Weightlessness

Amena Lee Schlaikjer is an innovator, performance coach, startup catalyst, and rare mind-body polymath.

Amena has always had a deep fascination with mind-body connection as it relates to well-being, performance, and creativity. For the 20 years she's worked in various roles - leading design thinking projects for teams, training executives in behavioral change, and coaching startup founders to higher levels of performance.

After a handful of years in startup, she became second hire to Shanghai’s first international innovation consultancy (?WhatIf!) in 2005 before the wave hit, and grew the team to 25 people. In addition to her experience as an innovation strategist and start-up manager, she became a LOHAS specialist (Lifestyles of Health & Sustainability). Passionate about the growing trend, she eventually opened her own consultancy focused on health & well-being innovations in 2010. She has crafted and co-facilitated over 100 innovation workshops for companies like Unilever, Philips, and Intel, and supported the launch of 12 start-ups with a similar framework.

She loves witnessing the transformations of her 1:1 sessions with clients, with one highlight being coaching executives at Apple on what leadership looks like in the 21st Century. A believer of working models, practical tools, and fierce adaptation, she sees innovation as a behavior or frequency that needs consistent practice and fine-tuning to help teams better navigate uncertainty together.

She has the unique ability of translating various cultures on international teams, clustering new insights, and navigating new waters for opportunity — all shaped by her upbringing on three continents as the daughter of a career diplomat.

Long hours in startup and the pendulum swing of detox-retox took a toll on her health as she battled several burnouts. Having been an avid practitioner of mind-body arts as a kid growing up in Asia, she went on to explore practical models that could better explain her passion for experiential (embodied) knowing. She earned a 320 hour Inspaya yoga TT in 2009, ICF-accredited Wellcoaches completion in 2013, Body=Brain somatic coaching certificate in 2018, and 500 hour Weightlessness in 2020 after five years of training.

She also holds a Dive Master but mostly got it for underwater breath practice while seeing cool things swim by.

She also holds a BA in Asian Studies/Economics from Barnard College at Columbia University, an Associates of Science from Manhattan's F.I.T, and graduate of the THNK School of Creative Leadership in Amsterdam.

Saying the Weightlessness model of growth and performance wouldn't be what it is today without Amena is a gross understatement. Everything from The Weightlessness Spectrum to our Somatic Coaching Model - The Mind Body Archetypes Framework - has benefitted by her careful steering and refinement, if not direct inspiration.

"As a long-time student of mind-body practices, Weightlessness is hands down the smartest system I’ve come across. Tom cuts out all the dogma, all the excess, all the fluff, and elegantly weaves together a philosophy and protocol that will train you in deep, essential ways. Weightlessness IS my yoga, and a new way of approaching life. It's is the future of mind-body peak performance." - Amena Lee Schlaikjer