Mireille’s vision as initiator of Ieders Plak

“You crackle with energy when your body, mind and soul are healthy, clear, fresh and balanced. Because of or in spite of the challenges that life throws at us. You feel your passion, and the people around you will experience that too! You take charge of your own life and make your own choices.” Ieders Plak Initiator, Mireille Wiegman, shares her thoughts:

My experience is that I am simply happier when I dare to just BE.This makes me a better partner, mother and friend and also a better professional. For years, I managed long-term complex national and international projects, and I kept asking myself: what is the best way of doing this? I initially tried to find the answers in the models and concepts from my business administration study: project, process and programme management and scenario development. These were the tools I held on to. But it wasn’t enough. I realised that I was being held captive by my thoughts and emotions. Through bodywork, I discovered the functions of emotions, threw away my emotional baggage and started feeling a lot better about life. I became aware of the added value of exercise and having a healthy body.

I then started to learn more about nutrition and its effect on my mind and body. I followed various long-term courses (bodywork trainer, Sivananda Yoga), discovered (Shambhala) meditation and became an instructor, first giving Les Mills™ classes, and later ClubJoy™ classes. All this contributed to my personal development as a human being and as a professional and ultimately came together into what I call Integral Personal Leadership.

Leadership

Integral leadership because the body, the mind and the soul all matter. Personal because everyone can offer leadership in their own way. You become a leader when you do what you love with passion. I recognise my vision in spiral dynamics, theory U, integral, and reinventing organisations and I apply this vision in my work as a project manager, coach and trainer. After a sabbatical which gave me the time to take in new experiences and gave me the space to make new choices, we moved to Terschelling (June 2014). And that’s where I started up Ieders Plak, the living embodiment of my vision. I found a partner in Karin Lodder to help me interweave this vision with Podium Terschelling and together we operate on the business market as Bureau Basalt.

CV summary

(2016-today) Entrepreneur at Bureau Basalt, Terschelling
(2014-today) Initiator Ieders Plak, Terschelling
(1995-today) (Self-employed) project, process and programme manager for national and international projects (Central and Eastern Europe)
- Various posts: Director, Urban Development Corporation Poptahof (Delft); Project Leader, Revitalisation Achtersluispolder (Zaanstad); Project Leader, Urban Renewal Hordijkerveld (Rotterdam); Interim Leader, Project Agency (Municipality of Leidschendam Voorburg)
(1989-1994) Studies in Business Administration (Rotterdam, Erasmus University)
(1981-1987) Atheneum-B (grammar school) (‘s-Hertogenbosch, St. Janslyceum)
(01-08-1969) Born in Purmerend

Mireille’s sources of inspiration

I draw my inspiration from the challenges and successes in life and from my personal experiences with the effects of exercise, nutrition and relaxation. But also from personal experiences in management positions and (leadership) training programmes. I feel inspired by all sorts of people, just like you probably feel inspired in your own life. From my own partner, parent, child or colleague to famous people. And nature, of course! After all, we came to live on Terschelling for a reason!

Thank you for:

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, for bringing to the Western world the practice of Shambhala Buddhism and the meditation techniques which bring us back time and time again to our human essence: basic goodness.

Les Mills & ClubJoy, for developing a professionally sound and balanced exercise system designed to challenge, bring enjoyment and accept you for who you are.

Swami Sivananda & Swami Vishnu Devananda, for conceptualising and developing an equally simple and challenging integral form of yoga with meditation, nutrition and much more, and for bringing it to the Western world. Thanks to you, we are now able to gain valuable insights into the workings of and relationships between the body and mind.

George Ohsawa, for your simple take on the complexity and value of authentic foods. Thanks to you, the saying ‘you are what you eat’ has taken on a whole new dimension for me.

Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer, for the ability to break down and help us gain insight into the dynamics behind large-scale societal changes. You make it as clear as day that personal leadership matters. For everyone.

Clare Graves, Don Beck & George Cowan, for the ability to link large-scale cultural change to our personal values. This allows us to increase our personal effectiveness.

Mauk Pieper, for your tireless dedication and support in helping me to find my own answers and to bring out the best in me. For a better world.

Esther (my wife), for your love, support and your ability to be my rock and my home when I’ve lost my way.

Michel Dekker, for your gift as a passionate professional Rotterdam sports instructor to let me and many others experience the magic of ‘my own body in motion’ during your exercise classes.

Ken Wilber, for the ability to drill down complex ideas to simple models, thereby exposing a hidden world of inspiration, insight and openness. And inviting us to admire and embrace life’s complexities.

Sri Rajneesh, Osho, for the ability to provide insight and clarity into the function of emotions. Literally and figuratively. So that we can laugh, cry, feel anger and bring those emotions back to what they are actually meant to be: signals.