MEDITATE4FREEDOM
Free your mind and the rest will follow...
MEDITATE4FREEDOM GROUP
WHY MEDITATE4FREEDOM?
Feelings of stress have become an unfortunate normality. Everyday life demands a great deal of your time, energy and attention. Thanks to all modern techniques, you are moreover constantly required to be available and prone to too much information and too many impressions. Growing numbers of people outpace themselves in an attempt to keep up while life passes them by. Often and only when it is too late, you suddenly notice how tired, confused and lost you have become.
During our MEDITATE4FREEDOM events, you will briefly step out of this “race” and switch from a DO-mode to a BE-mode. During these sessions, you will experience what it’s like to simply sit still and fully enjoy the present moment with your undivided attention. Our meditation leader Jeroen works with a modern mix of different styles and techniques brought to you in an understandable way. Inner freedom, however, takes practice – and meditation is practice!
Our MEDITATE4FREEDOM events can therefore be used to get acquainted with the technique, or to rediscover your motivation when your discipline has faded. Everyone can learn it and it’s a different experience every time!
You will experience that you are not your thoughts and they don't reflect reality. You will learn to look at stressful situations with a certain distance and from a neutral stance. Next, you will pay attention to the moment without judging it immediately, avoiding it or getting carried away. Meditation is a powerful means, which you can apply throughout your life. With each and every step, you shall experience more happiness, peace and freedom!
Throughout centuries, meditation has proven to provide a safe haven from harm. Tortured Tibetan monks use their traditional meditation techniques to overcome the worst of hardships, which human minds and bodies can possibly imagine and endure, enabling them to stay free from suffering. Thanks to their meditation practice, bitterness, miss-balance and hatred, have lost their grip. It helps them to keep their calm composure and continue compassionately on the path of purification and freedom, however rough the ride.
So, why is it that we, already, get agitated and carried away by itching mosquito bites, when Wi-Fi is down, someone doesn't call back, we miss a bus or an appointment? The answer lies in meditation or better said, to simply start, and the regular practice of, meditation. In order to grow inside, first, you have to do something - to, later, do nothing... that something is make the choice, time and dedication, that nothing is, meditation.
It is proven that when everyone feels free and safe to truly be themselves, the world will have less war, oppression, aggression, conflicts, arguments and social problems. Tolerance, compassion and kindness are a welcome side effect of meditation and this is why MEDITATE4FREEDOM does not only create more peaceful people but also a better world. Wouldn't you do this for you, the world and 4FREEDOM?
Our MEDITATE4FREEDOM events can therefore be used to get acquainted with the technique, or to rediscover your motivation when your discipline has faded. Everyone can learn it and it’s a different experience every time!
You will experience that you are not your thoughts and they don't reflect reality. You will learn to look at stressful situations with a certain distance and from a neutral stance. Next, you will pay attention to the moment without judging it immediately, avoiding it or getting carried away. Meditation is a powerful means, which you can apply throughout your life. With each and every step, you shall experience more happiness, peace and freedom!
Throughout centuries, meditation has proven to provide a safe haven from harm. Tortured Tibetan monks use their traditional meditation techniques to overcome the worst of hardships, which human minds and bodies can possibly imagine and endure, enabling them to stay free from suffering. Thanks to their meditation practice, bitterness, miss-balance and hatred, have lost their grip. It helps them to keep their calm composure and continue compassionately on the path of purification and freedom, however rough the ride.
So, why is it that we, already, get agitated and carried away by itching mosquito bites, when Wi-Fi is down, someone doesn't call back, we miss a bus or an appointment? The answer lies in meditation or better said, to simply start, and the regular practice of, meditation. In order to grow inside, first, you have to do something - to, later, do nothing... that something is make the choice, time and dedication, that nothing is, meditation.
It is proven that when everyone feels free and safe to truly be themselves, the world will have less war, oppression, aggression, conflicts, arguments and social problems. Tolerance, compassion and kindness are a welcome side effect of meditation and this is why MEDITATE4FREEDOM does not only create more peaceful people but also a better world. Wouldn't you do this for you, the world and 4FREEDOM?
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FOR WHOM?
Everyone can benefit! Both (more) experienced or inexperienced people wishing to (further) explore themselves through mindfulness and meditation. Anyone who is subject to stress, too much work, worrying, decreasing productivity and feels the need to experience more inner peace and quietness. MEDITATE4FREEDOM is meant for everyone who no longer wishes to be carried away by their thoughts and feelings, and instead wants to listen more to their true selves. Everyone is welcome, regardless of their cultural-, religious- or non-religious background and – although meditating might be traced back to the Buddha – meditation is beyond Buddhism and universal for all. MEDITATE4FREEDOM is almost scientifically direct and down-to-earth and not, as some might still believe, vague, woolly or a wishy-washy thing. Therefore, the MEDITATE4FREEDOM sessions are used both as an introduction to the technique or as motivation to meditate when your discipline has evaporated. MEDITATE4FREEDOM is compatible with any culture, philosophy, beliefs or lifestyle. Sign-up for an event near you, now and experience it yourself!
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WHAT IS EXPECTED OF YOU?
- We appreciate it if you first and voluntarily sign-up for freedom as an IAM4FREEDOM Hero,
- You then set your registration/RSVP (registration is much appreciated) via the orange 'attend' button at the top-right corner to reserve your seat / get your name on the guest-list at the entrance
- You remind others, who you wish to bring along to this free event, to do the same
- You, if necessary, cancel your RSVP / by clicking on the orange 'cogwheel-icon' button - if somehow you cannot make it, so that we shall maintain up-to-date information of who will be attending our event
- You are on time – so you can acclimatize, and we can start precisely on time!
- You are mentally available and give the meditation a honest chance by taking it seriously
- You follow Jeroen’s instructions and make sure you do not disturb others in their progress
- You set a positive example with your behaviour and act like a role model – a IAM4FREEDOM Hero – by treating your fellow participants with respect, creating a safe 'the right to be yourself' environment and encouraging all present to feel free!
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FOR FREE?
Free trial? Now way! Our MEDITATE4FREEDOM events are always freely accessible and offered with a pure intention. This is a deliberate choice, giving everyone the opportunity to attend and experience its benefits, share the wisdom with compassion and keep our intention pure by not over-commercializing our events.. Therefore, the locations are always offered and sponsored selflessly within the framework of Corporate Social Responsibility and the good-will factor. Alternatively, our events take place in public.
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BRING ALONG
- Yourself with a relaxed and open mindset
- Comfortable cushion(s) to sit on
- A mat, a blanket (or perhaps a scarf/hat etc.) to stay warm during physically sitting still
- Comfortable clothing
- Flask filled with water or any other beverage of choice
- Sunscreen (optional for outdoor sessions)
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JEROEN / INNER FREEDOM?
After mingling with Tibetan refugees in Nepal/North India, Jeroen Aalders became aware of the importance of freedom (both outer and inner freedom). Stimulating and inspiring others to engage in such a similar awareness process then became his life’s mission. In his role as initiator and managing director of ALL4FREEDOM, Jeroen thus focuses on outer freedom, human rights and the right to be yourself – something that many, unfortunately, are still deprived off.
Inner freedom, which is now secularly shared by Jeroen during our MEDITATE4FREEDOM events, is something that Tibetans refugees have always cherished and developed through mindfulness, meditation, their Buddhist belief and lifestyle. This includes experiencing inner peace and being free of destructive emotions such as stress, fear, anger, hatred, craving, aversion, irritation, jealousy, guilt, loneliness, sadness and pain.
At first, Jeroen did not perceive it his task to start spreading such wisdom as some sort of guru. However, ever since he was the first to successfully sneaked meditation into his sauna sessions, there was no turning back. Much like the Buddha himself, Jeroen saw so much suffering in the world by people who were unfree that he started to share the skills he had received from the monks or various (Vipassana) retreats and now somewhat mastered.
At first, Jeroen did not perceive it his task to start spreading such wisdom as some sort of guru. However, ever since he was the first to successfully sneaked meditation into his sauna sessions, there was no turning back. Much like the Buddha himself, Jeroen saw so much suffering in the world by people who were unfree that he started to share the skills he had received from the monks or various (Vipassana) retreats and now somewhat mastered.
Hence, Jeroen relaxes hundreds people towards their reset on a daily basis during his always meditative Silent-Zen-Session sauna sessions, Tibetan singing bowl sessions and Mindful-Mint-Meditations/MMM (where one objectively observes the physical sensations in the intense mint environment). Following these early success stories and the large demand and search for further depth, relaxation, de-stressing, inner freedom and more mindfulness/meditation, Jeroen, now hosts our MEDITATE4FREEDOM events. In this way, he thus sets the stage to share his knowledge and experience with passion and pleasure to whoever wants to hear it, feel it, needs it or wants to benefit from it.
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HISTORY
ALL4FREEDOM is an initiative of the Spanish Atreya from Barcelona and her Dutch partner Jeroen in Amsterdam. During a trip to Nepal and Northern India, they were drawn to particularly peaceful people with welcoming auras and with whom even western Atreya and Jeroen could connect and feel their inner freedom and ease of minds. Thus, by coincidence, over and over again, they bumped into Tibetan refugees who live in exile across the Chinese – Nepalese border areas. Ever since the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1949, these Tibetan people, who feel that they have lost their 'outer freedom', somehow, serenely and silently, spread their 'inner freedom' and compassion, contagiously upon Atreya and Jeroen. Although they have fled 4FREEDOM, leaving left their beloved country and the corresponding oppression behind, they bring guidance and comfort for all those who feel lost.
As two unwary non-Buddhist backpackers, Atreya and Jeroen came across the traditional Tibetan lifestyle and found freedom among refugees in the form of a fine human warmth, which they had never felt before. Impressive and touching was the Tibetan spirit, a combination of compassion, mind- and resilience, inner freedom and the qualities more or less the result from meditation. Being bathed in Buddhism and trained by meditational masters, Jeroen and Atreya soon shifted their perspective through careful concentration and conscious analysis of the mind. These special encounters gave Atreya and Jeroen something unforgettable and very valuable, which they do not wish to keep to themselves. Leaving Asia and Buddhism behind, apart from superb stories and in-erasable experiences, they bring back home a universal, freedom-flourishing version of the time-worn traditional techniques that anyone can easily apply whenever life treats them unfair. The awareness, importance and vulnerability of freedom and the connection between the so-called, two freedoms: the external/outer freedom (i.e. human rights and the right to be yourself/BSUR) and the opposite internal/inner freedom (such as being free from stress, worries and other mind-bobbling issues) is twofold and part or the ALL4FREEDOM - FREEDOM4ALL plan.
Ever since, they have filtered through the curtains of cultural components to reach the clear core teachings and extracted that practice in a very practical, non-religious/sectarian way. Thus making it possible for all to feed from those freeing fruits and fountain. Every since thousands of people have attended and benefited from hundreds of MEDITATE4FREEDOM sessions.
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ARE YOU EXCITED?
Check and come join us and check the detailed info on i.e. when, where and how long a MEDITATE4FREEDOM session lasts, etc. on the Events tab.
Of course, it might not always be possible for everyone to attend, but that is not a problem at all: there will surely be other sessions which you might be able to attend in the near future. Sign up as a IAM4FREEDOM Hero and join the MEDITATE4FREEDOM group to stay posted on new MEDITATE4FREEDOM event dates and/or check the site regularly. In short and completely according to the as-it-is theory: Who can be there, is there and who cannot be there, also fine!
Things are as they are, and often not as how you want them to be…
Thanks for your interest! ’Till then and ‘till Zen!
Jeroen Aalders
Of course, it might not always be possible for everyone to attend, but that is not a problem at all: there will surely be other sessions which you might be able to attend in the near future. Sign up as a IAM4FREEDOM Hero and join the MEDITATE4FREEDOM group to stay posted on new MEDITATE4FREEDOM event dates and/or check the site regularly. In short and completely according to the as-it-is theory: Who can be there, is there and who cannot be there, also fine!
Things are as they are, and often not as how you want them to be…
Thanks for your interest! ’Till then and ‘till Zen!
Jeroen Aalders
JOIN/RSVP?
