Author Archives: Reino Gevers

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About Reino Gevers

Author, mentor and trainer

Thoughts about cancer

Quantum healing energyAny person who has been diagnosed with cancer will tell you that it strikes you like a thunderbolt, causing a paradigm shift in more ways than one. I have lost close family members and many dear friends to cancer, most of them in the prime of their lives. The disease is a scourge of our time and it is hitting more younger people and children than ever before.

Cancer is described as the uncontrolled growth of cells from normal tissue. The body has a defence system that maintains a state of dynamic equilibrium in the body. A disturbance of this equilibrium can be caused by chemicals, radiation, tobacco, a diet of mainly processed foods but also drugs, a high stress level and chemicals used to treat cancer. There are over 200 different cancers known to occur in humans.

There is no easy answer as to why some people are affected and others not. Statistically your risk factor is increased if you live mainly on processed foods, smoked most of your life or had a family member somewhere down the line, who had cancer.

But why do some people contract lung cancer, who have never smoked in their lives or are diagnosed with cancer while seemingly doing everything right to minimise the risk – from exercising regularly to eating healthy foods. There is no plausible answer. Every individual and every body reacts differently to the exterior and internal risk factors. There are many imponderables and cancer is perhaps one of the least understood diseases of our time.

The fact is that we live in an age where all of us and the planet itself is experiencing an unprecedented exposure to toxins that poison our air, water, earth and especially our food.

In addition, during the past two decades we have been inundated with gadgets causing electrosmog such as cell phones, microwave ovens and compact fluorescent light bulbs that interfere with the natural electromagnetic field of the human body.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified in 2011 mobile phone radiation as Group 2B – possibly carcinogenic. That means that there “could be some risk” of carcinogenicity. A lot of additional research into the long-term, heavy use of mobile phones needs to be conducted.

Clearly one part of cancer therapy is that we need to change or lifestyle and understand the way nature works. Modern medicine seems to take a one-track approach by “fighting” cancer with a cocktail of chemicals, dating back to 19th century Louis Pasteur’s theory that a cure of disease could only be achieved by destroying alien germs. His opponent Antoine Bechamp, in bitter rivalry with Pasteur at the time, believed that living entities called “microzymes” created bacteria in response to host and environmental factors. He claimed that bacteria could not invade a healthy host. Sadly Pasteur’s theory gained widespread acceptance in the scientific community with Bechamp’s thesis only recently returning from obscurity.

One clue in fighting cancer, is to keep the body’s natural immune system strong. Cells need a plentiful supply of fresh produce, harvested from good soils that can provide the essential nutrients to keep the body’s 70 billion cells in a natural equilibrium.

I am currently reading a fascinating book: “Healing – the GersonWay” which goes into much more detail on the topics discussed in this blog. The book outlines that an increasingly denatured, nutritionally empty, toxic modern diet is the main cause of today’s worsening health crisis. The Gerson Therapy puts particular emphasis on restoring proper functioning of the liver, which plays a crucial role in the detoxification of the body and restoring natural physiological activities.

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Life´s a wave!

Alyce has some interesting thoughts on happiness and what can motivate employees

alyce gevers's avataralycegevers's Blog

I would like to start this morning with a quote from John Lennon:

When I was 5 years old, my mother always

told me that happiness was the key to life.

When I went to school, they asked me

what I wanted to be when I grew up. I

wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t

understand the assignment, and I told them

they didn’t understand life.

Are you happy?

I think these words from John Lennon are true for each and every one of us.  Who doesn´t want to be happy?  But for most of us, we´ve been trying to keep our head above water for so long, that we´ve forgotten how much we love to swim!

Have we fallen into the trap of believing that happiness is a luxury?

Do you subconsciously believe that happiness is reserved for the privileged or only to be had at great…

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What motivates employees?

Reino Gevers's avatarReinosBlog

There is a saying that at least every second worker is demotivated and has half his foot out of the door, looking for another job or with his mind on “automatic” in doing only those tasks that need to be done.

Employees often cite the reasons as having to deal with an annoying boss, a low salary, an uncomfortable work space, or stupid rules. Frederick Herzberg, Distinguished Professor of Management at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is quoted as saying that even if managed brilliantly, most employees are still not motivated to work much harder or smarter.

“People are motivated, instead, by interesting work, challenge, and increasing responsibility. These intrinsic factors answer people’s deep-seated need for growth and achievement,” Herzberg is quoted as saying.

In our globalized market place there are fewer and fewer jobs out there that really fulfill basic human needs. There is no room for individual…

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What motivates employees?

There is a saying that at least every second worker is demotivated and has half his foot out of the door, looking for another job or with his mind on “automatic” in doing only those tasks that need to be done.

Employees often cite the reasons as having to deal with an annoying boss, a low salary, an uncomfortable work space, or stupid rules. Frederick Herzberg, Distinguished Professor of Management at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is quoted as saying that even if managed brilliantly, most employees are still not motivated to work much harder or smarter.

“People are motivated, instead, by interesting work, challenge, and increasing responsibility. These intrinsic factors answer people’s deep-seated need for growth and achievement,” Herzberg is quoted as saying.

In our globalized market place there are fewer and fewer jobs out there that really fulfill basic human needs. There is no room for individual needs and growth potential. Even in formerly creative media jobs, employees are expected to conform to standardized “handbook procedures”. The result: People are becoming emotionally drained and burned out because they feel they are not being appreciated for who they are as human beings with soul needs.

Ygeneration

The “Y” generation of employees, those born between 1988-1994, are regarded as sophisticated, tech-savvy and immune to many of the “loyalty” values of their parents. They not only grew up with it all, they’ve seen it all and been exposed to it all since early childhood. Which means they are no longer willing to give full loyalty to a company, knowing they could be out on the street with the next recession or the next restructuring wave. They’ve seen mothers or fathers having sacrificed a lot of private happiness for a job, that has in the end left them “burned out”, cynical and bitter.

Of primary importance to the talented Y generation scouting the job market are values such as:

– Does the company go in sync with my own value system?

– Does it offer me room for personal growth, responsibility and honing of my talents?

– Do I feel comfortable and happy with the people around me at the workplace?

– Does it leave me enough time and energy to spend with my loved ones?

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Finding real nourishment

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We just had a wonderful workshop on the “Earth” Element. It comes at a good time here in the northern hemisphere with farmers bringing in their harvests. It is a time to reflect on what really nourishes us. It is not only about food.

What hurt or emotion am I still carrying around with me that burdens rather than nurtures me? Isn’t it time to let go?

More importantly: What am I feeding my mind with? My favourite motto is the ancient Zulu concept of Ubuntu. It not only means that we are formed and shaped by the people and the community around us. Ubuntu means taking responsibility for the well-being of all that is around us because it is that which makes us human.

Surround yourself with negative people and you become a negative person. Giving your body the right nutrients on a body and mind level is a major precondition to becoming a person with a happy and positive outlook on life. We are bombarded with electronic media and information from the Internet. What Information really serves and uplifts us? I like using social media like facebook. It is an important means of staying in touch and getting information, but sometimes it can be too much and is energy-sapping. We lose touch grounding, lose touch with reality or lose ourselves in a virtual world.

That is when it is time to find nourishment in nature, opening the senses to the wind on the skin, the smell of earth, the sound of birdsong, feeling the ground underneath ones feet.

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Health risk – artificial sweeteners

sweetener

Artificial sweeteners, taken by many people as a substitute to sugar, are toxic and a danger to your health!

Just a few days ago Nature magazine issued the results of another study, suggesting that artificial sweeteners may contribute, rather than alleviating obesity-related metabolic conditions.

Quoting the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, the research finds that differences in gut microbes may explain why some people can handle artificial sweeteners just fine while in an unknown percentage of others the sweeteners lead to diabetes.

Taken together, the data indicate that artificial sweeteners “may contribute to, rather than alleviate, obesity-related metabolic conditions, by altering the composition and function of bacterial populations in the gut,” Cathryn Nagler and Taylor Feehley of the pathology department at the University of Chicago said in a journal commentary.

Obesity and the related health risks including diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure are becoming a global problem because of what we eat and drink. Take this: One fourth of a bottle of ketchup is pure sugar. A spoonful of classic mayonnaise, for example, adds an extra 100 calories and 10 grams of fat to whatever you mix it with.

In addition a lot of people are unaware that their sugar intake can be massive if they have a habit of drinking sodas or so-called “energy drinks”. A classic can of coke contains the equivalent of about ten teaspoons of sugar. A 2007 study revealed that one or more sodas a day increased the risk of obesity by 31 per cent and the risk of metabolic syndrome by 44 per cent. Metabolic syndrome is defined by having at least three of the following: abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure or elevated trigloerides.

But that is only part of the problem. German consumer protection organisations have found that up to 70 different types of artificial sweeteners are finding their way into processed foods you buy in the supermarket.

We are having a great problem in telling our teenage son to avoid bringing home a certain “energy drink”. The food industry is very much aware that they have to catch consumers at a young age, making them dependent on the “sweet taste”. I see only a solution in effective health legislation, limiting the sugar content and artificial sweeteners in food.

Obesity is caused when the body has a higher energy intake than it can utilise. An athlete doing a daily run of about 30 kilometres would have no problem getting rid of the excess calories. The problem is that most of us have desk-bound jobs and too little exercise.

So what can be an immediate solution? Just try and replace the sodas with good water for a couple of weeks and see how much weight you lose. You can spice up the water with lemon, spices, apple chips or mint leaves – really tasty!

Try and do more of your own cooking with fresh produce from your own region. There is a saying that you are what you eat. Your mood and how you feel in your body is determined largely by what food you eat.

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Jamie Oliver: McDonalds Hamburger unfit for human consumption

British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has won his long-fought battle against McDonalds, proving that their hamburgers are unfit for human consumption with the fatty parts of the beef “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of the burger.

The story has received little coverage in the mainstream media. Consumers appear bored or numbed by the numerous stories on food scandals in recent years. Or, we really seem to be going into denial as to how much the fast-food industry is destroying our health.

As I mentioned in my previous blog. What we eat is not only destroying our planet but also our health. There is more than enough evidence that the artificial substances in processed foods is responsible for much of the modern diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cancer and probably Alzheimer.hamburger

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Are our eating habits destroying the planet?

world-in-black-and-white-hands-1Some months ago we decided to get our own chickens, as part of a long-term project to make us more self-sufficient. We chose the French Marans because they are renowned for being especially disease-resistant. The dark-brown eggs are of a high organic quality.

Our five hens provide us an ample supply of eggs for our four-member family and have the freedom to roam around the property as they please. Its what I see as our small protest against the poultry industry. We were therefore aghast to learn that all private owners of poultry in our region here in northwestern Germany have been ordered to vaccinate their chickens against Newcastle disease, which broke out at a mass animal farm of 24,000 chickens in Norrkoeping, Sweden.

The only vaccination available is for 1,000 and more hens and has to be carried out by a registered vet every three months at a cost of around 75 EUR (97 U.S. Dollars) minimum. Meanwhile I have learned that severe vaccination rules apply for pigs and other farm animals. Several organic farmers, who started innovative projects to revive rare farm animal species, have been forced to give up their ventures because of the prohibitive compulsory vaccination costs.

The reason I’m mentioning this small example is that animal diseases, stemming from intensive mass animal farming is out of control worldwide. We’ve had food scandal after food scandal and nothing seems to change. A generation from now will ask us: “How could you have been so stupid and left us with this mess?”

The way we live, and especially our choice of foods, is not only destroying our health and quality of life but rapidly destroying our planet. According to a 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), our diets and, specifically, the meat in them cause more greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, and the like to spew into the atmosphere than either transportation or industry. (Scientific American) 

There is a chain reaction starting from depletion of water resources, pollution from animal waste, loss of habitat to grazing lands and destruction of biodiversity on many levels.

I’m not a proponent of a purely vegetarian diet. But I think we should radically cut down our meat consumption for the reasons mentioned and boycott food coming from the mass animal farm industry.

Yesterday I attended a most inspiring lecture by the Gyalwang Drukpa in Hamburg. He is the head of the 1,000-year-old Drukpa Buddhist Order, founder of the Live to Love foundation and was awarded the United Nations Milennium Development Goals Award. The topic of the talk was “Mindfulness and Happiness”. He highlighted the importance of individual responsibility in taking concrete action to save our world for the next generation. Volunteering action such as planting trees or becoming more mindful on the ways we can contribute positively to the wider world is a key to living a happy, fulfilled life.

Most people go into resistance or denial when told to change their lifestyle habits or being preached at with a pointed finger. The Gyalwang Drukpa has a different approach. He sees “compassion” as an individual process of understanding that comes from the heart and then translates itself into positive action, into a deep understanding to the needs of the wider world and all living beings.

Looking at the Biblical quotation “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself (Mark 12:30-31) this translates into developing a deep sense of compassion for oneself within the unity of humanity and our world of which we are an intrinsic part of.

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Alarming rate of high-professionals addicted to substance abuse

substance abuse

An alarming rate of doctors, lawyers, bankers, film stars and other high professionals seem to be functioning only by substance and alcohol abuse. While alcohol is the more common, there seems to be a large group of people addicted to substances available at the chemist around the corner or by mail order through the internet.

Most of these substances give a short-term energy boost but cause havoc with your health on the long-term and could even shorten your life.

Lately, I have come across several people in high-powered jobs admitting to taking a sleeping pill every night. The short-term effect is a good nights rest, especially if you have to be alert the next day and have to take important boardroom decisions. But it is important to understand the long-term health effects of these sedatives which are potentially addictive.

Several long-term studies have been conducted on the effects of sleeping pills. One of them is by Daniel F. Kripke. M.D. (The Dark Side of Sleepinig Pills) also available as an eBook.

Kripke refers to the life-shortening effects of common sleeping pills such as zolpidem (e.g., Ambien), temazepam (e.g., Restoril), eszopiclone (e.g., Lunesta), zaleplon (e.g., Sonata), other benzodiazepines such as triazolam (e.g., Halcion) and flurazepam (e.g., Dalmane), barbiturates, and sedative antihistamines such as diphenhydramine (e.g., Benadryl).

A whole industry is thriving on the mass consumption of energy pills, caffeine boosters and other chemical cocktails as a growing number of high-professionals and executives resort to such short-term relief to overcome chronic fatigue. The manufacturers claim that their energy boosters are non-addictive and safe but the truth is quite the opposite.

Most of these supplements provide short-term relief with an energy-high. Eventually, the effects wear off, often resulting what is called a “crash.” with individuals experiencing even more exhaustion, negative mood swings, lack of concentration, irrational decision-making, depression or a chronic headache. The cycles between the “high” and the “crash” become shorter and shorter.

Many energy supplements have been found to speed up the metabolism and to influence the production of adrenaline in the body, which might already be at a high level because of stress. Long-term effects are high blood pressure with the added risk of a heart attack or stroke.

Some experts even claim that the banking crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of the many bankers in the City of London addicted to cocaine.

In our consumerist world our mindset is to want a quick-fix if something goes wrong with the body or mind. Dysfunctional lifestyles inevitably lead to a physical and mental “crash”. Most of our modern diseases and mental health problems are caused by lack of exercise, poor nutrition and high emotional stress levels.

It is possible to lead a highly successful and healthy life by investing just a little time and energy in your own health. Have a look at my blogs on the best weapons against stress and the 7 simple ways of boosting your energy levels by safe and natural means.

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Are you getting enough sleep?

An important, often underrated aspect of good health, is getting enough sleep. Your mood and your performance during the day depends a lot on how good your sleep was the previous night.

sleep

The onset of many modern illnesses such as heart disease, obesity and diabetes are meanwhile also attributed to lack of sleep. So how much sleep is really enough?

Generally school-aged children require about ten hours of sleep while the average adult requires between 7-8 hours. Going to be early however, doesn’t necessarily mean that your sleep is good.

Insomnia or the inability to fall asleep is especially prevalent among people with highly stressed jobs. Apnea, a momentary suspension of breathing, is also widespread.

These are some of the questions you might ask if you have the feeling that you are not sleeping enough:

– Are you having problems falling asleep?

– How many hours are you actually sleeping?

– How often do you have problems during the day staying awake?

If you are feeling drowsy after a midday lunch you can easily rejuvenate yourself by taking a short ten minute catnap. But in most cases we are expected to burn our candles on both ends, giving our bodies too little time to recuperate. You can improve your sleep by doing the following:

  • Avoiding heavy meals, drinks and stimulants such as coffee in the evenings.
  • Keep a regular sleep schedule by going to bed at the same time and getting up at the same time.
  • Take a catnap during the day to catch up for last sleep
  • Make sure your bedroom is dark with television and computer screens turned off
  • If you wake up worrying about something, write it down on paper and postpone it to the next day.
  • Breathing exercises such as exhaling twice as much as inhaling will help you relax
  • Progressive muscle relaxation is also a method that could be useful

If you are one of those few people who sleep ten hours and more a day, then you might have a problem too. A study by the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) in the US links too much sleep with chronic diseases in adults aged 45 years and older.

Published in early October this year, the study involved more than 54,000 participants in 14 states in the US. Both short and long sleepers reported a higher prevalence of coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity and anxiety, compared to optimal sleepers who got seven to nine hours of shut-eye on average.

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