Querien Mangel

This is where you will find me teaching this week. Some new classes and some extra sub-classes. Come practice with me, would love to see you on the mat. 💕

*THIS WEEK’S SCHEDULE*

TUESDAY
17.30 Pregnancy Yoga
19.00 Vinyasa Flow
📍YogaZenter

THURSDAY
17.45 Prenatal/Postnatal Yoga
📍The Cosmos West

SATURDAY
9.00 Power Yoga
📍The Cosmos West

SUNDAY
16.30 Prenatal/Postnatal Yoga
📍 The Cosmos West

Wishing you a beautiful week ✨
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Aren’t you afraid to lose your identity? To lose that person you are now, once the baby is here?

A friend asked me this question today. I smiled.

Cause you know, I thought about this a lot.

For years I’d been seeking, discovering and healing. First guided by my years in Australia, later walking the Camino for three months and going through an intense 3 year trajectory with my therapist.

I found a ‘me’ that I slowly started to accept, love and occasionally was proud of.

Would having a child mean losing all that I’d worked so hard for?

The only answer I have now is that today I’m already not who I was yesterday, let alone who I was two years ago. We are always journeying, always evolving.

Moving through life, we constantly break open and piece ourselves together again. It’s to us to practice in experiencing this rebuilding over and over again with an open mind and open heart.

So the entire proces of becoming a mother - to me - is just like the ways in which we move through life. We let the experiences break us open, and then transform us. Making space to grief what is lost, but excited for what it is we are becoming.
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And then I found myself at the very beginning of an entirely new journey… a very special one.

No longer walking on my own. I’m carrying another. Another life, another soul. Wherever my feet take me.

No words can describe the feelings flowing through my body.

A life is growing inside me.

I wasn’t sure when would be a good time to share this news, and how to share it when everything feels vulnerable. Keeping in mind also those who lost their baby, had to end their pregnancy or are struggling to conceive. Yet, I’ve learned that with vulnerably and openness comes belonging and connection.

Being pregnant, for me, is an eclectic mix of feeling honoured, excited, joyous, loved and blessed coated with anxiety, fear, nausea and exhaustion.

As my baby and I are slowly unfolding on this entirely new path. So will this space here. For I’ve experienced myself these first months, how incredibly difficult, lonely and confusing this journey can be - despite the intense joy, love and gratitude I feel being blessed with this little miracle.

I speak of I, yet there is another traveller on this path. The love of my life Benoît, blessed to have you walking right by my side, I love you heaps.
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He sat there in silence.
Unmoved, yet aware of me presence.
Graceful and patient.
Deeply grounded.
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The Heron was but one of the many intriguing encounters I had in the past few days. My daily walks are bringing me to places I haven't been before. Not just physically, also mentally.
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I'm going to a process of reevaluation - reflecting on the everyday and especially my business. Usually that doesn't happen until the very end of the year but this year I've encountered an early longing to rethink, realign and rebalance.
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Are you noticing something similar? A longing to step out of the endless cycle of to-do's, have-to's, want to's? Spend time reconnecting with yourself and the things that truly matter?
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Take some time today, tomorrow or perhaps even this weekend. Go outside. Close the door behind you and step out of all the busyness. Walk. Walk slowly. Feel the wind, perhaps the rain. Feel you feet on the earth. The movement of your body. Breathe and be present. ✨
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Longing to go outside and reflect, but looking for support in this process? Don't hesitate to send me a DM. 🧡

You won’t achieve your wildest dreams by action only.

For it is in the times when we step away from the action, the doing and achieving that we can see where and who we actually are.

Our society is intoxicated by doing, being productive, always being on. Caught in the never ending circle of wanting more, achieving more, pleasing more - we forget to rest, slow down, to journey within, to feel and dream.

Me included. My first thought going away for two nights in a cabin in the forest was. “Finally some quiet time to work uninterrupted!”

And there I sat today in swinging chair, greeting the birds, welcoming the clouds as they floated past, letting my fantasy run wild whilst talking to my boyfriend about the future, slowly sipping tea…

I’ve been smiling all day. For I realised all the doing got me down a very narrow road, unaware that right besides me there were other roads, wide and filled with the most beautiful foliage. Head down, it kept taking the small things for granted whilst there was a wealth of beauty right under my eyes.

There is was. Growth. In those joyeus moments of rest.

Growth is not achieved by constantly doing.

You are already whole.

So often in life we are looking for things beyond ourselves to complete us.

We think that our current situation and being has to be altered, somehow become dramatically different in order to feel aligned - to feel complete, whole as a person.

Truth is. Wholeness is not achieved by improving yourself.

Your sense of feeling complete does not magically appear by ‘become a better version of yourself’.

It comes when allowing and accepting the numerous differents elements that make you as a person.

Honouring each and every part of your existence, as messy as it might be, every day.

Wholeness is not you being one thing, it’s you embracing that you are many.

Drop a 🧡 if this resonates with you!

It wasn’t always like this.

Before I started my own self-discovery journey, I often chased what felt good and tried to get rid of that which didn’t. I got into the habit of numbing myself, got caught up in risky behaviour and found myself in unhealthy situations. I was emotionally unbalanced, felt stuck and at times deeply unhappy.

After years of therapy, yoga practice and endless hours of journeying within, I discovered that what I tried to get rid of and avoid was actually just part of it all - of life.

My pilgrimage to Santiago became a living, physical example of the journey I was making within. Whatever highs you might be chasing, the lows need to be dealt with too.

Where I am now in life, I can see that there is magic in every moment.

Not just the ones that bring joy, laughter and excitement.

Also the ones that bring us to tears, arouse anger or frustration share in that same magic.

Our life’s journey is not only to live a joyful, inspired and meaningful life. It’s the practice of cultivating resilience and trust at times when those things are or feel absent.

What magic did you experience today? ✨

You want to know the secret ingredient to growth?
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 It’s probably not what you think.
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⚔️  It isn’t the endless hours of non-stop work.
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⚔️ It isn’t your toughness or fearlessness.
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⚔️ It isn’t you pushing even harder when things are difficult.
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⚔️ It’s not about doing all of it on your own.
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Growing is about developing self-compassion. Being able to be kind, warm and understanding to yourself.
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✨ It’s recognising when to do the work and when to rest.
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✨ It’s allowing yourself to be vulnerable when you are afraid.
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✨ It’s letting yourself fall apart in difficult times, knowing you are capable of rebuilding.
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✨ It’s about asking for help when you need it.
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If you have the motivation and passion to work towards wonderful things in life - whatever those may be - and stir in a bit of compassion towards yourself you’re having a magical recipe in hands!
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Do you find it easy or difficult to be compassionate towards yourself?

Life moves through cycles.
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The ocean, ebbing and flowing. The moon, waxing and waning. The seasons, coming and going. Our breath, inhaling and exhaling.
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Cycles of approaching and retreating, covering and uncovering, life and death, rising and falling.
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Everything is constantly changing.
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I’ve noticed that our very own journey through life goes through similar cycles. Even on a daily basis, we can discover the presence of this flow.
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✨Some days we feel very near to our goals and aspirations, other days they feel out of reach.
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✨Some days we observe our growth, on others we act in a way far removed from the progress we made.
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✨Some days are energy is outward, creative, inspired, other days our energy is inward, calm, reflective.
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Exploring these cycles also teaches us to be present at times when things are going well - knowing that this too, will change again.
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Honouring the cycles in our life, can help us to cultivate kindness when things aren’t going quite like we want them to go.
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If you have the time today, swipe left for some reflections prompts to ponder upon when journaling or walking.
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No time to reflect now? Save these prompts for later!
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