As the world spins with endless streams of input, this short excerpt from my recent interview with Jondi Whitis, a master trainer in EFT, offers what I hope is a soothing salve for chronic anxiety. Here, Jondi gives us a gentle reminder that we are in control of ourselves — what we're thinking and what we choose to do about what upsets us. And also that we can be healing agents for ourselves and others. How empowering is that?

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Jondi Whitis' calling is helping others feel better fast. She's a master trainer in EFT, which stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques, otherwise known as “tapping.” In this episode, Jondi talks about what we can do to alleviate chronic anxiety. So many of us are feeling anxious these days because it seems that everything is coming at us all at once and all the time.

To get off that merry-go-round, you need tools that you can access at any time. Jondi says it doesn't matter whether you choose tapping or some other modality. Just find a practitioner you feel safe with, someone who can help you find the truth in what's bothering you. With the right technique for you, you'll have the power to help yourself — and others.

To learn more about Jondi and her work, please visit her website. Also, you could listen to a previous Gale Hill Radio episode that focuses more on tapping. It's episode 27, titled "EFT Trainer Jondi Whitis on Tapping for Emotional Freedom."

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

This is the second of two episodes with Song of the Day creator Sheldon Zoldan, who wrote tributes to musical titans who passed away in 2023. The tributes and featured songs are in chronological order according to the date of each person's passing, and the numbering picks up where Part 1 left off. In the audio, the tributes are separated by original music by sound engineer and musician Mike Villegas. You'll find links to the YouTube videos in the chapters.

21.  Astrud Gilberto, June 5  "Girl From Ipanema"
22. Tony Bennett, July 21  "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"
23. Roger Sprung, July 22  "One Morning in May"
24. Randy Meisner, July 26 "Take It to the Limit"
25. Sinead O’Connor, July 26  "Nothing Compares 2 U"
26. David LaFlamme, Aug. 6  "White Bird"
27. DJ Casper, Aug. 7  "Cha Cha Slide"
28. Sixto Rodriguez, Aug. 8  "Sugar Man"
29. Robbie Robertson,  Aug. 9  "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
30. Ray Hildebrand, Aug. 18  "Hey Paula"
31. Bob Feldman, Aug. 26  "I Want Candy"
32. Jimmy Buffett, Sept. 1  "Margaritaville"
33. Steve Harwell, Sept. 4  "All Star"
34. Gary Wright, Sept. 4  "Dream Weaver"
35. Charlie Robison, Sept. 10  "New Year's Day"
36. Katherine Anderson-Schafner, Sept, 20  "Please Mr. Postman"
37. Terry Kirkman, Sept, 23  "Cherish"
38. Dwight Twilley, Oct. 18  "I'm on Fire"
39. Rudolph Isley, Oct. 11  "It's Your Thing"
40. Jean Knight, Nov. 22  "Mr. Big Stuff"
41. Shane MacGowan, Nov. 30  "Fairytale of New York"
42. Denny Laine, Dec. 5  "Mull of Kintyre"
43. Laura Lynch, Dec. 22  "Pink Toenails"
44. Tommy Smothers, Dec. 26  "Yo-Yo Man"

To receive Sheldon's Song of the Day emails, send a message to [email protected] with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD. 

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Sheldon Zoldan is  the creator of the Song of the Day project, daily music-related stories and yearly tributes to musical titans who passed away. In this episode, we present the first 20 of music greats who left us in 2023, beginning with Jeff Beck.

Most of the links go to YouTube videos, while the others take you to some of Sheldon's once-a-week posts on the website of WGCU, the NPR station in southwest Florida where he lives.

Here is a list of the tributes and featured songs in this episode. They're in chronological order according to the date of each person's passing. In the audio, the tributes are separated by original music created by sound engineer and musician Mike Villegas.

1. Jeff Beck, Jan. 10  "Beck's Bolero"
2. Lisa Marie Presley, Jan. 12  "Lights Out"
3. Robbie Bachman, Jan. 12, and Tim Bachman, April 28 "Roll On Down the Highway"
4. David Crosby, Jan. 18  "Déjà Vu"
5. Barrett Strong Jan 28 "Money (That's What I Want)"
6. Burt Bacharach, Feb. 8 "Walk On By"
7. David Jolicoeur, Feb. 12 "Me Myself and I"
8. Huey “Piano” Smith, Feb. 13 "Rockin' Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu"
9. Wayne Shorter, March 2  "Footprints"
10. Gary Rosington, March 5 "What's Your Name"
11. Jim Gordon, March 13 "Layla"
12. Bobby Caldwell, March 14 "What You Won't Do for Love"
13. Clarence “Fuzzy” Haskins, March 17 "I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everyone Got A Thing"
14. April Stevens, April 17 "Deep Purple"
15. Harry Belafonte, April 25 "Day-O"
16. Gordon Lightfoot, May 1 "If You Could Read My Mind"
17. Pete Brown, May 19  "Sunshine of Your Love"
18. Ed Ames, May 21 "Rag Mop"
19. Tina Turner,  May 24 "Nutbush City Limits"
20. Cynthia Weil, June 1 "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"

Sheldon sends his Song of the Day stories to an email list of subscribers. To get on the list, all you have to do is email [email protected] with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

As the calendar flips to a fresh page, I'm sharing a wish from a dear friend for a light-filled new year filled with goodness and wonderful possibilities. 

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

'Tis the Season for an illuminating storybook, and here's one I definitely recommend: "The Light," a tale compassionately told by Scarlett Lam and vibrantly illustrated by Mindy Lee. 

Published in November 2023, this board book has the potential to be an enduring favorite among kids and all of us who are kids at heart.

You can order a copy at readthelight.com.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Sandra Tjoa teaches Qi Gong and Tai Chi, ancient practices that helped her reclaim her health and have now become an integral part of her daily life. In this episode, she explains how these practices may benefit you.

Chi, also spelled Qi, is life force energy. This energy travels in pathways in the body, but it can become stagnant or stuck due to unresolved emotions. The practices of Tai Chi and Qi Gong focus on the body's energy pathways, helping us loosen stuck energy and open us up to more flow.

Sandra explains all this way better than I do, but at least that's a start. In this episode, she emphasizes the power of the body to heal, and she offers tips for starting your day and decreasing stress. You'll also learn that we actually have five bodies: our physical body, of course, and our mental, emotional, spiritual, and energetic or energy bodies. As Sandra explains, paying attention to the health of the energy body also will support our other bodies, which have energetic aspects as well.

Before she began practicing Qi Gong and Tai Chi, she was not in good shape. As she tells it, she was depressed, sleep deprived, haggard. Now, she's the picture of strength and good health, as you can see from her photo. For the complete story about her health turnaround, please visit her website.

A resident of Nelson, British Columbia, where she lives with her family, Sandra teaches Qi Gong and Tai Chi classes online, where she also conducts month-long healing programs. You can learn more on her site and find her on YouTube, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Best-selling author Tony Robbins wrote about hunger in his latest newsletter on LinkedIn, and he included his own childhood experience with food insecurity. He also shared a decision he made long ago to take action to help solve this worldwide problem. His post is a powerful piece of writing that ended up inspiring a meditation with a message, which I talk about in this episode.

You can follow this link to Robbins' newsletter to learn the outcome of his decision and much more. I recommend it highly.

For more thoughts about inner power, please go to Gale Hill Radio's "The Force is With Us," episode 72 .

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

With all the great dining and sightseeing that we did in Ireland this year, the enjoyable encounters we had with locals may have left the biggest impression on us. At least, that's what we talk about most. So in this episode, I'm sharing a few of them with you. Also, I've put pertinent links in the chapter markers, just in case you'll want them when you plan your next trip to the Emerald Isle. If you go in 2024, maybe we'll see you there.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

For those of us who feel adrift in these seemingly crazy times, here's a daily routine that can get us back on course. This routine serves as a regular reminder to tap into our inner wisdom, and it's incredibly easy and quick to do both first thing in the morning and whenever we feel stressed or off-balance during the day. 

I learned it from my friend Ashley. I'm truly grateful to her for sharing it with me.

Hope you get something useful out of this episode, which is the latest in my Everyday Exuberance series. 

To listen to the other shows in the series, please go to A Happiness Exercise (episode 24), Move Forward with Confidence (32), A Cheerful Start to Your Day (33), Be Our Authentic Selves (36), Focus on Light, Not the Dark (38) and Healthy Conducting (48).

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube; Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.