About The Author

Hello there,

My name is Piers and I am a 33 year old Englishman, brought up in Portsmouth but currently living in Yorkshire, England.

So why Stress-Relief-Choices?

That is a good question... It all started about 11 years ago.

I was working in the City in London after having graduated from Business school. I was working as a telesalesman making up to 50 calls a day.

The work was the most stressful I could have imagined. I remember that I had to psyche myself up every day before walking into the office. 'Come on, Piers, come on!'

I would then have to psyche myself up to make every phone call.

I became really stressed and started to really dislike being in London - the commute, the underground, my colleagues, being in a little box room sat in front of a computer all day... I wanted out.

Learning about Stress Relief

I started to read lots of books on spiritualism, new age therapies, meditation... you name it I started to get into it.

I found that I could resonate so much more with the new age material than I could with my colleagues.

I remember one day being in a bar after work and one of my colleagues asking me what book I was holding in my hand. "'You too can heal your life' by Louise Hay," I replied. Her jaw nearly dropped! This wasn't what a salesman should be reading.

I attended courses, worked as a volunteer in Romania and Ghana in Africa, did retreats but still something was missing.

Living in the monastery

The work in Africa had been fulfilling but totally draining. I learnt a lot but I just needed a break - both physically and mentally.

I went on retreat for a few weeks and realized that I needed to find something more long term.

An opportunity arose at a Buddhist monastery in the north of England.

I arrived there with one bag and the intention to stay for 10 days...

Almost a thousand days later I left!

I hadn't intended to stay that long but it was definitely what I needed. I needed every single day I spent there.

Some of the time there was wonderful and I learned so many magical things. But some of the time was very challenging. Out of the 3 and a half years, almost 6 months were spent in silence.

But the truth is that I learned more from the challenging times than from the good times.

So with this knowledge I returned to lay life, the outside world.

The Birth of Stress-Relief-Choices.com

But after the year was up, I had run out of money.

The problem was that I didn't want to get a corporate job again. I had vowed on leaving London that I didn't want to do that.

But my financial situation worsened and I took a job working for a huge American multinational.

It was my idea of a nightmare.

I struggled against it at first, but with time I saw that I was able to integrate what I had learned in the monastery and in the rest of my life into my work.

I could cope with the stress that people were throwing at me and I was helping a lot of my colleagues by advising and talking to them.

I started to record stress relief talks almost daily automatically on my MP3 player. It felt wonderful and this knowledge I had learned was being immensely useful to me.

I started to teach stress relief at my workplace after work. So Stress-Relief-Choices.com was born.

I have recently left this multinational and have started to work as a nanny! It is so much more pleasurable and although stressful at times it is very nourishing.

This new job is allowing how stress affects children and teens.

Please note that this website is all my personal opinion, and should be taken as that. I am not a professional, but someone who has seen and been affected by stress first hand.

Should you have a medical condition or any other ailment concerning stress please contact a doctor or medical practitioner.

All the best with beating stress,

With kindness,

Piers Cross

www.Stress-Relief-Choices.com

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