Category Archives: humanity

Creating a better version of yourself

I had a really inspiring meeting last week in Hamburg and Vienna with the best-selling author and founder of Nerium International, Jeff Olson. He embodies all the philosophies on health and self-development that inspired me to establish my own consultancy business PowerBodyMind some eight years ago.

Jeff’s book “The Slight Edge” , on turning simple daily disciplines into massive success and happiness, is a philosophy on which he built a very successful health product company, that has now just entered the European markets. It is not about only selling products, he says, but at the same time helping people becoming a better version of themselves.

Olson

With Jeff Olson (left) in Hamburg

I’m convinced that in coming years we are going to see a lot more companies like Nerium coming to the fore, led by charismatic and holistic-thinking leaders who want to improve people’s lives and make the world a better place.

Most people want to do good and feel good when they have the feeling that they are doing something right, even if it is just supporting a product they know has high ethical standards.

At the forefront are companies in the health and beauty industry after we have seen generations of companies putting products on the market that were having terrible effects on consumers, the environment and other living beings. (tests on animals).

Most importantly, we need not become victims of circumstance. We do have the power and awareness to choose what products we want to buy and support. How healthy and happy we are and how long we live is determined largely by lifestyle and not by genes. Scientists have pinpointed several so-called “blue zones” located in places like Okinawa, Japan, and Sardinia in Italy where people continue to live active, healthy lives well into their 90s.

One of the key ingredients of a long life the scientists found is a diet rich in fresh vegetable, Omega 3 fatty acids and fruit with a low consumption of meat. At the same time these old people are all highly respected and honored in their communities. Attitude, sense of purpose and mindset seem just as much an important aspect as diet and exercise.

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Interestingly many of these old folk have survived their children and grandchildren who became ill and died from typical modern diseases such as heart problems and diabetes II after adopting a sedentary lifestyle rich in processed foods and sugar.

It is indeed all a matter of choice, as Jeff Olson, writes in his book. Turning your life around and making a better version of yourself is simply a matter of choice, adjusting your current lifestyle with simple steps that make that slight edge of a difference from living a life of the mundane to living a life of abundance and happiness.

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.

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

http://www.reinogevers.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Our greatest challenge: The environment

There is something happening to our world, telling us with stark reality that the greatest challenge of our time is  the environment.  The natural catastrophes of the past months with the elements of fire and water wreaking havoc to the lives of millions of people, should be a wake-up call.

hurricaneBut we cannot be hoping for action from governments or politicians with “empty-speak” words. Every individual needs to question lifestyle habits.

Volcanic eruptions, floods and earthquakes have always been part of human existence, yet scientists have warned for decades that the frequency and intensity of such natural catastrophes would be increasing with the rise of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 40 per cent. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was measured at over 400 ppm (parts per million) in 2015!

This level is higher than at any time for the past 400,000 years where the average was about 280 ppm. The reason: The burning of fossil fuels coupled with unprecedented deforestation. The world’s rain forests form an important equilibrium in the balance between emitting oxygen and the absorption of carbon dioxide.hurricane.2

Rain forests and the oceans harbor much of the diversity of life. Large parts of the ocean however are ecologically dead because of plastic garbage pollution and coral reefs dying as a result of pesticide pollution and the warming of the oceans. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every day. This is greater than anything the world has experienced since the dinosaurs disappeared nearly 65 million years ago!

In the ancient Chinese Philosophy of the Five Elements,  the events in the external world cannot be separated from what is happening internally with human consciousness. I go into this in more detail in my book: Yield and Overcome

On the micro-level all of life is interconnected.  And, in terms of the law of nature, the elements seek to balance what is out of kilter. This can at times be very disruptive both for a physical human body as well as for the environment. In this analogy the burning of fossil fuels, or the overheating of the earth with the fire element, requires the counterbalance of the water element. On the emotional level overheated, reactionary and fanatic emotions, preoccupation with consumption  (fire element) and the emotions of fear and withdrawal (water element) are predominant. In a balanced state the elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water would be nurturing each other.

I am convinced that how we are treating our immediate environment is closely connected with our own self worth and how we treat our own physical body. Its the sum of small things that make a huge difference. By simply avoiding the purchase of cosmetic products containing palm oil, you will be helping to curtail the clearing of rain forests in Asia for palm oil plantations. And, how about avoiding the use of plastic bags to prevent them from landing in the oceans?

What we eat, how we exercise and how we program our mindset resonates into our immediate environment.  One of Mahatma Gandhi’s most famous quotes is:

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

The challenge in the raising of human consciousness is to change the way we think. A positive mindset will change how you think and feel. Controlling your emotions will open the gateway to new thought and awareness into what needs to be done. As we become more aware we should be realizing how much we need to adapt to the natural laws of nature in order to survive as a species. Those species that have survived for eons are  those plants and animals that have learned to adapt within the continually changing matrix of existence. Seeing himself as a separate entity to the environment has been the biggest fallacy of modern man.

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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Hamburg: Reflections on a city burning

Torched cars, running street battles and burning street barricades are scenes not uncommon in strife-torn countries with major social problems.  This time however it hit the wealthy northern German port city of Hamburg during the G20 summit last week with many friends witnessing the violent scenes.

The violent mob had no qualms in torching and ransacking the premises of hard-working small shop-owners, beating up journalists filming the scene and setting on fire a small car with a baby seat in the back. Numerous people were injured – miraculously nobody got killed.

Politicians and the mass media are quick to blame a small minority of criminal elements and left-wing radicals from all over Europe out to stir trouble. Whatever the experts say, there appears to be a thin line between civil behavior and anarchy.

As humanity moves to higher consciousness we will experience setbacks. We will go back two stepBusiness person looking at wall with light tunnel openings to take one step forward.  Mankind is going through a major transition with a leap in technology and information at your fingertips that only a decade ago could only be accessed in cumbersome library research. Entire industries are changing with once secure jobs being lost and new ones being created.

A lot of people stuck in old thinking are being left behind and part of the old thinking is the entitlement culture and failing to take responsibility. Its always the OTHERS responsible for ones own mishaps and failings: the parents, the school, the state, former friends and associates, the employer. And, conceded, it makes me angry.

Never before has humanity experienced such abundance, wealth, peace and liberty. The opportunities are immense and yet a crowd out there seems to have a mindset that it all needs to be a freeload without personal commitment. Life is not like that. What you are is a result of your mindset and thought process. If you eat junk food and refuse to exercise you will inevitably end up with bad health. If you fail to commit yourself to hard work and continuous learning, stay stuck in “blaming culture”, you will lose out.

If you adopt positive daily habits and a positive mindset your life will become positive. We do have the freedom of choice.  We are only to a very limited extent “helpless victims” to external circumstance.

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.

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Count your blessings – our peaceful era

Mass media influences us in a negative sense more than we think. The emphasis is mostly on deviant behavior of the “rich and famous” or some catastrophic event , mostly in a far-off place that does not directly affect us or where we have never been.

Leaf_forestHow would you answer when asked to estimate between 40 and 80 per cent how many people in the world cannot read or write? Most people put the figure at below 60 per cent. The truth is that some 87 per cent of people in the world today can read and write. What an astounding achievement!

You would, also not know it from the headlines that we’re currently living through one of the most peaceful times in human history. This chart by Max Roser from Oxford University shows the global death rate from war over the past 600-plus years.

ourworldindata_wars-long-run-military-civilian-fatalities-from-brecke1.0

Most people view the European Union as a bureaucratic monster.  This fake-news emphasis was largely responsible for the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the E.U. The truth is that the EU with its consensus-building policy and inter-dependent structures between nations has largely been responsible for the longest period of peace and prosperity in central Europe ever. Whatever its faults this for me is the one major reason to keep preserving the concept of a European unity between nations.

Negative or fake news is designed to appeal to our lower instincts. It does more than that. Fear-mongering and negative thoughts directly affect our immune system. Stress hormones that induce flight or fight symptoms in the body are steered by the reptilian or instinctive part of the brain. It does not react rationally or with logic. The reptilian brain’s only job is to decide whether the information is threatening, edible or sexually attractive. Does that ring a bell next time you open the pages of your gossip rag?

We need to guard our mind against all the negativity thrown at us from all sides because whatever information we feed our brain is that what we become, consciously or subconsciously.

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

http://www.reinogevers.com

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

 

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Making your enemy your best friend

The biblical saying of “turning the other cheek” is often misunderstood as being passive and weak toward those who insult, belittle and deride us. I have a different take on this: Your enemy can be your best friend if he galvanises you into action, shakes you out of your comfort zone and stimulates your creativity.

In the ancient Chinese philosophy of the Five Elements and the yin and yang, life is a never-ending cycle of ebb-and-flow, night and day, birth and death, growth and decay, happiness and sorrow.

Yin Yang sign

In the dynamic interaction with the opposite, the opponent, the different world view, we form our own identity and get clarity of who we are and what we really want to stand up for.

In the bigger political scenario the bad leader is inevitably compared to the standards set by the predecessor and the other way around.  There is hardly a politician out there at the moment who seems to polarise as much as Donald Trump.  In contrast to most people however I don’t see Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord as the end of efforts to mitigate climate change. It will have the opposite effect. The decision has already galvanised politicians, civic action groups, city mayors, environmentalists, scientists, artists and millions of people all over the world into greater efforts to really do something about cleaning our planet.

In my home country South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was a shining example of a leader who reconciled, forgave, mediated and worked tirelessly the last years of his life for charity.  The current leaders could not be more corrupt and far removed from the ethics and ideals Mandela stood for. It is however galvanising people into mass action who want no more of the ineptitude, lack of ethics and corruption. The bad leaders now are providing the fertile ground for the good leaders of tomorrow.

On the relationship level we so often find that the member of the family, associate or  friend who tried to tell you that you could never do it, actually was the jet fuel that set you on fire to follow your dream.

We can go on and on through history. The terrible devastation of World War II gave birth to the community of nations in the European Union in the longest era of peace we have seen in Europe ever. So it is my hope that the current tide of xenophobia, religious intolerance and fundamentalism will galvanise the majority into the opposite direction.

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

http://www.reinogevers.com

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

 

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2017: Is the world a better place?

dresden

Dresden by night at the close of the year 2016

On New Year’s Eve I passed through the beautiful city of Dresden along the Elbe river in Germany.

I remember well when I first visited the city during the communist East German era in the early 1980s . It was a drab, grey, colourless place with the ruins of the famous Frauenkirche standing out like a sore thumb as a sad testimony to the allied World War II  bombings.

Today the beautiful Barock city centre with the Frauenkirche as the focal point have been restored to their former glory. Dresden and most of the former communist East Bloc today are definitely better places to live today than 25 years ago.

At the end of every year we seem to look at the mostly negative events of the year hoping the new year will bring us a better world. We live in a world of polarity and whichever side you fall on will have a major impact on your consciousness and state of well-being.

Yes, there were terrible events in the world during 2016 from the catastrophe in Aleppo to the growth of extremism in many forms, intolerance, earthquakes, climate change and other natural catastrophes.

As humanity evolves to a higher consciousness we will be seeing the pendulum sometimes sway in the opposite direction, creating the impression that humanity is moving backward. Pundits are arguing that  we have learned nothing from the fanatacism and extremism in the 1920s that led to the growth of fascism and World War II and are heading for another dark age in history. And of course it is necessary to be wary and alert. Nothing is a given.

However, I would venture to say that there is a difference to the 1920s. Never before, thanks to modern technology, have ordinary people been put into the position to spread their views and more importantly to support civic action groups in favour of just causes.

Part of the raised consciousness is the empowerment of the citizen beyond the vote once every four years for government that inevitably backtracks on its promises. Government is no longer  a major  agent of change. The world is influenced by countless other factors.

Responsibility lies with each one of us. It is precisely the crisis events of the past year that have triggered people into action. After the terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Berlin last month that claimed the lives of 12 people, Jews, Moslems, Christians and people from other faiths gathered in the nearby Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche together praying for peace and reconciliation – an event that received little attention from mainstream media. The focus was all on the tragedy itself.

In South Africa we are seeing a growing number of ordinary people from all races beginning to stand up against the corruption and nepotism of their government but the main focus is again on the negative and not on the many positive things happening in country undergoing major change.

In the Himalayan mountains ordinary village people are planting thousands of trees to counteract the effects of climate change.

Media tends to focus on the negative, creating the impression that the world is going from bad to worse. Its not: If we take a larger perspective over a period of say 200-300 years humanity has in fact made huge strides forward. We have a much higher life expectancy, less disease and malnutrition, a much higher standard of living and a higher rate of literacy..

An Oxford University researcher Max Roser has collected a wealth of data on our changing world, proving with hard facts that our world is in fact getting to be a better place.  Since 1900 the global average life expectancy has more than doubled and is now approaching 70 years. No country in the world today has a lower life expectancy than the the countries with the highest life expectancy in 1800.

But in our focus and emphasis on the negative we ourselves become negative and this paradoxically results in less positive change. Lets move forward in 2017 with a positive outlook. What we perceive on the global political arena is a reflection of our mindset.

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

http://www.reinogevers.com

 

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The battlelines are drawn. Which side are you falling on?

View of the planet Earth in space

By Reino Gevers

As humanity moves on into a next dimension of raised consciousness the shadow side of lower consciousness inevitably rears its ugly head. It can be particularly observed in the current highly toxic polarised political climate in many countries.

But what holds true for the public discourse is also a battle within and taking place in daily inter-personal interaction. Here is my own, albeit incomplete list of the battlelines. So which side are you falling on?

Raised Consciousness Lower Consciousness
Global perspective. Concern for the well-being of humanity as a whole. Only if we help and support each other in solving our problems can we survive as a species. Concern limited to the nation or members of ones own ethnic group. Persons outside this group are perceived as the enemy.
Alignment with the higher consciousness. Core values: love, peace, integrity, service. Disalignment. Driven by toxic emotions such as hatred, fear, greed, anger.
Timeline of thinking: Service for what is good for generations to come? Short-term self-gratification.
I need to change if the world is going to change. Ability for critical self-reflection and correction. Narcissism: Everyone else is responsible for my problems, except me. I am right, everyone else is wrong!
Non-ideological. Multi-facetted approach to problem-solving. Probagation of „easy solutions“ based on „ism“ ideologies such as nationalism, communism, capitalism
Asking questions rather than having ready answers. Active listening ability. Dogmatic belief system. Unwillingness to adapt to changing circumstances. Inability to accept other views than ones own.
Givers Gain. What can I contribute to my village, my country and the world. Long-term trust in universal justice Entitlement attitude. The world owes me. I will grab for me what I can get.
Energised active participation I couldn’t be bothered
Appreciation and gratitude Needy and disrespectful. Its never enough
High self-esteem Low self-esteem

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