Author Archives: Reino Gevers

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About Reino Gevers

Author, mentor and trainer

Camino: Persistence

The hardest part of a long walk is the last stretch. You feel you are close to your goal, yet the path seemingly continues forever. Energy starts sagging, doubts creep in. You go through an emotional roller-coaster.  

We are capable of so much more than what our mind wants to make us believe.  Most people give-up just before reaching the last horizon to the breakthrough. What makes the difference between the mediocre and the achiever is the pursuance of a dream or vision with persistence.  There are voices all around questioning your dream, often from those people closest to you. This is the litmus test: Don’t be deterred. Stay true to your dream. Keep walking. Picture  that goal with absolute clarity. 

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Camino Santiago: Problems or just difficulties? 

Some years ago I met a fellow pilgrim from the USA who told me about the big differences he saw between problems and difficulties in life. A good question to ponder about:

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Walking on Edge: A Pilgrimage to Santiagogoo.gl/D2Tcec

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Camino Primitivo: Planning with flexibility

When you are planning to climb a high mountain, preparation is everything. No wonder all the guide books warn pilgrims to be mentally and physically prepared. You need to check the weather report, take enough food and water and at the same time be open to changing your plan at the last minute. When you reach the summit the views are breathtaking, but if you procrastinate too long you could find yourself exposed to subzero temperatures.

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Day Five: Go lean to go far

When walking  between 20-25 kilometres per day on the Camino you appreciate carrying as little as possible in your back pack. You have to go lean to go far which applies very much to life as well. The Hospitales Route or Hospital Route which we crossed yesterday is tough and called that because during the Middle Ages there were several hospitals on the mountain where ailing pilgrims were nursed. 

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Camino Day Four. Living Life

 Day four of our walk on the Camino de Santiago. We left the mountain village of La Espina this morning. A pilgrim wrote on a marker stone: ”You don’t choose a life. You live one.” It got me thinking. Happiness has so much to do with Being rather than Wanting. And, Being for me is opening yourself to the miracles of the moment. In the daily treadmill of distractions pulling at us from all sides we miss the magic.

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The Camino: An analogy of life

The Camino experience is an anology of life – a crash course in self-development. Each day is a lesson in life. On the second day of our 21.5 km walk in the Asturian countryside of steep mountains and rolling green countryside, we had our ups-and-downs. Watch our video we took near the town of Grado:

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First day Camino: Taking it slow

On the first day of the Camino it is so important to go slow and find the right rhythm. Its about feeling into the body and mind, especially if you know you will be walking a couple of weeks.

There is a saying that if you dont approach the Path with humility the Path will humble you. So here is a short video from my wife Alyce and myself while walking 12.5 kilometres from Oviedo to the small village of Escamplero on our first day:

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Time out: Why a pilgrimage?

Next week I will be leaving for my ninth walk on the Camino de Santiago. Its become an annual must-do-event because I am convinced that such a time-out period is essential in boosting my energy, my creativity and general feeling of well-being.

IMG_3577In our modern world our energies are constantly being depleted by countless distractions that make us forget who we are and what soul purpose we have. Worse still: We imitate “role models” hyped by mass media, making us look foolishly unauthentic.

The tradition of walking the Camino is many centuries old. In the Middle Ages, when life was cheap and short, people had a deeply ingrained fear of burning in the fires of hell in the after life. The best possible way of gaining redemption was in walking the Camino.

Today thousands of people are rediscovering the Camino as a perfect analogy of life and a fast-track course in self-development.  Here are only some of the lessons I learned on the Camino:

  • The less weight you carry, the easier your walk
  • The ups-and-downs are cyclical like the ups and downs of life
  • If you get lost you always find someone to help you
  • Be open for the miraculous often hidden in the common

Never mind the enormous health benefits. I’ve noticed that walking between 20-25 kilometers a day not only detoxes the body but also the mind. It is truly “walking things off” and getting rid of the clutter, opening the channels and the senses of hearing, smell, touch and sight.

I will keep you posted on this site.

Reino Gevers – Mentor for Leaders and Achievers – Your Health Matters

Awakening the Fire Within – key principles of health and success. Enrolling now will give you a 25 per cent discount.

NEW RELEASE: “Walking on Edge – A Pilgrimage to Santiago” available both in Kindle and paperback.

http://www.reinogevers.com

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Feeling stressed out?

Mankind is living in its best era yet, experiencing better health, peace and higher standard of living than all generations before. So why do so many people suffer from stress and chronic fatigue?  Has the “comfortable” life made us less resilient? Other generations experienced war, famine, disease and all sorts of challenges that we do not have to deal with.

Businessman pushing hard against falling deck of domino tilesMy take on this is that stress is not really the problem but that a host of factors come into play, especially the lack of recuperation in today’s fast track world. Here are some tips to make you more resilient in riding the storm during those tough times. We cannot avoid stress. It is part of life, but we can learn to deal with stressful situations differently.

 

  • Body movement: When you are under stress your body is flooded with a stress hormone called cortisol. The more cortisol in your system, the more your adrenal glands on the kidneys become fatigued. Try body arts that relax you both mentally and physically and bring your entire body metabolism into balance. Yoga, taiji, qi gong, pilates and meditation are ancient proven methods that work. But even a gentle walk in nature and jogging at a gentle pace will help bring down your stress level.
  • Eating good foods:  Too much sugar and salts in processed foods is wreaking havoc in your body. White sugars rob the body of phosphates which are vitally important in almost every intra-cellular reaction. Too much salt interferes with the natural absorption of water in the body, causing constipation, accumulation of toxins and higher blood pressure. You can’t go wrong with a good mixture of fresh seasonal vegetables and fruit. The supplement spirulina is loaded with beta carotene, iron, magnesium and other trace materials which your body really needs during times of stress.
  • Healing rituals: When everything around us appears to be in disarray or collapse a ritual can restore balance and sense of belonging and connection. It could be a religious prayer, the lighting of a candle, a meditation or any other regularly performed daily action at a certain time or place of the day. Rituals have been part of human life and social interaction since the dawn of mankind but we seem to have forgotten the significance of them in the rat-race of modern times.
  • Friends and family: A typical symptom of burnout caused by stress is the withdrawal from social interaction. We are social animals and need to talk and interact with our fellow human beings, who give us important feedback, empathy, sense of meaning and comfort. Sharing and volunteering your help for a non-profit organisation, church, neighborhood initiative or any other group that serves a higher purpose often brings you “back to earth”.

If you can learn to ride the storm, change can positively enrich your life in many ways. The challenge lies in dealing with those defining moments of transition from a position of strength and power. During tough times we more than ever need time for recuperation, a time out and activities or hobbies that take the mind away from obsessive worry.

Reino Gevers – Mentor for Leaders and Achievers – Your Health Matters

Awakening the Fire Within – key principles of health and success. Enrolling now will give you a 25 per cent discount.

NEW RELEASE: “Walking on Edge – A Pilgrimage to Santiago” available both in Kindle and paperback.

http://www.reinogevers.com

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Filed under body arts, cortisol, cortisol effects, exercise mental health, happiness research, longevity, meditation, personal choice and happiness

Flying cars and plastic hearts

Could anyone have predicted in the world of 1997 the profound effects that social media and the digital revolution would have on the world of today? Then think ahead of what our world might look like in two decades.

flying carsSome years from now it will be quite normal to have flying electric cars as a mode of transportation. Food might be grown in greenhouses in city skyscrapers and human organs and body parts produced by 4D technology.

Technological revolutions always have cataclysmic effects on whole industry sectors with winners and losers on both ends. But it also changes society on many levels, the way we live, our relationships and state of mind.

Is it something to embrace or something to be afraid of? Depending on your mindset it could be either of the two, depending on your willingness to adapt. Do you accept the inevitability of certain changes as an opportunity or do you prefer to reject anything that you perceive as a threat to the status quo?

The point is that it is an inevitability of life that nothing remains static and that change is part of life like the seasonal changes of the year. Life is an a constant state of flux and evolution. Those species that accept the change and adapt to the new situation the fastest are the ones that survive.

We humans are very much animals of habit.  How we exercise, the foods we eat, where we work or live and in what relationships we remain committed to, is mostly determined by habit. Even if we know on a rational level that some of those habits are not doing us any good.

The choice is simple: Do you bear with the pain in an increasingly difficult comfort zone of the status quo or do you take on the pain that comes with change and adaption to new circumstances?

Embracing change is embracing opportunity of growth,  constant learning, self-development and evolution of human spirit. So lets go for it!

Reino Gevers – Mentor for Leaders and Achievers – Your Health Matters

Awakening the Fire Within – key principles of health and success. Enrolling now will give you a 25 per cent discount.

NEW RELEASE: “Walking on Edge – A Pilgrimage to Santiago” available both in Kindle and paperback.

http://www.reinogevers.com

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