{"id":68,"date":"2022-12-14T15:33:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T15:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/helenachacon.com\/?page_id=68"},"modified":"2026-07-20T17:55:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:55:02","slug":"who","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/helenachacon.com\/en\/quien\/","title":{"rendered":"Helena Chac\u00f3n, PhD"},"content":{"rendered":"

PhD in Geology, Yoga Instructor and Nature Illustrator<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Helena Chac\u00f3n, PhD<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All my life I have been asking the same question from different perspectives: how does one inhabit a body, how does one inhabit a territory, how does one learn to look at what sustains us? First, I explored and researched planet Earth; then the body; and now the connections between them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The story<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Science and Sensibility<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever since I was a child, I\u2019ve been curious, restless and very sensitive \u2014 what is now known as a highly sensitive person. That sensitivity and my analytical mind didn\u2019t sit well together, and for years I thought I had to choose between the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fascination with nature led me to complete a degree in Geology at the University of Huelva in 2000 and to obtain my PhD in 2006 with a thesis on Petrology and Geochemistry that received European recognition. In the middle of my degree, at the age of twenty, I went through an anxiety crisis which was treated with medication for a year. I now realise that it was one of the best things that ever happened to me: I realised that an anti-anxiety medication wouldn\u2019t resolve that conflict, and I began practising yoga in search of a way out \u2013 a discipline that has been with me ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geology taught me that the Earth has undergone all manner of processes \u2013 rapid and slow, local and global \u2013 as well as cycles, changes and periods of stillness. Yoga taught me that human beings also go through different processes and that we are not so different from the planet that sustains us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Change of course<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2006, I completed my doctoral thesis and left the academic world to devote myself professionally to yoga and natural therapies. It was neither easy nor quick: I found far more doors closed than open. But some people put their trust in me, and that enabled me to forge a career that began with training in natural health disciplines such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, aromatherapy, manual therapies, forest bathing\u2026 and, over time, to develop my own methodological approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, I met Javier Muriel, who is now my partner and business partner. In 2010, we opened a yoga and therapy centre together in Huelva, which remained open until 2019. It was there that, in 2014, Holistic EcoYoga \u2014 HEY, a school and system of integrative yoga, was launched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Return to the territory<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, we moved to the Sierra de Huelva in search of a life more in tune with what we were teaching. Four years later, we had the opportunity to live on a farm in San Vicente de Alc\u00e1ntara, where we built a yurt and ran training courses, workshops, forest bathing sessions, nature trails and so on. But after three years there, we decided, in the summer of 2025, to return to the Sierra de Aracena, specifically to Navahermosa, a hamlet in Galaroza. Here we run in-person activities and broadcast online. This landscape \u2014 its rock, its forest, its water \u2014 is now a fundamental part of our work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Drawing what you see<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing is both the newest and, at the same time, the oldest form of art. I used to draw a lot as a child until my responsibilities took me away from it. A personal crisis led me to take up drawing again through field sketchbooks and naturalist illustration. Drawing allows me to observe, to look slowly, to appreciate details, to be surprised by what I see\u2026 and, of course, to relieve stress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I specialise in nature and geological illustration, and I keep a nature diary as a way of practising observation. This is an area that will become increasingly important over the coming months, as it brings full circle what I want to convey: experiencing the land, understanding it and recording it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Part of a wider ecosystem<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Hol\u00edstica Nature<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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NATURE HOLISTIC WEBSITE<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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I co-direct with Javier Muriel Hol\u00edstica Nature, Ecotourism, Training and Wellbeing SL<\/em>, School of Human Ecology. Three schools operate under the same roof:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Holistic EcoYoga<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n