+ What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment.

Mindfulness practice involves the process of developing the skills to becoming aware of the here and now.

It's also about being non-judgemental of yourself and of others. It can be seen as a way for dealing with afflictive emotions, but also viewed as a means to develop self-knowledge and wisdom.

+ Can you do Online Private Coaching Sessions?

We offer personal online video call coaching sessions for our clients around the globe. Our local time zone is Central European Time (CET) but we will endeavour to arrange a suitable time for us both if you live in a different area.

+ What is a Mindful Organisation?

A Mindful Organisation is one that strives to be more aware of their impact and presence of the world. It is an organisation that tries to be kind and do good for their employees, their community and society in general.

Regular Mindfulness practice has been found to result in better employee well-being, lower levels of frustration, lower absenteeism and burnout as well as an improved overall work environment. Being kind to oneself and others has many positive effects, such as better social relationships and acceptance.

Mindfulness training is becoming more popular in the business world, and many large corporations have been incorporating practicing mindfulness into their culture. For example, companies such as Google, Apple, Procter & Gamble, General Mills and the Mayo Clinc offer mindfulness coaching, meditation breaks and other resources to their employees to improve workplace functioning. These companies are at the beginning of a mindful journey and if the mindfulness-based trainings are based on compassion and kindness, they have the potential to develop into a Mindful Organisation.

Since high levels of mindfulness correlate with ethical decision-making and increase personal awareness and emotional regulation, mindfulness training has been suggested as a way to promote ethical intentions and behavior for business students.

Developing a Mindful Organisation is a long term strategy. It encompasses various layers from the individual cognition, to the group dynamic all the way up to structural changes. MindEvolved are pleased to accompany your organisation on that journey.

+ When will you be holding Mindful Retreats?

It's one of our large major projects that is being worked on in the background. Our goal is to open our own retreat centre by Q4 2023.

However, we will be experimenting with holding ad-hoc retreats if there is enough interest registered. We would be able to start doing this from spring 2021.

If you are interested in signing up for a retreat, please Contact Us for more information.

+ What does a typical Mindfulness Lesson look like?

It depends if it is in a private or corporate context. In a private context we differ in coaching sessions and retreats. Coaching entails one-on-one personal development sessions of 50 minutes.

Retreats will be one or two weeks of intensive ‘being’. We will have daily meditation sessions, Yoga and/or Pilates, mindful hiking, theoretical input and one or two days of silence. The retreats are planned towards the end of 2020/2021.

In a corporate context mindfulness lessons are designed to fit into business life. We implement mindfulness sustainably over a time period of 6 to 36 months. During these months a mixture of (inhouse) day seminars and follow-up mindfulness sessions are done.

In those seminars, theoretical input on topics like intuition, creativity or self-confidence is given, as well as regular mindfulness exercises. These will deepen the practice and enfold the positive effects of mindfulness. A large amount of guided mindfulness audio files will be provided, so that employees can practice their mindfulness when the trainer is not around.

+ Isn't this all a bit too "Hippy" & "Spiritual"?

A lot of people hear the words "Mindfulness" and "Meditation" and immediately it can bring negative connotations and images to the mind of people chanting, wearing very baggy clothing and tying flowers in their hair, sitting in circles singing and dancing carelessly in the moonlight.

So while there are definitely those who use Mindfulness as a more creative and spiritual outlet, which of course is a perfectly normal and natural way to live, there is also a huge amount of science and research studies including physical studies on the brain to show the effectiveness and incredible physiological changes that Mindful Practice can give and why we all should be in some way pro-actively practicing Mindfulness.

Research on the neural perspective of how mindfulness works suggests that it exerts its effects in components of attention regulation, body awareness and emotional regulation. When considering aspects such as sense of responsibility, authenticity, compassion, self-acceptance and character, studies have shown that mindfulness practice contributes to a more coherent and healthy sense of self and identity.

Neuroimaging techniques suggest that mindfulness practices such as mindfulness meditation are associated with “changes in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, temporo-parietal junction, fronto-limbic network and default mode network structures."

Further, mindfulness meditation may prevent or delay the onset of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Additionally, mindfulness-induced emotional and behavioral changes have been found to be related to functional and structural changes in the brain.

It has also been suggested that the default mode network of the brain can be used as a potential biomarker for monitoring the therapeutic benefits of meditation. Recent research also suggest that the practice of mindfulness could influence genetic expression leading to a reduced risk of inflammation-related diseases and favourable changes in biomarkers.

Grey matter concentrations in brain regions that regulate emotion, self-referential processing, learning and memory processes have shown changes in density following Mindfulness practice.

Additionally, Mindfulness practice has been associated with improvement of the immune system which could explain the correlation between stress reduction and increased quality of life. Part of these changes are a result of the thickening of the prefrontal cortex (executive functioning) and hippocampus (learning and memorisation ability), the shrinking of the amygdala (emotion and stress response) and the strengthening of the connections between brain cells.

Long-term meditators have larger amounts of gyrification (“folding” of the cortex, which may allow the brain to process information faster) than people who do not meditate. Further, a direct correlation was found between the amount of gyrification and the number of meditation years, possibly providing further proof of the brain’s neuroplasticity, or ability to adapt to environmental changes.