About Ian Matthews
 

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Presence: The Forgotten Human Technology
 

From British Army Foreman of Signals to Cisco EMEA Training Manager, Ian’s path has spanned military strategy, corporate programming, and global wellness innovation. He’s since guided thousands through stress, burnout, and performance plateaus. For almost a decade, Zenbok has delivered evidence-based mindfulness programs for global organisations. Ian is one of the world’s most highly qualified mindfulness trainers (MBSR, MBCT, MBOE - trained by the founders themselves), with hundreds of hours of research and trials. He helps people facing real-world stress and leadership pressure to break out and bounce back higher. 

Search for The Grail​
 

 Ian´s search for the key to unlock the human nervous system started where people are: that place where they sit with themselves, caught in their thinking loops, and reflected in their bodies as tension. He began to see that in this fast and complex world, our leaders and teams have mastered systems and strategy, but neglected their human instrument itself. Through solid EEG brainwave, HRV research, and applied coaching he began developing his own MAVA protocol - blending evidence-based mindfulness with vagal activation. This has become his field-tested key to regulating the human nervous system, and unlocking real-world calm.


Zenbok: We Exist for The Shift

In 2023: by developing and measuring new vagus nerve activation techniques, Ian started to produce instant nervous system calm in leaders - both onsite and online. What took weeks to create state change, could now happen in minutes. This method became Mindfulness-Assisted Vagal Activation (MAVA): a new paradigm for exceptional leadership and performance.

 

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“Mindfulness has always been about awakening.

When paired with vagal science, it becomes awakening at speed.”
 

- Ian Matthews, Zenbok Founder

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