Tag Archives: healing nature

Lessons learned on the Camino

Why walk several hundred kilometres on a path in Spain with a back pack? For an outsider it seems difficult to understand why thousands of people from all walks of life are resdiscovering this ancient pilgrimage route as a personal journey of self-discovery.

After walking the Camino Primitivo from Oviedo to Finisterre this year I would like to share some of the insights that might motivate you to put the Camino on your bucket list. First and foremost I see a walk on the Camino as a fast-track opportunity of learning many of life’s important lessons:


  • Walking alone for hours a day in nature is the perfect opportunity for self reflection and to disengage from daily distractions that under normal circumstances prevent you from looking deep inside of you. You will go into sync with your own rhythm at a deeper level. What thoughts, fears, emotions are you dealing with at this moment in time?img_3781
  • Walking with a back pack forces you to slow down. If you go too fast you will lose your way and you will take much longer to get to your destination.You might even have to end your journey because your feet, back and knees have been over-exerted.
  • If you see it as a mere physical exercise of doing so many kilometres each day and reaching a certain destination by a certain time, you won’t see and discover any of the miracles around you. Its the difference between head-mind and heart-mind.
  • Every day is walking into an unknown territory. You don’t know what will come around the next bend and what you will have to deal with. The weather sometimes changes every hour and you just have to deal with the situation that is at hand and that you don’t have any control over.
  • There are Highs- and Lows every day in life. You just have to accept this as a natural order of ebb and flow. Attachment to either is a cause of unhappiness.
  • The more you carry with you the harder your walk. Free yourself of the clutter that you don’t really need. Focus on the essentials.
  • If you get lost don’t hesitate to ask for help. Most people are only too willing to be of assistance.
  • Be humble and the Path will lead you.

Last but not least: Why are you here? What is your soul purpose and what are you doing for the rest of the days in your life that is of service to the bigger WHOLE? You have all the time in the world and yet no time to lose!

Reino Gevers – coach, trainer, author




Filed under life vision, lifestyle management, meditation, outdoor coaching, spirituality, Uncategorized

Reconnecting with nature – 8 point health plan

IMG_2264Constant emotional stress is extremely harmful, especially over an extended period of time. The result: Our body is on permanent alert  with many body functions more or less in standby-mode.

We are naturally programmed to react to perceived dangerous situations with our bodies being put on alert by such hormones as adrenaline and cortisol that increase heartbeat  and blood pressure, in turn triggering flight or fight responses.

When the threat has passed these stress hormones are supposed to return to normal levels so that all body organs can resume their normal functions.  In our modern world that is often not the case because we are not taking time-out for exercise, good nutrition, breaks etc. An over-exposure to the main stress hormone cortisol can lead to a host of health problems including high blood pressure, the risk of heart attack, an immune-system breakdown, anxiety, mood changes and weight gain. An excellent way of getting those cortisol levels down is by taking a time-out in nature.

We come from and are part of nature. Living in cramped, noisy and stressful big city environments is only a recent phenomenon in human evolution. Re-atuning our senses of hearing, smell and touch by taking a walk in a park or forest can be of enormous benefit in winding down from the onslaught of external stressors.

Take a real break by leaving the office desk and taking a 15-20 minute walk. Awaken your senses to the sounds of nature. You can stop by giving all your attention to just one pleasant sound of nature: a bird singing, the rushing of a stream or fountain. Try and inhale the smell of a blooming flower or wild herbs next to a path. Feel the warmth of the sun on your skin or a gust of cool air.

The benefit of all this: Our immediate environment is responsible for stress increase or reduction. It influences our immune, endocrine and nervous systems. Numerous research concludes that positive nature experience reduces anxiety, fear, lowers blood pressure and has a positive influence on the heart beat and muscle pressure and especially helps to bring down those cortisol levels.

Reino Gevers – consultant, coach, author


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Filed under blood pressure, cortisol, cortisol effects, exercise mental health, healing nature, immune system, stress hormones, Uncategorized

7 Simple ways to get your energy levels back up – Part II

Here is the second of my two-part Blog series on the seven simple ways to boost your energy level, increase your lifespan and improve your general outlook on life.

The first three steps I elaborated on in my last blog were:

1. Liberating yourself from sugar addiction

2. Drinking good water

3. Eating less and eating good, seasonal local foods

  1. Moderate exercise

There is a wonder cure out there and it is so glaringly obvious that most people are simply not seeing it. You can significantly improve your health, boost your life-span, reduce your stress level, improve your mood, reduce high blood pressure and improve your bone density by simply getting more exercise.

All the latest medical research pinpoints lack of exercise as one of the major causes of many of our modern-day diseases. Even such psychological illnesses as depression are at least partly linked to lack of exercise.

Only a generation or two ago most of us humans had exercise equivalent to a brisk 20 kilometre run per day. Since the 1950s most jobs have moved from agriculture and heavy labour on the factory floor to sitting in the office.

Our anatomy and our body metabolism are not designed to sit in a chair for eight hours a day. Taking a break does not mean having your lunch in front of the computer and multi-tasking at the same time. Why not take a walk around the block for at least 20 minutes? You will feel much, much better and have more energy to cope with the typical “early afternoon energy sink-hole.”

But when you decide to get more exercise, it would be wise to do it right. Doing heavy workouts in the gym or going for long, exhausting jogging runs with no prior preparation or only periodically, will do you more harm than good. If you have to catch your breath and can hear your heartbeat “bursting from your eardrums” you are overdoing it. Give your body time to adjust, the energies to regulate themselves, before continuing at a more moderate pace.

One of my course participants, who had trouble fitting in an exercise schedule during her busy working day, chose to cycle to work by bicycle, triggering a major shift in her sense of well-being and personal health. You could also choose to climb the stairs rather than taking the elevator. Another way of tricking out the inner monster telling you it is nicer to slump down on the coach than going for a walk, would be to park the car further down the road

  1. Power nappingImage

Some of the most successful people in the world, had a habit of taking a short afternoon nap to rejuvenate. To name a few: Albert Einstein, Salvador Dali, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and John F. Kennedy. Here are some tips on good power napping: http://www.wikihow.com/Power-Nap

Most of us are not getting enough sleep. Research (Read: The science of power naps: http://goo.gl/CDQi0L) indicates that power naps lasting no more than 10-15 minutes can boost our brains, including improvements to creative problem solving, verbal memory, perceptual learning, object learning, and statistical learning. Naps also improve our mood and feelings of sleepiness and fatigue.

  1. Avoiding vampires

 We all have vampires around us. These are the folk that are so angry and upset with life that they are preoccupied in finding the first person in the vicinity to throw their verbal garbage of negativity at you. You want to be polite and aren’t getting in a word edgewise at this person who is telling you the world has gone mad and is going downhill because all the young people are on drugs and too lazy to work. The government is controlled by a secret organisation manipulating us and isn’t it so terrible what is just happening in Timbuktu. True there are bad things happening in the world. But at the same time a lot of good things are happening at the same time. Why not shift the focus. The art of happiness is in dealing with the normal yin and yang cycle, the ups and downs, the darkness and the light of what is life. We are co-creators of our reality. Reframing and shifting the mindset to a positive spin, immediately opens the gate to a warm flow of energy.

  1. Getting into sync with nature

For the past couple of years, I’ve made it a personal ritual to take at least a two-week time-out in nature on a hike. Luckily my wife has found just as much joy in the activity. Initially you take a few days to get accustomed. The body detoxes, muscles ache and your back is hurting from lugging a backpack all day. But after walking for a couple of days many of the basic senses return. You find your natural rhythm. You smell the fresh mountain air, the grasses and herbs, hear the different bird songs, the rushing waters of a creek and feel the rain and the sun on your skin. For months after the hike, I’ve felt myself surging on a much higher energy level. It need not be a hike. You can get your hands dirty by digging in the garden, planting a tree or flower and reconnecting with the natural forces.

I am convinced there is a universal truth surrounding us from which we have been disconnected by living in concrete jungles.

Nature is a source for solace and regeneration, a way of reconnecting to your soul’s purpose by sensing your part as a human in the bigger play of things.


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