Would you like to be less stressed?
Would you like to experience more joy?
The key to both is living authentically.
The cure for stress
The cure for stress is to know ourselves and do what we love. In other words to live with authenticity.
So, what causes the stress?
Stress is when what we are doing doesn’t fit who we are. Whatever the task, there is someone who enjoys doing it (so stress is not inherent in the task itself). Having to work hard when we love what we are doing, then doing it with all of our self can be a positively joyful experience (so it’s not hard work that causes stress). We are stressed when there is a mismatch between who we are and the work that we are engaged in.
The antidote to stress is to do what we love: which means knowing what this is and being able to follow through with it. In short, authenticity (knowing who we are and acting in accord with who we are) is the solution to stress.
The path to joy
Joy, even when we are putting all that we’ve got into an activity, has a flowingness, an effortless quality about it. For me joy is action that flows from the centre of who we are. Living with authenticity doesn’t mean that obstacles magically disappear, or that we don’t put in the work to know who we are, or learn how to express who we are. What it does mean is that there can be a sense of joy as we do all these things. For me joy isn’t manic but an elated calmness.
I have various products to help you live more authentically. There is an email course called Living Authentically and an e-book, also called Living Authentically. I also have a short ebook called Thriving in Your Situation.
From both the e-book and the course you will learn:
* How to have lasting satisfaction in your life.
* The stages our experience goes through.
* Where and when you stop experiencing satisfaction.
* How to get back on track.
What’s in the course?
The course is forty emails. Each email applies one of the eight stages of experience to one of the five dimensions of our lives. There are five emails per week for eight weeks. They are designed to take about one hour each to work through. Naturally you can spend more or less time as you desire, but this is a rough guide to what you can expect. There is also an online students’ forum where you can leave any questions or comments and where students can discuss the lessons with each other.
The eight stages are:
* stage one: resting
* stage two: disturbance
* stage three: looking around
* stage four: locating the particular thing
* stage five: checking the thing out
* stages six: gaining mastery
* stage seven: assessment of our experience (satisfied or not?)
* stage eight: learning, growth and change.
Each stage is applied to the five dimensions of our lives: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social.
The course costs US$27.00.
To see one student’s feedback on the course scroll to the bottom of the page.
What is the Living Authentically e-book about?
It has the same eight stages of living authentically (one chapter per stage) and many exercises to do at the end of each chapter. It is the PDF of a hard copy book (135 pages paperback size). There is no discussion forum attached to the book.
The book costs US$15.95.
How to Thrive in Your Situation
This ebook gives you exercises to do so that you can learn to draw on what you need from your situation and how to block what you don’t need. If you can do this you can thrive in whatever situation you are in.
It deals with the two possible problems we have relating to our situation – being too rigid (so that stuff that needs to can’t get in and we can’t put what we want to) and being too lax (so that stuff what don’t want gets in and stuff we want to keep in gets out).
For instance: If we are too rigid we won’t take in compliments or give out nurturing hugs; if we are too lax we will take in invalid criticism and give away too much of what we want to keep private.
It is a 28 page PDF file. If you would like to you can print it out and use it as a workbook – there are spaces provided for you to write in as you do the exercises.
You can find more about my story and authenticity on my About Me page.
There are links to blogs and blog posts about authenticity in the Links list in the sidebar.
Feedback on the course. This is from Mariana Barrancos, who has a LinkedIn Profile and a blog (in Spanish).
Hi Evan,
Finally!! I made it till the finishing line 
The course is simply amazing, makes people make a very in-depth analysis of the self and the environment, as well as the other people we interact with.
Apart from the fact that I had to do it at a slower pace, I still think it’s an important wealth of profound information you give in your lessons and maybe, it would be better to take a lesson per week. It is not a course to take in a “light” way. Sometimes, my Monday lesson sank in on Wednesday.
What has helped me the most was the fact that I actually sat down and wrote my answers and reflections on each lesson. This is something I don’t do with yoga, for instance.
Overall, it’s a very well designed and purposeful course, that clearly aims to help people become friends with their inner self and live in a more genuine and authentic way.
After finishing the whole course, I immediately felt the need to go back and do it again. It’s like reading your book again and again. Each time we read it, we feel we can benefit more and more from it.
This course has been a true breath of fresh air in my life at this specific point. June has been on of the toughest months I have been through in a very long time. And allowing myself some time to take the course, even if the sky was falling over my head, was really worth the effort.
I think, I’m back on track now and will be posting again on line more and I will sure recommend your course to many people who ask me for resources and advice on a daily basis.
Evan, just a huge thank you for this treasure your course and book are. You do have a gift and I enjoy reading your posts on the net (something that now, I will be able to do again.)
If there is something I value most in people, that’s hhow genuine they are, and you are an incredibly genuine person with a lot to give and a sincere passion about giving the best of you and helping others as well.
