Healthy Happy Loving Life: Happy (Lite) Holidays

Tags

choices, Christmas, holiday stress, holiday stress tips, less sugar, merry and bright, Reason for the Season, stress, Stress Management

Lite Holidays for You!

©Kebba Buckley Button 2020.  World Rights Reserved.

As you read this, in the U.S., the Holiday ball is rolling fast.  Life sped by Thanksgiving and is crashing forward into full Holiday Mode. Warehouse stores have almost sold out of Christmas décor, themed candy, and gift baskets.  Images of Santa are plastered everywhere, and shopping districts are awash in red and green.  Holiday music is playing frantically in stores and mall parking lots, other than maybe on Sunday mornings.  Decorated trees have sprouted everywhere, including that white one hanging upside down in the famous gallery store.  Poinsettias rim every grocery display, and sugar is in the air, on the menu, and in most commercials.  TV is showing endless specials and old movies on the cultural themes of the season.  People are anxiously surfing the Web and surging through stores in search of the right gifts.  If you love these sights and sounds, by all means, hustle with the bustle and have a great time.  Stand in line for that spiral-cut smoked ham, and send your friends handmade holiday greeting cards and cookies.  The rest of us admire you!

However, if you are overwhelmed by all the commercial holiday stuff, here’s a radical suggestion:  do it “lite”!  Stop, right now, and exhale!  Why not create your own Happy (Lite) Holidays?  Are you an atheist, a Christian turned off by Santa, an adherent of another faith turned off by Santa, or simply a no-commercial-hubbub person?  Then try these simple tips:

1.  Keep it light. Send some gifts and cards with minimum effort, and get it done just as fast and early as possible.  Or just send a holiday email and make a few calls.  Let them know you care.

2.  Stay out of the way of the rolling Holiday ball. Celebrate with your spouse and loved ones,  at home, with what you know you enjoy.  Stock up on food, music, and movies that have nothing to do with Santa, or everything to do with your Holy Days.  Plan to take care of an unfinished creative project, or do that online research you never have time for.  Christians, sift the church calendars for Santa-free Christmas concerts and pageants.  Go sing in a “Messiah” sing-along.  You know how to celebrate the reason for the season.

3.  Eat half the sugar and drink twice the water. Sounds too simple, but this will help keep your mind calm, your metabolism strong, your skin smooth, and your waistline slim.  You will get along better with everyone and enjoy every day more.

You can choose to be happy and in deep satisfaction, anywhere, anytime.  Choose these now.  That’s being Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life^sm!  And whatever your background, may your days be merry and bright!

———————————————

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress solutions expert and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She also 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.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

UpBeat Living: Sick of Santa?

Tags

Christian values, holiday stress, Kebba, Relationships, Santa, stress, UpBeat Living

 

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

Are you over-Santa’d?  Do you see far too many of those white-bearded guys with red suits, in commercials, movies, and TV shows?  Meteorologists on many TV stations even pretend to track Santa as he travels the globe, supposedly delivering gifts to all good people.  His image may have come to us culturally from the Danish “nisse” tradition: little helpful people with peaked red hats.  But the Coca-Cola company created the current image of Santa—red suit, white trim, white beard, black boots, and rosy cheeks–and his cultural presence is now everywhere in the US and many other countries.

 

If you are a Christian, you may be truly baffled as to why anyone would tell the Santa myth to their kids.  What a lot of fuss to keep up with this cultural setup, when the reason for the season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  I know, Jesus was born in the Spring, but this is the time of year when we celebrate His birth, so stick with me for another minute.

 

So what can you do about Santa saturation?  Insulate yourself!  Choose your own Santa-free music, and play it, at home, in the car, and through your earbuds.  Air only your preferred Santa-free movies, and don’t go caroling except with groups that leave out the Santa songs.  Politely decline!  Stay out of the malls until after December 26^th, doing all your ordering online, or next year, before about December 1^st.

 

The worst anti-Christian message of the Santa myth is that Santa is in charge of managing your kids, not you, the parent. Does this sound familiar: “[H]e knows if you’ve been sleeping.  He knows if you’re awake.  He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for Goodness’ sake!”  Wait, isn’t that God?  So parents who teach their kids to be good, so that Santa will bring them gifts, are handing off their parenting to Santa!  Hello?  Does this make sense?  Can we just step back and take a fresh look at this whole Santa thing?  The presents are from loved ones, the late-night cookies are eaten by the parents who’ve stayed up late wrapping gifts, and the tree was decorated entirely by people who care and who the kids know.

 

So if you’re Christian to some degree, let’s sing a round of “It came upon a midnight clear” and then a round of “Oh little town of Bethlehem.”  Let’s thank God for those precious children and the one baby whose birth we celebrate on Christmas.  Thank God for all the good in your life and all the good to come.  Let Santa be completely on his own this Christmas.

 

Happiest holidays from UpBeat Living!  And this year, may there be Peace on Earth.

——————

● 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: Beating Holiday Stress

Tags

choices, energy foods, exhausted, fatigue, fulfilled, holiday stress, stress, stress tips

© 2011 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

In the USA, “The Holidays” broadly means the entire season from before Thanksgiving to after Christmas and New Year’s Day.  This season sweeps through Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, HumanLight, and Ramadan, with Boxing Day on December 26th. This year, The Holidays seemed to start before Halloween: I saw my first red- and green-labeled carton of eggnog around October 25.  In this country’s popular culture, The Holidays are supposed to be a happy, bustling time when people love to buy gifts, decorate seasonally, have large gatherings, play and sing seasonal music, and eat and drink copious quantities of rich and sweet foods.  Yet many feel mildly- to completely stressed during this time.  If you are one of those who get stressed, these tips are for you.

First, simplify.  It’s important to realize The Holiday Season now reaches over almost a 3-month period, so you need a strategy other than trying to ignore it.  What plan have you used for previous holiday seasons?  Write down everything you usually expect from yourself, such as:  buy seasonal candy, put it in seasonal candy dishes in home and office, buy cards and mail, buy gifts for 10 relatives and take or ship, attend 4 parties with special appetizers you made, attend 2 holiday concerts or dance performances, attend 2 on-holiday family dinners, take the kids for a carriage ride around Kierland or Central Park, take holiday photos, post all those activities on FaceBook, feed the homeless at St. Vincent de Paul on Christmas Day, buy larger pants in New Year’s sales.  Whew!  Did you feel energized, or did you feel tired and worn after reading this list?  Now that you have written it all down, try cutting those expectations and events by half.  Now order the gifts and have them shipped.  Use a card service to get the cards out, or email your good wishes, or skip the cards altogether this year.  Take the photos with your phone or your kid’s phone, and post them and your holiday wishes on FaceBook.

Second, take timeouts.  Even if you cut your expectations of yourself, there is a lot of busy activity around you, wherever you go.  It’s a very stimulating time of year, and now it’s a quarter of the year.  It’s like the anti-vacation.  So you need microvacations to see you through.  Take quiet moments in a still area of your home.  Exhale and drop your shoulders, imagining quiet energy moving from your head down to your toes; picture your cells holding onto that quiet.  If you enjoy praying or meditating, take time for those regularly, giving them your full attention.  If you like to read fiction, take two hours at a time to get totally involved in a good novel.  Practice totally letting go of the hustle and bustle around you.

Third, give your body extra support.   Drink extra water between holiday beverages.  Eat fresh fruit, vegetables, and lean protein whenever you have the option; these will strengthen you between sweet and rich holiday meals.  Add ginger to your chicken soup to counter the effects of sugar.  If you can nap, take naps.  Different lengths of naps work for different people, but research has shown that naps as short as 20 minutes can totally refresh you.  Create time to walk, hike, or work out, to flush the toxins and clear your mind.

Fourth, enjoy what nurtures you.  Whatever there is about The Holidays that fills you, uplifts you, or restores you, keep those pieces.  If spending a day with Grandma makes you feel great, be sure to spend a day with Grandma.  If Skyping with your niece or grandchild leaves you joyful all day, make time to be fully present for that.  If walking alone in the snow, or attending Midnight Mass, or journaling, or practicing your guitar, leaves you feeling calm and happy, make those priorities.

Take these tips to heart, and you will beat stress during The Holidays.  Remember, it’s your life, and you are always at choice.  Will you choose to take care of yourself during this season?  It’s up to you.

________________________________________________________________

Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com.

UpBeat Living: Happy (Lite) Holidays

Tags

choices, holiday stress, holiday stress tips, stress, Stress Management

Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM                                                                 ©Kebba Buckley Button 2010.  World Rights Reserved.

As you read this, in the U.S., the Holiday ball is rolling fast.  Warehouse stores have almost sold out of Christmas décor, themed candy, and gift baskets.  Images of Santa are plastered everywhere, and shopping districts are awash in red and green.  Holiday music is playing frantically in stores and mall parking lots, other than on Sunday mornings.  Decorated trees have sprouted everywhere, including that white one hanging upside down in the famous gallery store.  Poinsettias rim every grocery display, and sugar is in the air, on the menu, and in most commercials.  TV is showing endless specials and old movies on the cultural themes of the season.  People are anxiously surfing the Web and surging through stores in search of the right gifts.  If you love these sights and sounds, by all means, hustle with the bustle and have a great time.  Stand in line for that spiral-cut smoked ham, and send your friends handmade holiday greeting cards and cookies.  The rest of us admire you!

However, if you are overwhelmed by all the commercial holiday stuff, here’s a radical suggestion:  do it “lite”!  Stop, right now, and exhale!  Why not create your own Happy (Lite) Holidays?  Are you an atheist, a Christian turned off by Santa, an adherent of another faith turned off by Santa, or simply a no-commercial-hubbub person?  Then try these simple tips:

1.  Keep it light. Send some gifts and cards with minimum effort, and get it done just as fast and early as possible.  Or just send a holiday email and make a few calls.  Let them know you care.

2.  Stay out of the way of the rolling Holiday ball. Celebrate with your spouse and loved ones,  at home, with what you know you enjoy.  Stock up on food, music, and movies that have nothing to do with Santa, or everything to do with your Holy Days.  Plan to take care of an unfinished creative project, or do that online research you never have time for.  Christians, sift the church calendars for Santa-free Christmas concerts and pageants.  Go sing in a “Messiah” sing-along.  You know how to celebrate the reason for the season.

3.  Eat half the sugar and drink twice the water. Sounds too simple, but this will help keep your mind calm, your metabolism strong, your skin smooth, and your waistline slim.  You will get along better with everyone and enjoy every day more.

You can choose to be happy and in deep satisfaction, anywhere, anytime.  Choose these now.  And whatever your background, may your days be merry and bright.

________________________________________________________________________

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management trainer.  Reach her at kebba@kebba.com.