What Is Stress?

You are rushing to work and thinking of all the things you need done but do not have the time to do it.

You are stuck in traffic and your mind wanders to all the unfinished chores and responsibilities. 

The deadline for a project you are working on is coming up and you are nowhere near completing it.

You work at home and your children are screaming at each other, you are behind in your work and you still have a load of house chores to complete. 

You were just laid off from work and you really needed that income to help support your family. You barely have any savings to depend on.

You took a chance in the stock market and lost all your life’s savings and even your children’s education funds.

You are stuck in a troubled relationship and you do not know how to deal with it.

These are some examples of situations that might result in stress, you can’t concentrate, you lose your appetite, you cannot sleep very well, your nerves are on edge and you are easily angered. It is in situations like these that people become overwhelmed by all the responsibilities, issues and problems weighing them down. 

This is what stress is all about.

Eventually, you may start getting headaches, migraines, stomach upsets and a whole host of medical conditions as a result of extreme stress that were left untreated. In this modern society, stress over work, money and relationships has become the norm. Not a day will pass that many people will not experience some form of stress, regardless of whether it is job-related, love-related or money-related.

Stress has become a common feature of our fast-paced and modern world and it is also one of the most common reasons people fall sick or call in sick at work. This is not because they want to escape from a stressful environment but because stress has brought about unhealthy symptoms.

So, how do you recognise stress?

You know you are stressed when: 

• You are more irritable than normal
• You are panicky and anxious alot of the time
• You cannot concentrate at all
• You feel helpless and useless
• You avoid socialising
• You feel depressed or low in mood all the time

Frequently, you will also begin to get:

• Headaches / migraines
• Under-the-weather feelings
• Insomnia
• Colds and infections easily and frequently
• Stomach aches
• Back pain
• Nervous breakdown
• Trembling / shaky hands
• Profuse sweating

There may also be long-term effects of stress such as an inefficient immune system, high blood pressure, weak bones, weight gain, deteriorating brain cells and a reduced ability to fight diseases.

Luckily, stress management is now taken seriously and there are so many different ways to de-stress for a healthier and more cheerful life. Many people are acknowledging the adverse effects of stress and they are doing something about it.

Helping people to manage their stress, if not to eliminate completely, is one of the main objectives of the information on this  site.

If you need any help or more information, you can always contact me.

Peace and Love,

 

 

 

Gavin J Gowans

Awareness – A New Beginning

Here I am thinking about you and all the people I have yet to meet and how I might fulfilll my side of things. I got to thinking about awareness.   One of my first realizations of what that meant came from author, Jesuit priest, psychologist and seminar leader Anthony de Mello.  His book Awareness is one of the finest books on finding your true purpose around. De Mello claimed that most people are asleep and need to wake up, open up their spiritual  eyes, and see the reality of what is.  He said that the greatest human gift is to be aware and be in touch with your body and mind. He also insisted that to be aware means realizing the needs and potential of others.

My intention now is to begin a new phase of life, life coaching and teaching Meditation and mindfulness based stress reduction.   Like Anthony de Mello, who was such an inspiration to me, I truly desire that everyone is able to wake up and fulfill their true purpose in life.  That I can be a part of the process of self-realisation in the lives of others, of encountering directly the God or Beingness that is behind all concepts, forms and religious formulas.

When we fulfill our most basic need, to be the person we truly are, we can fully participate and be happy in the other aspects of our lives such as family, friendship, marriage, society and work.  My intention is to offer you the best means possible to do that through coaching, meditation and stress reduction services and products over the coming months and years.

Looking at the current state of the world.  Don’t you think we owe it to ourselves to be all we can be? We need to give ourselves the kind of rest and rejuvenation, even transformation, that stillness and silence  provides.  To find the strength and guidance we are looking for in these uncertain times does take practice, commitment and willingness to be the change that we are looking for. Change is growth, but change for changing sake is probably not helpful. Know and accept yourself for who and what you really are and change may happen!

I’d like to end with a story….

True Spirituality

The master was asked, “What is Spirituality?”

He said, “Spirituality is that which succeeds in bringing one to inner transformation.”

“But if I apply the traditional methods handed down by the masters, is that not spirituality?”

“It is not spiritulaity if it does not perform its function for you. A blanket is not longer a blanket if it does not keep you warm.”

“So spirituality does change?”

“People change and needs change. So what was spirituality once is spirituality no more. What generally goes under the name of spirituality is merely the record of past methods.”

(From the Song Of The Bird, Anthony de Mello)

Let me know what you think the story means, for you….

I wish you all health and abundance in life .

Peace and Love,

 

 

Gavin J Gowans

Listening Support Skills – Back To The Basics

There is nothing like going back to basics and so I recently decided to go back to learning listening and support skills.  Skills that I as a Life Coach and other’s are likely to use on a regular basis. Perhaps you too can benefit from learning or revising these skills for yourself? They can and are used in our everyday lives, often without us even realising it. It’s a thought isn’t it? Even if it’s not something you considered before you might like it.

If you can listen to others well, I think there is no doubt that you will be much more effective person and find life alot more fulfilling. Some of the people I have admired most in my life had the ability to make me feel I was valued and understood, at times better than I understood myself.

I have found that somehow by helping others we benefit too.  It is a natural rule, it is by helping others get what they want that we get what we want. Or again, the Golden Rule, do to others that which you want done to you. This is The Law Of Reciprocity at work.

However even if you have no interest in learning or deepening your listening skills.   Just sitting with another person, providing a space for the both of you and allowing your self to become attuned to the true prescence of a person can be a transforming experience.

Although for me this has been something that has not happened overnight,and I continue to work on,it works eventually.  The first place to start is by listening to yourself.  By that I mean being aware of the thoughts and feelings that fly around all day and night.  I don’t mean either the constant mental paralysis of analysis, but rather just being aware of what is going on in the present moment. It is through this awareness that you can learn and grow and ultimately be free to be the person you truly are.

There are plenty of ways to do this.

And once we can truly see ourself as we are it is so much easier to listen and help others.

Peace and Love,

 

 

Gavin J Gowans

Finding My True Purpose

It all happened almost spontaneous actually. Today I decided to be a meditation teacher sometime in the future, and just weeks before that I decided to be a Life Coach.  In fact I start my training Life Coach training with Alice Muir Training today. Over my many years of meditating, spiritual reading, personal enquiry and having faced the challenges of being a business owner, quality of life was still not what  I wanted it be.  There is always some past glory or failure, or some future fear or potential better life that took up the space in my mind and life.   I read a quote today “Many a man has found the acquisition of wealth only a change,not and end, of miseries.” – Lucious Annaeus Senenca

I guess I felt that through creating wealth and a providing a secure financial future I would be in a position to take a chance then and do what I really loved.  But now I know, there is never a right time or the perfect time to start something you truly know and love, but now.  Because now is all there ever  is.  I was stuck , in fear, seeking the very thing the perfect place to be in, when it was closer to me than the tip of my nose!

Ultimately what is it that we are all looking for? A life of happiness without sorrow. To be love. I tried to find the ‘…peace that surpasses all understanding’ for so long.  Most recently in various property businesses, in which I had some limited success, but like everything else I tried it just didn’t satisfy. What is success but a predefined goal which we set ourselves to achieve often setting ourselves up for failure? I discovered however that the success mindset I took on was in of itself part of the problem.  Since then I realised that it is not success per se but rather the quality of my attention in the present moment, that one moment , which is all we ever have, that determines our ‘success’.  Not in society’s, family, friends, spouse or employers estimation but in fulfilling our true purpose which is to be the love that we are looking for in this world.

 

It is the quality of our attention, the realisation of who and what we are at the core and the gradual, sometimes immediate dropping off of all the stuff we identify with that we call ‘me’. It is through this ‘work’ that we can begin to truly live the way we always intended to and in doing so not only help be the happiness we seek but also help others find themselves too. 

To be space, to be stillness….

Exactly how this will happen I don’t know, and it probably doesn’t matter. I didn’t achieve the financial cushion I was striving for after all.  But I have found the courage and clarity I need to make a life decision right now.  To live my life in alignment with God’s will and purpose, especially through the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.

I have begun with this blog, and will begin online with an ezine for people who are looking to find their true purpose in life, and for people who wish to deal with the blocks to realising their true selves and living in alignment with that.  Meantime, why don’t you go over to a new website I have put up that will help bring us together as an online community to inspire one another to find our true purpose in life. Let’s continue to grow and learn to be part of the new earth that is surely what we need now.

Love and Peace,

 

 

Gavin J Gowans

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