Penngrove Elementary School when the staff received a call during recess from a guy who said he was coming to the school with a gun because he was not being allowed to speak to his kid. The call immediately created a two-hour lockdown in which the students were led into rooms with their teachers.
Two hours must have felt like ten when trying to keep a room of kids quiet and calm.
The teachers pulled it off.
The story is that they made it into a game for the younger children to ease tension and avoid scaring them. The games continued when it was time to evacuate by school buses to the local fire station, which became a “field trip”.
That was the “event” day.
But what about the residuals? What about how the parents felt after they were told about the threat and then they had to wait for their children to show up at the fire station?
Understandably, those parents were anxious because they had no way to assist in the situation. What about what some kids were dealing with that night and the following days? What about the staff who managed to keep it together and keep their students engaged and calm during the fiasco but then had to deal with the aftereffects?
Even when it seems like everyone is holding it together, the emotions running under the surface are fear, anxiety, and uncertainty. A child who suddenly gets anxious can easily create a stream of reactions that spreads to others. If an adult who is one of the supervisors get anxious, then the kids will quickly pick up on that feeling.
The key is maintaining a calm and safe environment, which comes from almost everyone there BEING in that peaceful space. It was lucky that the Penngrove staff were exceptional at fulfilling that goal.
Post Event Acupressure Support
Many of the older students also remembered what to do to keep calm even in a stressful situation. They recalled how to do self-help acupressure I’d taught them at a previous school assembly. Their parents and school staff had also participated in related workshops.
About a week after the school fiasco, I had the opportunity to spend time with the kindergarteners and some older students. I was there to connect with anyone feeling residuals from that crazy day.
The purpose was just to be there, listen to their stories, and help them understand that their feelings were natural reactions. And teach them self-help acupressure, which people of all ages can use to handle stress, relieve anxiousness, and let go of being overwhelmed.
Acupressure can help you accomplish that because it helps your body experience energetic balance, expand the breath, create calmness and grounding, feel safe, and rediscover joy and peace by letting go of the pattern of reaction to trauma.
The kindergartners were engaged and interacting as I showed them how to breathe deeper, even when something scary happened. One little guy, who was having a pretty hard day, was even able to calm down when I showed him and his classmates how to do the “jumper cables”.
Doing the jumper cables is the last step in the Daily Clean Your House Flow®, a nine-step self-help acupressure flow I wrote years ago for my clients and students. It’s easy to learn and easy to do.
Here’s a fun, animated video you can download to learn the easy steps. Get the Daily Clean Your House Flow video.
What those 5- and 6-year-olds experienced was a way to find calm and expansion of breath. They didn’t need to know everything else they were accomplishing. They just felt the space of ease.
To do the jumper cables, gently cup each thumb and finger, starting with the thumb on one hand and doing all the fingers. Then go to the next hand. When you do this, you’re connecting with all emotions and helping your body let go of anything jamming up the breath.
When I was with the older students, many KNEW what I was talking about and showed ME what they do for calm and expanded breath! I heard comments like, “It works even when it’s a really bad day, like what happened last week.”
They knew because I’d been with them for that school assembly, and I taught them the Daily Clean Your House Flow, as well as several other acupressure movements they could do to help with clarity and focus, to succeed at whatever they wanted to do better, and to feel healthier.
This was the most popular acupressure pose for calm and breath:
- With one hand, cup the sternum directly below the collarbones.
- With the other hand, hold your fingers on your tummy.
This pose works so well that it can even make a difference when you feel super anxious, like a student who doesn’t feel safe in a drill and has to go under the desk.
This video is an excerpt of a previous assembly I did showing the kids some tips on how to balance their energy and prepare for anxious moments. You’ll even see a 7-year-old share what she does when preparing for working through a drill.
So, imagine offering this information and tool for your students’ toolkits. Take it further and imagine offering these same techniques to your educators, staff, and parents. Imagine your entire school community having a toolkit that allows them a way to get on the other side of stress, anxiousness, overwhelm, fear, worry, anger, and even sadness.
Imagine THAT information making a difference if something terrible happens in your school. We don’t want the bad to happen, but it’s all about being proactive to be able to manage stress in high-anxiety situations.
And, no matter what, your students will be more empowered with a toolkit that enhances focus, clarity, and performance, supports a cooperative learning environment, and helps them achieve their potential.
Please contact me to get more acupressure information for yourself, your family, or your school community.
Upcoming Workshop – December 4
Are you overwhelmed by the demands of the holiday season?
Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!
Give yourself the gift of joy and calm.
In just 90 minutes, using only your fingertips, discover how self-help acupressure can
- Reduce stress and anxiety
- Balance your emotions
- Get and keep you healthy
- Improve your sleep
- Create ways to be in gratitude and appreciate yourself
This Ultimate Holiday Survival Bootcamp is for the whole family, people of all ages. It works for both kids and adults and will give you the tools you need to become centered and grounded even during holiday events.
NO CHARGE! This event is Free!
Get all the event details and register today.
Hats Off to You Mom!
We all get it. Moms like you have lots on their plates to keep life happening, so Hats off to You, Mom!
First off, it’s everything that NEEDS to get done for the kids – school commitments, after-school activities, and keeping the kids on track with “doing well” at whatever they’re involved in, plus homework and their “I love doing this, and I can’t skip it.”
Sometimes, it seems like way too much getting juggled.
What if you’re caring for a parent or someone else, that’s another timeline that must be included in your day.
And let’s not forget the long list to take care of in your own life:
- work and its requirements
- time with your partner
- connecting with friends
- after-work activities
- exercise program
- quiet time
- sleep
- self-care
You get it – the list is crazy. How on earth do you do it all?
Ask Yourself This
Besides focusing on all the things, take a moment to reflect on yourself.
- Do you ever get to the space of feeling anxious about “too much and not enough time?”
- Do you ever tell yourself that you’re not doing everything good enough?
- Do you give yourself a lecture that it’s time you make some changes and make them now?
All of these are “anxious-making stuff,” and create havoc in your mind, your state of being, and potentially in your physical body.
- Do you notice that you’re holding your breath or clenching your jaw?
- Is your neck taking the brunt and holding up the weight of the world?
- Is your lower back feeling tight and sore, and is it hard to turn, lift, and stretch?
Maybe your body is experiencing one of those glitches or something else.
- Do you sometimes feel on edge, and maybe it’s hard to hold back an angry comment?
- Does your head hurt with the “too much to do” and the mind chatter it all creates?
- Does the mind chatter take over, and you find you’re being super hard on yourself and maybe others?
- Or do you feel like you’re just super tired and don’t know how to make it through the day?
If any of that is happening, that anxiousness is being experienced as a pattern in your body. And if you’re expressing yourself with angry comments or fretful impatience, it’s being noticed by others, including your kids.
If your kids see you being impatient and on edge, that is anxious behavior that they may very well model when they’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed.
The greatest gift you as a mom can give to your kids is modeling a way of being that is calm, no matter what is going on. When you show up composed, unruffled, and relaxed even when there is craziness in the day, they WILL notice and SEE your behavior as a soothing and peaceful way to be.
My Mother’s Day Gift to You
In the spirit of Mother’s Day, it’s time for YOU to receive a simple, easy way to “just be” and have your body experience breath and calm.
So, here is my gift of “just being.” And everything I share with you will work for everyone else in your life, including your kids, their teachers, your partner, and your best friends. Feel free to share what I’m going to suggest.
Following are some super simple self-help acupressure tips you can do anytime, anywhere.
Your body will start saying, “Do this,” and you’ll find that you and your body have created new habits that will make you feel better, healthier, and happier.
For each of the ‘poses’ below, use your fingertips with a light, gentle touch on the points I suggest, and hold each step for several good breaths.
So here you go!
To expand breath, ease anxiousness, assist with clarity and focus, feel stronger, have more vitality, and just feel good:
- Give yourself a hug – just hold your fingers on the upper arms above your elbows.
- Cup the back of your head using your right hand with fingers on the opposite base of the skull. Then cup your forehead using your left hand with fingers on the opposite side.
- Cup your sternum below the collarbone (thumb on one side and fingers on the other). With the other hand, hold your fingers on your tummy.
- To create more room for everything, including your neck and shoulders feeling more spacious and able to hold up your head and DO everything more easily…
With your right hand, cup your left shoulder near your neck
Place your left hand under your left sit bone or near it
After a few breathes, switch hands.
- Cup your fingers, one at a time (first one hand and then the other, starting with the thumb). This routine is called jumper cabling, and it helps to increase breath and balance emotions.
Keep Going!
Are you interested in knowing an energy flow pattern that takes less than 10 minutes? This energy flow can be used throughout the day, and it can create calm and breath as it works with every system in your body to bring balance and vitality.
It’s called the Daily Clean Your House Flow® , and it’s my gift to you and your family!
Hey Mom! Give yourself a Happy Mother’s Day gift. Bring on the breath and calm and peace. Feel balance and harmony throughout your whole body.
Everyone in your life will appreciate you even more because you’re taking care of yourself. Enjoy your day and every day.
And LOTS of hugs! YOU deserve to be loved!
Magic in Your Own Fingertips
Have you ever known someone you just can’t get enough of? Someone that’s wise, and funny, and inspiring. For me, that’s Vilma Ginzberg.
I’ve worked with Vilma for over 13 years. She is a retired psychologist, an exceptional writer, and a poet laureate. I relay that information because even though she’s almost 97 years old, Vilma can still express her thoughts and have conversations consistently full of information and insights.
I am inspired every time I see her, and genuinely hope to be like her as I mature into her age.
She’s generous, too. In the beginning of one of my books, “Easy Self-Help Acupressure for Grown-Ups”, she wrote,
“Using Deborah Myers Daily Clean Your House Flow routine is better than being a couch potato. This routine, done daily like brushing your teeth, is easy and rewarding.”
When I recently saw Vilma, we discussed my work with schools and students of all ages, plus workplace wellness programs. I commented that I love helping others discover how to balance their energy daily so they get from where they are to where they want to be.
As I continued doing the energy flows with her, Vilma said that she felt the energy flowing, and it felt like magic. Then she elaborated,
“You know. We carry this magic in our back pockets all the time. Often, we just sit on it instead of pulling it out and making use of it.”
Vilma had hit the nail on the head!
We both started laughing because, as you may know, one of my favorite comments is that we walk around with our fingers 24/7. We just need to pull them out of our pockets and make use of our fingertips to touch energy balance points and help our bodies find physical, mental, and emotional balance and harmony.
Vilma wanted me to show you our holiday picture. I brought the headbands along because I wanted to see that girl smile!
Yes, Sit on Your Hands!
Vilma and I also talked about how one of the Daily Clean Your House Flow® steps is sitting on your hands. That energy balance point is all about vitality and helps your body discover alignment.
When that point is in balance, we are genuinely pulling the magic out of our back pockets and connecting with all the possibilities that are ready to happen. We just have to give those possibilities a chance to show up.
Then there’s the pose that is sitting on one hand and holding the other hand on the opposite shoulder. That pose helps the body release blocked energy and move the energy throughout the body, allowing the meridians and channels to flow easily and effortlessly.
That is when the organs and body systems can fulfill their tasks, and your body experiences balance, rhythm, strength, health, comfort, stability, and happiness.
Can you see that when you help your body be prepared for whatever you want it to do, it WILL respond by taking you forward?
A Special Gift from Vilma
Here is the poem that Vilma wrote for me after the very first time she came for an in-person acupressure session.
healing hands
for Deborah Myers
© Vilma Ginzberg 09-22-2010
you invite me to your table
padded curved and angled
to accommodate my bone-outlined
flesh-defined body of exhaustion
I spread myself atop it
my yesterdays of try-to’s
planked across its ridges
unfinished have-to’s
making stiffened bridges
of old intent preserved in rock of habit
I hardly feel your first fingers
your touch puff-wing light butterfly-soft
don’t you need something more jack-hammer-fisted I wonder
slow as morning light washes over doubt
melts layers of thought-armor
polishes the rusted jadedness
softly subtly slowly they come
subtle awakenings
stirrings of flesh and feeling
worlds entire fall apart while other worlds congeal
universes faint away
give birth to new constellations
you move soundlessly around this altar to life
where I am both sacrificial lamb and sacrament
soon I am as a sauce spilled on shapeless sheets
our mutual though silent rejoicing fills the empty spaces
outside the nearby window finches feed
gratefully on your thistle-seed
and some small uncaged bird in me
chirps again
Let’s pull your MAGIC out of your back pockets so you can achieve whatever you want to have happen in 2024!
Yes, I do in-person session at my home in Santa Rosa, CA, but I also help people to learn how to do self-help acupressure themselves.
Check my online calendar to see what might work best for you. Go to Deborah’s Calendar!
A GREAT OPPORTUNITY
Start your year off with a gift to yourself
Is there something you want to achieve or exceed at this year? In your business, personal, or school life?
Let’s get you on the right path to manifest your dreams at my new Do Anything Better workshop!
At this 3-session class, you’ll discover easy self-help acupressure techniques. This experience will open the door to better performance, balanced emotions, and overall life improvement by learning how to manage your body’s energy.
Balance, Bliss, and Energy
Align your energy and fly through your days with ease.
Learn how to:
- Stay calm amid daily challenges
- Be ready to embrace seasonal changes
- Align intention and action with your purpose
- Let your energy move and flow
Webinar Value: $597
Regular rate: $247
Early-bird rate: $147 (until August 20)
Register for Balance, Bliss, and Energy
Break the Stress Habit Week 3
Mindfulness begins with your body. Energy flows bring attention to your body and free your mind from chatter—or at least slow down the side conversations.
Learn 3 energy flows to interrupt your stress habit:
- Amp up Focus
- Deeper Sleep
- Joyful relationships
Stress is a storyline you can rewrite for a happier life.
Included in your registration:
- Handouts
- Workshop Recordings
Register for the workshop and break your stress habit.
Three Wednesdays: April 28, May 5, May 12
6:30-7:30 pm PDT
$197.00 is a small investment in your wellbeing.
Register now at http://bit.ly/StressHabit
Break the Stress Habit Week 2
Mindfulness begins with your body. Energy flows bring attention to your body and free your mind from chatter—or at least slow down the side conversations.
Learn 3 energy flows to interrupt your stress habit:
- Amp up Focus
- Deeper Sleep
- Joyful relationships
Stress is a storyline you can rewrite for a happier life.
Included in your registration:
- Handouts
- Workshop Recordings
Register for the workshop and break your stress habit.
Three Wednesdays: April 28, May 5, May 12
6:30-7:30 pm PDT
$197.00 is a small investment in your wellbeing.
Register now at http://bit.ly/StressHabit
Break the Stress Habit
Mindfulness begins with your body. Energy flows bring attention to your body and free your mind from chatter—or at least slow down the side conversations.
Learn 3 energy flows to interrupt your stress habit:
- Amp up Focus
- Deeper Sleep
- Joyful relationships
Stress is a storyline you can rewrite for a happier life.
Included in your registration:
- Handouts
- Workshop Recordings
Register for the workshop and break your stress habit.
Three Wednesdays: April 28, May 5, May 12
6:30-7:30 pm PDT
$197.00 is a small investment in your wellbeing.
Register now at http://bit.ly/StressHabit
How to Reduce Stress and Have Your Joy
Did you know that stress can steal your joy? Let’s change that picture!!
Joy is such a glorious experience. It’s a feeling that can bring you to a place of gratitude for what you have and allow you to experience a sense of wonder and delight in the possibilities.
I’m all about joy, especially during the holidays. The spirit of the season and the colors, lights, and sparkle make me smile. I love holiday magic!
Stress takes away the magic
Then here comes stress, that thing that lives on the other side of the proverbial coin. And, right now, the stress level is exceptionally high because of the holidays, the pandemic, travel plans affected, civil unrest, decision fatigue, interrupted sleep patterns, loss of vitality, too much computer time, the list goes on and on.
Stress can take away your juice, affect the quality of your life, and cause you to lose your appreciation of life. In that realm, how on earth can we have great expectations and be positive?? So, it’s no wonder that stress can affect your ability to communicate your feelings and thus influence your relationships. If it’s tough to be positive, it will show up in how you are with anyone, whether in person or virtual, on Zoom, or on the phone.
So, maybe that’s why it can be so tricky during the holidays to be with your loved ones, especially if you’re amid a stressful period. Sad to say, most of us are experiencing high levels of stress. Much of that is because we’re in a “not knowing state of being.” Humans want to know and need to know what’s around the corner. Most of us don’t want to admit that we don’t know! And yet we need to express ourselves.
You can choose to live a reactive or a proactive life
Are you in a place of wanting and maybe even needing to express some of your hidden emotions?? You are not alone!! Did you know that when you communicate your feelings, you will more easily let go of any stress you’re carrying? And that you can even help prevent burnout??
The trick is to recognize you’re feeling something and then acknowledge that you reacted to whatever was going on, whether it was a physical, mental, or emotional reaction. THAT is an awareness that allows you to be on a path of changing how you’re feeling. And then the stress can deconstruct and transform and help you strip away what doesn’t matter.
Changing the patterns of stress
- Look at what is “wrong,” what is stressful, and what you want to change. You’re capable of making it through these times. Look at what you’ve already been through in all parts of your life, what you changed to make it to where you are, and then KNOW that you can do it again.
- Change up negative self-talk. Once you’ve noticed that you’re doing it, you’ll recognize that you’re uncomfortable with it. THAT is the moment you can address the talk and change it up.
- When you’re in that better place of positive self-talk, those around you will notice it too. You will see evidence that you can more easily express your feelings and not hold things in. So, speak and be true to yourself! Be positive, and it will be easier to have gratitude live within you. And you’ll smile more often!
- Recognize that change is just that. And if you’re questioning your ability to change old ways, acknowledge that “you just don’t know how to do the “new thing” yet. You just don’t know yet how to do it differently from how you’ve done it before!! In that moment of realization, you are on the road to change.
- Get support. We rarely recognize how important it is to bring another voice into the picture. Ask for “a listening ear.” Maybe it’s a friend or a colleague who will be your sounding board as you unload. That process lets go of the mind chatter so you can get on the other side of “the voices inside.”
- Get some movement happening. Exercise, walk, garden, whatever you do will trigger a positive feeling, feel emotionally stronger, and lower stress.
- Create a daily practice that is super simple to accomplish. When it becomes a routine that you and your body discover is supportive and healing, you will FEEL stronger, healthier, more vital, and more prepared for whatever comes along.
Discover that rituals help your day begin with optimism and continue with joy
Have hope and faith that the changes you want in your body and life can happen! Embrace the possibility and relax with the process.
Balance emotions and habits, and you will discover how easy it is to be positive, be joyful, be proactive, and take control of your own well-being.
YOU are worth it!
Are you ready for a daily practice that is easy to accomplish??
- Do the Daily Clean Your House Flow, a nine-step self-help acupressure flow that is super easy to do and takes less than ten minutes to complete. As a nine-year-old so succinctly told me, “It is the Daily Flow, so of course I do it every day! And I do it more than that!”
- Keep your breath open. Feel the expansiveness of the inhale and the letting go during the exhale. Go to my website, click on the purple button “Learn the Daily Flow,” and you’ll get some energy tips that will expand your breath. Plan on doing them off and on throughout the day. There is no such thing as too much self-help!!
- Give yourself lots of love! The first step of the Daily Flow is giving yourself a hug. It opens up breath, shows your body you are taking care of it, and it connects with heart health.
- Throughout the day, manage your feelings so stress doesn’t have room to hang out.
A super simple energy movement that allows you to express yourself.
Right hand—cup sternum directly below the collarbone
Left hand—hold your fingers on your tummy
By the way, I’m taking singing lessons, and I cup my sternum and hold my tummy a lot! It opens up my breath, softens my throat and vocal cords, drops my jaw, opens up my face muscles, and projects my voice. If I may say so myself—it’s astonishing how far I have come with my singing! Mostly when I had lost my singing voice after surgery.
Read more about letting go of negativity and stress:
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-let-go-of-negativity-and-stress-3145006
And see what Psychology Today says about stress and joy:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anxiety-zen/201804/springing-more-joy-and-less-stress-30-day-guide
Hope, Faith & Energy Workshop Series
Let go of all your challenges. It’s time to celebrate the holidays with fun and joy!
Change is natural. Yet you may find that you need help to make the changes you want in your body, life, or the world. You may feel it’s taking too much hard work to get that change to happen.
You can learn to embrace change and relax with the process!
In this workshop, we’ll combine acupressure and neural science discoveries. You’ll practice partnering with your body to shift your response to change and stay in balance. And you will enjoy the holidays a lot more!
Balance emotions and habits, and you will discover how easy it is to be positive
Amid all that is going on in our world, it is super important to turn down the stress and anxiety meter and find joy and positivity.
COVID-19 and Change
Have you been noticing the emotional rollercoasters as you continue to be in various stages of lock-down??
If you have kids in your life, you will most likely notice that they are experiencing the same difficulties. All of us have experienced an interruption of everyday routines during this year. Our social interactions have shifted from in-person to on-screen. Human beings need physical contact to thrive, yet we fear the peril that may come with touch.
What if you could recognize and acknowledge the surrounding changes in a way that takes you out of reaction and into positive action?
Does any of the following impact you?
- Feeling stressed and anxious
- Feeling a loss of breath
- Experiencing decision fatigue
- Feeling tired, unproductive, overwhelmed
- State of mind, fear, apathy, apprehension, confusion
- Hard to find joy and feel happy
- Your recovery from a challenging personal event
- Too much time in front of the computer and a loss of in-person interaction
You Can Feel Better if You Know How to Balance Your Body
- Experience your body as an energy system—be in touch with your body and discover breath, ease, calm, and vitality. You’ll even notice when your body is giving you a message so you can DO something about it.
- Manage feelings and emotions—recognize them and re-pattern them so you can more easily have positive, smoother experiences instead of stumbling blocks
- Boost the immune, endocrine, and adrenal systems—prepare your body to become healthier, more robust. You will be better prepared to handle potential exposure to viruses and bacteria
Stay Calm and Carry On
If creating a sense of calm and curiosity appeal to you, this three-part workshop series is right for you.
We will cover:
- Creative ways to appreciate yourself
- Cognitive Behavioral Theory
- Using Easy Self-Help Acupressure to keep in balance
Take Control of What You Can
Ready to take responsibility for your well-being? Give yourself a gift of Hope, Faith & Energy, and enjoy the holidays. Set yourself up to begin the new year.
Hope, Faith & Energy Workshop
I’m excited about my upcoming workshop to prepare for the holidays. And I’d love YOU to be there! I want this to be a fantastic season for you and your family! And I want to share how you can more easily get that to happen.
Register for the workshop using this link. And, if you can’t attend the live class, you’ll be able to access the recording.
You are worth it!!
Your investment in your improved health:
Only $97.00 for all 3 class meetings!!
The meetings will take place via Zoom on the following Tuesday evenings from 6:00 to 7:00 pm
November 24th
December 1st
December 8th
You will receive an email with instructions for joining the workshop after you register. You can take part via computer, mobile devices, or phone.
Ready to take responsibility for your well-being? Give yourself a gift of Hope, Faith & Energy, and enjoy the holidays.
Keep Your Breath Moving!
