Upbeat Living: Beat Stress with The Serenity Prayer

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Alcoholics Anonymous, peace within, Serenity Prayer, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2016 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Most people would say they have stress, and they need to beat stress; some are even praying The Serenity Prayer.   While many seek peace within, most don’t know the original version of what they think of as The Serenity Prayer.  If they did, many more people would use this Prayer, and more often.

First, here’s the form many people think is the whole prayer:

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

The prayer speaks to claiming your peace within through not trying to change what can’t be changed, through taking action where you can, and through discernment.  The prayer was made famous through 12-Step programs such as Alchoholics Anonymous.  But you don’t need to be a member of such a program to get a quick stress tuneup from it.  Read it through 3 times slowly, to start feeling your whole metabolism relax and start to release stress.

And still, this is only a piece of the complete poem by Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971):

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

As it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right

If I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

And supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.

Amen

The complete poem is more of a complete program for managing our life energies:  accept what is, make change as you can, enjoy what you can, know that challenges grow you, trust God, follow His will, reap the rewards of a happy life.  Are you feeling your peace within rising, and your stress draining, yet?  Are you thinking of putting a copy of the complete piece on your bathroom mirror?  If it moves you, why not?

For those who like scriptures, each of the concepts in the poem refer to specific scriptures, chiefly Proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And lean not on our own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge him,

And he will direct your paths.

 In other words, trust and let it be.

And finally, on a lighter note, we have this modern takeoff, The Senility Prayer (author unknown):

God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked,

The good fortune to run into the ones I do,

And the eyesight to tell the difference.

I hope you chuckled at that one.  So how will you run your life this day?  Screen out what you can’t control, bless your lessons, and enjoy what you can.  Trust and let it be.  And 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 .

Why Worry Is Useless and How to Dump It

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Kebba Buckley Button, peace within, serenity, Serenity Prayer, stress, Stress Management, worry

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

 

 Worrying is popular ! Everyone does it. Everyone is good at it. But worry can cause serious stress symptoms, including damage to the stomach. So why do people keep doing it?

My grandmother worried. She worried about many things, from the smallest personal decisions, such as how to arrange which flowers, to the state of the Presidency, the economy, and world affairs. However, she had a system: she worried on schedule. At a certain time each evening, she told me, she would lie restfully, a small AM radio playing near her ear, and she would worry for about an hour and a half. If some worrisome topic came to her during the day, no problem. She could and would set it aside until it was time to worry.

Most people are not that mentally organized. They worry and stress and fret at any and all hours of the day, and sometimes at night. They cannot always concentrate on a task at hand, because they are distracted by stressful thoughts. I have clients who say they wake up worrying and can’t go back to sleep.

So, how much happier and more successful would you be, if you didn’t worry and stress and fret? How much more would you get done? How much better would you rest at night, and how much less tired would you be during the day? How much less stress relief would you need? Wouldn’t your life cost less and wouldn’t you have more money? You would also be more popular. People enjoy working and socializing with light-hearted people.

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow.  It only saps today of its joy.”

~Leo Buscaglia

Possibly the most famous advice for worry was penned in many versions, by the American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, as a prayer. One version is now widely known as The Serenity Prayer. It asks for the wisdom to discern between things we can or cannot change. If half the things you are worrying about are outside any of your control, are they worth getting stressed about? Make a list of everything you ever worry about, and draw an arrow through the items that you can do nothing about. Is it most of them? Is it half? Now, whatever your belief system or faith system, consider the power of mental boundaries to help you be wisely serene. Can you set aside what is not worth worrying about? If you are a person of faith, can you give those to God, and trust that Someone is in charge?

Consider this early version of Niebuhr’s prayer, from a 1937 Christian student publication:

“Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.”

Is it in your control? If not, set it aside. Call in your serenity, your Peace Within–and live as you were meant to live.

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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 .