Healthy Happy Loving Life: 4 Top Tips to Shake Off a Bad Mood

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Do you ever find yourself in a bad mood, and you’re just waiting for it to go away?  And maybe you’re making mistakes with people because you’re cranky?  Well, no need to wait any more for that mood to go away on its own.  Here are 4 of my fastest tips for shaking it off.  Enjoy and report!

  1. Literally shake it off: place your tongue at the side of your mouth, and shake your body from the shoulders down.  Pretend you are a scarecrow in a gusting stiff breeze.  In 3 minutes, notice you are feeling completely different– energized and ready– for what is up to you.  
  2. Drink a coffee:  the polyphenolic compounds in coffee will literally give your cells a lift.  Plus, coffee tastes good.  Put your feet up, sip your coffee, and in 20 minutes, your mood will have cleared.  
  3. Do silly:  Like the Ministry of Silly Walks from Monty Python, you can use silliness to evaporate a bad mood.  Look for the 2-minute Norwegian YouTube video, where someone has put up an official sign mandating Silly Walks in a crosswalk.  Everyone is trying to walk in a silly way, and everyone is laughing, including the mayor.  
  4. Remember who is in charge of your day: YOU.  Stand up, make the decision that you are making it a great day, and take a symbolic step forward

And that’s you, much more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is an energy transformation expert, holistic healer and guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Sounds to Bring Calm

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© 2021 Image by Kebba Buckley Button–Judy Bolling swooping owl gourd drum

This week, I have been offering simple, easy-to-remember ways to move into CALM. I have described the use of a powerful exhale, multiword mantras, using calming sights, holding finger poses, and posting signs. Today, we cover some ways to use sound to bring calm. I invite you to experiment with the different types and effects of sound, to find out which work best for you. Find a comfy chair, inside or outside, and really give each of these a try, for 10-30 minutes– or more.
  1. Toning. Pick a tone that comes to you and hum it with your mouth closed. Notice your shoulders dropping and relaxation running down your spine. To increase the effect, touch your tongue to the ridge of the roof of your mouth, near the upper teeth.
  2. Chanting. The repetitive tonality of Monks chanting, and traditional Jewish chanting, both calm the heart and settle your system. Look for a recording called “Chant”, made by real monks. Or look for recordings of Gregorian chants. You will be entranced. And you may even want to exercise while listening. Traditional Jewish chanting must be heard to be understood, so search YouTube for recordings if this sounds interesting to you. Look for the term nigun as well. You may find yourself transported.
  3. Hymns. These can also transport you. Look for themes such as: It is well with my soul. This hymn was written by a man who had just lost his family at sea but then came to deep peace. Listen to this traditional hymn, and notice it moving your heart and calming your shoulders. Both the music and the words of hymns can be very moving and calming.
  4. Drumming. Try rhythmic tapping on a drum. For your first try, if you don’t own a drum, you can use an oatmeal box or glass cabinet door. Try a straight, even tapping, or a double-tap followed by a single tap: ta ta TA, ta ta TA, and repeating continuously for a few minutes. Notice your breath slowing and easing, and your whole busy back relaxing. If you find drumming very calming, you may want to get a custom gourd drum, like mine, shown here.2021 drum face
  5. Nature sounds. If you have a yard or nearby park, try eating al fresco and listening to the birds. Or visit a watercourse and sit, listening to the rippling or rushing water. If you need to be inside, look for recordings of nature: water, rustling leaves, and birds. An easy source is Pandora’s Zen Garden Radio, which has light music playing over nature sounds. The artists are listed. So when you find an artist with a piece you really like, you can pursue other offerings they may have.
These are just a few of the ways you can use sound to take you to degrees of CALM. Try them all, and let me know what worked best for you personally.   And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!

Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Signs for Calm

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All week, I am offering quick ways to help you get to your CALM state.  The quickest path to CALM for you might be different than the quickest path to CALM for your sister or maybe for me.  But tools for CALM are primary, helping you shift your mind and metabolism to a more restful state that will feed your health.  And therefore your relationships.  And therefore your success in life.  Now, if you prefer to be excited all the time, that’s a different personality, and you are burning out your adrenal glands.  This is not healthy.

So today, I’m recommending three forms of indoor visuals that will remind you of and take you to CALM.  These apply in the home and also in the office, if you have a separate office you go to.

  1. Images.  Paintings, prints, sculptures, framed photographs, silk flower arrangements:  these are familiar decor items.  As you look at each item on your walls or coffee table, or pedestals, do you feel calmed by each of them?  For example, as in the photo above, we have a deeply serene scene of the ocean, looking out from a beach, where a person is meditating.  For more CALM, consider switching out artworks that are not calming for new ones that are.  Have you ever seen a calendar that had a different inspiring image for each month?  These are plentiful in the Fall, but they also are available throughout the year.  These are inexpensive and offer themes of gardens, garden paths/gates, skies, mountains, artworks, Zen gardens…the array is endless.  And if you fall in love with a monthly image, you can always take it off the calendar and get it framed.  I did that with an image of a garden gate.
  2. Signs.  From post-it notes to notebook pages with favorite quotes, to well-designed slogan art, this is your chance to keep restating something that re-inspires you to return to your CALM.  Leave yourself informal notes, stuck to your grooming mirror (morning inspiration) and above your pillow (night-time inspiration).  Little notes are great on your car’s dashboard, also.  The calligraphy artwork piece, below, lives on my therapy office wall.  It reminds me and everyone that we *are* on our best path, right now.  Very calming.  Do you have signs up already, that you find inspiring and calming? 2021 LifePath poster by Carolyn
  3. Mugs.  The humble mug can be the greatest carrier of a message we need to see over and over again.  While we hold the mug with our favorite beverage, we see the design and any message, many times.  So, what if your mug displayed a calming message?  Here is one, telling us we need not worry.  What a calming message.  Look for more message mugs that are meaningful and calming to you!

2021 Joyce Meyer don't worry mug

Did you notice your body relaxing and calming as you went over this list?  Read my posts each day this month, and be rested, revitalized and amazed!  And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Finger Poses for Calm

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This week, I am sharing short, easy ways to get to your CALM state.  Getting to a state of CALM, and staying there, is a longtime passion of mine.  As a child, and through school and university days, I found life very stressful.  It was so easy to get wound up, to get so tense I couldn’t think straight or enjoy life.  And I knew so many unhappy people.  So today, my passion is to help people heal from every type of pain: spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical.  People come to my natural healing practice to have their pains dissolved, to have their energy transformed, and to learn specific strategies for preventing pain from invading them again.  I have and teach many hundreds of tools.  So let’s talk now about CALM, a primary tool for transformation.

CALM will allow all the muscles of your body to relax, at least somewhat.  This will let go of nerves that are squeezed tight, and many pains will release simply because you are CALM.  This process will further allow circulation to optimize, so your heart and other organs will get better blood flow and oxygen feed.  I have met a surgeon who is more calm than most people I have ever met.  I tease him that he is “unnaturally calm”.  His every movement is permeated with calm thoughtfulness.  And he is renowned for being pleasant and doing exquisite surgery.  And if you are not a surgeon, you’ll have both hands free, and you can try some finger poses.  A detailed chart of possibilities is above, but start with these two:

Two outstanding finger holds will take you directly to CALM.  These are (1) the Forefinger Massage and the (2) the Center Palm Touch.

(1) For the Forefinger Massage, gently feel the tops of your shoulders and then the bases of both your forefingers.  Notice how hard your shouldertop muscles are.  Now notice there are little muscles forming the flesh of the base finger segment.  Whichever forefinger has the tightest little muscles is the one you start with.  Gently massage the tight muscles, especially working knots you may find.  Do this for 2 minutes at a time.  Then, if you have time, switch to massaging the other forefinger.  Notice you are calmer and your shouldertops are not as rock-hard.

(2) For the Center Palm Touch, start by noticing your center 3 fingers.  Now place the tips of those fingers in the center of the opposite palm, and notice that you may feel a pulse under your fingertips.  Drop your shoulders.  Hold your arms in a relaxed way.  Relax your hands, also.  Notice your heart and your hold body calming.  Resolve to keep this CALM with you throughout the day.

Read my posts each day this month, and be revitalized and amazed!  And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Affirmations for Calm

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In my last post, I claimed that, for you to be as happy and healthy and fulfilled as possible, you must cultivate CALM as a secret launching pad for your joyful vitality.  I showed a method for starting with the power of an exhaling breath.

Today, I offer another very simple, yet profound technique: the 3-4-word mantra.  Think about what phrases really calm you, and chant them over and over and over and over… you get the idea.  When I was a child, and I was crying, my father would say, “It’ll be alright.  It’ll be alright.  It’ll be alright.”  Sometimes he patted my little shoulder as he almost-chanted that phrase.  And you know what?  He was right!  Try chanting this phrase, “It’ll be alright.  It’ll be alright.  It’ll be alright”, like a pulse in your consciousness.  By the end of the day, you will have chanted it hundreds of times.  If you have an oximeter, let it show you your heart rate has dropped as you have been chanting this phrase.

Another 4-word mantra that can work, regardless of your faith or nonfaith, is: “Things always work out.  Things always work out.  Things always work out.”  Try it, and notice how your shoulders have dropped.  You even look better with the better posture this CALM brings.

Try one of these each day and see which works best for you.  Or maybe you have another short phrase you want to try.  Please let me know what that is and how it worked for you. Truly, things do always work out.  And now you are calmer.  This week, I will be continuing to share daily about tools with which to be CALM and keep your CALM.

Read my posts each day this month, and be revitalized and amazed!  And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Getting Calm in a Noisy World

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My passion is for you to be as happy and healthy and fulfilled as possible.  Today, I’m talking about a dimension of livingness that is a secret launching pad for your joyful vitality.  It’s the ability to find and keep CALM in this noisy world.

Can we agree that, right now, the World is noisy, clattery, busy, congested, and generally stress-inducing?  There are more people on the Planet now than ever before.  Cities are being built higher than ever before.  No beach is deserted, inviting you to stroll in solitude.   Local hiking trails are busy. Think you’ll climb a mountain to find wise quiet?  Kilamanjaro literally has a waiting line, for people trying to ascend the summit.

Maybe it would be good if you carry your calm with you?  And not look for it in specialized environments?

Calmness is the cradle of power. –Josiah Gilbert Holland

This week, I will be sharing daily about tools with which to be CALM and keep your CALM.

For now, take a complete deep exhale, from your scalp to your toes.  Let the inhaling take care of itself.  Do this three times.  Become aware that your shoulder tops are achy and want to drop down an inch.  Let them do that.  Exhale deeply again.

In one minute, notice a lightness rising in your neck and the back of the head.  You’re younger now.  Read my posts each day this month, and be revitalized and amazed!  And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: 4 Top Tips for Thriving in the Desert Summer

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Today, in Phoenix, it was 100 degrees.  Longtime residents of Phoenix and other desert cities may shrug off temperatures around 100.  After all, it easily gets to 115.  However, if you are new to the Desert, you’ll do better with some hot tips to keep you cool!  Here are 4 top tips to help you to thrive and actually enjoy your life all during the hottest weeks.

1. Limit your heat exposure.

Know that heat exhaustion and heat stroke are serious medical conditions. Heat illness is a major cause of death worldwide.  Symptoms include dehydration, electrolyte loss, and failure of the body’s ability to regulate its temperature. Key organs can be damaged, and people can die. Just read those daily newspaper articles on passport-free border-crossers. To completely avoid heat illness, drink water, carry water with you at all times, recharge your electrolytes (minerals) frequently, and never stop to think or chat in the full sun. Park your car in the shade and/or use portable sunshades in the windshields when it’s parked. Call for medical help if any faintness/weakness/head pain/red face doesn’t subside in 15 minutes or so.

2. Limit your sun exposure.

The solar radiation index in Arizona is very high, and Phoenix is the number 2 city for skin cancer in the world. Stay in the shade when possible. Wear a high-SPF wide-brimmed hat, good sunglasses, and sunscreen of SPF15 or higher. There are nonsticky SPF 110 products available now.  When you’re tubing, re-apply to your ankles after hooking them under the tube.  Water doesn’t prevent sunburn. When you’re out walking and see a friend, step together into the shade to have your conversation.

3. Keep your energy up.

Too much heat is just tiring. In Chinese medicine, too much yang becomes yin. In desert areas, the summer is the most important time of year to practice personal energy management. In your diet, emphasize fresh fruits and salads, which contain many enzymes, vitamins and minerals not present in processed foods. Carefully choose where you put your energy each week, in projects and people.

4. Keep your mind and heart fresh.

The most hidden danger of the hot months here is that the brain and creativity go flat, and with them, the emotions. Relationships may suffer from blahs, boredom, and crankiness. If you don’t keep yourself healthy, energized, and clear-minded, you may damage some relationships and bore yourself sick. So get out your cool clothes, your sense of humor, and the events announcements. Try some new places, festivals, groups, and events. Check the e-calendars from your city, nearby cities, your arts center, church or social groups. Try a moonlight hike with such groups as the Sierra Club. Tour the Botanical Garden at 7 am. Watch a friend audition for a theater troupe. Call old friends and meet in the evening for cool drinks and hot bands, at trendy rooftop clubs. Try a night at a resort where they show movies over the pool and give you your own inflated rafts to watch from.  There are many options!

These strategies can help you this summer, so you’re not just surviving, you’re thriving! Make this your best summer ever, so far.  And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: If You Can’t Find It, You Don’t Really Own It!

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Do you need to declutter?  How does this image of clutter make you feel?  Don’t tell me it’s “casual”!  I dare you to tell me the same couch without the clothes dropped on it wouldn’t look better.  The people I know who have messy homes generally love being in a clean, clear, well-decorated home.  For a visit.  And then they go home and can’t seem to shift their own mess.   So is there a great answer?  There are different systems that work for different people, to declutter.

The Kon-Mari, or konmari, method, is probably the most famous method.  Developed by a petite and feminine Japanese woman, Marie Kondo, this method was made famous as The Magic of Tidying Up.  In this system, you sort for what you really love and discard everything else, by category.  Vases or pants, for example, might be the next category of attack.  Make a pile of vases or pants, look them over, and keep only the ones that make you feel good. Your favorite charity will be delighted to have what doesn’t work for you.  A relative of mine did this with pants.  She found two pairs out of 19 that were keepers.  Her husband said kindly, “I think we need to go buy you more pants!”

Stress, Stuff, Junk Stress, Upbeat Living

Releasing Stuff feels great!

Ten Percent Decluttering was invented by me, and almost no one knows about it.  This consists of walking into a room and asking yourself, “what can I take out?”  Your goal is to remove at least one tenth of what is in the room, asking yourself if Tyou love it and it gives you joy and energy.  For me, this method takes less time than konmari.  And it can be repeated tomorrow or any other time.  Just keep walking into the room and taking a fresh look.  Then ask again, “What can I take out of this room?”  Then immediately toss it, recycle it, or donate it!  In either of these methods, be brave!  Ask yourself, “Is this really something I want to carry forward with me in my life?”  If not, you know what to do.

Are you having trouble deciding if you need to declutter?  Here is a key:

If you can’t find a thing quickly, you don’t really own it!

When was the last time you looked for that dressy crystal-studded watch and actually found it?  So if you can’t find it or use it, it isn’t in your sphere of influence, and you don’t really “own” it.  Or how about that green leather-bound NRSV Bible you last referred to 5 years ago?  Where is that, anyway?  If you can’t find it now, you may as well launch a decluttering project.  And when you find that dressy watch or that green leather-bound NRSV Bible, either give thema specific memorable location, or donate them.

The less you own, the quicker it is to clean your home.  Also, the quicker it is to lay your hands on anything.  Imagine how free you would feel with, say, a third less Stuff?  Gasp!  Imagine how much spare time you would have to relax with loved ones, rather than managing all that Stuff?  Get on a clear-and-donate binge and notice your stress going down down down.

And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Touched by Grace

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There is a strange and transcendent experience that many have, of being touched by Grace. Grace is scripturally the unearned favor of God. But here we are talking about the *experience* of feeling the touch of the Divine.  When it happens to us, it is unmistakable.  Today, I share some quotes about this experience, from Chapter 6—Touched by Grace—of my book, Inspirations for Peace Within: Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire:

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwritinga wayside sacrament.

        ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s the overwhelming awe, joy and beauty of the Universe and the deep sense of connectedness to the World that we all seek.

         ~ Albert Einstein

Whatever feeds you, whatever nurtures you, is holy.

        ~ Rev. Erika von Haaren

And that peace which comes from the innermost recesses of the Spirit is left with us:  a peace which the world cannot take away, for it springs from the bosom of the Father of light, love, life and wisdom.

        ~ Ernest Holmes

Divine love is always at work for every man, whether he knows it or not.

        ~ Unknown

Inner peace is a State of Grace:  a baby having just been fed, diaper changed, resting on their mother’s chest and surrounded by that familiar heartbeat.  Inner peace is right here, right now,  just a decision away. We always have the capacity to experience joy and peace in every moment if that is what we choose to see.

        ~ Rev. Marvin Brown

Did your heart and/or spirit feel touched by the Divine while taking in these quotes?  Did you feel your body shift?  Consider posting any of these that really move you, so you can see them frequently and remember: Grace is always there for you.   And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Moving Into Peace Within

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Recently, I described the importance and nature of personal peace, or Peace Within (LINK). It’s something I feel very deeply about.  Today, I share more about how to actually move into Peace Within.  Consider these several quotes, and notice how you feel after reading each one.  These are from Chapter 4 of my book, Inspirations for Peace Within: Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire:

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

And we know that God makes all things work together for good, for those who love Him.

~ Romans 8:28

Fear less, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Hate less, love more; And all good things are yours.

~ Swedish Proverb

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

~ Phillipians 4:8-9

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass.  It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

~Unknown

How do your heart and spirit feel now?  Did one or two of the quotes touch you deeply? Try journaling about what Peace Within means to you, and how differently you function when you are in a peaceful state. Feel your body shift as your heart and spirit shift.  And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Why Take a Week Off

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I just got back after a week out of the office. Some family things were going on that needed my attention. It was imperative. Our 2 nearest relatives were flying in.  I made the difficult decision to be out of the office for a week, during a blog challenge I was committed to, the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  Hey, I love my work!  I’m doing what I’m called to do, and I love interacting with clients and colleagues.  I love writing and specifically, generating materials that help people trade in their stress for energy and happiness.  At the decision moment, I was perfectly up-to-date in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and would possibly lose some Google search impetus by taking a week out.

Oh well!  So I messaged a couple of people not to worry, postponed all my clients, and cancelled all my meetings and networking events. Now guilt-free, I changed my channel to HFL—Home and Family Life (I made this up).  It felt strangely freeing.  While not a vacation, it was a complete switchup, a complete re-focusing of my energies.  The first day, it was hard not to write an article.  But everything worked out, and I am now back in the office, heart and mind refreshed.

There’s a lot of expert commentary about why you should take breaks during the day.  This list comes from University College London, or UCL, which offers it on their website: 

  • Breaks help you to process and retain information.
  • You’ll get a better sense of the bigger picture.
  • You’ll be more creative.
  • Breaks can help you cultivate heathier habits.
  • Taking regular breaks helps you be more productive.

If you extend this concept to taking a few days to change your personal channel, you can see you would be greatly refreshing your mind and views—your ability to look at things creatively.

The vacation studies show that your feel-good brain neurotransmitters, serotonin and dopamine, rise during your days off.  Vacations are not trivial,” says Frank Farley, PhD, a leading clinical psychologist, professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, and former president of the American Psychological Association. “In this workaholic America, we have to treat them as precious stuff … keep alive the good feelings and relaxing times.”

So maybe, like me, you want to take a week to simply change your channel?  Then mark your calendar to really do it!  Cancel your clients and meetings, change that channel, and simply look for positives in your everyday life. “Every day, think about things that you did well, that you enjoyed that day,” Farley says.  And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!  


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Transport Moments of Peace Within

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In the last post, we were talking about the importance of finding and deepening your Peace Within. Sometimes we get deep hits of Peace Within from moments or places.  I shared these stories in my book, Inspirations for Peace Within.

Occasionally, we see a person who is clearly in a state of transcendent personal peace, and we somehow get a transfer effect, feeling more peaceful ourselves.  This happened to me years ago, on a stressful day of travel.  On returning from an engineering conference, I was dashing through the Pittsburgh airport, feeling tense, tired, and overworked, when I was absolutely riveted by a person going by.  She was a nun, wearing a traditional habit. She was walking peacefully through the terminal, wearing an etheric expression of utter happy calm.  Her slight smile reminded me of the ageless magnetism of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.  I stopped completely.  I had to stare as she passed.  Her unreasonable peace and calm, in a noisy and busy environment, translated profoundly into my body, mind, and soul.  I was changed by her.  Now, years later, every time I think of that nun, my mind and body re-set, and I feel tension and stress leave me.  I go directly to peace within.

Some place-related experiences can give us a profound shift into peace within.  A few years ago, I was in a small town in Colorado for Christmas.  Framed by a stunning view of the Rockies, many towering, majestic pine trees surrounded our historic hotel.  Late Christmas Eve, fresh snow began to fall.  Having much on my mind, I bundled up to go walk among the dancing flakes.  Stepping out into the moonlight, I could feel the tension start to leave my muscles.  I prayed for clarity and peace, and for any guidance I might need for the season and the upcoming year.  I had not been out in the night air for more than ten minutes before my cares and worries of the last year began to seem completely insignificant.  Soon, I couldn’t even think what my issues had been.  Now walking in an inch of new snow, I looked up through the white-laden tree branches and deeply inhaled the sweet winter air.  I felt surrounded by and filled with the Peace That Passes All Understanding.  I felt the Divine Presence.  I experienced a deeper level of peace within than I had felt in many years.  I walked on.  When I finally stepped back into the hotel, I realized I had been transformed.  Years later, still, just recalling that walk vividly brings back the experience and the utter serenity.  Perhaps you have had related experiences.

Take note of moments when you experience unplanned waves of peace.  Journal out what you notice, how it affects you, and perhaps how wonderful you feel.  The more you notice these waves of Peace Within, the more you will be able to keep that feeling.  And that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Where to Find That Elusive Peace Within

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Photo © Kebba Buckley Button—from the water garden at St. Phillip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, Tucson, Arizona

Can we agree that we live in a noisy world these days?  To name a few crises:

Police are killing people over traffic stops, a US President incited an attack on the Capitol and on his own Vice President, militants are moving into Afghanistan as US troops pull out, and Hamas militants are blowing up Israeli/Palestinian sites.  A cyberattack on a US gasoline provider crippled gas supplies for the Southeast US, and gas supplies are only today flowing well again. Normally shrewd evening show host Steven Colbert has lost his bearings and is using the word p-nis many times per show.  Churches are being closed and sold—3 in my area.  The polar bears are looking for better ice, and the orangutans have almost no habitat any more, thanks to replanting to generate palm oil supplies.  The COVID-19 pandemic whines on, and in India, it’s going wild.  People seek a better life by walking across continents, in Africa, Europe, and South/Central/North America.  Children are starving and/or running for their lives in many countries.

Remember, I said that’s just a few.  There are others.  Whatever your belief system, you cannot stay in crisis mode! It is imperative that you find and solidify your internal base of personal peace: your Peace Within.  You will not find it in CNN e-updates.  You will not find it in the words of shattered clerics. Mom passed away awhile ago. Your partner is freaked out also.  Where can you turn for peace?  WITHIN.

A young French nun, now a saint, wrote this:


May today there be peace within.

May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities

that are born of faith in yourself and others.

May you use the gifts that you have received,

and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content with yourself just the way you are.

Let this knowledge settle into your bones,

and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

~ St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Are you in? Practice letting Peace Within settle into your bones. Then that’s you, being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!   More on this tomorrow.


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

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Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Help Me Name This Rooster, Please!

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Roosters are one of the wonders of the bird world.  The male of whatever chicken breed, there are at least a dozen established types of roosters.  You can read gobs about how to select a rooster for your flock.  Roosters have a fabulous job:  guard the flock and procreate.

But roosters also provide a public service:  they wake up everyone within earshot, with their morning crowing.  It’s usually written down as “cock-a-doodle-doo” or “ERR-er-er-er-errrrr”.  Whichever we think we hear in roosterish, it is clear they are giving everyone and every living thing a wake-up call.  This great limerick above is something I captured from Pinterest, and it cracks me up!  There was a rooster in my neighborhood for awhile, and he “went off” at 5:30 every morning.  Now understand, this was in an urban neighborhood with small lots, and the gangs were increasingly moving in.  Did the rooster’s owner have room for chickens, so chic now in the 2020’s?  I’ll never know, as the rooster went silent after several months.  Maybe the neighbors killed it.  Or killed the owners?  (Yes, I moved.) Or is the rooster now working downtown as a mime? (Very active night life in downtown Phoenix, especially on First Fridays.)

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© Kim Lewis via AllPosters.com

Whatever your experience with roosters, they have become a timeless symbol of cheerful breakfast cafés, the places where you go for coffees and croissants and omelets.  I love to create delicious food, so my kitchen is a special place.  I had been saving a certain space in the kitchen for a pub sign I was determined to paint.  Then I realized what I really needed was a cheerful rooster image, much like some cafés have used—a colorful symbol of waking up, of vibrantly moving into the day.

So I found this delightful, heartwarming image online (www.AllPosters.com).  He’s the perfect rooster for me.  I ordered the version on canvas, and it’s perfect for the space. Now, he needs a name, so I can call him by name when I walk into the kitchen.  Will you help me name that rooster please?  Just put your suggestion or suggestions in the comment section, and I’ll post the results and winner.  The winner can have personal satisfaction, plus a set of my 3 books (as shown below) if s/he would like them.

And that’s you, chuckling, and being more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: 3 Ways to Beat Deadline Stress!

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Are you ever stuck, right before a deadline?  Feeling stressed because your brain is just not working, and you can’t think of ideas for your project?  While I can’t help with your topic, I can help with your stress!  When you drain away your stress, it will be easy to think and write and meet your deadline.  So try these simple-yet-fantastic ways to beat Deadline Stress.  You’ll gear up your brain and dissolve your tension!

  • The Shoulder Shift. Roll your shoulders up and forward, then around, slowly, stretching, for one minute. Now roll them up and back and around, slowly, stretching, for one minute. Notice the warming in your hands, ankles and feet. You have just opened up the circulation to the whole body, which will get to the brain in one more minute. In one minute, notice a warming sensation flowing up the back of your neck. This is energy, and it is recharging your energy-starved brain. You may notice your optimism rising already.
  • The Chocolate Churnover. Earlier, were you craving chocolate? Now is the time to munch an ounce of dark chocolate to help your brain. The antioxidants and theobromine in the chocolate will lift your energy and metabolism. Stimulating the tongue and mouth, by eating, lifts the energy of both the Fire- and Earth Meridians. The bitter flavor in the chocolate stimulates the Fire Meridian, and the sweetness energizes the Earth Meridian. If you heat your chocolate in almond- or dairy milk, drinking your hot chocolate will warm the entire digestive system, which stimulates brain function, increasing clarity. Also, the potassium in either form of milk will assist brain optimization. Now you have churned your whole energy system, and it is pumping in support of you.
  • The Latte Lift. If you are a latte lover, try this trick. Drink your favorite latte and relax in your recliner or lie down for 20 minutes.  Set a timer. You get a break, and as you’re rising, the antioxidants and caffeine (or in tea lattes, L-Theanine, theobromine, and theophylline) are just hitting your blood-brain barrier. Now you’re rested and refreshed, yet your blood, oxygen, and energy are flowing well.

Now, you no longer have to dread Deadline Stress! Play around with these techniques and make them part of your regular practice. You never need to be stuck again. Now you’ll be beating all those deadlines and soaring as the professional you are meant to be.

And that’s you: more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life. She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: 6 Natural Allergy Tips You Hadn’t Thought Of

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If you are sniffling and itching and feeling dragged out, then you know we’re in peak pollen season.  Your allergies can make you miserable!  So if the usual over-the-counter antihistamines don’t work or don’t appeal to you, check out these natural options–with no drug interactions:

1.  Check your spice cabinet for ginger powder.  Mix ½ teaspoon ginger powder into a cup of warm, filtered (chlorine-removed) water.  Stir and drink.  Feel your symptoms improving in minutes.  Yes, fresh ginger root, grated and pressed through cheesecloth or a tea filter, is wonderful.  But when you are feeling bad, and you want immediate improvement, just add the ginger powder to your water.  The ginger is very yang, and it will balance out the yin symptoms of allergies,

2.  Change your home’s air filter to one that has many accordion-type folds across its width.  Look for one that says it filters allergens.  This means it catches the tiniest pollens, which can be the most irritating.  Research has proven that this type of filter removes almost all of the provocative particles, so spend the extra $8 for this type.  Your improved sleep at night and your increased productivity during the day will be worth much more than that. Change it monthly.

3.  Get a silent ionic air filter for the area where you work or relax the most.  This will remove even more allergens, again increasing the quality of your sleep, your productivity, and your recreation.

4.  If the roof of your mouth is prickly, try drinking orange juice.

5.  Place the palms of your hands to the sides of your neck and gently rock across the sore muscles.  Notice how tight your shoulder tops are, and gently stretch your shoulders in every direction for 2 minutes.  Notice your congestion calming and your head feeling less heavy.

6.  Subscribe to email updates from Pollen.com .  Designate your location and you’ll find out, for example, that Phoenix is high in Olive, Grass, and Mulberry pollens.  Today’s level is 7.1, and tomorrow is expected to be 6.6.  So tomorrow is a better day for gardening, and today is a better day to wear a mask outside.

Set yourself up for comfort and energy during pollen season!  Now exhale completely and enjoy this beautiful Spring!  And that’s you: more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.   


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Jack Hanna’s Final Safari

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Some of the people I admire most on this Planet are those who are in wildlife education and conservationJack Hanna is an outstanding example of achievement in this group.  Jack Hanna has been a wildlife enthusiast since he was a child.  He grew up on a farm and started working for a veterinarian, as a volunteer, when he was 11.  In college days, he kept ducks in his dorm room, which his college did not like.  Nor did the college like the donkey he kept in a shed, behind his fraternity house. Later, Jack and his wife, Suzi, would have a petting zoo on his family’s farm.

Professionally, Jack landed at a then run-down Columbus Zoo, because his small daughter Julie could get the best leukemia care at the Columbus Children’s Hospital.  She recovered from her leukemia by age 6. Jack stayed at the Columbus Zoo for a total of 42 years, building up its habitat management and public reputation, plus achieving an expansion and adding an Aquarium.  He toured many countries, recording television pieces you can still see on his channel and other online sites.  His “everyman” manner and sense of humor won him a lot of affection and attention, plus interviews on such shows as David Letterman.  Anything could happen in these live interviews, where Jack would have several wild animals brought out individually.  I personally saw one of Jack’s monkeys piddle down Dave Letterman’s suit, but Dave had a fresh suit on after the next break.  Whew!

Jack was such a force for positive wildlife management that, after he served as Director of the Zoo for 42 years, he was officially titled Director Emeritus in 1992.  In 2020, Jack finally completely retired from his roles at the Columbus Zoo.  Now we know why.  This message from his grown children appeared on Facebook April 7:

“Today, we reach out to share some personal Hanna Family news.  Doctors have diagnosed our dad, Jack Hanna, with dementia, now believed to be Alzheimer’s disease.  His condition has progressed much faster in the last few months than any of us could have anticipated.  Sadly, Dad is no longer able to participate in public life as he used to, where people all over the world watched, learned, and laughed alongside him…and yes, he still wears his khakis at home.”

Jack Hanna changed the world of zoo management, nudging forward to improve conditions for animals and to help people understand the wild world better.  His passion for his work lives on in the humor-filled videos of his exploits, which generally include a blooper reel. What could be more wonderful than a life in which your work is centered in your passion, you have a happy marriage and children, and you affect the lives of millions with gentle films of wildlife? 

Jack is now in his final safari on this Earth, in the country of Alzheimer’s.  But you don’t have to let go of him and his work.  Look for him on Facebook (“Jungle Jack Hanna”), YouTube, Hulu, fuboTV, and Samsung TV Plus, among others.  Go visit the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.  Donate to the Zoo.  Donate to sanctuaries, such as White Oak Conservation, outside Jacksonville, Florida; it’s a new home for 30 retired circus elephants, who used to work for Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey. Read about how individuals, such as Cher, have helped rescue animals stuck in terrible conditions.  Cher was key in rescuing a Pakistani elephant named Kaavan.   Kaavan is now living in a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia, and is said to be happy.

Seek your healthy passions and put them to work.  Live your passion!  Admire people who are changing the World, and be inspired by them.  Embrace the possibilities!  And you will find you are more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.   


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: My 3 Favorite Recipe Sites

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If you have ever cooked by using a recipe, you may remember bits of mismatched paper, like in this image.  Each was a treasure, bearing a formula some favorite cook—perhaps Mom—had worked out and passed down, or generously shared.  Some were shared from cook to cook, with the promise that this secret formula would never be shared on to someone else. Some recipes were tiny cutouts from product packages, like my favorite Baker’s Baking Chocolate Brownie recipe. In school days, I was taught to transcribe all these treasured formulas onto index cards, and I did that for years.  Then my file box was full, and then so was my second file box. Then I developed thick files.  Then I thinned those down to 2 1-inch files, “SWEET” and “SAVORY”. I still have those and cherish them.

But today, if I want a cook-tested recipe for a basic gingerbread, I go to one of 3 places, and they are all websites. Today’s recipe developers are savvy to the needs of people with allergies, sensitivities, and political views.  So it’s easy to find clearly labeled recipes that are gluten-free, grain-free, vegetarian, vegan, keto, paleo, and so on.  It is now widely recognized that what you eat is the basis of your health, and you will feel your best following the diet you have found works best for you.  When you feel better, it’s easier to be happy, and then you can enjoy your life more!  And that’s the purpose of my work.  Busy professionals, just like me, need to eat right to have the energy they need!

When I have found a recipe I want, I convert it to a Word document and save it in my computer recipe file. I rarely open my paper recipe folders any more, except for special occasions.  The reason I have only 3 online favorite sources for recipes is:  they meet all my needs, and this keeps things simple.  If I see a chef demonstrating something interesting on TV, I simply remember the twists s/he uses, and I try that extra ingredient sometime.

So here is my secret source trio:

  • AllRecipes.com . Go ahead, ask this site for anything. Superb for comfort food.  Brought to you by All Recipes magazine.
  • The Gluten Free Homestead by Barbara Bianchi. Download her App, Recipe Book PRO, if you want to have recipes right on your phone.  How things have changed from the recipe card file days! Today she is featuring a Country Style Pork Ribs recipe.  Subscribe to her tantalizing emails by going to: http://glutenfreehomestead.com .
  • Chocolate Covered Katie, home site at https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com .  Katie is a beautiful, young- and thin- looking woman, whose appearance belies the deliciousness of all her desserts (not all chocolate).  Her specialty is formulating a recipe that can work for ANY diet, and she gives the options to switch out as your needs dictate.  She has a lot of treats that are single-serving or small batch, so if craving 2 dozen cookies is a weak area for you, that’s no problem with her smaller recipes.  Katie has been on national TV, so you know she has major fans out there! Subscribe to her newsletter if you are currently salivating.

Embrace the infinite varieties of healthy and tasty recipes available, that meet your and your family’s needs.  And you will find you are more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.


 

Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: Happy Mothers’ Day!

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This column goes out to all the mothers, step-mothers, birth mothers, pairs of mothers, part-time mothers, ad-hoc mothers, fathers serving as mothers, and mothers who lost their only baby/child. It also goes out to all the would-be mothers who did not get to have the young they wanted.  In addition, it goes  out to all the animal mothers, including animal mothers of some other species who nurse and raise the motherless young of another species. And to whatever other mothers I may have forgotten.

I am blessed that I had the perfect mother for me.  Although I did not know it when I was young and could not see it until she had passed into Spirit and I was going through her papers and photos. Now I see it and am so grateful.  Even now, there are questions that bubble up, that I wish had occurred to me when she was still alive.  Even now, I shop for sun hats and think, “OH—Mom will like that one!”  Oh wait.  She doesn’t need sun hats any more.

So on this Mothers’ Day, I cherish all the emotions of both joy and wistfulness.  I give thanks for my mother, my Mom, the one who taught me to read and to think cursing was icky.  I love and cherish her more than ever.  Happy Mothers’ Day, Mom!  And Happy Mothers’ Day to all the other kinds of mothers!

What do you know and treasure about your mother, living or no longer living?  Or what do you wish you knew?  The more we explore the depths of our hearts and feel that treasure, that love, the more we will find we are more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Healthy Happy Loving Life: National Day of Prayer

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2021 Man hands on Bible--rsz-shutterstock_1038655333Today is our US National Day of Prayer.  Passed into law in 1952, it’s a day for all faiths to focus on prayer, in whatever form they may believe in. And there are many forms of prayer.  Some popular forms are:

  • Worship and praise, acknowledging God’s greatness and praising Him
  • Petitionary or intercessory prayer, asking God to do something or change something that appears to be true, for self or others
  • Affirmative prayer, expressing that God is always blessing us, and knowing that God is addressing your concern, giving thanks that this is true
  • Thanksgiving, expressing gratitude for what you have, for the good things that God has provided and done
  • Spiritual warfare, asking God to protect us and guard us against harm

 

Prayer, Healthy Happy Loving Life

National Day of Prayer – May 6

But please, if these sound a bit technical, don’t feel you need to pick one and learn how to properly use it. Just find a quiet moment, deeply focus on your feelings about your prayer need, and just start talking to the Divine, from your heart,  as an invisible friend.  When you are troubled, go ahead and cry.  Then ask Upstairs, “what do You think?”  You may be astonished!  I once asked “what do You think?” and I heard words directing me to do certain things; I met my soulmate husband as a result.

Prayer:  the original wireless connection! No monthly fees, no wifi setup, and your call is always answered.  Try it more often, not just on the National Day of Prayer.  And you’ll find you are more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.   


 

Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

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Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Why You Are Late

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Stress, lateness stress, Upbeat Living, Kebba Buckley Button

Let’s be honest about why you are late.  Not only is this a quietly hot topic, but it also has been studied by many who are seeking solutions.  It is clear that most people like to be on-time and are secretly angry when others are late.  But sometimes the most careful planners are also late.  There are a number of causes and solutions.

I first started thinking about lateness, when, as a child, I realized I knew one chronically late adult person (CLP) and one chronically early adult person (CEP).  I noticed the CLP would go to everything 20 minutes late, thus—I finally realized—reducing the unpleasant event by 20 minutes each time.  That’s a savings of 200 minutes across 10 events.  The CLP would answer the house phone (only landlines then), knowing that we should have left 10 minutes ago, thus ensuring that the 5 minute call made us 15 minutes late.  But then it was “time to change clothes!”   Sometimes, we got to the car door, and the CLP heard the house phone, unlocked the house and went back in, to answer it.  Pleading made no difference.   It was agreed to set the clocks forward 20 minutes, to help the CLP, but of course, the CLP knew about the 20 minute “grace period” and still was late.  The CEP liked to arrive early by at least 20 minutes, which served wonderfully for medical and business appointments.  However, it caused an embarrassing strain for party hosts.

It has been said, humorously, by some who are often late:

Being on time never killed anyone,

but why take a chance?

I learned a stern standard for timeliness in a personal development course called Omega Vector Training.  The leaders viewed lateness as something unnecessary, which you had created, to sabotage yourself.  At the beginning of the course, you committed to be on time for sessions.  “On time” was clearly defined as “in your seat, ready to listen and participate”.  A one-minute piece of music was played to signal “move to your seats”.  Neither stomach flu nor a flat tire was an excuse; these were seen as factors you had created.  Participants not in their seats at the last chord of the music got to stand in front of everyone and be processed about their lateness.  That training helped me to see life participation as a series of values-based agreements, with relationships bonded increasingly by the keeping of those agreements.  When we agree to an appointment, we are setting a verbal contract, and keeping it shows respect for both the party we are meeting and for ourselves.

If we are late, is it possibly because we don’t really want to do that thing, or because we are afraid?  Is it too many people, too much noise, or too much potential conflict?  Might we be called upon to stand up and stand out to a degree we are uncomfortable with?  Did that agreement get made for a time of day when our metabolism really can’t go at a reasonable speed?  Looking at all the times we were ever late, if we’re honest, what were the causes?  Could one cure be to change the way we make our agreements?  Make notes for yourself with all your answers to these questions.

Would we be happier if we were always on time?  Would our relationships be better?  You choose.  And that’s you, being Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.   


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

 

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Happy Star Wars Day!

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Happy Star Wars Day!  Why?  Because the most famous quote from the entire Star Wars Series is Han Solo (Harrison Ford) saying to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), “May the Force be with you!”  Throughout the Jedi training, there are powerful demonstrations of The Force, and how it can be directed.  If just anyone could do it, there wouldn’t be Jedi training, would there?

 

And some time after the original 1977 movie, someone cutely said, on a 4th of May, “May the Fourth be with you!”  And so was born Star Wars DayStar Wars fans and nerds everywhere text each other the greeting, early each May 4th.

 

The Force, in the system of Star Wars, is a quasi-intelligent force that is directed for Good by cognoscenti of the ways of The Force. Yoda, the Jedi Master in the first movie, was around 900 years old (don’t correct me– no spoiler alerts!) , so he had been dealing consciously with The Force for a very long time.  Yoda took on training Luke Skywalker, who had about 900 years of knowledge and skill to catch up with.  The Star Wars movies tell tales of the timeless conflict between Good and Evil.  Somehow, Luke Skywalker’s father, Darth Vader, had started as a Jedi Knight and went over to the Dark Side. Please DO NOT POST ANY SPOILER ALERTS in the comment section!  There may be 12 or 13 people on the Planet still planning to watch the series.

 

What keeps coming to me, whenever I think of the Star Wars stories, is that The Force IS WITH US.  In my experience of life, the Divine is a Force both subtle and dramatic, always dynamic when we turn our attention to it.  Scripture says repeatedly “I will never leave you nor forsake you (Heb 5:3 for example).”  So God is always with us.  When we draw on the strength of God, of the Holy Spirit, there is no limit to what we can do. I have had many “impossible” exploits, with faith in the Divine. If we live in joyful expectancy of Divine Love and what the Divine is bringing, we can train ourselves to wield our faith to craft a powerful life.  We can become stronger and stronger, wiser and wiser, better and better able to wreak Good in the Universe.  And then we will be even more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.   

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Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

  

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Girl Scouts Innovate With the Times

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Every year, Girl Scout Cookie Season marks the beginning of Spring.  There are Girl Scouts with tables in front of grocery stores and at church events.  There are your friends with a cookie sales list, asking you to sign up and buy from their daughter the Girl Scout.  But the Girl Scouts of today have gone well beyond simply spreading the word that it’s Cookie Season.

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Decades ago, the uniforms were green tailored dresses. Today, they are pastel vests, usually a jade green.  The vests can be worn with any shorts outfit or pants outfit that today’s girls are used to wearing.  But the Girl Scouts have been innovating with more than fashion.  They are teaching business management. They use the cookie sales program to teach many skills: inventory, money management, app management—oh yes!  Search your app store for Cookie Finder, where you can put in your location or simply zip code, and you’ll find the nearest location of a cookie sales event or Girl Scout seller. Want to simply order online?  Of course you can!  Just look out for shipping charges.

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But wait, there’s more!  This morning, I saw a national news piece about Girl Scouts in Christiansburg, Virginia, delivering cookies by drone.  Yes!  A drone delivery company called Wing, a company related to Google, has been delivering library books and FedEx packages in Christiansburg since 2019. And now they deliver Girl Scout Cookies

So pick your flavor of cookie and get out your payment method.  The cookies will soon be with you, just like The Force. You’ll be helping a huge organization that helps girls grow into effective women.  And you will be even more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.   


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Lessons of the Heart from My Octopus Teacher

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I knew My Octopus Teacher would be a real yawn.  I was astonished when a brilliant friend recommended the film. But I was curious when it won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2021 Academy Awards. So we dusted off our Netflix membership—since it is a Netflix production—and plunked down to watch it.  I was not optimistic.

Happily, I was completely surprised! This 83-minute movie has a magnetic charm that draws you in and glues you to your seat!  It follows a photographer/diver named Craig Foster for a year, as he is surprised to find himself befriending a wild common octopus.  He visits her every day, in the kelp forests of South Africa’s waters.  They become unlikely companions, like a Pinterest gallery of chickens hugging cats, dogs nurturing orphan kittens, and an elephant with his dog friend.

Lesson 1 of My Octopus Teacher: You can be friends with funny looking creatures of some other size and species.  The Octopus friend is about the size of the diver’s hand, outspread.  To her, the diver must have looked huge and bizarre. But she was able to sit on his hand and gently feel his forearm with her curling tentacles.  At one point, she crawled up to his chest and apparently hugged him.

Lesson 2 of My Octopus Teacher:  Live within the Force of the ocean. There is an effect the diver tried to explain: that the kelp forest is very complex and always moving.  You never know what creature will come around the corner of a stand of giant kelp, and how you will need to react.  Just go with it.

Lesson 3 of My Octopus Teacher:  Sometimes a being knows when its time is up.  We need to be grateful for our fond memories.  The Octopus in this film signaled the diver that she would be going.  She gave birth to many tiny octopi, then was too weak to zoom away from a predator.

Line up your kids and watch this movie.  You will be witness to the extraordinary.  You will be blessed by the gentle and caring relationship between the diver and the Octopus. You will be in awe of what you see in the life of the South African kelp forest.  Feel your heart warm and your energy soften.  You will be even more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.   


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Let go and let LOVE

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Today, I’m sharing a story of conflict, of grace, and of love. As a professional healer and uplifter, I would love it if we never had personality clashes, anger, or hurt. But that is not human nature. We can and must seek to resolve the unhappy rifts that occasionally try to tear at good relationships. We can and must seek peaceful responses to conflict. We can and must seek deep, immoveable personal peace, Peace Within.  We can and must substitute Love and grace for anxiety and hurt.

And that is where today’s story comes from. Some weeks ago, I suddenly had to do something for my husband’s health, just before rushing to a meeting. I texted the leader that I might be 20 minutes late. But she knew I would be there in time for my part of the meeting. So while I dislike being late, I was in good shape when I arrived, and I was pleased to be less late than I had estimated. As I exhaled and stepped into the meeting room, the leader burst into a laugh and asked, “SO ARE YOU STRESSED???” Hmm. Wait. No.  I’m a stress management expert, with award-winning books and a long track record to prove it.

At the end of the meeting, the leader inexplicably decided to tell the group loudly that “The funniest thing happened at the beginning of the meeting!” Laughing like this was hysterically funny, she told the group I had blown in, totally stressed out and ragged, and she had had to calm me down. I kept smiling and pleasantly saying, no, no, that didn’t happen.

Actually I felt very violated. I recalled other times over the years (25) when this woman had made me the center of attention and belittled me, laughing. I couldn’t imagine going back to that group and giving her another chance to create a scene at my expense. I called one friend who had been at the meeting, for a reality check. I asked if she thought the meeting scene had damaged me. Her answer: no, because of the strong personality of the meeting leader, Mary. People would have chalked off what the woman said about me as, “That’s just Mary!”

I really appreciated my friend’s perspective. Still, I have long hated the little scenes Mary creates, as have many others who have left the group for this reason. I really needed to decide whether to ever go back to the group and possibly have her target me again. I continued to feel violated and angry for over a week.  I was diligently processing what happened, the normal way.

Then, one day, a strange thing happened. I suddenly was filled with commanding waves of love for Mary. I suddenly was present to the cavalcade of good projects we had shared over the 25 years of friendship. I was relieved of my negative feelings about Mary’s behavior. I could only feel love. It was a love takeover! I was totally over my hurt and anger toward Mary.  It was that fast.

I walked into the next meeting early, feeling nothing but love for Mary.  We had a great hug.  She asked if she should apologize to me in front of the group.  I said that’s very gracious, but no, let’s just go forward as if it never happened. She was surprised, but she could see I meant it:  I was completely over it, like it never happened.

I was blessed to be washed with waves of Love. It was easy to let go and let Love solve it.  I was even more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.  When it’s your turn for hurt, wash it with Love and see what happens.

 


Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM, is a stress solutions expert, holistic guide, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime energy healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Writer’s Gratitude

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Photo courtesy of Nita Beshear

Gratitude Feels Good

Gratitude is good for us, feels good, and literally helps our health.  Mayo Clinic says gratitude can “improve sleep, mood and immunity.  Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain and risk of disease.”  And I am deep in my gratitude today.

I have just finished my run of daily articles for a month, in the Ultimate Blog Challenge (UBC), online.  I actually took 2 days off to just rest.  So make that 28 articles on how to be Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life (my program name), in one month.  Now I’m up to almost 700 free articles on my WordPress Blog, https://kebbabutton.wordpress.com .

I am grateful to have finished the UBC and to have built up my article collection.  This month, I used more images than ever before, and the formatting was better. I got many comments, from old friends and new.

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Thank You to My Writer Friends

But the richest source of my gratitude would be the wonderful people I have met during my years in the UBC.  I now have writer friends from Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, New York State, South Carolina, India (two), Canada (2), New Jersey (two), Tennessee, and Georgia.  I may be forgetting a few locations. Occasionally, on their way through Phoenix, one will stop for dinner with me, as learning expert Florence Callender did.  I was on chemo at the time, looked puffy and terrible, and could hardly drive.  But I wasn’t going to miss meeting Flo in person. Flo’s conference roommate, Nita Beshear, took this photo of us.  I was recently widowed, and Nita is a specialist in widowhood. There are no coincidences.  We had a great evening together.

From the always-gracious UBC coordinator (“Fearless Leader”), Paul Taubman, The Digital Maestro, I have learned much about WordPress websites, social media and how to get our articles Out There.  From Martha DeMeo, a domestic goddess and product reviewer, I have learned much about simple cooking– which I had mostly forgotten in recent years– together with gardening and freezing veggies and much more.  Although we live thousands of miles apart, I consider Martha a dear friend.  From Victoria Juster, a spiritual person and medium, I have received much inspiration, friendship, and comfort.  From Doug Jarvie, world traveler and photographer, I have received photo tours of Iceland, Japan, and also warmer places.  His humor keeps us from being too serious.

There are more, but the deadline for this article is today.  Life can be a joyful and richly inspiring journey.  And my writer friends help make it so.

Wrapping Up

In my series of daily articles this month, I have done my best to encourage you to commit to positive living. That shift will profoundly affect your health, joy, and relationships, increasingly as you practice the methods.  As you continue to Discover The Secret Energized You, why not push the possibilities?

See how far the LifeTools can take you into energy, enthusiasm, and rejuvenation. You are now embarking on the most profound adventure: to Discover The Secret Energized You and redesign your life. Make the most of this adventure to make the most of your life! And that will be you, more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Manage Your Moods With Energy Balancing

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Moods Can Be Controlled

Do you sometimes feel controlled by your moods?  Today we discuss tools to manage those unpleasant moods.  Yes!  We may sometimes realize that we have physical discomforts clearly related to stress and emotional burdens. From fatigue and appetite problems to skin eruptions and ulcers, our bodies may store our distressing experiences. Nasty events, spiritual, mental, and emotional ills can make us feel bad physically. Also, if we feel bad physically, it is harder to feel great emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. And on it goes, in a cycle.

There are many easy physical techniques to help ourselves shake off/let go of/release stress, and the following sections cover major types of these. You are about to learn simple, portable LifeTools to help you center yourself, loosen up, or energize.  Finger holds and pressure points are related to acupressure, the art of using access points to the nervous system to release build-ups of discomforts. Here are a few techniques.

Center and Find Stillness

When we quiet the busy body we can quiet the busy mind and spirit. The more still we are outside, the more we can find that quiet space inside our hearts and spirits. The more quietude we can experience, the more we can hear the “little voice” inside which is really the “Big Voice”, the Voice of God, Kol Adonai (Hebrew for Voice of God), or the Christ-Self. The more we practice getting in touch with our innermost selves when we are physically still, the easier it becomes to start carrying the sure Quiet around, inside ourselves, in externally chaotic times.

Try this LifeTool for centering. Glance at the photo above.  Now gently allow your shoulders to drop. Place your center three fingertips of each hand in the center of each opposite palm. Hold at least three to five minutes. Feel the metabolism slow and any trembling melt away.  Use this whenever you feel unsettled and don’t know why, or even when you have had too much caffeine.

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Loosen Up

When we have tension, the body gets tight in ways and places we don’t always notice quickly. We have much more energy when we loosen the tightness and let our natural miraculous energy, blood, oxygen, lymph service, and good feelings flow.

Try this LifeTool for loosening up. Stand, copy the pose in the image above, then “S-E-L-F”:  Shrug, Exhale, Laugh, Feel the difference. Do this at different speeds to feel the effects. The shrugs must be smooth, stretching, gentle, and slow. Avoid making sudden or jerky moves.  Play around with this for at least 5 minutes, and notice how much more relaxed and alive you feel.

Try this additional LifeTool for loosening the body system. Put on an uplifting piece of music and slowly shrug every way you can think of for two minutes. Now extend “shrugging” to the equivalent for the arms, hands, legs, feet, abdomen. Experiment. Again, use smooth, gentle movements. The benefits are in the “going,” not the “getting there.”

Energize

Now that you have practiced centering and loosening, let’s use the circuits in the hands to power up. Let’s release the body’s natural vigor. Try this LifeTool for energizing. Place your hands together in a “praying hands” position, as in the above photo, for at least 5 minutes.  Feel the energy between the hands.

Now fold the fingers together. Hold this position for at least five minutes and feel the energy – and serene vitality –  all over the body. Now you know why prayer positions for hands are so popular!

As you practice the techniques in this article, may you notice ongoing calming, energizing, and transformation! 

As you continue to Discover The Secret Energized You, push the possibilities. See how far the LifeTools can take you into energy, enthusiasm, and rejuvenation. You are now embarking on the most profound adventure: to Discover The Secret Energized You and redesign your life. Make the most of this adventure to make the most of your life! And that will be you, more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: The Stuff of Life

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Your Stuff and the Right Stuff

Words delightfully reflect how we look at things. One great example is the word “stuff.” We speak of “owning stuff,” meaning possessions. We specify “that’s my stuff, so leave it alone.” We say, “I’m stuffed!” And we mean, we’ve had too much to eat.  Some say, “Oh, stuff it!” In this case, we mean, “get lost.”  In these phrases, we express ownership and stowage. In psychotherapy, the word “stuff” is used to mean one’s emotional baggage, as in “all his stuff really came up in that argument.” Psychological ownership and stowage both come through in this usage, as in “stuffed emotions.” In popular archetypes, our culture admires a hero who has “the right stuff,” meaning that he is filled or “stuffed” with strong, positive traits that serve him and humanity well.

The B/Right Stuff LifeTool, Part 1, Life

Would you like to size up your own “stuff”? Then try the B/Right Stuff LifeTool. This is about making the bright choices and the right choices for your life. Do you have a notepad and pen or pencil? Or the notes section of your smartphone?  Then let your imagination run free for a couple of minutes and try journaling out your answers to these questions for Part 1:

  • What is important in life?
  • What is right and what is wrong? What are your values?
  • What is interesting?
  • Do you run your life according to what is important to you? What is your “stuffing”?
  • For your personal goals and values, do you have “the right stuff”? Is there a difference between what you say is right/important/interesting and what you spend your time on?

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The B/Right Stuff LifeTool, Part 2, Your Environment

Now for Part 2, look around your living space and keep writing.  This time choose adjectives for what you see.

  • Do you see confusion, clutter, inconsistency, or incomplete projects?
  • Does the air smell stagnant? Are there dirty or broken things or stuff that needs to be discarded?

Right now, some of you are looking at a clean home, lovely colors, pretty furniture, clear walking spaces and exercise zones. Some of you have flourishing plants, clean air, and orderly files. All the food in your fridge is probably recognizable, and it’s probably even fresh. Which home would you say has “the right stuff”? If you could move in now, which home would you choose?

The B/Right Stuff LifeTool, Part 3, Your Mind vs. Your Home

For Part 3, work the process in reverse. How much do your descriptions of your “living space” match the “living space” of your mind? After all, bright people do much of their living in their minds. If your home needs dusting and cobweb removal, what about your thoughts? If some furniture is broken, what would it take to fix it? Then what would it take to repair the fixtures of your social life? If there is simply too much stuff in your home, are you often trying to deal with too many thoughts and activities in a week? How about reducing the “stuff” you cope with in your physical living and in your mental tasking? What can you “clean house” about? Can you drop an organization, leave one hobby to alternate years, or give a check instead of time to that fourth worthy cause?

Our homes are the outpicturing of our minds. How much clutter or gunk can be in the mind of a person with a clean, pleasant, and airy home? Just why do you think they call that one space a “living room”? Are you relaxed, happy, and satisfied in your mental living room? If not, here is an easy trick: clean your physical living room! Just as a cluttered mind generates a cluttered homescape, cleaning your homescape can clear your mind. Here’s the really easy part: everything can be classified as either “Love It As Is” or “Other.” The “Other” is of 3 types: “Clean It,” “Fix It,” and “Out it goes.” If it’s worth cleaning or fixing, do it; hire a little help if you need to. Otherwise, toss it or donate it.

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Your Plan to Clear the Wrong Stuff

Now, what’s in your living room? Write that down. Do you see a pattern? When we get rid of the Wrong Stuff, we end up with only the Right Stuff. After this exercise, notice:

  • how many nice new people you meet in the following two weeks.
  • how your mind is clearer and your goals are starting to take orderly mental form.
  • how you’re more effective in the workplace and in social groups. Your former resistance to cleaning up your “stuff” was holding you back on many levels.

Hey, now that you’ve “cleaned house” with your living room, have you thought about “straightening out” your “bedroom stuff”? Wow! Think of the possibilities and write them down. Clear the Wrong Stuff from the rooms of your physical house and the Right Stuff will express in many ways in your lifestyle. Make the b/right choices for you. Enjoy choosing your stuff and your life, starting now.

Next time:  Manage Your Moods With Energy Balancing 

As you continue to Discover The Secret Energized You, push the possibilities. See how far the LifeTools can take you into energy, enthusiasm, and rejuvenation. You are now embarking on the most profound adventure: to Discover The Secret Energized You and redesign your life. Make the most of this adventure to make the most of your life! And that will be you, more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Your Nature in Yin and Yang

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Yin and Yang:  Let Your Nature Nurture You

 

Are you forcing yourself to act against your true nature?  Not only can stress cause fatigue, but fatigue can cause stress. It’s vital, if you are tired a lot, to ask yourself which started first. If you are ridiculously tired, one factor may be that you are forcing yourself to act against your true nature. This is incredibly wearing and leads to a lot of wasted energy, as well as misunderstandings in relationships.

Some people are even in a job or a profession that forces them to function against their true nature. In the classic American Winner Model, everyone is supposed to succeed by being extroverts: forward, talkative, witty, persuasive, and assertive. This is great for those whose temperaments are suited to this behavior, and it is very unhealthy for those who would be forcing themselves against type. Some people are trying to be quiet introverts, working in cubicles away from other workers when they actually need interactive jobs surrounded by many people and much activity. Others are trying to work in highly interactive environments that are giving them the sensation of being hammered.  These workers need a quiet corner and a job structure with breakaway, stand-alone tasks. Some love to lead, and some love to follow. Some love to supervise and some love to sit doing repetitive tasks for years at a time. Fortunately, we need all these types in most career fields.

There are a number of useful personality inventory tests, and you may have taken several of them. I hope that you learned some interesting things about your nature from these systems. One useful framework that is not widely used is the oriental philosophy of the opposite natures, yin and yang. In Chinese philosophy, everything and everyone has a relatively yin or yang nature. Some substances and some people are very yang, and some are very yin.  Some are on the scale in between.  Balance is the goal.

Following is a figure, Yin and Yang Characteristics, that shows the relative yin and yang of different qualities. See if one of these, yin or yang, sounds more like the real you.

Yin And Yang Characteristics


Passive vs. Active

Weak vs. Strong

Cool vs. Warm

Dark vs. Light

Moon vs. Sun

Inward vs. Outward

Taking in vs. Giving Forth

Left hand vs. Right Hand

Feminine-grounded vs. Masculine-grounded

 Listening vs. Talking

Asking vs. Explaining

Responding vs. Initiating

“Taking in”  vs. “Giving forth”

 Nurturing vs. Caregiving

If you like to express yourself verbally a lot during your work day or in your personal relationships, you may be more of a “yang-grounded” person. Try to be in jobs that require verbalizing, and find relationships with people who are listeners. Conversely, some of you are getting exhausted from the level of verbalizing required in your job and relationships. You have more of a “yin-grounded” nature, and it will always be exhausting to have to talk a lot. Try to be in jobs that can be handled with written communication and find a talker-initiator for your significant other.

Some of you are stressed out from supervising because you need to be in breakaway tasks (yin). Examine the possibilities for going down or across the organizational tree; you will spend less time and money on doctor visits. The more your life activities and your nature are in sync, the healthier, happier, and more peaceful you will be.  Nurture your nature, and let your nature nurture you.

Next time:  The B/Right Stuff!

As you continue to Discover The Secret Energized You, push the possibilities. See how far the LifeTools can take you into energy, enthusiasm, and rejuvenation. You are now embarking on the most profound adventure: to Discover The Secret Energized You and redesign your life. Make the most of this adventure to make the most of your life! And that will be you, more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Wordless Wednesday Desert Gardens

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© 2023 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved. http://www.kebba.com

All images in this post are © Kebba Buckley Button.  

Today’s desert garden views are from a condo enclave, the perimeter of a labyrinth site, and a peace garden at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix.  Summer temperatures soar to 115 routinely and even to 120.  Yet, the right plantings are lush and beautiful year round.  They provide cooling and peacefulness.  Notice the curving walkways that add interest and strengthen the Feng Shui.  Look at these on the largest screen you have.  Enjoy!

Enjoying nature is a LifeTool you can use whenever you like.  Let wonder help you Discover The Secret Energized You, and push the possibilities. See how far the LifeTools can take you into energy, enthusiasm, and rejuvenation. You are now embarking on the most profound adventure: to Discover The Secret Energized You and redesign your life. Make the most of this adventure to make the most of your life! And that will be you, more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Enrich Your Relationships With the Love Codes

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© Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.

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If you are ready for more love in your life, this article on Love Codes is for you!  Many don’t realize that people communicate respect, regard, caring, affection, and love in at least six different styles. And when we know what some of these styles are, we suddenly notice the many, many signals of caring and love that are coming our way all the time. We can also then choose to get our love messages across in another person’s style, to be sure they’re getting our signals.

The easiest people to hear are The Verbalizers. They use words. They tell you “I love you,” “You’re super,” “I’m so glad you’re in my life,” “We’re so glad you could come for dinner this evening,” “Let’s get together again soon.” You can use words back to them. This is clear. You know when these folks are expressing love.

Second easiest to understand are The Gifters. These folks give you stuff.  They show up with a flower from their garden, a packet of cookies they made, or a card for your birthday. Of course, they may bring fine chocolates and jewelry, and that’s all right too. Some of these folks may even send you a plane ticket.

The third group is still somewhat easy to understand. These are The Touchers. They hug you hello, they touch your arm for emphasis, they hold your hand, they may rub your neck. They show they care through touch. One holiday, I went to join friends at their home. Their small nephew really likes people. As the front door opened, I saw a streak coming toward me. It was the Human Love Bullet! Tiny Riggs jetted into my leg, throwing his arms around my knee. I felt so loved.

The fourth type is often unrecognized. These are The Do-Fors. These people are always doing something for you. In men, this may take the form of always fixing things around your house or taking your car in to the garage. In women, this more often takes the form of cooking something for you or offering you something they have prepared. These folks bring your paper in from the driveway, pick up something you’ve dropped, and ask if you need anything from the grocery store. For a group, they volunteer to sing and do readings, make the photocopies, email the membership meeting notices, and set up the chairs for events.

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Now, you may be thinking, “But, I give gifts and do things for people.” Yes, you are a combination type. And most people are combination types. Your loved ones are lucky. And perhaps you have known people who share love in 3, 4, 5, or even all of the Love Codes.  Great!  Enjoy.

The fifth type is the most difficult love communicator for many people to understand. These are the Quality Time People. They hang out with you. They may call and just stay on the phone, waiting for you to talk.  And you’re thinking, “What does this person want?” They’re telling you they care about you by spending time with you. They may come by your house for no apparent reason. They want to spend time with you. They may not know this is their way of communicating regard, affection, or even love. But now you know. To nurture relationships with these people, plan activities with them. It may not matter what activity, just plan something, and spend time with them.

The last group is the Cash Communicators. They tell you they care with money. We see this in parents of college kids, who often ask, “How are things going? Do you need any money?” In this type of love communication, money is truly the currency of caring. They donate to worthy causes, and they give generous tips.  Some people who can’t communicate caring any other way rely on offering money as their means of sharing their love.

So we can see that love takes many forms. And there’s so much more love going around than we have been recognizing. How about that kind driver on the freeway this week who sweetly pulled back to let you into the lane you needed? This is lovingkindness. How about the smile from a stranger in the grocery store? This is the look that tells you that another human wishes you well.

Love: it feels good and helps your health. Let’s receive it, send it, and enjoy it, in all its forms. The Apostle Paul said, “Make love your aim.” Now you can aim more accurately. And, now you can decode when love is aiming for you.

Next time:  Handling Hurtful People Easily

As you continue to Discover The Secret Energized You, push the possibilities. See how far the LifeTools can take you into energy, enthusiasm, and rejuvenation. You are now embarking on the most profound adventure: to Discover The Secret Energized You and redesign your life. Make the most of this adventure to make the most of your life! And that will be you, more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: 15 Top Tips to Beat Allergy Suffering Naturally

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© Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

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How Big is the Problem of Allergic Suffering?

According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI), allergies are common and on the rise. Worldwide, allergic rhinitis (irritation of the sinuses) is a misery 10 to 30 percent live with.  And if you thought pollens were your major source of allergic discomfort, be comforted.  Pollens are the main allergen group globally.  The goal of this column is always to help you find the most effective, most natural, and least expensive solutions to anything that is causing stress and misery in your life.  So here is some basic information to help you thrive, rather than survive.  And here are my top 16 tips for beating allergy suffering.

As you have noticed, tissue in hand, peak allergy season is upon us.  Now, in many parts of the country, the misery of allergy stress is keeping sufferers from enjoying life.  Sniffles, congestion, headaches, sore throats, raspy voices, brain fog, fatigue, and even nausea are all symptoms people are having this week.  For those who want to track the density of pollen in their area, websites like Pollen.com can send out a daily email alert, with a rating of 0 to 12, and the types of pollens that are high that day.  Designate your location and you’ll find out, for example, that Phoenix is high in Ash, Poplar, and Mulberry pollens.  Today’s level is 8.7, and tomorrow is expected to be 7.8.  So tomorrow is a better day for gardening, and today is a better day to wear a mask outside.  Pollen.com also has an app called Allergy Plus, which is free.

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What are some medications you could use?

Everyone knows there are over-the-counter (OTC) antihistamines of several different types.  If you have been taking one, and it isn’t working while a particular pollen is high, you may want to try another type of antihistamine.  Also, there is now a different type of (prescription) medication for allergy, an antileukotreine, that may work better for you.  A popular prescription brand is Singulair, with the generic name Montelukast.  Check with your doctor about symptoms and possible interactions with other drugs you may be taking.

What are some natural allergy solutions?

Yes– this column is usually about natural solutions!  And these tend to be low-cost and pleasant, with quick- and also extended relief.  Here are some you may want to try.

  1. Rinse your sinuses with salt water. You can purchase a pot with a pointed end through which to sniff or snort the salt water.  It might be called a neti pot.  Be sure to follow the instructions on keeping the pot clean.  You can also put warm water and a pinch of salt in a small bowl, and simply sniff or snort the salt water.  Hold your head back or down, and hold your nostrils, to get the salt water into your sinuses.  Blow the water and possibly mucus out and repeat several times; you may also want to gargle with the leftover salt water.  There are packets of salt available to add to your warm water.
  1. Check your spice cabinet for ginger powder. Mix ½ teaspoon ginger powder into a cup of warm, filtered (chlorine-removed) water.  Stir and drink.  Feel your symptoms improving in minutes.  Yes, fresh ginger root, grated and pressed through cheesecloth or a tea filter, is wonderful.  But when you are feeling bad, and you want immediate improvement, just add the ginger powder to your water.  The ginger is very yang, and it will balance out the yin symptoms of allergies.  If you prefer, you can take ginger in capsules, which you can buy in any health food store—empty, for you to fill, or already filled.  Oil of oregano capsules work for some.
  2. If the roof of your mouth is prickly, try drinking freshly squeezed orange juice.
  3. Look for homeopathics. For Arizona, Allergena for Zone 6, 2 ounce, may sufficiently solve your seasonal allergies.

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Reducing the allergens you take in

  1. Change your home’s air filter to one that has many accordion-type folds across its can be the most irritating.  Research has proven that this type of filter removes almost all of the provocative particles, so spend the extra $8 for this type.  Your improved sleep at night and your increased productivity during the day will be worth much more than that.
  2. Use local air filters in each room. You can run room-size air filter units ($39 to $450),  parking one near your work area and one near your sleep zone.  Some types are totally silent, and some make a humming or whirring sound.  Some require purchased replacement filters, and some simply have a contact plate inside to wipe clean.  Play around with different models, to find the best type for you and your budget.
  3. Outside, filter what you breathe. Wear a mask if you like—never reverse it! And have a fresh air filter installed in your car. There is probably also an “air recirculate” setting on your car air conditioner or heater.  Use that to limit the amount of fresh air coming in.
  4. Vacuum and dust. Allergens such as dust can make your seasonal allergies worse.  Use a water-bath vacuum if you have one, and use a damp cloth for dusting.
  5. Try a salt lamp. Salt lamps favorably change the ions in the room, and they are said to purify the air.  Until more research is done, think of salt lamps as pleasant glowy things that offer a comforting, soft light, and may be beneficial to your health.  These are available in white or amber, in natural mineral shapes and as spheres,  from golf-ball size to bowling-ball size.  My office has an 8” round salt lamp in each room, with embedded dimmer switches; found online, they were about $35 each.
  6. Wash and dry your hair every night. Yes!  Your hair efficiently picks up odors, smoke, dust, and pollens, during the day.  Then, when you lie down to sleep, you are breathing a special concentration of the very irritants that are causing your allergy stress.  So wash that hair every night.
  7. Put a small, fresh towel across your pillow every night. Especially if nightly hair washing doesn’t work for your lifestyle, at least you can give yourself a clean surface to sleep on every night.  In the morning, throw that little towel in the wash and launder it on HOT with natural detergent.  Dry it on HOT.  You can also use a bath towel you have folded into a pillow size and shape.

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Strengthen your system

  1. Place the palms or heels of your hands to the sides of your neck and gently rock across the sore muscles. Notice how tight your shoulder tops are.  Now gently stretch your shoulders in every direction for 2 minutes.  Notice your congestion calming and your head feeling less heavy.
  2. Do yoga or chikung (Chinese yoga) to increase breath. Ask your yoga- or chikung teacher, or try these exercises:  in yoga, do Suryanamaskar, the Salutation to the Sun.  In chikung, do the Northwest Exercise.
  3. Take Vitamin C and combinations containing it. Vitamin C increases breath and strengthens your blood vessels.  Some Vitamin C supplements are available with other helpful vitamins, minerals or herbs that may reduce your allergy symptoms.  The two most popular are Emergen-C and Airborne.
  4. Elevate your head when sleeping. If you are very congested, despite your best efforts, sleep on a wedge pillow or simply add an extra pillow.  As always, experiment to make it the most comfortable.

And finally

See your doctor if you see funny colors. If your throat feels raw, or your nasal discharge is white or green, it may be time to let your doctor check for strep and its friends.  Infections are even less fun than allergies!

Have fun experimenting with a few, or all, of these natural helps.  Remember, what relieves your allergy stress may or may not work for your friend or your relative.  Hopefully, you’ll be much more comfortable after using these tips, and you’ll be able to enjoy your life during pollen season.

So plan ahead and set yourself up for comfort and energy during pollen season!  Now exhale completely and enjoy this beautiful Spring!  And that’s you: more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm.


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: 3 Top Secrets of Great Relationships

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© Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.

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Three Top Secrets of Great Relationships

If you want the best energy, health, and wellness, take a fresh look at your relationships. That’s right.  Studies show that people with a network of supportive relationships are less likely to get serious medical conditions. They are also more likely, if they do become ill, to become well. People with happy relationships are less prone to depression and more inclined to be financially successful. With satisfying relationships, people have a greater sense of well-being and simply enjoy life more.

So, do you want more satisfaction from the relationships you have? Do you want more close friendships? Do you perhaps have a business in which your client relationships could use some refreshing or deepening? Would you like to reduce stress in conflicted relationships? If so, read on for the three top secrets of great relationships.

 

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The first secret of great relationships is to treat each person as though they are precious.

 If you believe in a Divine Power, then you know the Divine holds each person to be precious, no matter how they look, sound, or act. Try to see each person as “a soul in a package.” A person’s physical form—their body, their appearance—is only packaging for the soul. In spare moments, practice imagining that you can see “the soul inside the package” of the people you see most often. Notice how you begin to care less about the externals you had been wishing they would change. Your teenager’s pink hair will seem less important. Your neighbor’s black lipstick and nails will fade in your awareness. That negative guy at the office will begin to seem less negative. When you truly treat another with respect, that is what you will get back. If someone speaks to you rudely, speak back as though they had spoken politely. Their energy will shift to the level of yours.

In situations with conflict, reply in a courteous, positive, interested manner. Most people will gradually shift, becoming polite and beginning to match your tone. You know this works in reverse. Many times, you have seen tones rise in anger, response by response, until a conversation has turned into a conflict. So now, with awareness, you can work it the opposite way to bring down dislike, disrespect, and conflict, notch by notch. If the relationship is already positive, you can deepen it with this method, as the person will absorb your respect more and more and reflect it back. Over time, this builds mutual trust and confidence. People will feel safe to express their minds and hearts around you.

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The second secret of great relationships is to listen to the other person’s story.

 Really listen. Make most of your conversation focus on the other person. Studies show that people crave to be loved, and the number one way that people feel they are loved is by others’ listening to them. Ask questions, even if they sound initially superficial. During any holiday time, for example, you can turn to an acquaintance and ask, “So are there any foods you particularly like this time of year? Are there foods that really say ‘Christmas’ to you?” Then maintain eye contact and listen. What you will begin to hear is what is important to this person about the holidays, or what they find superficial and do not bother with at these times. You will begin to hear whether they do or don’t get together with family or if they are closer with their friends than with their relatives.

Feel free to ask clarifying questions, since it shows the person that you really are listening and are interested. Ask “Wait, did you just say your sister comes from Ohio every year to ski in Flagstaff, Arizona? When there are tons of snow in Ohio? How did that get started?” Now you’ll learn that ski slopes are much steeper in Arizona, and your friend prefers drinking espresso drinks while his sister is skiing the expert slopes. So the next time you meet your friend, meet him at a unique and charming espresso bar. Listening to others will get you out of your normal thought grooves and blow fresh ideas through your consciousness. You may find that, in getting to know them, you enjoy them more, and certainly they will feel closer to you because you inquired and listened.

 © Kebba Buckley Button

The third secret of great relationships is to make no assumptions.

 Be open to who each person may really be. A person who is “messy” today may have stayed up all night with their ill parent at the hospital or with their asthmatic child at home. An “unfriendly” or “grumpy” person may be grieving. A “curt” person may be in physical pain. A “vague” person may need their other glasses, which are at home on the hall table. A “secretive” person may have a gossipy coworker who has previously damaged them with exaggerated careless whispers. You could be the first kind person these people have talked with in a long time.

Do not assume any unsmiling person needs cheering up and they need you to fix them! Do ask privately, with respect, and informally, “Are you OK?” Remember, others may be listening, so keep your voice down. If the person grumbles something back, ask quietly, “Can I help in any way?” At this point, they will probably say, “Oh, it’s just my ______(back/4-year-old/Dad in hospital, car problem).” So now ask gently, “What’s going on?” If they say they just want their space, and if you can honestly offer to listen at another time, say quietly, “Well, if you want talk later…” and now give them their space. Advice is completely unrequired in many situations, but your kindness will long be remembered and appreciated.

If someone begins to tell you all about their recent troubles, it is again not your personal mission to fix this person. Remembering that each person is precious, try to discern if the person just needs to vent. Do they just want to be heard, or do they want suggestions? If you can’t clearly tell, ask, “Do you want any ideas on that?” If they don’t want suggestions or help, just listen and then let them be.

Remember: each precious soul has a right to make choices along life’s path. So if you want better, closer, deeper relationships, treat others with true respect, listen, and be open to who they are. In focusing on others, you will reap lifetime rewards.

Next time:  Natural allergy helps!

As you continue to Discover The Secret Energized You, push the possibilities. See how far the LifeTools can take you into energy, enthusiasm, and rejuvenation. You are now embarking on the most profound adventure: to Discover The Secret Energized You and redesign your life. Make the most of this adventure to make the most of your life! And that will be you, more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Perk With Coffee

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© Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.

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Coffee is Much More Than Caffeine

Coffee lovers worldwide know the distinctive aroma, taste, and general effects of a steaming—or iced—cup of this ancient beverage. Served black, thick with spices, or dressed up with milk, cream, foam, soymilk/almond milk, sugar, and possibly flavored syrups, coffee is the beverage of choice for millions. Entrepreneur upstart Starbucks, now the industry leader in the U.S., even sponsors coffee shops on the Mercy Ships, floating surgical hospitals serving the African coastal countries with free medical services.

So, aside from taste, why is coffee so popular? Any coffee drinker will tell you they get a short-term boost from drinking java. They would all agree with the medical studies that have proven that coffee produces an increase in energy and mental clarity, including memory, for an hour or more after it is consumed. Many assume that boost is from the caffeine in the cup. In conversation, people often refer to coffee and caffeine as though caffeine is the only substance in coffee. These folks believe coffee is simply a stimulant and a metabolic cheat. The truth is much more beneficial and enjoyable.

According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN), the antioxidants in coffee may reduce inflammation and thereby reduce the risk of potential disorders related to it. Cardiovascular disease is one of these. Phenols, volatile aroma compounds, and oxazoles in coffee contribute to its high antioxidant content. Researchers were surprised to discover that coffee is the single greatest contributor of antioxidants to the diet of both U.S. residents and Norwegians. A typical serving of coffee contains more antioxidants than typical servings of grape juice, blueberries, raspberries, and oranges, according to another study in the AJCN.

Coffee:  because adulting is hard.

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a broad review of studies of coffee use. Coffee is now known to be associated with a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, as well as lower risk of heart disease, liver cancer, and cirrhosis of the liver. Drinking decaffeinated coffee produced the same results as drinking coffee with its inherent caffeine, up to five cups per day. However, researchers are not suggesting that people raise their coffee intake in order to prevent disease. Of course, everyone needs to coordinate self-medication with their doctor or other medical professional. If you are concerned about how acidic your favorite coffee is, try adding alkaline drops (such as Alkazone) to your cup.

So do you love coffee? Do you feel good, feel alert, and function well with a cup or three per day? Then why not relax in a favorite chair, drink your favorite blend, and let the research roll in?

Next time: 3 Top Secrets for Great Relationships!

As you continue to Discover The Secret Energized You, push the possibilities. See how far the LifeTools can take you into energy, enthusiasm, and rejuvenation. You are now embarking on the most profound adventure: to Discover The Secret Energized You and redesign your life. Make the most of this adventure to make the most of your life! And that will be you, more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Wordless Wednesday Labyrinth Views

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© 2023 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved. http://www.kebba.com

All images in this post are © Kebba Buckley Button.

Today I share three views of a favorite Labyrinth— a patterned prayer walkway at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church in Scottsdale, Arizona. The practice of Labyrinth walking goes back at least thousands of years.  On this recent day, I was teaching a method for releasing grief.  Each of us left a stone in the center of the Labyrinth, symbolizing our releasing something.  It was a powerful and pleasant experience.  Here, I share three views of the Labyrinth from different angles, so you can get the idea of its size and pattern. And yes, the urbanscape rising behind the Church is the custom Residences by Ritz Carlton.  Enjoy your Labyrinth visit!

Walking the Labyrinth is a LifeTool you can use whenever you like.  Let wonder help you Discover The Secret Energized You, and push the possibilities. See how far the LifeTools can take you into energy, enthusiasm, and rejuvenation. You are now embarking on the most profound adventure: to Discover The Secret Energized You and redesign your life. Make the most of this adventure to make the most of your life! And that will be you, more and more Healthy Happy and Loving Lifesm!


Kebba Buckley Button is a stress/energy management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   They are also available in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center bookstore and at the bookstore at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church. Or simply email us to order:  kebba@kebba.com .  Thank you!

Happy healthy loving life

Books by Kebba Buckley Button