The founder and coach of The MindBody Lab is Ivar van Hoorn, an allround stress specialist. He’s worked for years a chairmassage therapist at companies like Microsoft, Booking.com and also The Next Web. He’s given in-company Dynamic Mindfulness and Breathwork, Meridian Movement & Meditation™ coaching at organizations like Gemeente Amsterdam, Salonized, Uber, Omnicom Pr Group, Egon Zender, PR.CO, TQ and The Next Web.
After a decade of working in the corporate film industry during the week and partying a little too much on the weekend, he got a burn-out and a depression. In his quest for healing he explored al kinds meditation, yoga and other movement practices. From 2008 to 2010 he lived , worked as a filmmaker, studied and practiced in a Tibetan Buddhist Community in Southern France.
Ivar’s sources of inspiration are spiritual traditions: Tantrayana/Vajrayana, Tibetan Tantra Yoga (from Nyingma tradition and Tibetan Medicin tradition), Dzogchen (Awareness Meditation) , Self Inquiry from Non Dualism/Neo Advaita (Rupert Spira, Mooji) and evidence-based secular mindfulness (Jon Kabat Zinn, MBSR, MBCT). Schema-Focused Cognitive Therapy and Acceptance, Commitment Therapy (ACT), (Self) Compassion practices he also finds very helpful.
Ivar likes the evidence-based Wim Hof Method, so he takes cold showers or cold swims in the morning. To get “high” he enjoys bouldering at Monk Bouldergym
To help him deal with his own long lasting “depression”, he created Dynamic Mindfulness and Breathwork, Meridian Movement & Meditation™ From his sources of inspiration he took the essence of what worked for him , left out what didn’t and added what was his own using the motto : ‘Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own” , by Bruce Lee.
He likes hiking, bouldering, ecstatic dance and swimming outdoors.
It is his goal and passion to bring mindfulness and movement into the workplace in an effective, efficient, accessible, lighthearted way.
He believes at the workplace there is the most potential to deal with stress via the integration of meditation and movement exercises, since it is the place where we generally spent most of our time.
His latest project is The MindBody Lab, which combines meditation and movement “stress hacks” from the most effective, efficient and accessible sources.
Disclaimer: Ivar is far from being enlightened, realized or always being mindful. In other words he’s still fully human, yet on his mindfulness, spiritual and therapeutic journey he has gathered an effective “toolbox” to deal with life’s “stress” challenges, like a burn out, depression and trauma in a constructive way.