Stress is Contagious! Four Top Tips to Not Catch It!

Tags

breath, Kebba Buckley Button, peace within, stress, Stress can be contagious, Stress Management

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

 

Fotolia

Have you ever been cruising along, enjoying your day, at one with Life, and feeling, without trying, that all is right with the World? You’re deep in your Peace Within. And then:

• An angry person blasts you with a vicious email or memo
• A family member blows in, massively upset about a conflict at work
• A neighbor’s dog is suddenly barking loudly and insistently for at least a half hour now
• While you’re commuting and almost home, a driver rear-ends you

 

Your serenity is shattered. Your heart is racing. Your mind has gone blank and you can’t concentrate. This is it: you’re about to catch stress from someone else. What can you do to shed this stress? If you don’t have your own system, try these top tips:

 

1. Drop your shoulders and exhale. Do this three times. Notice your heart calming.
2. Place your right hand over your heart and your left on your mid-back, if you can reach it. Notice your body calming more deeply.
3. Think of how peaceful you felt right before this happened, and call that serenity back.
4. Take 2 squirts of Bach Rescue Remedy spray (available at most health food stores or from SwansonVitamins.com; keep Rescue Remedy in your home, desk, purse, and briefcase for rough days and sudden jolts).

Fotolia

Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.
~ Natalie Goldberg

Now you should feel cool enough to carry on with the most reasonable strategy for the jolting situation. Do your best. Keep exhaling.

And remember:

1. This stress wasn’t yours before the jolt, and it doesn’t have to be yours now.
2. Don’t move your consciousness into the center of the stress. Stay in your own mental space while considering it.
3. Whatever it is, this too shall pass.

 

Yes, stress can be contagious. You can catch it from others. But you can get over it, too, and get back to your Peace Within.

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• 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: calendar@kebba.com .

 

Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr.

Tags

AGNT, Kebba Buckley Button, Martin Luther King Jr., nonviolence, peace, peace within, Peacemaking, Season for NonViolence, SNV

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

 

© Etien – Fotolia

 

 

On January 21, 2013, U. S. President Barack Obama took the Oath of Office for the second time.  He held in his hand the personal Bible of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That’s the Bible the King family normally keeps in a glass case. That’s the one with Dr. King’s handwritten notes in the margins. That second inauguration also fell on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  The day was first signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, to honor the civil rights leader.  The date was selected as the third Monday of January each year, to be close to Dr. King’s birthday, January 15th.  The holiday was finally adopted by all the States as of 2000.

 

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?

~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King was a pastor known for nonviolent methods of creating social change, especially working against poverty, racism, and violence.  He lived in a time difficult for some to imagine, when there was great stress between Blacks and Whites in this country.  There were separate hotels, restaurants, and water fountains for Blacks. Blacks had a hard time riding buses, at least in the fronts of the buses. Blacks couldn’t vote. Some Blacks in relationships with Whites suffered violence or death. During these years, an organization called the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK, committed many acts of hatred, cruelty and destruction in the name of White Supremacy. They were famous for wearing white cloaks with pointed hoods and burning crosses on front lawns; also burning homes and churches.

In contrast, Dr. King led peaceful protests and marches to draw attention to the need for equality. Some of the demonstrations were met with hatred, tear gas, and high pressure water hoses. In part due to the work of Dr. King, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted, and the next year, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Now the law said it was illegal to discriminate against anyone, based on their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. And now the law prohibited racial discrimination in voting. However, not all in the U.S. agreed with equal rights.

Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, April 4, 1968, having traveled there to support striking African-American sanitation workers seeking rights.  He is remembered for poetic and strongly inspiring speeches, such as the “I have a dream” speech.  In that speech, he said,

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’  I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood…

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill that made Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a National Day of Service.   Organizations and volunteers now match with each other for needed service, on the federal website, MLKDay.gov.  The site can also connect volunteers with opportunities for service throughout the year. As Clinton said at his second inaugural address, “We must be repairers of the breach.”

On President Obama’s second Inauguration weekend, Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Dr. King said, “Everyone is important, no matter how you define yourself.  We have to finish the work of Dr. King.”

Each year, the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT) celebrates a Season for Nonviolence (SNV), from the anniversary of Ghandi’s death to the anniversary of Dr. King’s death, January 30th to April 4th.  The SNV offers opportunities to explore the qualities and actions of nonviolent solutions, leading to peace prevailing on this Planet.   Together, let us celebrate Dr. King and the strides made as a result of his work.  Together, let us celebrate the good works of good people around the Globe.  Together let us celebrate the question, “What are you doing for others?”

For more on the work currently being carried forward in Dr. King’s name, visit the King Center for Nonviolent Change, http://www.thekingcenter.org/.  For more on AGNT:  http://www.AGNT.org.

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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 Buckley Button to speak for your group: Calendar@kebba.com .

Six Top Tips for Cooling Conflict

Tags

Arguing, conflict, difficult people, Kebba Buckley Button, peace within, stress, Stress Management

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button. World Rights Reserved.

© eelsonova – Fotolia

 

Today’s article is inspired by the people who love to complain behind your back, and if possible, start an argument with you in person. These people are on most committees and boards. They seek to create conflict. It excites them and helps create drama. Sometimes, it makes them feel important. But it burns your time and energy. There’s a lot of advice available about dealing with negative people, and a lot of wisdom available about how exactly to word what you say to them.

I never make the mistake of arguing with people

for whose opinions I have no respect.

~Edward Gibbon

However, as a stress management expert, I recommend you not spend a lot of energy analyzing these people. Simply use energy shifts to control how much these people affect you. They do it compulsively. You, however, don’t have to get sucked in. If you like peaceful relationships, as I do, here are great strategies for diffusing conflict and hostile energy.

1. To the person who often surges up to you to bitterly complain, about anything and nothing: nod kindly, saying, “I know what you mean”, or simply, “mmmm”.
2. To the person who takes issue with everything you say, reverse the energy. You just took the snow tires off your car for the season, and this person loudly says that THEY always leave them on until MARCH. In a thoughtful tone, you say either, “[W]ell, good!” or even, “[Y]ou know, you’re right about that. I should do that.” You just eliminated their drama. After a few episodes, they may stop seeking you out. This would be good!
3. To the person above you in the organization, who says something nasty to you in front of others: walk directly to their private office and wait.
4. To the person below you in the organization, or your equal, in a club or nonprofit: when they complain, pull their energy forward by inviting them to serve on a committee that deals with the topic they complained about. Repeat as needed.
5. With all negative people and arguers: remain calm and speak back to them as though they spoke pleasantly. Their energy will come down to your calm.
6. With any negative person: while driving to work, or wherever you have to deal with them, picture their face in its typical expressions. Then keep watching until it turns to a relaxed smile. Hold that image in your mind. Notice how different they are in when you see them in person. Do this daily.

I’ve had a few arguments with people, but I never carry a grudge. You know why? While you’re carrying a grudge, they’re out dancing. 

~ Buddy Hackett

Do you want to have the least conflict possible?  Then bypass Paralysis By Analysis, and stay light and even.  Nurture your own Peace Within.  Smile pleasantly and focus on the light and the positive. Be very busy and quickly yet calmly leave those aggressive conversations. People who love drama will calm down and start leaving you alone.  Now that’s Upbeat Living!

 

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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: Blogging to Build Your Book (Nonfiction)

Tags

peace within, stress, The life you want, Writing, Writing a blog, Writing a book

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 

©Berc-Fotolia

If you have ever thought of writing a nonfiction book, this article is for you. If you write nonfiction but have no system, and you often feel frustrated, this article is for you. If you want to get going right now, this month, this article is for you! Today, I’m sharing a brief version of my system for building a nonfiction book, step by step, easily. Spend a few minutes making notes to yourself on each of these steps. You’ll thank me later.

1. Identify your overall point, or theme, that you want people to absorb/take up/adopt. Write it down in the simplest terms. This may become your title, and you can use it as a working title for now.
2. Start collecting scrap notes on anything to do with your new book. Collect ideas, articles, links, quotes, and names of organizations that your readers may find useful. Use the Notes section of your smartphone to jot down any points or inspirations that come to you, and email them to yourself frequently. If you are pre-computer, write the notes on any slip of paper that comes to hand, put the slips in your pocket, and at home, empty them into one box or drawer.
3. Divide your theme into about 7 main points, and write them out in the simplest terms, 5 words or less if possible. Your book will have front matter, an Introduction or Chapter One, a chapter on each of your 7 or so main points or themes, and a closing chapter. Getting excited?
4. For your Introduction, identify about 3 main aspects that need to be explained at the beginning of your book. Write them out as simply and clearly as possible. Those are your first three blog topics!
5. For each of your chapters, divide the theme into about 3 subthemes, and…you guessed it… write/name them as clearly as possible. For these subchapter titles, shorter and punchier is better. I have a section in Discover The Secret Energized You called “Perk With Coffee”. Now, you have 3 Introduction articles, 7 x 3 or 21 chapter articles, and about 3 articles for your closing chapter. So without expanding further, you now have topics for 27 articles. Now you’re ready to set up your blog.
6. Go to WordPress.com, if you don’t have another preference, and sign up, free, for a blog. I recommend WordPress, not only because it is easy to navigate, but because it interfaces very easily with Networked Blogs, other multi-posting apps, and with commenters as they sign in.

I do not like to write. I like to have written.

~ Gloria Steinem

 

7. Name the blog something simple, related to your book title. You are now the proud owner of an authorial neighborhood called, for example, http://BestBananaBaking.wordpress.com. Get your name in the URL if you like. One of mine (this one, internally called “Upbeat Living”) is: https://kebbabutton.wordpress.com . But BestBananaBakingByKebba would be really pointed and memorable.
8. Now start scheduling your writing and your posting. Advice varies, but I teach that your articles should be 400-500 words long, plus a “reach the writer” section at the bottom. When I write a health research article, I may need 6 hours. For an article on attitudes, I may only need 2 hours. So notice how long it takes you to write your pieces, and start planning. Can you produce one a day for a month?
9. A great way to motivate yourself to get those 27 articles—plus extras you’ll think of—written and posted within a month, using a blog challenge. My favorite is The Ultimate Blog Challenge, found at UltimateBlogChallenge.com. Sign up there, and then you’ll be posting in the group on Facebook. For any blog challenge, you’ll produce one post a day for the entire month. The UBC is already on for October. So if you have a few of your posts almost ready, why not tune them up and jump in?
10. In each post, start with your copyright line and a photo in the upper left corner, “medium” size by WordPress standards. Space one or two quotes into your article for visual interest, and a second photo somewhere, to the right, if you like. Feel free to look at my posts, at https://kebbabutton.wordpress.com . That’s my Upbeat Living series. Notice how the formatting pulls through on a Facebook page.
11. At the end of the blog challenge, you’ll have the editable material for your book. You can connect those articles and fill in the book from there.
12. Then hire a book formatter and/or editor to help you smooth it out.

And voila! You have a book. Production, PR, and distribution come next, but those are further articles. If you have a book in you, or you think you might, why not get going now? It’s your life. And remember:

The only thing that happens if you wait… is you get older.

~Mario Andretti

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• 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!
• 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!
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• Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UpBeat Living: Finding Your Peace Within

Tags

at choice, Effective living, Feeling energized, happy, Kebba, peace within, stress, Stress Management, The life you want, UpBeat Living

If you are not feeling perfect peace within right now, read on.  If you are stressed, if you have any aches, pains, loss of concentration, or relationship damage from stress, read on.  If you ache for internal quietude, read on.

Peace Within, Second Edition. Photo by George Rocheleau.

Peacefulness comes from being balanced, from being clear about your beliefs, and from living in that clarity and in your connection with the Divine.  Peacefulness is supported by perfect health, whatever that means for you.

Peace within generates peace in your relationships and anywhere you go in your world.  It generates peaceful vibes that others can feel, and that they respond to.  So when you are peaceful inside your body, mind, heart, and spirit, you breed peace wherever you are.

People love a pleasant person and a pleasant experience. So a person who is quietly radiant with inner peace will be receiving positive, gentle and  enthusiastic connections with others.  Now what if everyone in the World were cultivating Peace Within?  Ghandi famously said, “[B]e the peace you want to see.”  That is the way this works.

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● 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: Don’t Wait to Exhale

Tags

Breathwork, Exhaling, peace within, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Kebba Buckley Button

Today’s headline in The Arizona Republic, Phoenix’s main regional newspaper, riveted me.  It read, “BOSTON EXHALES.”  I was so riveted by the headline that I took a photo of it (here, to the left).  Everyone knows what this headline means.  It means the worst is over and Boston can now relax, with the first bombing suspect dead, and the second in hospital custody.

We have a number of expressions about breath, in this country.  We talk about “holding our breath” while waiting eagerly for something.  In a strong attraction, we may say, “[S]/he takes my breath away.”  After a big event, sometimes we say, “oh, now I can breathe easy, knowing it’s all taken care of.”  We sometimes talk about being “just a breath away” from some desired goal.  A Buddhist-oriented 12-Step program is called One Breath at a Time.

Many well-meaning people advise others who are stressed to “take a deep breath”.  A popular 1995 movie is called, Waiting to Exhale.  In that movie, the 4 main characters each reached points in life where they were now relieved that the suspense was over, and they were better able “to exhale”.  So during most of the movie, they were “waiting to exhale” as they were “up in the air” as to where their primary relationships were going.  And by the way, it was a great movie!

As a practitioner who teaches the power and practice of therapeutic breathing, I want to boldly suggest that you never wait to exhale!  You need to breathe, right?  So why not make your breath work well for you?  In a minute or so, your inhalation takes oxygen to your blood through the lungs, and the blood circulates the oxygen all around your body.  Carbon dioxide is picked up by the returning blood, and the process begins again.

At the bottoms of your lungs resides a build-up of residue from urban pollution.  So, while most people take only relatively shallow breaths, all can benefit from deeper breathing and expelling that residue.  To make more room for new air, exhaling is key.  Try this:  pick a note, and sing “haaaaaaaa…” out to the end of your breath.  You will know you have found the very end of your breath when you reflexively gasp as your inhalation.  Do this three times and then return to ignoring your breathing.  Notice how much better you feel.  You may feel a little “high” for a few minutes—that’s oxygen!  When you want to relax, don’t “take a breath”, have an exhale, and then inhale into the lungs that have made room for new air.

Do you want to live alert and energized?  Take charge of your breath.  See what happens.  And don’t wait to exhale!

 

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● 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: Coping With AAAGH!

Tags

Dealing with stress, energy, exhaustion, Gratitude, inner peace, peace within, stress, Stress Management

 © 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Sometimes, you just have One of Those Days, right?  This morning, I had an appointment, then needed to prepare handouts and look great for a professional group meeting.  I felt pushed to get everything together on time, but by dropping the manicure, I did make the meeting on time with all my bits and pieces.  The meeting took surprising turns, yet, there was a lot of interest in my upcoming classes.  Someone even registered right away.  Toward the end of the meeting, my phone signaled silently that my neighbors were ready for me to come by; I took the call, dashing out of the meeting room to start talking.  I told them I could come by in about 45 minutes.  I gave thanks repeatedly, for the goodness of the meeting, and for the new registrant, all the way home.  The repetition of the Thank You was very calming.

Photo by Fotolia

At home, I changed into jeans and went to help the neighbors move.  They gifted me with a carload of garden pots and décor.  I was exhausted from lifting and carrying.  Heading back to my door, I saw the plumbing van.  Within a half hour, I was in full swing as Immediate Past President of the HOA, negotiating settlement of a sewer overflow issue, hiring remediation, planning a hotel for the resident, signing a contract.  I called my husband and asked if, by chance, he would like to go out for dinner?  I was too exhausted for stand and cook—although  I love my own cooking—and I still had writing to do in the evening.  We had a lovely quick dinner nearby, and we toasted to Us with margaritas.

Whew!  So when you have a really full day, loaded with changes, what can you do to manage your stress and not just SCREAM?

1.  Actually, screaming would be good, if you had a pillow and a bathroom to retreat to.  You can actually scream into a pillow and discharge a lot of stress.  Unless someone hears you.  They worry!
2. Keep alert for things you can drop.  I dropped the manicure and just quickly filed my nail tips.  That bought me 40 minutes that I dearly needed.
3. Have a long, slow exhale to the end of your breath.  Imagine any negative rolling right out of you, with your breath.  Then take several slow breaths.  This will shift your metabolism to alkaline, due to the new balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide, relaxing you within 60 seconds.  Cool, huh?
4. Wherever you are, roll those shoulders in a stretching movement, in any direction.  Notice the warmth in your feet?
5. If some of your stress is FEAR of something, gently massage your forefinger.  Notice how your fears seem less urgent.

Do any of these things, and you can beat that sensation of “crazy” on a busy day with a lot of changes.  And scream privately!  It helps.

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● 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: Choices and Botherings

Tags

peace within, Self help, stress

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Hibiscus in the Feng Shui Garden
Photo by Kebba Buckley Button

Today’s UpBeat Living theme is how light our hearts can stay, regardless of what is happening.  We can have deadlines, noisy roommates, lost objects, and a meal overdue, but still stay in a light and pleasant mode.  We have choices as to what we let “bother” us.  If we are determined to feel good and feel happy, when we are solidly centered in our Peace Within, it is hard for any stress to “bother” us.  To illustrate this today, we share a story, author unknown, captured long ago from the great Internet Library of Circulating Stories.  Enjoy, and be light!

This is about an 88-year-old Christian Grandma’s driving experience.  Grandma writes:

Dear Grand-daughter,

The other day I went up to our local Christian book store and saw a ‘Honk if you love Jesus’ bumper sticker .  I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting. So, I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper.  Boy, am I glad I did; what an uplifting experience followed!

I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good he is, and I didn’t notice that the light had changed.   It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn’t honked, I’d never have noticed.  I found that lots of people love Jesus!

While I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, ‘For the love of God!’ ‘Go! Go! Go! Jesus Christ, GO!’ What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus!

Then everyone started honking!  I just leaned out my window and started waving and smiling at all those
loving people.  I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!  There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a sunny beach.

I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air.  I asked my young teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant. He said it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something.  Well, I have never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window
and gave him the good luck sign right back.  My grandson burst out laughing. Why, even he was enjoying this religious experience!!

A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed.

So, grinning, I waved at all my brothers and sisters, and drove on through the intersection.  I noticed that I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared.  So I slowed the car down, leaned out the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away. Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!!

Will write again soon,

Love, Grandma

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● 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: Peaceful World: Day 20 of Season for NonViolence (SNV): Self-Forgiveness

Tags

nonviolence, peace, peace within, SNV

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Illustration by Microsoft

Today, we’re on Day 20 of the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT) Season for NonViolence (SNV).  If you’re aching for more peace in the world, you may be surprised that most of this work begins within each individual.  Within the SNV program of 64 days, we are often invited to rise to a gentler, more compassionate level within ourselves. This is one of those days, with the quality for today being self-forgiveness.  Try the AGNT meditation for today, below, and see if you don’t feel the world soften a bit.  Try the exercise.  Spend 20 minutes considering and writing.  And please consider sending us comments on your results.  Here is AGNT’s Day 20 meditation:

DAY 20 Feb. 18: The thought for today is SELF-FORGIVENESS.  When I judge myself, I tend to believe that who I am is what I have done or not done, what I have or do not have.  I know that who I am is greater than all these things.   I am greater than any mistake I have ever made.  When we get even the slightest glimpse of the unity of life, we realize that sitting in judgment of other people and countries and races, I’m training my mind to sit in judgment of myself.  As I forgive others, I am teaching the mind to respond with forgiveness everywhere, even to the misdeeds and mistakes of my own past.  Practicing self-forgiveness is a foundation for practicing nonviolence.

Today:  I will write an apology letter to myself for anything I have done to myself that I wish I had not, or ways that I have disappointed myself and not fully lived up to my potential.  I’ll mail the letter to myself and when it arrives, I will read it in a quiet place.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (on Amazon.com >Books>Button) and the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (on Amazon.com >Books>Buckley).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● 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: Peaceful World: Day 15 of Season for NonViolence (SNV): Reverence

Tags

inner peace, nonviolence, peace, Peacemaking, SNV

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Illustration by iClipArt

We’re now beginning the third week of the 64-day Season for NonViolence (SNV).  The SNV was created by the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT), as a way of inviting people to develop their consciousness and practice of nonviolent approaches to problem solving.  When we look at peaceful living, we find that much of the process of developing nonviolence actually begins with one’s relationship with self, together with one’s relationship with all Life.

Here is AGNT’s meditation for SNV Day 15:

 

DAY 15 Feb. 13:  The thought for today is REVERENCE.   Reverence for all life is fundamental to Ahimsa; it is the ultimate rationale for nonviolence – for how can one willingly do harm to that for which one has reverence – and towards which one has the love that reverence engenders?

In the main, reverence for life dictates the same sort of behavior as the ethical principle of love. But reverence for life contains within itself the rationale of the commandment to love, and it calls for compassion for all creature life.   –Albert Schweitzer

Reverence is a virtue that prepares us well to belong to one another; it reaches out to those who have given messages of not wishing to belong.  When we approach others with gentle reverence, we bring gifts and share theirs with us.  -Paula Ripple

 

Today:  I open myself up to a feeling of reverence for all forms of life, especially each and every person that I meet during the day.   I’ll take a walk outside and experience the beauty that surrounds me as I BE with the sky, the plants and animals, as well as my brothers and sisters.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (on Amazon.com >Books>Button) and the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (on Amazon.com >Books>Buckley).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● 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 .