Healthy Happy Loving Life: Privacy You Want?

Tags

Dealing with stress, energy, Energy therapy, exhausted, Health, privacy, Questions, Stress Management, The life you want

© 2020 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

How much privacy do you want?  We are in a world of surveillance and sharing.  People post health details on Facebook that they tell friends are “shhh– just between us!” Some take photos of their most personal body parts and text those to people they are intimate with, or would like to be.  (Those photos are stored on the Cloud, people!)  Some chat out loud in a coffee shop, and others use only their keyboards. Some keep a dot taped over their laptop camera eye, and some don’t care if there are lurkers.  Some cover the ATM keypad, and some never do.

A popular food delivery service, Doordash, had a data breach a year ago.  They said 4.9 million customers were affected.  Some customers were horrified.  Some cancelled a credit card. Some didn’t care.  In hotels, some go to their room and throw the curtains open.  Others go to the hotel room and carefully close the sheers, and sometimes the blackout panels as well.  Some like a nudist encampment, and some haven’t seen their own skin for years, outside of the shower.

In conversation, some people won’t answer any questions about themselves; they prefer to toss off a light quip, flip the question back to the asker, or simply give a frownsmile of disapproval.  Extroverts may be so delighted to answer that they can’t stop divulging. Seriously HSP–Highly Sensitive People–or introverts will simply stay out of the coffeeshops, gyms, and church coffee hours, thanking God for the plethora of new delivery services.

If you have a new friendship, look for symptoms of the person’s comfort level with privacy. Decide if you are comfortable with short, cryptic conversations until your new friend feels comfortable sharing.  Focus on secondary topics or text witty pieces and beautiful photographs: “Thought you might enjoy this.”  If someone wants to get to know you, be sure they are who they say before you give out details, as they may have an agenda that will harm you later. And it will be too late.  Once data is out there, data is out there.

Privacy:  define your own level to help yourself live happily.  My mission is to help you release your stress, then help you see beyond the “OK” level to an uplifted and expanding level of being Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life (Healthy Happy Loving Life^sm).  That is where you find you are “living in the Flow”, living with ease and joy, and seeing miracles occurring.  Are you in?

———————————————

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management 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

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Light Comments on COVID19 Times

Tags

COVID19, Dealing with stress, Effective living, energy, Energy therapy, exhausted, Health, Overwhelm, Overwhelmed, Questions, Stress Management, The life you want, unstuck, vitality

© 2020 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Not every load is yours

What’s stressing you out during the COVID-19 times?  Sometimes we just have to lighten up, right?  So here are some light comments circulating about this pandemic period.

1.  If I had only known in March that it would be my last time in a restaurant, I would have ordered dessert.
2.   I’m going to stay up on New Year’s Eve this year.  Not to see the  New Year in, but to make sure this one leaves.
3. I still can’t believe people’s survival instincts told them to grab as much toilet paper as possible.
4. Until further notice, the days of the week are now called: thisday, thatday,  otherday, someday, yesterday, today and nextday.
5. They said a mask and gloves were enough to go to the grocery store.  They lied.  Everybody else had clothes on.
6. The dumbest thing I ever purchased was a 2020 dayplanner.
7. When does Season Two of 2020 Start?  I do not like Season One.
8. Keep in mind, even during a pandemic, no matter how much chocolate you eat, your earrings will still fit.
9. The buttons on my jeans have started social distancing from each other.
10. I never thought the comment “I wouldn’t touch him/her/that with a 6-foot pole” would become a national policy, but here we are.
11. Pretty wild how we used to eat birthday cake after someone had just blown on it.  Good times!
12. I’m not adding this year to my age.  I didn’t use it.
13. If you have a phone with a curly cord, stay home:  you’re in a high-risk group.
14. Lockdown can go 4 ways:  you come out a monk, a hunk, a chunk, or a drunk.  CHOOSE WISELY!

In these strange times, just do your best to stay in your best, in Healthy Happy Loving Life^sm!  Are you in?

---

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management 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

Healthy Happy Loving Life: It’s Four Stress-Questions Friday!

Tags

Dealing with stress, Effective living, energy, Energy therapy, exhausted, Four Stress Questions Friday, Health, Overwhelm, Overwhelmed, Questions, Stress Management, The life you want, unstuck, vitality

© 2020 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Shutterstock

Any week, you can “Bring your stress, pain, and fatigue to (my Zoom or) my office– and leave it there!”  Yes, and you can ask questions anytime.  Today, it’s time to answer four questions sent in yesterday.

1.  Will we always have to wear masks?  The Spanish Flu pandemic, of 1918-1920, lasted 2 years and 2 months.  With today’s much-better medical technology and  communications capability, we probably won’t have the COVID-19 that long.  But I think those of us who have lived through this pandemic will always keep a stash of masks in a drawer.  And backup toilet paper.
2. How should I be on Election Day?  Won’t there be violence in the streets? If you were asking how the civil authorities should prepare, I agree they should be prepared for some street activity.  And the authorities will already have specific plans. So that’s out of our hands.  Your best strategy is to stay calm, vote as early as you can, prior to Election Day, and don’t go downtown for any reason that evening.  As you would guess, I’m for the most democracy for the most people with the least strife and the most harmony. I’m holding the vision of peace in the streets.   You can do that also: picture everyone calm and eager to vote pleasantly.  See the streets quiet and peaceful. As the classic song goes, “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.”
3. How do I transfer my own attitude of calm and resilience to others around me?  A friend was taught how to flow with life.  Her mom frequently said, “This too shall pass”, whenever something awful happened.  My friend says she has learned how to be resilient and to flourish.  So, how to transfer that to others?  My friend, you are already doing it!!  People have been picking up on your energy and counting on your steady peacefulness for long years. You are grounded, as so few are.  Just by being who you are, you inspire and calm others.  If you want to do more, pick someone who needs a core of Peace Within, and vividly picture them until you can see them smiling with peace and assurance.  Do it for them every day, or more often if you like.  You may be surprised at how they change.
4. Why does it take so long to manifest what you want? I feel like I partner with God on these things, and it works. But it feels like forever!  This is because God can see absolutely Everything, and we can’t. We don’t know what is coming around the corner, and He does; a traffic light that goes extra long seems frustrating, but then we see a nasty accident ahead and realize the delay saved our life.  We have ideas about what we want to manifest and when.  God absolutely listens to us and wants to bless us. But God’s timing is not our timing because God is working on so many factors behind the scenes.  God is bringing many things to fruition in order to realize the perfect plan for each of us.  Our job is to remain in joyful expectancy, knowing that He wants to and will bless us at the perfect time in the perfect way.  We need to love Him and be ready.

I hope you have enjoyed Four Stress-Questions Friday!  Thanks especially to Paul Taubman, Florence Callendar, C. Winsel, and Jeanine Byers, for submitting your thoughtful questions this week.  My mission is to help you release your pain, then help you see beyond the “OK” level to an uplifted and expanding level of being Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life (Healthy Happy Loving Life^sm).  That is where you find you are “living in the Flow”, living with ease and joy, and seeing miracles occurring.

I would like you to feel as great as you can!  Are you in?

———————————————

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management 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

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Four Questions Friday Coming Up!

Tags

Dealing with stress, Effective living, energy, Energy therapy, exhausted, Health, Overwhelm, Overwhelmed, Questions, Stress Management, The life you want, unstuck, vitality

© 2020 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

© Eric Simard – Fotolia

“Bring your stress, pain, and fatigue to (my Zoom or) my office– and leave it there!”  Variations of that tagline have concluded my self-introductions at networking gatherings for many years.  This year, Zoom has been added for consulting and some forms of energy transformation work.  IRS calls me a “stress management therapist”.  I am both a Masters’ Degree scientist and an ordained minister.  So, I deal with all forms of pain: of the Spirit, Mind, Heart, and Body.  And relationships.  Including your relationship with the Divine.  My mission is to help you release your pain, then help you see beyond the “OK” level to an uplifted and expanding level of being Healthy, Happy, and Loving Life (Healthy Happy Loving Life^sm).  That is where you find you are “living in the Flow”, living with ease and joy, and seeing miracles occurring.

Right now, we are in a time of accelerated living and increasing density of our cities and roadways.  Everything is more stimulating than even several years ago. And now we have a global pandemic that necessitates new rules for how we move around in community and in life.  So what’s bothering you the most?

What’s stressing you out?

So I pause today, from writing normal articles, to asking WHAT YOU WANT: WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE?  And tomorrow will be Four Questions Friday, answering the first 4 questions that are sent to me!

The World is very stressed right now, so don’t judge anything or anyone harshly.  Just do your best to stay in your best, in Healthy Happy Loving Life^sm!  Are you in?  What questions do you have for me?  I would like you to feel as great as you can!

———————————————

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management 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

Healthy Happy Loving Life: Wallet Neuropathy

Tags

choices, energy, exhausted, fulfilled, new word, stress, unstuck, Wallet neuropathy, Walletectomy

© 2020 Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

I love how our language evolves as culture evolves.  It has always been fun speaking the American language, or as some of us call it, Ameriglish.  Oh, you think you speak English?  Just put “Britspeak & Amerispeak” into a search engine, and you will find some great articles that will make you laugh about the differences.  George Bernard Shaw said,

 England and America are two countries separated by the same language.

Just within the American language, there are so many wonderful pronunciations of similar spellings (i.e., dough, rough, slough), and so many different meanings for the apparently same word (i.e., dough and dough).  But it’s even more fun when entirely new words come into being.

I remember my first totally new word.  It showed up in Time Magazine, and everyone was talking about it.  Many were indignant that a new word should be used.  Parents objected, and teens were amused.  It was the late 1960’s, and Time Magazine had put the word “hassle” on the cultural map.  Not “hustle”.  Not “haggle”.  The new word carried a sense of stress, pressure and annoyance.  It was perfect for an accelerating world beginning to recognize its impending Future Shock.  And thanks to author Alvin Toffler, for that best seller and the concurrent entry of that title phrase into our language.

Loving language, I found a British source which documents the use of new words.  Not long ago, Paul McFedries, “The Wordspy”, sent out an article on wallet neuropathy.  Being in mental/physical holistic health, I naturally first thought he was going to talk about people’s spending anxiety in these depleted and uneven economic times.  I expected perhaps a definition based on economic disturbance of the nerves: an emotional stress condition.  But no, even with less money and fewer credit cards, apparently people are getting a physical neuropathy, basically an ongoing nerve irritation, from carrying thick wallets in their back pockets.  Yes, it’s true!  Some people are sitting on their assets and getting a pain in the backside.  The pressure of a wallet in the back pocket can press on the sciatic nerve, down the center of the buttock, deep in the muscle layers.  Symptoms may include discomforts or numbness, all the way to the ankle or foot. This can be not only be a pain but also a hassle.  The good news is that a walletectomy, a complete removal of the wallet from the back pocket, is the complete course of therapy.  And now there are specially shaped wallets designed to go in the front pockets.

Other names for this condition include:  wallet neuritis, wallet sciatica, fat wallet syndrome, hip-pocket syndrome, and even McFedries’ favorite: credit carditis.  Those who carry their wallets in their back pockets should consider moving the wallet to a front pocket, at least when driving or sitting for other reasons.  I know it’s a hassle, but it’s that or the complete walletectomy. And if you chuckled at this article, you are well in the realm of:  Healthy Happy Loving Loving Life^sm!

———————————————

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management 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

Healthy Happy Loving Life: 5 Tools for When You Are Crashing

Tags

Breakdown, Crashing, Dealing with stress, Effective living, energy, Energy therapy, exhausted, Health, Overwhelm, Overwhelmed, Stress Management, The life you want, unstuck, vitality

© 2020 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Feeling overwhelmed?

We are living in a stressed-out society currently, and each of us needs to have some tools to deal with that.  Here are 5 of my top immediate tools, for when stress is getting to you so badly that you think you may crash. Or fold. Or can’t go on.  Or collapse.  Or scream.  Or make big mistakes with loved ones. 

At one time, I was President of my HOA, and one day I received some strange news:  our HOA Community Manager had walked off the job. And he did not resign or say goodbye.  And he destroyed all his Sent Mail.  And he left no notes.  And it turned out he had been lying about things that were done and not done.  I had noticed this guy apparently in melt-down, or on drugs perhaps, interacting unevenly.  But I waited to say anything to his company, because… well, sometimes you hope they’ll rectify their own situation.  But sometimes, he talked so fast you could hardly make out what he was saying.  He gave different specifics on work orders that would have had one set of facts.  Finally, he walked off the job and has not been heard from.  But what if he had had the tools to prevent going into breakdown?  Don’t you be this guy!

What’s stressing you out?

These are the tools to use right away, when you’re feeling out of control.  Steps 2-5 are neurobiology and metabolic support.

1.  DECIDE if you want to be in control and move through this sanely.
2.  EXHALE every bad thought down the front of your body and out through your toes.  Don’t worry about the inhale– it will come.  Repeat as needed.
3. TAKE EMERGENCY HOMEOPATHIC DROPS, such as the Bach Flower product, “Rescue Remedy”.  It comes in a spray, drops, or pastilles.  Take it every half hour if needed.  Have some on hand for bad days and terrible days.
4. HOLD YOUR CENTER PALMS.  This calms your central nervous system and allows you to feel sane again.
5. AVOID SUGARS, CARBS, ALCOHOL, AND DRUGS until you feel much better.  These are all false friends when you are stressed.

Now TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION.   After you have taken Steps 1-5, of course, you’ll want to think what needs to be done to change your situation.  Start brainstorming with yourself, and make a lot of notes; then turn these into priorities. You may want to call someone for prayer or Go(o)d Thoughts or professional counseling.  You may want to call your attorney.  Or you may decide it has simply been a rough day, and a long shower will help greatly.  Only you can make this call.

The World is very stressed right now, so don’t judge yourself harshly.  When you’re falling apart, do these things to get back into the realm of Healthy Happy Loving Loving Life^sm!  Are you in?  Got any questions?  I would like you to feel as great as you can!

———————————————

Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management 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: Cooling Foods and Drinks for Hot Days (Not Always What You Think)

Tags

Effective living, energy, energy foods, exhausted, fatigue, Feeling energized, heat stress, stress, Stress Management, Summer stress

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

 

Old Mission San Juan Capistrano
© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M. World Rights Reserved.

Is it blazing hot and really dry where you live?  Yet life can be beautiful in these conditions.  I want you to thrive all the time.  In the Summer heat, that can be challenging.  But you’ll be up for it if you’ve read all 3 of my summer thriving articles.  This is the third.

 

In the last 2 articles on dealing with the hottest Summer days, I covered :

• – Protecting your body and skin
• – Getting enough rest, and
• – How to strategize to have the most energy you can

 

In this article, I offer ideas on how to eat– and drink– cool to keep cool!  This is not always the cold foods you would think.  And it’s not always the sweet, icy, and alcoholic drinks you might think of, to cool you off.  Follow these three tips to switch what you swallow, to feel your best:

 

1.  Stay hydrated!  Drink filtered water, that is, water with the chlorine removed.  Do not pay for an expensive water-conversion system to alter the water molecules (which we’ll discuss in another article), without first removing the chlorine.  Chlorine is a poison to microorganisms (germs) which is the exact reason they put it in the public water supply.  Your body doesn’t need it, and it’s bad for you.

A simple table-top carbon-filter pitcher will filter out the chlorine, fluoride, and other bad-tasting elements of tap water.  You may find this water more refreshing if you keep it in the refrigerator.  You may also want to ask your local health food store about mineral drops to add to filtered water.  If your body is low on minerals, the drops added to your beverages will bring your stamina up the same day, or sooner.

Water is the most hydrating liquid you can drink.  If you hate plain water, try adding a little cherry juice concentrate, which will also give you a few carbs, potassium, and anti-inflammatory compounds.  If you’re hiking or working outside, you may enjoy half water and half organic apple juice, which again will provide a few carbs and a lot of potassium.

If you will be working or exercising outdoors a lot, do eat salty snacks!  They’ll make you thirsty and keep you from losing too much of your body’s moisture through sweat.  Check with your doctor about your ideal personal salt balance.

 

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

– Thomas A. Edison

 

 

2. Avoid sugary foods and drinks, and alcohol!  These will make you more thirsty and tired after the initial refreshing sensation.  Avoid all artificial sweeteners (which we’ll discuss in a future article), going for fruit juices and concentrates as flavors.  Anything with sugar, alcohol, or caffeine will give you a little boost, then put the squeeze on your kidneys.  Alcohol is, for some purposes, a super sugar.  So limit that, plus all refined sugars and caffeine, when you’re hot.  The decaf coffee drinks still are loaded with antioxidants, so you still will get a boost, but a healthy one.

 

3. Set your goal to get the most energy out of whatever you swallow.  Think of it this way: part of the art of eating well and healthfully in the hottest times of summer is having quick food to grab.  Because you and your family will often come home tired on blasting hot days, you’ll be grateful to yourself for keeping healthy cool foods ready to eat.  Some of these could be:  celery sticks, jicama sticks, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, cherries, berries, grapes, bananas, pineapple chunks, dates, peaches, nectarines, yogurts, roasted chicken (available at your grocery store), pan-broiled salmon (you made it last night and chilled it), hard-boiled eggs, boiled organic potato chunks, cans of organic beans or chick peas, and raw almonds or cashews.

You might call this collection, “the fastest slow food you can get”.  Your grocery store now has trays of veggies, trays of fruits, prepared chicken, and even heat-and-eat ribs.  There are salads ready-to-go and salad kits in bags. Green salad is your friend, and as light greens go, Romaine lettuce is the most energizing.  It’s the lettuce in every “Caesar Salad”, prepared or in a kit.  As dark greens go, kale is the star of the nutritional show. Have a large dark green salad for dinner almost every night, with pieces of potato, avocado, and chicken.  Topped with your favorite dressing, it’s a quick and restorative meal.  You’ll feel alert and clear-minded all evening, and then you’ll sleep well.

Can you have great days and wonderful relationships in the desert summer season?  Absolutely, you can.  Eat well for the weather, follow the other tips in this series, and you will sail triumphantly through the hot season!

________________________________________________________________

● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and 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: How You Can Still Feel Great When the Summer Heat is Blazing

Tags

energy, exhausted, fatigue, Feeling energized, heat, heat stress, heat stress tips, UpBeat Living, vitality

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

Desert Botanical Garden
Chihuly Glass Yucca Sculptures
(c) 2014 Kebba Buckley Button

 

Last time, I covered the defensive basics of protecting yourself from the hottest days of Summer:

• – Your body needs to get out of the heat
• – Your skin needs extra protection
• – You need to get enough sleep and general rest.

In Phoenix, our highs will be 105 degrees and up, for most of the next 8 weeks.  In Delaware, Denver, and Desert Hot Springs, it may only rise into the 90’s, but the humidity can be 30%.  It’s sticky.  You’re slimy. You can’t think or get motivated.  So how on Earth can you keep your energy and attitude up?

Here are easy strategies for staying upbeat and energized, thriving rather than just surviving, when the weather is searing.   You can do this!   Mall shopping is obvious, but what if you don’t want to shop?

1.  Use the cool hours to stoke your energy for the day. It’s coolest around 4 am, depending on how urban your area is.  The sun rises a bit after 5 in midsummer, so take advantage!  Run errands before 10 am and after dark.  Use 24-hour grocery stores. Play tennis at 5 am or 10 pm.  In Phoenix, visit the Desert Botanical Garden, open at 7 am, but for members, now open at 6 am Wednesday and Sunday.  The DBG is also now open until 8 at night, and the property is much cooler than the surrounding city. Phoenix City parks are open until 11 pm.  Try moonlight hikes, such as the Sierra Club’s monthly full moon hikes.

Schedule runs, workouts, picnics and hikes as close to daybreak as you can.  Even your dog would rather go out early. The air will be 30 degrees cooler than later in the day, and you can be active and even enjoy it.  Also, do your yard work or gardening at sunrise, while it’s cool.  Then plan other outdoor chores according to when your yard, or the activity area, will be in shadow; this may be after 4 pm.  Sun-sensitive walkers can use the hallways at malls as early as 7 am, and then stay for coffee.  And yes, you can use MeetUp to find a walking group, or form your own.  Stack your day like this, and you’ll be surprised at how much better you feel all summer.

2.  Missed the early morning coolness?  Go to the air-conditioned comfort of entertainment.  Shopping malls, movie theaters, and indoor ice skating rinks are waiting for you.  Many malls now have indoor playgrounds for your kids, and you can sit with your iPad while your kids play safely. 

If you like water fun, remember the City parks systems have swimming pools.  Also, many resorts have “day use” for their pools complexes, with water slides and cabanas—a new generation of high-end water park, with towels provided.  There is even poolside food and beverage service.  Just remember your sunscreen and re-apply often!

 

If you saw a heat wave, would you wave back?

~Steven Wright

3.  Try a change of location. Feeling the need for a re-set?  Go to a town or campsite at a higher elevation, to a lake or to a coast, and take a cool climate break for a day or three or longer.  This will give your metabolism, your brain, and your emotions a time-out.  You’ll get a fresh start on your return.

4.  Keep your attitude and activities fresh. The most damaging aspect of the desert heat, for some, is the tendency for the brain cells to bake until they don’t work well.  With heat stress, you can lose your concentration quickly, then your attitude, and then your enthusiasm for anything at all.  Filled with heat-blahs, you can make mistakes with people and actually damage relationships.  So resolve that you’ll stay as positive and perky as you possibly can.  Please, do not get sucked into conversations about how hot it is!  This will increase your sensation of being hot.  Ignore the comments or say something cheery like, “Yes, it’s almost like Phoenix in the summertime!”  Then talk about fun things you have been doing.

Novelty will help you stay alert and enthusiastic about life.  Do things differently.  Have you been to all your local art museums and galleries?   Round up friends to go try a new restaurant, or the dining room of a cooking school.  Go to summer concerts and plays in locales like Sedona and Laguna Beach.  Go to any ski town, ride the ski lift, and take photos. Visit Santa Fe on Labor Day weekend for the Arts Festival; you’ll need your down vest after sunset.  Got other ideas?  I would love to hear them.

Keep it cool and keep it fresh, and you’ll have your best summer ever, so far!

Next time:  how to eat to stay cool.

________________________________________________________________

● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and 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: Tips for Hot Summer Thriving

Tags

Eating, Effective living, energy, energy foods, exhausted, fatigue, Feeling energized, heat, heat stress, heat stress tips, hot days, Kebba, stress, summer stress tips, The life you want

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, M.S., O.M.  World Rights Reserved.

Yikes!  It hit 110 degrees today in Phoenix!  Summer is our weather-stress season, like winter is in cooler areas.  In the Summer heat where you live, have you felt great today?  Or were you hot, tired, and fog-brained?  Maybe even a little sick?  So could you use some expert heat-stress tips?

Feeling good, being well, and being productive, can be challenging in weather like this.  But you can feel great and thrive during even our desert summers, if you take these tips to heart:

1.  Get out of the heat. Do get 15 minutes of sun on your hands and face each day, for your body to produce enough Vitamin D. But you can get that while driving to an errand. The rest of the time, get out of the sun or wear sunscreen and sleeves.  And don’t stop to think in the full sun!  Adjust that grocery list before you go out the front door!

If you love to be outside, you can now buy special sun-blocking clothes from travel companies. You can get shirts designed to provide SPF 50 or higher, plus broad-brimmed hats with mesh-side crowns for through-flow of air. More difficult to find is the safari hat with its own built-in fan, but they are great for hiking. Cooling neck scarves are now widely available. Soak them to activate the gel inside, and store them in the frij between wearings.  Water bottles, with a battery-operated personal fan attached, are amusing and do actually help you keep cooler.

If you get too much heat, you’ll generally know it. But if people tell you your face is bright red, this is not good.  If your skin is totally dry, or if you feel nauseated or are vomiting, or if you feel totally drained and confused, these are clues you have heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Get to a cool, dim place, put a cool, damp cloth on your forehead, and try to drink water (with the chlorine filtered out).  Remember:

Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.

~ Rudyard Kipling

2.  Protect your skin. If you don’t want to cover it, at least wear some sunscreen. There are new generations of sunscreen in clear or opaque forms, or colored to function as makeup foundation. Many moisturizers and makeup products contain SPF 15 or higher for day use. Powdered mineral-based foundation makeups provide non-chemical SPF 15. If you’re wild to have tan skin, and you weren’t born with it, check out spray tanning or tanning moisturizers. Be aware that these do not provide sun protection, however, and skin cancer is a concern.  And remember to drink water to hydrate your skin. Support your skin by also eating foods that can help it stay moist and young-looking: fresh fruits, avocados, and dark greens like kale and baby romaine.  Get the organic versions if you can, and you’ll have more energy.

3.  Use common sense. Rest if you need to. Plan extra time to get enough sleep every day.  Nap if you need to.  And focus on thriving, throughout the month.

Next time: Keeping your energy up when it’s over 100!

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert and 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)             

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UpBeat Living: The UpBeat Living Energy Equation(sm)

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at choice, Effective living, energy, exhausted, Feeling energized, Health, Kebba, Negative stress, Positive stress, stress, Stress Management

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Microsoft

Today, there are two take-home messages:  using the word “stress” to mean “focus”, and using the UpBeat Living Energy Equation(sm).  Enjoy!

1.  Use the Word “Stress” for Focus

When people talk about “having stress,” sometimes they mean causes and sometimes they mean effects. For example: people say they “have stress” when they mean they have too much to do.  Other people say they “have stress” when they mean they have headaches or other physical results of their reactions to having too much to do.  So, some people are telling you about conditions that could cause stress, and some people are describing the symptoms in their bodies. It’s certainly valid to say you have too much to do, or any other situation you don’t like.  However, it adds to your confusion and therefore to your stress, to throw causes, choices,and results all into the mental bucket labelled “stress.” I want you to clear your mind by changing the way you use this word “stress” now. Think of what you want to  “stress,” emphasize, or “focus on,” in your life. Think of people saying, “The Mayor gave a speech today, and he stressed how important it is that we improve the quality of  downtown lifestyle.” In this example, the Mayor put emphasis on a topic.  He made it important.

So how can you imitate that?  What do you want to make important?  How do you want your life to be? Do you want to spend your life responding to annoyances? To Discover The Secret Energized You, it is vital that you become an Energy Manager in your life instead of managing the stress around you.

2.  Live By the UpBeat Living Energy Equation^sm

Now that you are focusing and emphasizing, you’ll find The UpBeat Living Energy Formula is simple yet powerful:   ADD POSITIVE STRESS TO GET MORE ENERGY, AND ADD NEGATIVE STRESS TO GET LESS ENERGY.  We have less overall energy with more negatives in our day and more overall energy by adding positives to our days and our lives. Negative stress makes us tired, and positive stress gives us energy.  So: what are some positives you could add to your life?

If you aren’t convinced yet, that stress can create either disease or wellness, here are some of the many potential negative health effects of negative stress, if it is allowed to go uncontrolled for too long:  mental distress,loss of concentration, depression, crabbiness, emotional outbursts, physical pains, illnesses, aging, shorter lifespan, and even death.

One emotion that has been proven seriously damaging to our health is anger. In biomedical studies announced in 1995, The Heartmath Institute learned that persons who hold an angry thought of their choosing for only five minutes have seven nervous system factors depressed for six hours. The factors are functions of a part of the nervous system which controls the body’s immune system. Therefore, we know anger damages the immune system. And how many of us, when we have a really hot, angry thought going, limit ourselves to only five minutes?

It is vital that we learn to see things differently and respond differently, or learn to discharge anger. Some simple discharge techniques will be covered later in this series.  You may be surprised at how enjoyable these methods can be.

Consider journalling out your thoughts about the types of stress causes and effects you have in your life.  What’s going on for you, and what are you focusing on?   It’s your life.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You, and the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core.  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 .