Anouk Maas: ‘I’m well on my way, but I still have a lot to discover’

How did it come to this?

‘I was in a grid. Another film, another musical, another presentation job. All super nice. But in my body there was stress, panic, I got a burnout. Beaten for far too long. I did everything mainly from my head. I wanted perfection, the bar sky high. It wasn’t right. By nature I am someone who lives very physically, from that body. The burnout triggered a lot in me. Couldn’t it have been any other way? I got curious and started looking.’

An important knot she made: ‘I stopped using birth control. That pill was invented by men and it’s just not right that we women just take it all. I found it shocking and at the same time a discovery that I was gradually becoming much more myself again. That pill had clouded who I was. After stopping I could sail more accurately on my woman’s compass, on that womb thing, as I call it.’

Anouk got to know her body better and through all the studies she understood that everything is connected and interrelated. ‘Energy management is very important. That is why I try to provide people with as many tools as possible to go for sustainable energy conservation. That works better than antidepressants with which you just suppress something. When someone comes to me, I look at the stress level, the bowel movements, I do a blood test, a neurotransmitter test, I get information from all angles and I adjust my training or treatment accordingly. First it is about raising awareness, then we take the first steps that usually yield significant results and then comes the most important thing: persistence. Every person is unique in this, every person has developed his own routines. So first you have to discover and understand your body, how does that work? And how can you change the routines so that you feel better and have more energy?’