A Labor of Love

For those who come to Dr. Sadeghi’s office, it’s nearly impossible to miss the instantly recognizable red and white Love buttons. That’s because they’re everywhere—on the coffee table, reception desk, side tables, even filling a 30-gallon glass bottle at the front door. They’re hard to miss and there’s a reason for that. He wants to send a message that love is the most powerful healing force in existence. It’s everywhere we are and in every situation, but to witness its transformative power, we must choose to step into our loving, moment to moment. Dr. Sadeghi decided to take that step in 1997 when he created the very first Love button.

“I made that button right before I was wheeled in for a biopsy. At that time, I was going through my own healing journey and struggling with the emotional roller coaster that comes with illness,” Dr. Sadeghi shared. “I decided that if I were to give my body the best chance of healing, I had to shift my attention away from all things that were temporary, like my health and future, to the only thing that I felt was constant and eternal: love. The more I chose to be the love I wanted to see in the world, the more my body responded in kind, because I was focused on the one thing that would live on, no matter what my outcome was.”

Going Global

Thousands of Love buttons and 16 years later, Dr. Sadeghi wondered if the simple pin he was inspired to create could serve as a symbol for others to step into their loving on a global scale. He’d already experienced the transformative power of love based on his recovery, but could a world that was politically, financially and emotionally sick recover if each of its human “cells” expressed more love? Perhaps the world didn’t need more food, money, medicine or political diplomacy. It needed more love. In a loving environment, solutions arise organically out of a naturally balanced order. With this intention in mind, Dr. Sadeghi, along with his wife, Dr. Shahrzad (Sherry) Sami created the Love Button Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. While some might see healing the world with love as an arduous or impossible task, Dr. Sami enthusiastically disagrees.

“Everyone is somewhere in the world right now. The key to healing the whole world lies in expressing more love in the part of it that you’re in,” Dr. Sami stressed. “Healing the world is a local responsibility. Every time we reach out to someone we know, and especially those we don’t with a loving action, real energy is exchanged and love goes with them.”

“That loving gesture may cause that person to then reach out to someone else and pay that love forward,” Dr. Sadeghi added. “Even if they don’t, the energetic vibration of both people has just been raised because love was given and received. As our individual frequencies rise, so does the collective frequency of the planet.”

Keeping it Light

Although the mission of the Love Button Foundation is a serious one, the intention was to keep the idea of the movement light. Whether love is being given or received, it feels fantastic and Dr. Sadeghi and Dr. Sami insisted on a website that made participants feel the same way. They wanted visitors to have fun and feel inspired about the power they share every time they step into their loving.

“We wanted a home base where people could come and get excited about the fact that they could be an agent for real change in the world, right where they are and that this journey was going to be fun and transformative for them,” Dr. Sami explained.

The result was www.lovebutton.org, an uplifting and entertaining website that encourages visitors to stop and consciously extend love to those around them. Both the founders believe that as we rush through our day, most people miss many opportunities where they could have expressed love to someone else.

“Only when we stop, can we be truly conscious of what’s going on around us,” Dr. Sadeghi said. “If we’re dashing through our day, we miss the opportunities to love. That’s why we encourage people to Pause And Love. It’s also why we call our supporters, Love button PALs.”

The site is full of fun information about the science of love, how it can be measured energetically, and how it affects our bodies. Visitors will also find inspirational videos about how love heals and unites people. There’s even a blog for PALs to share stories about how they’re spreading the love, complete with photos of Love buttons from their part of the world.

International Effort

In the summer of 2013, Dr. Sadeghi learned that his friend, Stella Levi, was planning a trip to Israel in September. Seeing an opportunity to use love as a healing force in the Middle East region, Dr. Sadeghi asked Stella to be the first international Love button ambassador on her trip. In honor of this undertaking, Stella agreed to design a custom, multi-colored version of the trademark Love button to share with people of all faiths, nationalities and backgrounds.

“My goal was to spread the love not only with people I know, but also to strangers who I would meet along the way, and with a variety of populations in Israel,” Stella shared. “I spent one weekend with an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family in Jerusalem. We spent a whole morning giving Love buttons together at the Western Wall in the old city of Jerusalem. On a different occasion, I went to Nazareth and met with a Palestinian tour guide who graciously showed me the city, and happily helped spread the love.”

For Stella, sharing love in Israel, her birthplace, wasn’t just an honor; it was a responsibility. Filled with gratitude, she sees the trip as a life-changing event.

“It confirmed what I knew before; everyone wants love and peace,” Stella stated. “By letting ourselves, even for a single moment in time, be more loving and kind to one another, we can get a step closer to living in a better world.”

Bringing It Home

The Love Button Foundation has some wonderful events and exciting surprises planned for the future. Be sure to visit the site often for blog updates, ordering new pins and event details. In the meantime, Dr. Sadeghi reminds us that no matter how many challenges the word might face or how big they look, the point of power is always right where we are.

“If we’re all connected, as I believe we are, then the love you express today is felt across the world,” Dr. Sadeghi stressed. “You don’t have to travel to war-torn areas to heal the world with love. If everyone only went as far as their own backyard; that would be enough.”