#036 - Julien Gryp - A path to a New Life

Esta entrevista é uma edição dos Podcasts Ser Sustentável em Inglês.

In today's episode, we have a captivating conversation with Julien Gryp, who shares his extraordinary journey of recovery from addiction and how the monastic life played a pivotal role in is transformation.

Julien recounts his initial skepticism about joining a monastic community and practicing meditation, but he soon discovered the immense power of mindfulness in his daily life. Through their experience at a Buddhist monastery in Thailand, Julien found solace and support from the monks and nuns, which became instrumental in his recovery.

Our discussion takes us on a journey through the establishment of the New Life Project, first in Thailand and later in Portugal.

Julien shares how this project aims holistic support for mental health and addiction recovery, combining mindfulness, community living, and professional guidance.

We explore the challenges faced in transplanting the project to a different environment, such as the differences in climate and costs.

Julien candidly talks about the hurdles they encountered, including navigating regulations and the higher cost of living in Portugal.

Despite these obstacles, the project has thrived, helping people from various walks of life on the path to recovery.

Throughout our conversation, Julien emphasizes the importance of mindfulness in addiction recovery, citing its impact on addressing habits of the mind and cultivating qualities such as concentration, clarity, and equanimity.

We dive into the role of meditation in embracing the ups and downs of life and its potential as a preventive measure for mental health issues.

This is a conversation that sheds light on the power of community, personal transformation, and the essentiality of sustainable mental health practices.

In his work Julien combine his interest in mindfulness and meditation with his love of nature, community life, and being of service to others.

A practitioner of meditation for almost twenty years and a Buddhist monk at Thamkrabok Monastery for eight of those years, he draws inspiration from a range of schools and traditions including Theravada, Mahayana, and Zen Buddhism.

Alongside his meditation practice, he is a keen student of multidisciplinary evidence-based research which explores topics like motivation, identity, anxiety, stress, depression, and substance misuse, all of which are struggles that he and many others have faced at one time or another.

When in charge of the New Life Thailand has led this foundation since it was founded by Johan Hansen in 2010, performing multiple roles as director, meditation instructor, yoga teacher, and administrator for the first few challenging years as the organisation struggled to establish itself as a young non-profit trying to make the most of scarce resources. With the support of many compassionate and talented individuals who believe in their mission, the foundation has since become a thriving international centre offering a high quality yet affordable program.

He departed then to Portugal were e was the founder of New Life Portugal a project which is not part any more of since 2023.

He moved to the North of Portugal with his family, where he now lives.