Zonder stress

by Davidji

Stress - vrijwel iedereen heeft ermee te maken. Maar het goede nieuws is: er is gemakkelijk iets aan te doen! davidji heeft met politiemensen en traumateams gewerkt en hun geleerd om te gaan met stressvolle situaties. In Zonder stress beschrijft hij een flink aantal succesvolle technieken en methodes om stress en ongezonde spanning te voorkomen of uit de weg te ruimen.

Genres: Nonfiction, Meditation, Self Help, Spirituality, Health, Mental Health

272 pages, Paperback

First published July 14, 2015

About the author

davidji is an internationally recognized meditation expert, stress-management counselor, corporate trainer and author of the award-winning Secrets of Meditation: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace & Personal Transformation, and of the Amazon best-selling book on managing your stress through meditation: destressifying: The Real-World Guide to Personal Empowerment, Lasting Fulfillment, and Peace of Mind, which won the 2015 Nautilus award.

He created the 21-day meditation challenge, and his voice can be heard on more than 300 guided meditations, including his best-selling CD, Fill What is Empty; Empty What is Full, and his latest release, the critically acclaimed Ayurvedic opera Journey to Infinity with sound healers SacredFire.

After a 20-year career in business, finance, and mergers and acquisitions, davidji began a new journey to wholeness, which he found through meditation. He apprenticed under Drs. Deepak Chopra and David Simon, serving as the Chopra Center COO, Lead Educator and then as the first Dean of Chopra Center University, training more than 200,000 people to meditate and certifying more than 1,000 meditation teachers.

He has since left the Chopra Center to travel the world teaching the practical integration of meditation, mindfulness, conscious choice making, and ancient wisdom into our real-world, modern-day experiences. For more than 12 years davidji has helped thousands of people around the world to be more reflective and less reflexive, make better decisions, sleep better, enhance their relationships, experience abundance, and live a purpose-driven life.

davidji is a certified Vedic Master, and every month, throughout the world, he hosts empowerment workshops, life-change immersions, exotic spiritual retreats, and teacher trainings.

He has a passion for working with those in high-pressure situations, including members of the military, special forces, law enforcement, business leaders, and those in crisis. He is the developer of the Blue Courage Awareness Training curriculum, which empowers police throughout the U.S., and teaches them present-moment life tools in their quest for safety, nobility, resilience and guardianship. His teachings on stress release, conflict resolution, and mindfulness are now practiced in some of the largest precincts and police academies in the country.

You can listen to davidji on Hay House’s LIVE! from the SweetSpot radio program – a free, global internet radio show with tens of thousands of listeners around the world. Join the davidji Meditation Community and receive tools, tips, techniques, and free, weekly, guided meditations, at davidji.com.

davidji welcomes your emails and inquiries. Contact him at info at davidji.com.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very helpful in destressifying, as the author puts it. He begins by telling us about all of the ill effects that stress has on the body and on our lives. Then, he tells how the body naturally responds to stress. Last, he tells how to reduce the effects of stress on the body. In short, this is done by short-circuiting the steps that the body takes in the fight-or-flight reaction that is a normal bodily reaction to stress. The author gives many methods to do this, and they do work. Best of all, he explains exactly how to perform these stress reducing practices.

This book is well written and easy to follow. Davidji writes in simple language that anyone would be able to understand. He also explains how to perform more effectively in life. He explains how to form better relationships and how to react to life in ways that are more appropriate. He does all this in language that the inexperienced person can understand.

[Sherry]

Dnffed for now. Seems to be comprised of a lot of lists. Lists of reasons to be stressed, lists of symptoms and on and on it went until I was starting to feel very stressed if I heard one more list. I had had higher hopes for this. I had listened to the author’s guided meditations on insight timer and got a lot out of them so thought a book by him on this topic would be good. But I’ve now read a few books on meditation, all one really needs to address the topic of stress, and this just didn’t work for me. I think partly because a rather simple and straightforward concept has been complicated and stuffed with a lot of unnecessary information. I think for those who this information is new to, might get more from the book than I did, but I wouldn’t recommend for those who’ve got a meditation practice in place and are familiar with the topic. There’s just not a lot of meat on the bones of this book. But hey! There’s lots of lists!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I opened the book and and the dedication page "spoke to me" Who hasn't experienced stress - either mentally or physically - so i dived right in. This is a real world, hands on practical guide -- enabling us all to look at our stress in the moment and stop the constant chatter in our mind and or heart. The "eight destressifications of the spine" is a useful tool I have implemented daily Chapter 6 - "destressifying by Mastering Your Needs" was an "aha"moment for me. I continue to pick this book up, reread passages and find the more often I reread the more I destressify! davidji provides guidance and practical skills to live your best life!

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, I really liked this. I think there is some repetition where there didn't need to be and a lack of repetition where it would help (tell us more than once what "reach for the SODA" means).

I borrowed the book twice from the library, and liked this enough that I'm going to purchase it. I need to take notes to really take in the myriad techniques that are shared and then actually practice them. I do appreciate that the techniques are bite-sized so that one can improve incrementally.

While I was familiar with most of the concepts, I appreciated how they were presented and that they were accompanied by concrete ways of practicing. Overall, I really liked this one.

[Jack]

Excellent work

If you are familiar with Davidji then you will enjoy this summary of his teachings on stress. Several practices are included which are easy to use.

[Nez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has some good tips but wading through 273 pages to find them is a bit painful

[Sonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Davidji is one of my favorite meditation teachers on the Insight Timer app. He has the best voice! His teacher profile mentioned he's an author, so I did a little digging and found this book. It's a nice, practical manual for building simple habits for remaining present into daily life. There is nothing groundbreaking about building awareness and interrupting our conditioned stress responses, but it's nice to every so often read something like this that reminds you how lovely getting back to your true self can feel. If you're new to meditation, I think this is a great introduction and if you're looking for some good guided meditations, I definitely recommend anything recorded by Davidji.

[Kim H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff! If you have read davidji book on the secrets of meditation some of this material will be familiar to you.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ancient Eastern Wisdom and modern science combine to help you through tough stress-filled moments in destressifying. My first thought was that they made a mistake with capitalization in this book, but it seems to be intended. For example, davidji is the author’s name and I figure it is some kind of pseudonym, but I don’t really know all that much about it.

Stress is an insidious force to some, coupled in everything they do. Davidji explains the different types of stress, how to change bad stress into good stress, and does so with a lot of modern science as I mentioned. One thing to take away from this book is that the author really likes using lowercase. Another takeaway from the book is the fact that the author loves bullet points and lists. I will concede that they make it easy to condense the information.

This book seems like it would make a great audio-book. I actually have a physical printed copy and part of the book is devoted to teaching you how to meditate. I feel that this is best done by talking through it rather than reading instructions, but this is something that people have preferences for either way. I am not sure if this is still the case, but meditation is seen by some in the west as mumbo jumbo. The author devotes some time to counteract those misgivings that people may have with meditation.

Finally, the book has exercises and techniques to deal with stress in your daily life. This is another thing that might make it work as an audio-book.

While the book is useful in some cases, a lot of the information I gleaned from it is taken from a lot of other sources. I suppose this is the unfortunate reality of reading a lot of the same genre. There is only so much information out there. On the other hand, if this is your first time reading about the fight or flight response it would be a pretty good reference.

The author does attempt to keep things simple, but sometimes they go into heavy science aspects of stress, and this might be a turnoff for some people. All in all, though, I did enjoy this book.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I woke up this morning in stress. I have a long "to do" list and some very urgent items to tackle. I did not plan to spend the first couple hours of my day reading, I don't have the time! But I am certainly glad I did. I picked up this book at the right time. Although I have read MANY books on this subject matter, something about Davidji's tone and approach made me feel at home and understood. This book doesnt tell me anything new, but it reminds me and tells it in a more real world way. I believe that many of us just need the reminders of things we already know to make a more peaceful existence. Davidji makes this seem attainable.
So, I am about 3 hours behind in my list today, but I honestly feel that this day will be more productive and rewarding than I expected.
I mean, who wakes up stressed on a Sunday? Who finds line items "call mom" or "take out trash" to be stressful? I do! Because it's one more thing, however positive and/or small, that lengthens the list and shortens my time in a day. I am maxed out.
So, I am grateful to at least have one day "saved" for sanity's sake. Feeling better about my day already.

[Allie Jo Arendell · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 stars

This is an important book about learning how to become more aware of our stress responses, understanding how to work with them in the moment and throughout the day and learning how to better structure our routines to reduce the impact and occurrences of stresses under our control (and prepare for the ones outside our control!).

Filled with techniques for everyday use, this book devotes its chapters to “Mastering the Cores of Destressifying”:

-Mastering Your Awareness
-Mastering Your Needs
-Mastering Your Emotions
-Mastering Your Communication
-Mastering Your Purpose in Life

Davidji was first introduced to me by my meditation teacher @yoga_unplugged in his first book “Secrets of Meditation” (highly recommend for beginning meditators!). He writes from a real-world point of view after spending over 20 years in finance and business before starting his journey into personal wellness and meditation with the Chopra Center. What I love most about davidji is that he offers teachings of transition...from where we are now to a more balanced and fulfilled way to live ❤️🙏🏼 #goodreads #destressifying #goodbooks #destressifying #davidji #meditation

[Jaclyn]

Jan 28, 2018

DNF for now at 24%. If I hadn't discovered the other meditation book 'Unplug', I may have kept reading this, but I think I've been reading too many of these books lately and they're beginning to feel redundant. 'Unplug' was just the perfect fit for me because it was just straight to the point, here are the ways you can meditate, whereas 'destressifying' keeps getting bogged down by explaining the biology behind stress and I'm getting impatient for the point.

I liked the 'Reach for SODA' advice to deal with stress: Stop, Observe, Detach, Awaken. It's neat and handy and easy to remember.

If I owned this book I may put it aside for later, but it's a library book so I'll return it and maybe the next person in line on holds will get more out of it than I did.

[Cindy Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book just taught me more about stress and destressifying than the other 20 books combined that I have recently read. There are so many wonderful meditations, breathing, and exercises within that are all fully explained so that each can be tried and utilized again. A powerful technique that I have added to my practice is 16 seconds to clarity (yes, just 16 seconds). Learning tools to use that work as a pattern interrupt can bring calm, balance, reduce anxiety, anger, and stress. I will carry with me the keys to a successful daily meditation practice. Understanding that a verified meditation involves doing it, releases the expectation that I am doing something wrong if my thoughts creep into my head. Meditation is broken down by davidji in a precise way that empowers the reader.

[Kyle Coreth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saw this in a used book store during and thought I'd give it a try. Davidji definitely breaks down stress and relaxation exercises to a very basic level that seem like they can be useful - depending on how much you buy into that sorta stuff. He discusses various places our stress can form from and how to deal with it and finding out and living your purpose in life. I'll see how his recommended techniques work for me. He definitely knows his stuff but also self-promotes and goes on tangents quite a bit.

[Dhwaneet Bhatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a very basic definition of stress and covers all aspects of life which lead to stress - from physical and emotional realms to relationships and purpose. Each chapter provides ways to destressify (and yes author establishes that as a word) by handling those aspects.

Overall I would say it was a pleasant read. The key takeaways from this book were the small meditation techniques mentioned in the book and a very good explanation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and mapping them to stress and overall satisfaction in life.

[Valesa Linnean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book with a lot of useful tips and techniques to reduce your stress. It's a dense book and not an easy read. I've been working on it for months as I read several other books. There is a lot of scientific information about stress and how the brain works, as well as emotional intelligence. I did bookmark several pages of techniques to refer back to regularly.

[Kandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you suffer from stress (and really who doesn’t these days) this book will give you a toolkit of how to deal with stress in all areas of your life. And the genius to this is that none of the techniques take very long to do. I’d highly recommend reading the book, and then using just one or two techniques. Once you see the difference they can make, you’ll be hooked!

[Romeo Verga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very useful books with insight and tools to use for yourself for various situations/reasons. I have read many self-help books. This book pulls from a deep pool of knowledge, condenses it very well and in a actionable way. An equivalent of how this book reads is like a "for Dummies" book, but presented many levels better in my opinion.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent tools to improve quality of life

Davidji outlines the physical and mental benefits of reducing stress through meditation and other mindfulness practices, then teaches readers key practices to make positive changes.

[Jackie S · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for an honest roadmap to get out of the state of being in stress - start here! Davidji is an amazing teacher and offers real world solutions and practices.

[Dawn Lillis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enlightening and helpful.

[Cheri Flake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just lovely. Practical and solid advise for all of us that are ready to destressify! Big fan. Love.

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took my time reading this book and continue to use it as a resource. It is very reader friendly and offers useful strategies that I implemented right away.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful.

Lots of good tools that put in practice really help with day to day challenges. I would have liked more personal narrative examples.

[Christine Zibas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether you call it mindful awareness (soldiers) or meditation (New Agers), the concept is the same -- and so are the benefits to an individual's peace of mind and better health. Author Davidji has written a very important book, given that the multitasking new world order has sent most people's stress levels soaring.

If one can overlook the author's annoying penchant for lower-casing words that should be capitalized (like his name and the word "destressifying" at the beginning of sentences), the book has much to offer, no matter what occupation or situation in life you find yourself.

The book covers the physical and emotional signs of stress, how they affect the person (both short- and long-term), and what meditation can do to ameliorate that stress. Davidji provides helpful suggestions for beginning to meditate and dispels many of the myths associated with meditating that cause a lot of people to fall out of habit as a result.

There are many helpful tools -- exercises and acronyms (RPM being one that I will let you discover on your own) -- that make meditation accessible to anyone who can sit still for a few seconds, and hopefully longer over time. Meditation is an extremely helpful tool in taking the stress out of our lives, if people will give it a chance. The rewards may not be immediate, but over the long term, you'll be doing yourself a big favor. Reading this book is a good first step.

[Jolanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very unsatisfying. A lot of bla bla in the genre "I will tell you later about the life changing tips I got for you!" As someone put it earlier: wading through the pages to find them.
The explanation of what stress does to the body is interesting for those who didn't know this yet. However, the book is also lacking scientific evidence for all that the author claims to know about the effect of stress on the human body. I would very much like to read the paper on platelet function in stressed persons, for example.