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!
Hope, Faith & Energy
Hope, Faith & Energy
Are you feeling at odds, unhappy, maybe lonely? Are you feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what you should do next to clear the to-do list? Perhaps you’re also taking care of others, and you have their feelings and needs to look after, too.
If you have all of that going on and even more “stuff,” you might experience a sense of hopelessness, feeling that it’s never going to change. And, with all of that, you’re most likely experiencing some fatigue. Dealing with it is just too much!
Look at everything that is going on in this crazy world. COVID-19, social distancing, massive civil unrest, fires or hurricanes or flooding depending on where you live, evacuations, destruction, the election. Okay. The list is already too long, especially since each one of those can create stress and anxiety and the feeling that “it’s just too much.” No wonder we hear the phrase “pandemic fatigue.”
Kids are Feeling Stressed Out
What’s sad is that children are experiencing the same stress, overwhelm, not knowing what’s coming next, frustration, and sadness. They feel exhausted by social distancing, not being with their friends, and feeling hemmed in.
How do we cope and get on the other side of it? It’s super important to help our bodies get to that place. Otherwise, our bodies will think they are in constant trauma.
Trauma Adds Stress
Trauma and the effects of trauma bring us to a place of being on edge, wary, confused, even holding our breath. Energetically, trauma causes the energy pathways to get blocked and stuck. Energy needs to move, and it needs to change. Otherwise, our bodies will manifest “projects” that can cause unhealthiness and chronic fatigue. (Instead of problems, let’s use the word projects. They’re more fun to work with, and they have a beginning and an end).
Tips for Reducing the Effects of Stress
I have some easy-to-do ideas on how to get on the other side of it all.
Number One
We can help our bodies get out of confusion and create calm. You can do easy self-help acupressure to let go of fatigue and develop physical, mental, and emotional balance. It will help you sleep easily, feel healthy, be happy and joyful, have clarity and focus, increase self-esteem, and feel optimistic about tomorrow and beyond. That’s where hope and faith come into the picture! (There’s a link at the end of the article to get you to easy self-help energy tips).
Number Two
I think we need to take Oprah’s advice that I read in her recent Inspiration Newsletter. We need to embrace hygge, the Danish art of coziness. Danes rank as the happiest people in the world, even today. How do they get to that place?
Photo by Daria Rem from Pexels
What the Danes Do to Feel Happier
The Danish make sure that several essential elements are part of their daily lives, including relaxed thoughtfulness, meditation, and time spent with others. And, yes, we can spend time with others without actual physical contact. Now more than ever, we need to create time with others that create an atmosphere that is warm, relaxed, friendly, down-to-earth, close, comfortable, snug, and welcoming. It is like a friendly hug—but without the physical contact. In this situation, you can be yourself and relax completely. Therefore, the art of hygge is also the art of expanding your comfort zone to include other people.
So, I guess we have to do it with social distancing and maybe even over Zoom. No matter what, create the time for cozy togetherness! Our bodies, hearts, and souls hunger for it!
Another significant element the Danes bring into their lives is “living lights.” They make use of candles to bring light and create sunny smiles.
Maybe this year, we need to make sure we put up those holiday lights for the color and the sparkling lights that bring those big smiles. As many of you know, I love Christmas. What I also know is that I need those lights as the days get shorter and shorter. And, even though very few people will see my Christmas extravaganza, it just might be the year it all gets displayed.
Read more about Embracing Hygge:
http://www.oprah.com/health_wellness/how-to-embrace-hygge#ixzz6cNxufzLL
Hope and Change
Another piece we need to be aware of—change wants to happen, and it needs to happen. The body you walk around in is in constant flux because it’s energy. A body in energetic balance will quickly experience the change, and it will be a positive shift. The trick is to be creative in appreciating ourselves and find enjoyment within the shift. Maybe the difference is merely relishing an accomplishment.
Consider using this simple worksheet to help you see the changes that you can implement. It uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which uses your mind to notice the good stuff. It focuses on behavioral changes in your daily life, for instance, tracking your emotions according to your activities. So, it’s learning how to notice when your body is giving you a message.
If you would like to learn more about behavioral-based therapy, visit the Therapist Aid website.
Your Key to Hope, Faith & Energy
To help your body thoroughly experience change and get messages, go to my website and click on the purple button, “Learn the Daily Flow.” You will receive self-help acupressure suggestions that will help your body experience balance and harmony. Included is the Daily Clean Your House Flow® and energy tips to expand the breath, let go of frustration, achieve focus, boost motivation, and increase productivity. Now, those are some changes your body will appreciate! And you are fully experiencing hope, faith, and energy. Enjoy the movement and the difference!
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 4th 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!
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
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.
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 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 4th 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!
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!
Creating Holiday Traditions for our Children
Creating Holiday Traditions for our Children
Holidays beckon for traditions. Can you even imagine a December without Christmas trees, without red and green decorations, without Christmas music, without sparkling lights? No matter the holiday, we surround ourselves with the chosen colors, music, and food that help us get into the mood, stay in the mood, and fully experience the events we create or attend.
As adults we follow our to-do list and the plan that allow us to be immersed in the traditions that make the holiday extra special for us and our families. So no wonder that our children expect to have the same, if not better, experience year after year. After all, it’s part of the plan!
It’s actually recognized that when we follow the expected we have less stress showing up. And then, when we are in the midst of full engagement, we are more likely to enjoy the experience.
Kids Need Traditions
Traditions actually have higher purposes, especially for children. No matter what you do as a family, it’s all about creating memories. Whether you read “The Night Before Christmas,” visit Santa, go caroling, attend a special musical event, attend church, or light the Chanukah menorah you’re helping your children create a firm foundation.
That foundation builds a sense of stability, unity and connection. Each member of the family can count on the traditions happening, expect everyone to be together, and can count on being able to participate. Traditions also build unity, bringing the family together. Everyone feels connected. Have you ever noticed that because of the traditions you’ve created around the holiday experience, your kids expect them to happen? And if you change it up, do you notice that they go into reaction and question why it’s different? They may even go into “you’re not thinking of me and what I want.” For the most part, what children want is to feel connected to the family, listened to and acknowledged.
Traditions Build Connections to the Past
They can serve as a bridge from the past to the present and from the older generation to the younger. Traditions can be as simple as the scheduled family outing to choose the Christmas tree or making a special ornament for the tree every year. Or it can be making Grandma’s extra special cookies or planning your annual Christmas party. What is important is that the holiday traditions work for your family.
You can see that one of our big traditions is decking the halls and decorating the Christmas tree! I have over 1000 ornaments, many of them from my mother, my great-aunt and my grandma. I have stories that go along with all of them, in addition to the stories about the hand-made ornaments and the many gifts received through the years. I love Christmas! And I love everything about it! I hope that you and your family have your traditions that make it an extra special time of the year!
Holiday Energy Tip
AND as a holiday gift — to help out any moments of time when a family member gets a bit anxious or unsure of “what is next” — consider following this energy tip. It will help bring breath and release tension.
- Right hand — hold fingers at right base of ribcage
- Left hand — hold fingers on right chest below clavicle
- Switch to do the left side
And to just bring “I feel good” into your body remember to jumper cable! It helps all layers, all levels, and all emotions.
Practicing to be Santa!
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!
Ensuring Student Success
Thanks to our School Professionals!!!
There are so many people who play a part in ensuring the success of students. American Education Week is a dedicated time to recognize all those professionals who touch the lives of our children: teachers, administrators, counselors, office staff, food service employees, health care employees, safety officers, custodial and maintenance employees.
Each and every one of them help keep schools running and students safe, healthy and ready to learn. Student achievement is a reality when they receive quality education. Without all of these professionals we would not have a school environment that creates the space for education to be a journey in discovery.
Good Memories of School
Do you have memories of school being fun, engaging, beneficial, and worthwhile and that you wanted to be there? I’m lucky to say those qualities are what I experienced when I was a young student, and that it was primarily the adults who were on the school campus who brought that to fruition. They fostered my desire to study and learn, and to have fun doing so.
Creating Success for Our Kids
Maybe its those memories that brought me to the place of wanting to create a program that allows teachers to have classrooms that are calmer and more productive, to have students who aren’t anxious and stressed and have more clarity and focus. However I got there, I am passionate about bringing the possibility of that environment to our schools. My animated video of a self-help acupressure flow is helping teachers and parents create a balanced calm space — at school and at home.
Check out the first 90 seconds of the six minute video called the Daily Clean Your House Flow. Teachers and parents are saying, “This makes a huge difference at school and at home.” And kids are saying, “Everything is easier.” Studying, doing homework, taking tests, sports, music – kids are having more success in all they do. And they’re having fun learning an easy way to get there!
And that’s what they should experience! Life should be filled with successful moments that give them the inclination to keep on being involved, trying, learning and stepping into their potential. I love hearing kids telling me the good things, the happy moments, the “I like being in school,” and “my teacher is the best,” and “I’m doing better.”
And I know that teachers and school staff feel the very same way. Otherwise they wouldn’t be doing what they do – helping children step into being the best they can be. Thanks to ALL of you who are there every day for your students!
Halloween Shouldn’t Be Stressful!
Halloween Shouldn’t Be Stressful!
Halloween is supposed to be fun! Do YOU remember the decision process of what to wear for Halloween? Chances are good that it didn’t matter if you chose a costume that someone else was wearing, or one that wasn’t quite as spectacular as your friend’s costume, or even one that you wore last year. It was all about the experience of dressing up, being in the costume parade at school, and then, the very exciting time of going trick and treating. And it very seldom was anything but a safe experience.
I thoroughly loved Halloween. It was the holiday that allowed me to fully be out of regular character and act the part of someone entirely different from the normal me. Decorations didn’t play a big part when I was a child, but when I became an adult, my kids informed me that I went a bit crazy creating a Halloween go-to destination for trick and treating.
Halloween Was Indeed Fun
I do believe I made it lots of fun for all the kids in the neighborhood. Is it fun for your kids? I hear from way too many children in today’s world that they’re stressed about what to wear, about what group of kids they can hang with that night, whether they’ll be invited to THE party, and whether this Halloween will be better than last year’s holiday. They want something better than what they perceive is not okay and in that place of wanting something different, they’re stressed.
Stress and Halloween Are Not Supposed To Go Together
That’s not okay! If you notice your children are feeling anxious or nervous about the events of Halloween consider helping them by showing them how to be calm and relaxed. It’s all about discovering that breath is the key. Have you ever noticed that when YOU are anxious your breath gets blocked and congested? The trick is to open up the energy so breath expands. Here’s an easy energy tip to help your children breathe, to be calm and to let go of anxiety.
Your Halloween Treat
With one hand — hold your fingers on the upper back near the shoulder blade
With the other hand — hold your fingers on the upper arm
Then move those fingers to the outside of the wrist
You can do it for yourself too. And teach your children how to do it for themselves.
Right hand — hold your fingers on your left upper arm
Left hand — hold your fingers on the base of the right ribcage
Left hand — hold your fingers on the right inner thigh
Feel how the breath opens and everything in the body relaxes. And experience a whole new way of feeling, including being excited about Halloween. Enjoy!
Is Finding Time Creating Stress?
Is Finding Time Creating Stress?
Where did last week go? For that matter, where on earth did the last six months go?
Is time really passing faster? Or is it our perception? I believe that our brains take an accounting of all that we’re asking our physical, mental and emotional bodies to handle. When the list is long and the activities we manage to accomplish and check off of the list are many, our brains say, “I can do it all!” So our bodies step up to the plate to help us get around to it all and get it done and be able to even add more to the list.
FITTING IT ALL IN
But that means “all of the items on the list” need to fit into the calendar and into the entire picture. Our brains see all of those five and ten-minute segments and two plus hour time slots and have to figure out how we’re going to do it all. You would think that time would appear to slow down to allow it all to happen. But, alas, it is a paradox. The brain and our bodies get the sense that time is speeding up as we fill our days with all of the “to do items” on our lists because we’re NOT moving slow! It’s no wonder that feeling stressed comes into the picture.
OUR KIDS ARE AFFECTED BY WHAT THEY SEE
And here is the clincher. The kids in our lives SEE that behavior and our need to find time to do it all. Many children have an amazingly full schedule between school, studying, music, and sports without even talking about all of the other extras. And that’s not even taking into account just hanging out and doing fun things with friends and family. They manage to do what they see US doing: filling up their calendars, trying to do it all, and experiencing time passing faster and faster as the days go by. And this brings them to feel the sense of “being stressed.”
There are significant health risks associated with stress. In an article by Dr. Robin Berzin, she identifies 10 Reasons Why Stress is the Most Dangerous Toxin in Your Life. Of the ten health risks, one really stood out. Dr. Berzin cites research into brain chemistry that shows “Early life events determine your set point for stress.” And if that was the only harmful effect, it is reason enough to break this habit of hurry.
SLOW DOWN AND FIND SPACE!
The solution: slow down and create space for our bodies to experience feeling the breath, feeling the energy of “just being,” discovering that meditation is easy when we allow our brains the opportunity to “just hang out.” Consider doing something to help you and the children in your life more easily allow that to happen. I start every day doing the Daily Clean Your House Flow. It takes me anywhere from five to twenty minutes, depending what I choose. The animation video I created only takes six and a half minutes!
A DAILY MINDFULNESS PRACTICE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
And why are people doing the Daily Flow? They are noticing that they have better attention to detail because clarity and focus are boosted, that they are better able to do their activities without their bodies going into reaction (any sports, house and yard chores, computer work, etc.) and that their bodies stay healthier. But the absolute biggest reason is they feel less and less stress. People who do this daily practice have told me they notice that their breath is more expansive, that they can actually relax, that their brains slow down and let go of the chatter.
MY RECIPE FOR MINDFULNESS INSTEAD OF “MIND FULLNESS”
Try it for yourself. YOU just maybe will slow down and smell the roses! And just maybe we can model different behavior and change what’s happening out there in the world and help children NOT be in that terrible thing called stress.
