The founding of Renewmyday
Renewmyday was born from Renee's personal need to overcome a burn-out with symptoms such as chronic stress, feeling stuck and exhausted. She was strongly convinced however, that she was able to find a way out herself to take charge of her life again.
It is my strong conviction that ultimate health and happiness is the result of living your intentional life, which starts with prioritising your vitality. Finding myself in a burn-out twice, I discovered that a daily structure where vitality is prioritised brought me the right foundation to thrive again. This structure comprised of activating 5 building blocks for vitality, i.e. move, sleep, eat, breathe and reflect and making them a habit. The amount of scientific evidence for a strong synergy between these building blocks brought me to design the lifestyle upgrade that can be achieved with Renewmyday.
With Renewmyday I follow my dream to help anyone who tends to forget that his or her achievements can only lead to success if vitality is put first. In no religion, philosophy or success story a justification can be found for sacrificing your vitality to ambition and success.
As a young girl living in Rotterdam I felt deeply different from others. Going to a Christian primary school, I discovered God and felt much better if I said my prayers, every evening, asking Him to take care of me and my family. I even sang 7 (!) religious songs every evening kneeling before my bed. At the same age, I suffered from chronic hoarseness, which I now know was caused by a wrong breathing pattern, but back then was treated by doing exercises like endlessly repeating certain words as ohmmmmm.
Later, in secondary school, I felt lonely and disconnected from the rest of the world. In my twenties, when I started my Law studies in Amsterdam, I was convinced that a wild student life would bring me some peace of mind. I enjoyed it surely, but already back then discovered the vital importance of conducting a balanced lifestyle with sufficient moving, sleeping and (heathy) eating. Breathing I still did, reversed, in my upper chest. Reflection, what I did once in a while, led to feeling depressed which I tried to get rid of by calling a friend to chat.
When I joined the founding team of TMF Group as one of their (co)founding partners in the early nineties, I felt like coming home. Surrounded by my TMF family members, meanwhile married and mother of 3 daughters, I could thrive to the max.
In 1998, when pursuing my career abroad, I joined TMF’s offices in Geneva, Switzerland and was appointed Managing Director. My career and success gave me wings as well as a daily dopamine shot I loved and needed; it was the reward for my energy-consuming lifestyle. The lack of sleep, piled-up stress, a wrong breathing pattern and lack of time to step back and reflect, led to a burn-out in 2008. And given the number of colleagues and business partners facing similar health issues, I realised that I was not the only one paying the price for an unbalanced lifestyle.
I thought I was able to recover by changing my role to one of TMF’s Global Sales Executives and moving back to The Netherlands in 2014. It was not the solution as I ended up having a second burn-out in 2018. And, again, like me, many co-workers were facing similar feelings of overwhelm and stress. I started to feel the need to find a solution for so much suffering and started to study naturopathic and nutrition. I discovered the mutually reinforcing effect of nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and conscious breathing and reflection. And how frequent conscious activation of these essential elements empowered me to get back in the driver’s seat of my life.
Vitality First became my credo and I could not do anything else but to found Renewmyday and share my findings that every path, how adventurous and ambitious it might be, starts with a healthy body & mind. If you recognise yourself in the old me, now is the time to join our Program and take charge of your life!
Looking forward to welcoming you as a Renewer, warm regards, Renee
