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Dream Tip Newsletter
From Archives …………………………..2006
Our heart's dream beats as strong as ever. The reason we cannot hear it as well is because of all of the scarring that surrounds it.
You true path is and has always been deep inside your heart. A good analogy is a disease called constrictive pericarditis where the lining around the heart thickens and hardens preventing the heart from beating strongly enough to maintain bloodflow throughout the body. Therapy involves surgery to remove the constricting tissue so that the heart can again beat strongly.
Just like the heart in that disease, your heart's desire is beating strongly deep inside of you. It has just been constricted by years of scar tissue put there by well-meaning and not so well-meaning people and experiences shutting you down bit by bit. Every time you believed someone who said you couldn't do something you loved, you added another stifling layer to muffle your passions. Every time you allowed an experience to shut you off from your dreams, another constricting layer was added. Every time someone said you weren't worthy of happiness, it got that much harder to hear your true heart beating.
But alas, it is still there, beating as strong as ever. You can hardly hear it because of all of the debris and garbage in the way, but rest assured, as long as you are breathing it is still there.
With help, you can remove the layers of scar tissue. I have witnessed and helped many people do this. When you do it too, you will once again hear your true heart beating and rediscover your authentic life path.
Live Your Dreams,
Samuel Gerstein,
CDO (Chief Dreaming Officer), Dreams For Real
Dream Tip Newsletter
From Archives …………………………..2004
Add Value to your Life
How much do you value your:
1. Career? An activity you will probably do more than anything else in your life. Since you have to spend so much time at work, wouldn't you rather be in an area that motivates you and that you enjoy?
2. Partner? Do you want more relaxed relations with your partner?
3. Children? Act as a good role model. Do you want them to grow up believing that the purpose of work is something to be tolerated at best to attain money? Because no matter what you say, it is what you do that counts the most.
4. Health? Research has shown that doing what you love in a way that you like leads to longer life and you become less prone to illness.
5. Business? People who are enthused about what they do are usually the ones who also help the bottom line. They are a creative resource and carry with them a determination that money can't buy.
Entering a career that moves you is not just a feel-good notion. It has real and measured advantages for you, your health, your family, your business and for those around you.
Live Your Dreams,
Samuel Gerstein,
CDO (Chief Dreaming Officer), Dreams For Real
Dream Tip Newsletter
From Archives …………………………..2003
How is your stress level at work?
If you are like most people in North America, it is increasing.
Did you know that:
- People are now working longer hours on average – 47 hours per week, compared with 43.5 hours in 1977. The proportion of workers who reported, "feeling highly stressed" at work more than doubled from 1985 to 1990…
- “Problems at work are more strongly associated with health complaints than are any other life stressor--more so than even financial problems or family problems” -St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co.
Do you have a good fit with your job?
In a survey conducted in January 2001, 65% of people surveyed by the Occupational Stress Research Institute said they were not satisfied with their work. Of this group, 80% said that it wasn’t because of the company they worked for. Rather, respondents just didn’t feel that they were in a job that fit them well.
Employees who are satisfied with their job live longer and are less prone to illness. (Robbins, 1993, Organizational Behavior, New Jersey, Prentice Hall)
One of the leading causes of work stress is lack of control of what you are doing. A fourteen-year study of more than 12,500 men in Sweden concluded that men with little control over their work were 1.83 times more likely to develop heart disease. Men who also had low levels of support in their work were 2.62 times more likely to develop heart disease. (7th International Congress on Stress and Medicine)
Look at the pressure these men are under:
In a recent study, 285 New York City men who worked in a variety of skilled and unskilled professions completed a questionnaire assessing their freedom to make decisions on the job and the extent of time-pressure demands the job put on them. They also wore a device that recorded their blood pressure at 15-minute intervals over a 24-hour period. The measurements were repeated in 195 of the men three years later.
At the initial evaluation and three years later, men who said they had high-strain jobs had significantly higher blood pressure readings both at work and at home than their low-strain counterparts.
Men who remained in high-strain jobs over the three years had much higher blood pressures than those who remained in low-strain jobs. According to the report, men who were initially on high-strain jobs but moved to low-strain positions saw their blood pressure readings fall over time. In fact, their follow-up blood pressure drop was larger than the observed effect in four major studies, on lowering blood pressure by losing weight. This finding suggests that removing job strain could result in a significant reduction in blood pressure.
The challenge:
- Work problems are one of the biggest causes of stress in our lives.
- We are working more now.
- Many of us work in areas we don’t enjoy, that don’t fit us well and that we have little control over. This is a recipe for ill health.
What you can do:
Take back some control now. Reconnect with those areas of your life you were once passionate about. They are not gone, just misplaced or forgotten. This is one of the key messages in many of the studies on work-related stress. If you can find some area that fits you well and that you enjoy, you will be going a long way to better health.
There are three main areas to explore when looking for your Dream Career. These are your passions, pure talents and life purpose. We will be exploring each of these and other areas in upcoming issues of the Dream Tips Newsletter.
In the meantime, please believe in yourself and don’t allow anyone to step on your dreams.
Live Your Dreams,
Samuel Gerstein,
CDO (Chief Dreaming Officer), Dreams For Real
Dream Tip Newsletter
Issue #1 June, 2002
Greetings!
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Dreams for Real Newsletter.
Do you remember what it was like to dream about your future? When you were growing up, what were you going to become? Are you doing it now? Or perhaps it has been so long since you thought about it that you forgot what your dreams were.
As a physician I have witnessed first hand the effect on people who give up on themselves. They resign themselves to a life of settling -- settling for relationships that are less than optimal, settling for careers that provide little satisfaction and settling for a life where they are coasting at best. The stress that results from this passive acceptance of a limited life causes and/or worsens many illnesses. These ailments include anxiety, depression, addictive behaviours, back pain, increased infections, worsening of asthma, stomach and intestinal disorders, high blood pressure and heart attacks.
After becoming aware of this epidemic I became motivated to help people proactively, before they experienced the physical manifestation of their poor thought patterns. I began helping individuals return to their lost hopes. We started by reacquainting them with the things that made them want to get out of bed in the morning, to actually look forward to going to work on Monday mornings. This is not an easy process. Rarely in life have I found that worthwhile tasks are easy. And the payoffs are tremendous.
When people start doing what they love, they begin to feel fully alive again. It is as if their soul had been sleeping for years and they just woke up. They no longer need to ask why they are doing what they do because it comes from within. They stop paying attention to what is expected of them, what they should be doing, what their neighbours and siblings and friends are doing. They now have a purpose and finally a direction in which to travel. For it is the journey that is rewarding, not the destination itself.
I found this myself when I entered the proactive side of healthcare. I felt energized and looked forward to working even after I had completed an emergency shift and put my children to bed. This is one of the ways I knew that I was on the right path.
Some of you may be thinking that this journey of doing what you love is not realistic. That life is full of hardship and the bills have to be paid, so people have to take what they can get. My answer to this is that life is tough and you do have to pay your bills or the lights will be turned off. I do not recommend quitting your job and chasing your dreams although some have chosen to do that. I suggest a gradual approach. First rediscover what your dreams are. Then slowly try different things until one resonates well with you. When you find that one thing, do it in small bite sized action steps. The key is to do it consistently, every week, even for just thirty minutes every other day. Only then will you find what you are after. In fact, this newsletter is for dreamers but only dreamers who are going to be. Dreaming without doing something to make it happen is just fantasy and I don’t subscribe to that way of thinking nor do I recommend it.
“If you have built castles in the air,
your work need not be lost;
that is where they should be.
Now put the foundations under them.”
Henry David Thoreau
It is in the doing where happiness is found. One of the key points to remember is that your goals, mission and life purpose may be big and the action you take is small. As long as you take consistent action in the direction you set for yourself, you know that you are doing something that is good for you. I will be discussing more about taking action, as well as other topics in helping people making their dreams come true, in future issues of this newsletter.
Live Your Dreams,
Samuel Gerstein,
CDO (Chief Dreaming Officer), Dreams For Real
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