Be Happier Through Mindfulness With Claire Griffin

Claire Griffin is the founder of Mindfulness Web & a Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Trainer, Teacher Trainer & Mentor. After a 25-year career as a business owner and executive search consultant for the data & digital marketing industry, her passion is now to introduce as many people as possible to the transformative power of Mindfulness.

Claire works with individuals and groups who are seeking relief from increased anxiety and stress levels and would like to find more balance and enjoyment at work and in their personal lives. She teaches the internationally recognised evidence-based 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course as well as shorter courses adapted for delivery in to the workplace.

Her recent focus is on working with remote working leaders and teams. Her vision: kinder, happier & more innovative workplaces creating better outcomes for our global society.

Claire Griffin, Mindfulness Coach

Hi Claire! Introduce yourself. Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.

I've been running my own businesses now on and off since 1998 so I guess you could call me a serial entrepreneur. I caught the travel bug early in my career and since then I’ve lived and worked in Barcelona, London, Madrid, New York, Sydney, and even in a small mountain village in rural Andalucia, Spain where I lived for 5 years. I love experiencing new cultures, and meeting people from other countries – one of the many things I enjoy about being a Mindfulness Coach & Trainer is that I often get to work with people from all over the world. It is always so inspiring and uplifting to experience the sense of connection that emerges between people when they come together to practice Mindfulness and create a safe space together – whether that be in person or online. It cuts through so many barriers, something which is particularly important in the world we are living in right now.

Prior to becoming a Mindfulness Coach, I had a successful 25-year career in Executive Search and Recruitment for the marketing industry, both as an employee, a director and as a business owner. Exciting, very fast-paced, and very much a “people business” where I worked with some amazing clients, several of whom became friends. So, transitioning into coaching and Mindfulness Training was in some ways an extension of my interest in working closely with people and understanding their motivations and challenges – albeit in a much deeper and more personal way.

I now live in West Sussex on the south coast of the UK near to where I grew up so geographically, I have come full circle. I’m incredibly lucky to live only a couple of minutes' walk from beautiful Shoreham Beach and I’ve recently become a keen cold-water swimmer. We are also surrounded by lovely countryside here and walking in nature is another enormous pleasure for me. I live with my husband Andrew and our rescue cat Lily and we are blessed with an amazing group of close friends and family who create a lot of joy in our lives. And of course, I have my daily meditation practice which I can’t imagine being without!

What is your business name and how do you help your clients?

My business is called Mindfulness Web and I help my clients to reduce stress, relieve anxiety and be happier through the practice of Mindfulness.

What kind of audience do you target your business towards?

I’m a Certified Teacher in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which is internationally recognised as the gold standard Mindfulness course. It’s an 8-week evidence-based program that has been shown to be effective for people suffering from stress, anxiety and chronic pain and I teach this course to anyone who is experiencing any or all of these.

Alongside this, I also work with companies that are choosing to support workplace wellbeing and reduce stress in the workplace. I run a 6-week Mindfulness at Work course for teams and leaders – a course that has been specifically tailored for delivery in the workplace. A current area of interest for me is remote working and hybrid working and Mindfulness can positively impact effective communication skills, interpersonal skills, stress levels, and team cohesion. I strongly believe that introducing simple Mindful activities into the workplace culture – for example in online meetings – would be a great benefit for companies who are exploring ways to be as productive as possible both online and offline. The happier and more engaged employees are and the more able they are to manage their own stress levels, the more successful a business will be. This is also true of business leaders – research has shown that the personal presence of a leader or manager has a profound effect on their teams. It also influences staff retention and therefore has a very real effect on the bottom line.

What is your work inspired by?

I’m inspired by my own teachers, by my colleagues in the teacher training team at the Mindful Academy Solterreno and elsewhere, and of course by my clients who I am always learning from.

I love guiding people to discover that they have everything they need to be less stressed and happier once they connect with the present in a very particular way. It’s a radical shift of perspective which is incredibly powerful. I love helping turn that light on for my clients. I'm also inspired by some of the leading figures in Mindfulness and Buddhist practice – Jon Kabat Zinn and Pema Chodron for example. And people from the world of psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry who are Mindfulness practitioners and teachers– Professor Mark Williams and Dr. Rick Hanson spring to mind. Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.

In 2011 and 2012 I went through a period of stress-related burnout. At the time I just felt angry, exhausted, and overwhelmed but I put this down to the pressures of work and some issues around my parents’ health.

Looking back, it had been a long time in the making – my whole mindset around feeling stressed was that it was a “normal” part of having a successful career and just something I lived with. I ran my own business and there was never enough time to get “everything done” – of course I was stressed! An attitude that I now realise eventually has its consequences. I remember waking up one morning and realising that I needed help – that my stress levels were out of control and that my usual coping strategies just weren’t working anymore. I had started going to yoga classes and the teacher guided a short meditation at the end of each class. I sensed that this might be something that could help me and started practicing meditations I found online. In 2013 I signed up for an 8-week MBSR course as a participant, and the positive changes I noticed in myself – and in the other participants – by the end of that 2-month period just blew me away. I knew by the end of the course that I wanted to share this program with other people. Several years of training, and many, many hours of meditation later here I am! Mindfulness is a life-long practice, and I am still on that learning path, but I can honestly say that it has changed my life for the better in so many ways. It is now an integral part of my life and work.

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