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Miriam Bekkouche
Change starts from within | Founder @ Brain Spa | Former diplomat, TED speaker, embodied mindfulness expert, yoga teacher and mom
Miriam Bekkouche is the Founder and Lead Facilitator at Brain Spa, a company focused on mindfulness-based leadership and personal development.1 She is a sought-after expert in this field, having worked with dozens of teams and over 10,000 employees globally since 2014.1
Miriam's background includes:
- A decade-long career with the Canadian Foreign Service1
- Four years of experience in New York City's tech startup and investor community1
- Delivering a TED Talk on the role of mindfulness and leadership in global problem-solving1
Her approach to mindfulness and leadership is informed by various traditions and teachings, including:
- Himalayan Tradition in Rishikesh, India
- Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction from UMass
- Compassion Cultivation Training developed at Stanford University1
Miriam holds a B.A. in political science from McGill University and an M.A. in public administration from the College of Europe.1 She is of Algerian-American descent and currently resides in Montreal, where she balances her work with parenting and teaching yoga.1
At Brain Spa, Miriam combines neuroscience, psychology, and management science with ancient mindfulness practices to help individuals and organizations transform stress and actualize their full potential.15 Her coaching approach empowers leaders to align with their inner leadership and create the outer impact they desire.1
Miriam's LinkedIn profile (username: miriambekkouche) shows her recent activities, including posts about productivity, burnout recovery, and offering support to Canadian businesses and organizations.234
Highlights
TLDL: When it comes to optimizing how to GTD, testing and refining what works for you leads to better outcomes than pursuing what works for others.
Rikki Goldenberg and I share how we were served this lesson IRL. And feels so good to be able to look back and laugh. Feels even better to be building community around goal activation that puts people at the center of their process... not the other way around.
5 phrases meant to 'motivate' but don't work for me:
- "Go ALL IN or go home."
I was given this advice while launching a new online course + caring for a newborn. The truth is I wasn't all in on the launch. Guess what? I took small steps towards it—and it worked out.
- "When you want it badly enough, you'll make it happen."
Sometimes fears or other mental loops need to be addressed before we do the thing. That or the timing is off. It feels super shame-y to blame the (lack of) desire as the problem. Ew.
- "You can do this in minutes." --> When my estimate is hours.
Unless properly scaffolded, setting unreasonable expectations is a petri dish for icky emotions that work against me feeling enthusiastic. Too bad... because we could be working with the brain's natural reward system to build confidence, stamina and trust!
- "Follow my [insert failproof system here] for success."
Ok, so I'm paraphrasing marketing language out there trying to sell me courses that promise results if only I were follow the formula. This just doesn't match my experience. Although playbooks have value, I am mostly unmoved by the idea that there is only one best way of getting from A to B.
- "It's going to be hard. No pain, no gain."
While I'm infinitely curious about the edge between comfort and growth, I've found more effective way for me to stay there. They don't involve romanticizing pain (even as I connect with the truth that that pain is part of the human experience) or expecting that hard needs to be the norm.
If you’ve ever been given motivational advice that missed the mark for you, let's see it 👀.
I don't think I'm alone on this. Right?!
Hi 👋 I'm Miriam, a leadership development facilitator and mindfulness coach who helps you create more fluidity, freedom and fulfillment at work and beyond.
If you're eyeing a goal that you want to make happen before the end of the year, check out 100 Days. It's a super supportive 14-week goal development and activation program co-facilitated by me and Rikki Goldenberg... minus the weird motivational stuff that ends up making humans feel 'less than'✌️
