There’s Healing and There’s Curing

Tags

arthritis, curing, healing, HIV/AIDS, Kebba Buckley Button, Oriental energy healing, oriental energy therapy, peace within, stress, Stress Management, UpBeat Living

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.

 

From a photo by Nikki Zalewski, Fotolia

 

Is there something in your body or your life that you wish were healed? Today I went to a meeting of the Healing Ministry at my church. It’s a large Episcopal Church in Scottsdale, Arizona. The lay Healing Ministers shared stories of healings they had experienced, and we discussed dimensions of healing.

 

I like to focus on the positive, the Upbeat Living, the joy… all the Highest and Best. Not the past or the pain. However, today I was moved to share with this loving group my most dramatic healing story: mine. Here it is.

 

When I was 26, one evening, I began to feel cranky. I thought “[H]ow odd! What’s going on?” My body replied that the large joints of my hands were burning. I thought, “[N]o problem. Mom has had mild arthritis since my age. I’ll take aspirin, like she does.” Oh no! Within a year, I was burning from head to toe. And there was a terrible stiffness with the pain. Over a few months, my joints began to enlarge and I could hardly use my hands. I would be needing a wheelchair by my mid-thirties, and there would be no marriage or children. As an engineering manager, I went at potential solutions like a freight train. I learned nutrition, controlled my diet, and took up oriental energy healing, primarily Jin Shin Jyutsu.

I learned there are many approaches other than medication, to beat a painful condition.

 ~Kebba Buckley Button

When I was 33, I was at a party, and someone was talking about her arthritis as though she had married it. She was obsessed with it, in love with it. But that’s another column. I heard myself saying to her, “[W]ell, when I had horrible crippling arthritis, I found several things really helped…” From there, I have no memory of what I shared with her, because I was so shocked to hear myself speak of my hellish condition in the past tense. It had finished leaving sometime over the previous few months! I learned that just because you have a condition doesn’t mean it has to be progressive. Just because you have a diagnosis doesn’t mean you have to keep it. Later, as my joints actually healed and shrank, I learned that just because you have organic body damage, it doesn’t mean it can’t reverse. These were huge revelations to me. Now, at 62, most days, I have no pain of any kind whatsoever. People take me for 45.

 

The opportunity to experience that crippling condition was a transformative gift in my life. I became so fascinated with natural pain solutions that I left engineering and morphed into an energy- and spiritual healer. I became an ordained minister, a spiritual teacher, a stress management trainer, and an award-winning author.

 

In the 1980’s, the AIDS epidemic hit Phoenix. I volunteered at the Malta Center, a community healing organization funded by an arm of the Catholic Church. We served HIV/AIDS patients and their loved ones, without regard to their income. We comforted and listened. We helped the clients organize the practical help they needed. We had Red Cross classes on understanding HIV/AIDS. We had funeral planning workshops. We had a lot of funerals. I had extraordinary conversations with many people experiencing the embrace of AIDS, and with their families.

 

I learned that I had friends who had been HIV-positive for 10 years, with no symptoms at all, even fatigue. I learned that some AIDS patients got very close to the Divine in their last weeks. I learned that some seemed to go into a state of Grace in their last weeks, in complete harmony with Life, the Universe, and God. Some said their lives were healed, and then they passed on. They weren’t cured, but they were healed.

 

Today, the Clinton Initiative and other organizations stream pharmaceutical protocols to many countries, and HIV is not the frightening specter it once was. Do you want healing? Let’s remember:

• There are many approaches other than medication, to beat horrible pain and other health conditions.
• Just because you have a diagnosis doesn’t mean it gets to rule your life.
• Just because you have a condition doesn’t mean it has to be progressive.
• Just because there was never a medical protocol before doesn’t mean there won’t be one soon, if you like medical protocols.
• Just because you’re not cured doesn’t mean you can’t be healed.

Live your life.  Don’t fear health labels.  Maintain your miraculous body the best you can.  It’s your life:  be there.

———————————————————–

If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column. You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma! Due to a recent FB change, our “likes” look low. Thanks for your help!

 

Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office. Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.

• For an appointment or to ask Kebba to speak for your group: bookings@kebba.com .

Upbeat Living: Biggest Secrets of the Rude and Nasty

Tags

difficult people, Nasty people, rude people, stress, Stress Management, UpBeat Living

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

 

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button http://www.kebba.com

The techniques of Upbeat Living lift people into the most joy and satisfaction, best relationships, and improved health and least aging.  Unfortunately, we all must deal with nasty and rude people from time to time.  Difficult people are a very common source of stress.  They can totally suck your energy and leave you exhausted and frustrated– if you let them.  And that is what they want!  Some are insecure and trying to bring others down to their level.  Some see your light shining and are jealous, so they want to dim your light, if they can.  Some simply enjoy others’ pain, and they hope to hurt you, especially in front of others.

 

Secret #1:  If they do it in front of others, you actually have the advantage!  Now you can show your gracious strength in front of an audience.  The way you respond to public rudeness will win you fans for a lifetime and leave the nasty person revealed as an emotional predator.

 

Secret #2:  A person who walks up and says something rude to you is trying to get a rise from you.  We often have the illusion that telling them how exactly they have offended or hurt us will somehow cause them to change.  Remember “assertiveness”, circa 1985? That’s a waste of time with someone who is trying to hurt you.  Telling them how you feel will only satisfy them and bring them back soon.  They feed off your hurt!

 

Secret #3:  There are ways to deal with them, and you can learn! So if you want to feel good instead of hurt, distracted, and tired, here are UpBeat Living’s top tips to beat rudeness.

 

1. For a quick insult or nasty comment, don’t react at all.  Assume they will never change, or at least that changing them is not your personal mission.  Observe your blood pressure rising and your stomach and other muscles tightening while you are around this person.  This stress reaction, in turn, can erode the integrity of your kidney valves and enlarge your heart.

 

Does this person have the right to do that to you?  No.  What will work best for managing your energy?  Try simply turning away.  And no cheating with a derisive expression—look neutral, as though the person never spoke.  Don’t give them energy.  Now you have triumphed, and they will look for a victim who is more easily hurt.

 

Be thankful for the difficult people.  They have shown you

exactly who you don’t want to be.

 ~Unknown

 

2. For a verbal sting, with a cheerful smile on your face, say something extremely short and globally pleasant, such as, “Well, bless your heart!”  Then keep walking with a pleasant smile still on your face.  Again, don’t give them energy.  Pretend they have just been “so cute”.

 

Sometimes, God uses difficult people, like sandpaper,

to rub the rough edges off of us. 

–Joel Osteen

 

3. If the person has just made you the butt of a joke in front of others, such as giving you a gag award for talking too much,  with a cheerful smile on your face, and possibly a little laugh, say, “Isn’t it wonderful we all have such a great sense of humor!”  Then quietly walk away.  No flouncing!  No making faces other than pleasant neutrality.  If you think they were trying to humiliate you, they were.  If you can pretend you found the humiliating circumstance funny, do that, laugh, and again, walk away, because you are very busy and need to get to your next meeting/deadline/appointment. If it was at a company party, never go again.  You are so busy, you can’t think what your calendar holds for that day, when they ask you to the next company party.

 

If you laugh with the person, they get no satisfaction.  They may act like you are clueless and failed to get the put-down. In this case, they will say, “Oh (Name)!  You’re so funny!”  Then your best line is one of non-resistance: “I know!  I’m a very funny wo/man!”  At this point, if you are a very good actress/actor, you can really drive your attacker—and that is what the person is—crazy by continuing to stand with the group for another minute or two, smiling and being apparently perfectly comfortable.  Again, do not give them energy.

I once went 6 rounds with a man who was trying to say I was so wrong that I was “wrong in the head”.  I told him cheerfully, “[T]hat’s right!  I had a concussion years ago and haven’t been right since!”  He tried again, and I told him, “[Y]ou’re right!  I’m a head case!”  He began to frown and literally foam at the mouth, getting angrier and angrier that I was not giving him the satisfaction of becoming wounded!  A well-known nasty person, he has never tried his routines on me again. This makes me smile and think, “ha HA!”

 

4. If you must see this person regularly, at work, at your social organization, at family events, or at school/training, keep it light, cheerful, and brief with them whenever you must cross paths.  Don’t initiate with them and don’t give them energy.  Others are dealing with the same issues with this person, so you have silent support.  If it’s an instructor, switch to another section or take the class at another campus.  Consider reporting the instructor anonymously.  Eventually, his/her classes will be so small that he/she will no longer be hired as an instructor there.

 

A fractured Latin phrase advises:  Nil Illegitimi Carborundum:  Don’t let the bastards wear you down.  Don’t give them energy, or they win.  You have a right to lead a healthy and happy life. Be brief in dealing with anything negative. Soon, you will notice your stamina rising and your happiness taking over. Why not go for it?  Now that’s Upbeat Living!

——————————————————————————————————

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UpBeat Living: Quick! Say A Proper Goodbye to 2013!

Tags

holiday stress, Kebba, New Year, New Year's Resolutions, stress, Stress Management, UpBeat Living

UpBeat Living: Closing Out 2013

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Image by Microsoft

It’s the last day of the old year, 2013, and already people are wishing each other a Happy New Year.  TV networks have aired video summaries of the most colorful events of 2013.  This morning, Arizona time, as people watched those videos over breakfast, Sydney, Australia had already crossed into the New Year and celebrated with fireworks.  You have to watch those pesky time zones.

But wait!  Have you properly said “[G]oodbye” to 2013?  Before you launch into your New Year’s resolutions—and you know you will—how about first making your own summary list of all you accomplished or weathered or observed in the old year?  My husband held a great-granddaughter on his lap for the first time.  I finished the second edition of my newest book, Peace Within, and officiated an interfaith prayer service in a Catholic Church (think about it—I’ll wait) for International Day of Peace in September.  A new Pope was elected, an Italian-speaking Hispanic, who embodies God’s love and goes by “Francis”, after St. Francis.  And CBS says Esquire Magazine has named the Pope Best-Dressed Man Of The Year!  For a Pope, he dresses simply, in white.

Why not make a list of all the frustrations and victories, disappointments and joys, that were there for you in this outgoing year?  Take a piece of paper, or a word processor document, or create lists in your phone.  Make 3 columns:  what I didn’t like, what I did like, and what happened in the World that affected me.  Take just 15 minutes, or more, if you realize it’s a powerful thing for you.  You’ll notice a lot of accomplishments.  Be proud.  Celebrate the good.  Toast to the wonders of the Old Year, and wait until midnight to ring in the New Year.

——————

● Kebba Buckley Button is the author of the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition).   Keep this book with you constantly, to quickly recharge your Peace Within, with quotes, photos, and poems that take you directly there!  Kebba is a corporate stress management trainer, and she also has a holistic healing practice.

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition)( http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)
• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Is Your Brain Flat Today? Maybe You’re Sad?

Tags

brain flat, bummed, don't care, down, Grief, stress, stressed, Upbeat

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

 

Photo by Microsoft

Have you ever had a day when you just didn’t care?  A day when you weren’t interested in anything you usually care about?  For you thread-pickers, how about a day when you saw a colored thread on the carpet, you thought you should pick it up, and you just didn’t feel like it, for once?

Recently, I had a day when that was me.  I wasn’t craving coffee or chocolate or any other tastebud comforts.  I wasn’t tired or sick, and my schedule was more relaxed than usual, for a couple of days.  So I wasn’t under the usual pressure of big deadlines.  Plus, the weather was idyllic, so I had the windows open, and I should have felt happy and full of life.  But my brain was flat.  And I didn’t care about the little thing on the floor I should have been picking up.  Finally, my front-brain got cranky with the rest of me and asked loudly, “WHAT IS WRONG WITH US TODAY?  SINCE WHEN DO WE NOT CARE?”

I’m usually devoutly upbeat, taking an “up” approach to everything.  So I was puzzled to be in this state.  But, thinking over the previous couple of days, I realized I was “down” this day.  A friend was in the hospital with severe cardiac disease, for which little medical therapy is available.  He struggles for breath and believes he is basically out of options.  This is a good-humored man who loves to volunteer and entertain.

Also, a buoyant woman I knew had died in hospice, a fact I had only learned from the morning paper’s obituaries.  I liked her a lot, in the years we were in touch.  She always had some new creative project going on.  She was warm, cheerful, generous, beautifully groomed, and thoughtful.

Finally, I realized I was sad and a bit discouraged.  With my holistic healing practice of many years, I have supported many people with many conditions, often with dramatic positive results.  Yet, obviously,

Photo by Fotolia

I can no longer do anything for my friend who has died.  The friend who is in the hospital is mainly looking for the right medication, which is not my area.  As the person who generally has answers to help others feel better and heal better, I had hit 2 dead ends in 2 days.  That explained it.  I was “bummed”!  I was “down”!  I was also grieving.  My brain felt flat, and I didn’t care about bits on the floor or organizing next year’s calendar.

By now, are you remembering weeks when you’ve had similar experiences?  What was going on then, and how did you feel?  Did you journal about it then, or would that perhaps feel good now?

May I boldly suggest 3 things?  First, ask yourself, “What is wrong with me?” and listen.  Second, journal about it until you get the “Aha!” in it.  Third, give yourself some time to be flat, or bummed, or down.  Read novels, garden, walk, edit your most beautiful photographs, or let yourself clean the house on Automatic, letting easy, repetitive tasks soothe you like meditation.  Let your mind, heart, and soul roam free for awhile, until you feel yourself rising again.  Soon you’ll come back out of yourself, becoming vivid, colorful, and enthusiastic again.

———————————————————–

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Liked this blog?  Why not buy Kebba’s books?  Just click the links!

• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core

(http://perfectboundmarketing.gostorego.com/authors/kebba-buckley-button.html)

 

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 

 

● Please comment!

 

● Get these posts by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

UpBeat Living: 7 Top Tips for Care and Feeding of Your Therapist

Tags

Being a great client, Professional ethics, responsibility, The secret energized you, Therapy, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons-Lucas

With a holistic healing practice and professional training business for over 20 years, I have learned how important it is for therapist/doctor/counselor/coach and patient/client to have a healthy relationship.  It’s crucial to be responsible and timely, and to treat each other with healthy boundaries.  The more you like your therapist/doctor/counselor/coach, the more important it is to take these tips to heart without exception:

1. If the therapist’s office calls to confirm your appointment, return the call.  Keep track on your own calendar.
2. Be on time and be ready.  Park 5 minutes ahead of your appointment time and pop a breath mint.
3. Smile and be pleasant, at least until you are in the treatment/counseling room.  No complaining until you get through that door.  Then open with a summary.
4. DO NOT ASK THE THERAPIST HOW S/HE IS.  THIS IS A PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENT, NOT A FRIENDSHIP, AND YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT.  People in counseling, medicine, and physical medicine are always reflexively responsive.  S/he will attempt to answer you genuinely, and if s/he is not having a great week, s/he will be conflicted.  Skip this whole dynamic and say warmly, “[S]o good to see you!”  If the office gave you a last-minute appointment, say warmly, “[T]hank you so much for seeing me today.”
5. DO NOT TRY TO BECOME FRIENDS.  Your doctor/dentist/LMT/PT/coach is seeing you in their professional mode.  During your appointment, they are relating to you from a small slice of their overall personality, their professional self.  While you may LOVE their appointment persona, you might not enjoy their overall personality and interests.  Some healing/helping professionals may dislike a patient, or all patients, while still being able to be very pleasant and effective while performing your service/appointment.  Some are depressed or have someone they take care of at home, with a severe medical condition; this is private. Take what they have to offer professionally and leave it at the door, while wishing them well.
6. DO NOT BRING SUGARY SNACKS AS A GIFT UNLESS YOU KNOW YOUR THERAPIST LOVES A CERTAIN ONE, OR THEY HAVE A COUNTER CANDY DISH.  Many people are going off sugars altogether, and many people left wheat, yeast, and gluten (i.e., cupcakes, bagels, and donuts) behind long ago.  Better gifts are: unscented flowers (they may have patients with allergies, so no fragrances), nuts, fruits from your trees, nutritional dried fruits such as dates.  Gluten-free treats may be good IF the therapist has been discussing them.
7. If you really want to do something for your therapist, refer friends and post glowing reviews on Yelp and similar sites.  If the therapy office has testimonials on their website, email a glowing testimonial they can post.  Email them specifics of great results you have had from their practice; tell them whether your name should be used or not.

Want to get the best services?  Share the love with your therapist/provider—by being a great patient or client.

 

———————————————————–

● If  you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column.  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a Master’s Degree scientist, a minister, and the award-winning author of  the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr), and also Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br).  She also has a natural healing and stress management practice and is a celebrated public speaker.

 

● Your comments are welcome!

 

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

 

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Roger Ebert on Remaking His Voice

Tags

Cancer, Gratitude, irrepressible, positivity, Roger Ebert, Upbeat, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Roger Ebert 2002
Photo by Andrew Sullivan

In the previous post, UpBeat Living celebrated the irrepressible, upbeat nature and achievements of Roger Ebert, who sadly passed away on April 4^th.  Today, we celebrate his final project, Remaking My Voice.

Known primarily as the most authentic and truly blunt film critic to grace our TV screens, Ebert had been a chatty communicator since at least grade school.  In first grade, he was told he talked too much.  By High School, he was a reporter serving the school newspaper.  By age 25, he was working for the Chicago Sun-Times.  He continued to work for the Sun-Times in various media until his death.  He used his voice for radio, television, and movies.

In what could have been seen as a tragedy, Ebert went on to lose his physical voice in 2006.  Cancer surgery made it impossible for him to talk.  After an apparently successful operation to rebuild his jaw, Ebert thought he was going back to work in a few weeks.  He had pre-taped six weeks of programs.  However, one day his carotid artery—the huge artery that runs along the side of the side of the neck, behind the jaw, and up into the brain— burst. His doctor said he had never seen anyone survive a carotid artery rupture. Ebert then spent a year in the hospital and had six more ruptures of the carotid.  The team gave up on reconstruction of the jaw.  His physical voice was done.  Ebert would later write: “[H]uman speech is an ingenious manipulation of our breath, within the sound chamber of our mouth and respiratory system.  We need to be able to hold and manipulate that breath, in order to form sounds.”  He could no longer do that.  But he was still sparkling, animated, and funny.

Now this dynamo simply accelerated into new forms of expression, as well as greatly stepping up his writing via blogs and Twitter.  He began “speaking” by keyboarding at a computer that spoke for him.   Saying he had always taken for granted the ability to speak, Ebert presented a TED talk in 2011 (www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNXOVpN8Wgg).  Sitting with his wife and three friends, they shared the narrative and Ebert finished with a joke, which he keyboarded into a laptop that spoke for him.

Ebert’s final message to those of us “listening”:  “[W]hat you see is not all you get!”  To attempt rebuilding his jaw, surgeons had harvested bone from his shoulders, which actually affected not only his shoulder profile, but also the way he walked.  Now missing a jaw altogether, Ebert had an unusual face shape.  He found that people would stare, and some would assume he was deaf, then shouting to him.  Only his physical voice was missing.  Through technology, he had found his greater voice, and he could express himself more and better than ever.  In his TED talk, Ebert did not talk about gratitude for life as such, but he expressed it, in his lively ebullience and his obvious love for communication, for his wife, and for his friends.  This was a man who truly lived.

Roger Ebert:  a voice for the ages.  Let us continue to hear him and his message.

———————————————————–

● If  you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column.  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a Master’s Degree scientist, a minister, and the award-winning author of  the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr), and also Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br).  She also has a natural healing and stress management practice and is a celebrated public speaker.

 

● Your comments are welcome!

 

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

 

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .