Meet Natalia Bojanic

Is the way you work working for you?

This is the question I usually ask participants attending the mindfulness workshops I facilitate in the corporate space and by the end of the session most participants will have learned that it is possible to master ourselves one thought at a time.

My interest in mental health and neuroscience goes back to 2019 when I started teaching in companies having earned a certification from Search Inside Yourself, a Leadership Institute born at Google and developed by thought leaders in neuroscience, emotional intelligence and mindfulness. Since then I have delivered countless mental health and wellbeing workshops in the corporate space. Most recently, I also ventured into content creation and co-designed a preventative mental health programme for multinational athletic apparel retailer lululemon that is being rolled out globally to their twenty thousand employers.

The reason I’m so passionate about bringing mental health solutions and interventions to the workplace is rooted in my own first-person experience. When I used to be a PR Director in the luxury industry, and struggled to manage the demands, deadlines and toxic environment I didn’t have the support I needed for my mental wellbeing, so after quitting my job in 2015 I went on a journey to heal and educate myself and to enable me to share my knowledge and insights with others who could benefit.

Since then, I have embarked on numerous meditation teacher trainings and retreats, led by renowned meditation teachers such as Charlie Knoles, Tara Brach, PhD and Jack Kornfield, PhD and B. Alan Wallace, PhD and have qualified as a mindfulness and meditation instructor.

My insights into the nature of the human mind thus come from ancient contemplative practices and buddhist psychology, which have been successfully offering antidotes against mental afflictions for over 2500 years. Whilst I have first-hand experience of the efficacy of some of these practices and teachings, I felt the need to complement my mental health education by training in the Western approaches to the field so that I can most effectively combine contemplative practices with the latest research in psychology and neuroscience to provide programmes and courses that support people in taking care of their minds with wisdom and compassion, so currently I am studying for a Masters in Psychology & Neuroscience of Mental Health at King's College London

Since working as a meditation teacher on a one-to-one basis or in group settings, I have witnessed the profound transformative effect that attentional training and the cultivation of compassion can have on people’s lives: a simple, yet effective grounding technique has changed the way an extremely anxious NHS Doctor coped with her responsibilities, and self-compassion practices supported a Finance Director in making decisions in a more heart-centred way.

My aspiration is to share practical solutions for preventing mental health conditions in the workplace and beyond from escalating by combining ancient wisdom and scientific rigour. I strongly believe that it is through such a combination of Eastern and Western approaches that the current mental health crisis can most successfully be tackled.