About Loes
How star-shaped exoskeletons of tiny one-celled organisms changed my life.
It was the afternoon of October 21, 2018.
I was standing on a beach on Iriomote, a small island in the Okinawa archipelago in Japan. This beach was called Star Sand Beach, famous for its star-shaped sand (which isn’t actual sand, but the star-shaped exoskeletons of tiny one-celled organisms).
It was beautiful, but I didn’t really see it.
All I could see was trash. Trash everywhere. Plastic bottles, slippers, fishing nets, buoys and other unidentifiable stuff.
That wasn't unique to this beach. All the islands we'd visited so far had lots of trash on their beaches, but for some reason, this time it hit me harder than before. Maybe it was because being on a beach with star-shaped sand should have been a magical experience, but instead there was all this pollution.
I was heartbroken.
I swore then and there that I would do everything I can to create a world in which a deeper love for and connection with nature are ingrained in the way we live, govern and do business. A world with more justice, more equality, and more well-being in every sense of the word for every living being.
That was the moment I dedicated my life to our planet.
I had already been coaching for eight years by then, but that was the moment I realised the greatest difference I could make was through helping earth advocates to cultivate their inner resources to support both their present and future needs (mental, emotional and spiritual), so they can make the greatest impact.
(Locals later explained to me that they clean up a beach every single month. The island is situated in the East China Sea, near Taiwan, a busy thoroughfare for huge container ships carrying both merchandise and lots of ‘recycled plastics’ from other parts of the world. These ships regularly lose containers, due to stormy weather and other reasons. The currents deliver all that trash to the beaches of Iriomote and neighbouring islands, where the people just can’t keep up with collecting and paying for it all to get sent to the incinerator on the main land.)
What was the moment or experience that made you go all in on protecting our planet?
MY WHY STATEMENT
“In everything I do, I believe in cultivating regeneration and sustainability. I believe in interconnectedness and re-establishing our connection to connection. ”
— Loes van Mierlo
Meet Loes
I started coaching when I was 16. As a swim coach I taught kids aged 5-12 how to swim, but more importantly I helped them overcome their fear of water. Seeing them become a little more confident week after week until they felt just as free in the water as outside of it was such a joy!
After finishing my degrees I found a career in online marketing and online tech. I got to work at some of the best companies in the world, including Google, Apple and WhatsApp. Some of my work directly impacted millions of people on a daily basis, a truly exciting world to be a part of!
Yet at the same time I felt empty more and more often. I had always been someone who follows her heart, but somehow, without me even noticing it, my head had slowly taken over and I had lost that connection with my heart.
It's been an interesting journey. I sometimes struggle with depression. Our shadows can teach us just as much as our light. I've become an expert at finding gifts in the shadows.
My journey of self-awareness is ongoing and one I'm deeply committed to. Amongst other things, I've personally trained and been certified by healer and author Denise Linn and I've studied positive psychology with Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar (who taught one of Harvard’s most popular —and life-changing— courses on positive psychology).
In my coaching practice I use a broad range of tools from meditations to science and research based interventions.
Some of my qualifications
Coaching (since 2010)
MSc Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology with a focus on eco-psychology (with Distinction) - University of East London
Certificate Emotional Intelligence
Certificate Neuroscience of Change
Certificate Outdoor Life Coaching
Certificate Power of Embodied Transformation
Other
Practitioner of Vipassana meditation since 2017, including four ten-day silent meditation courses
Qigong practitioner since 2021, currently in training to become a Qigong teacher
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“A wonderful, bubbly, thoughtful soul; Loes is open and warm-hearted, and an excellent dispenser of advice. Her soul reflects the sunlight and she has warm hands to keep your confidences safe!"
Dr. Rishita Nandagiri | Feminist researcher
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“Your way of being in the world and relating to other people creates stories in your life which are heartwarming and inspiring to others, because they show your deep humanity. These kind of things don't happen to most people. But they do happen to you, and that's special."
Robbie Swale | Coach
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“There is a wisdom about you that comes, I think, from a deep caring about humanity as a whole and humans as individuals."
Judy Thome | Optimum Edge
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"Thank you (again and always) for having awakened in me the courage to dream again. You have been a truly inspiring figure in my search for 'authenticity and abundance'."
Niña Terol | Changemaker, Communicator and Connector
Fun facts about me
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Growing up in a village in the south of the Netherlands, just two streets away from Belgium, we crossed the border weekly for errands. Maybe that's what kindled my desire to travel the world and live abroad.
Over the last 30 years, I've lived in Finland, Germany, India, Ireland, the Philippines, the United States (California) and Switzerland. I'm currently based in Andorra, a tiny country nestled in the beautiful Pyrenees mountains between France and Spain, and loving it.
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BA + MA in Finno-Ugric Languages and Cultures, specialisation in Finnish Language and Culture (University of Groningen, Netherlands)
MA in European Studies (University of Göttingen, Germany)
MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology (University of East London, UK)
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… was Bryan Adams, on stage during a concert.
There is no photographic evidence (this was back in the mid-90s), but I remember it as if it was yesterday.
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My mom’s home-cooked Indonesian food
Bold and deep colours
Ginger in all its forms
Misty mountains
Fountain pens and Traveler’s Notebooks
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Vegetarian since 1996, and completely plant-based since 2019 (sometimes reverting back to vegetarian while traveling)
A proud aunt of two nieces and a nephew (two of them in the Netherlands, one in Japan)
A Climate Reality Leader trained by former US Vice-President Al Gore
A Human Design Quad Right 3/5 Generator. INFP. Enneagram 4
Proudly part of
During the day my office (and the rest of our home) is fully powered by the solar panels on our rooftop.
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