Thriving Life

23/04/2025

I have completely forgotten to share that my book has been translated and released in Chinese 🎊

06/11/2024

"What did YOU take away from this course? One of my students took me by surprise last night at our final session of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course and asked me this question after I had asked the students the same.

My answer? The joy of seeing how these 8 weeks have such an amazing effect and how different students benefits in so many very different and personal ways. At the beginning of the course I ask the students to not strive for any goal - and yet at session 8 I always see them having achieved something. It is the paradoks of mindfulness.

Sometimes the answers to our questions unfolds not through striving, but by simply sitting and listening. It doesn´t make it any easier though! So well done to these brave and persistent souls for having persisted and supported each other in the last 8 weeks.

Please reach out to me if you would like me to come to your workplace to guide you and your colleagues through 8 weeks of inner development for sustainable outer change, more compassion, better attentional control and wellbeing.

18/09/2024

Did I mention that Ageing Upwards has been shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2024?

Today is last change to take advantage of the special the Kindle version offer for just 99p / 99c. After tomorrow’s awards night it goes back up to the normal Kindle price.

I have picked my dress and I am ready!! Please cross your (beautifully wrinkled or not) fingers for me 🤞🤞🤞

12/09/2024

"We have come up with a new type of retirement program aimed at empowering organizations and employees alike. We are using a unique combination of behavioural science and mindfulness. The aim is to facilitate improved self-awareness and emotional management for the employees as well as give them the tools to make clear, well-thought decisions and plans for this exciting new phase of their lives (...) Another unusual aspect of our program is the opportunity to combine participants from different companies."

Want to know more about our upcoming Employee Retirement Transitioning Program - and maybe give us your feedback on it, please read my new Substack post on:

https://livingupwards.substack.com/p/launching-november-4th-new-employee

Ps. For this first cohort we are offering 4 places for the price of 3 to the first two companies signing up.

29/08/2024

20 minutes before going live and all is ready and calm in the studio in Amsterdam. Thank you so much Edwin van der Scheer and Rosa at HC Health for inviting me and hosting a very professionally run webinar on "Embracing Age in an Ageing world". I enjoyed it a lot and was once again confirmed that this is a topic that is high on the agenda in many companies: 750 people amongst HC Health´s clients expressed an interest!!

28/08/2024

Please ready my new post on Substack about how we can change our inner highways of thought-patterns if they no longer serve our well-being: https://open.substack.com/pub/livingupwards/p/do-the-rigid-rules-written-into-your?r=1nddbk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

26/08/2024

I was interviewed by Alison Jones today at Practical Inspiration Publishing about why I wrote my book Ageing Upwards, which is shortlisted to the Business Book Award. You can (re)watch it here: https://www.linkedin.com/events/meetourbbafinalists-beritlewis7231954851998375937/theater/

23/08/2024

Ageing is an opportunity for growth and fulfilment!

With 48,400 views of my article (https://psyche.co/ideas/rather-than-fearing-getting-old-heres-how-to-embrace-it) on Psyche so far it is obviously a concept that resonates with a lot of people. I got a personal email from Frank J Miles this week, which he has agreed I share here. I love it because it shows that - although hard - Frank has managed to turn around his mindset and go against the stereotypical view of ageing as being all about decline.

Ageing is not something that just happens to us - it is whatever we make of it.

Happy Friday.

21/08/2024

Today, Psyche is refeaturing my piece 'Rather than fearing getting old, here’s how to embrace it' on their homepage as one of their top articles of the year so far.

If you missed it, here it is:

Whether you are 20 or 90, each moment of life presents an opportunity to focus on what really matters to you

19/08/2024

Life is not always easy - but you are not alone in feeling like this. Mindfulness teaches us ways to embrace all of life and helps us learn and grow from the challenges. It teaches us the skills of concentration and focus and it gives us the awareness of how we are socially and genetically wired. This gives us the psychological flexibility and freedom to make more conscious choices on how to respond and live our lives.

It is not a quick and easy fix, but it is an investment for life. If you are curious, come and join me for the next 8 weeks Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course starting at Tribes in Leiden on Tuesday September the 10th at 19.00. For more information and sign-up see: https://www.yourtribes.nl/agenda/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction

18/06/2024

My fellow pro-age friend Micaela Bartels from PR:OUD once asked the powerful question: "What would happen if I decided that my future self is not by definition inferior to a younger version of me?"

But is this even possible when we know that in some areas we are very likely to experience decline?

In my recent post on LivingUpwards, I suggest we do not limit our our imagination to what the eyes can imagine, but rather reflect on what our inner traits, thoughts and emotions might be like in the future. You can read it here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/livingupwards/p/try-to-imagine-yourself-as-an-older?r=1nddbk&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

06/06/2024

True well-being cannot be found in pleasures. It takes bravery, effort and time to change our patterns of thoughts and beliefs to create sustainable resilient and thriving lives.

This week I said goodbye to another groups of brilliant MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) graduates. For 8 weeks you have been committed to meditating once a day and come to sessions every Tuesday night. It is no easy task, but you all did very well, and judging from your comments last night, it was worth it! Thank you for joining me and best of luck in keeping to your commitments to continue living mindful lives.

The next MBSR at Tribes in Leiden will start on Tuesday September the 10th at 19.00. For more information see: https://www.yourtribes.nl/service-page/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction?referral=service_list_widget