Helena Barquilla (Ciudad Real, 1971) made the brave decision to leave everything when she was at the height of her modeling career. As she herself explains, she "had success, recognition, material abundance and yet I was not happy, I felt that she had lost contact with myself, with my truth, with my soul."
The ciudad realeña did not plan to dedicate herself to the world of fashion, in fact, she had quite a few insecurities about her physique. Helena, she confessed to SModa magazine some time ago how she felt when she was a teenager. "Since I was very little, at school, I suffered bullying from classmates who saw me as a monster, and who in one way or another ended up convincing me that I was. That's why, when a friend of my parents told them that I could succeed as a model, at first I took it almost as another joke".
This friend was key to the iconic designer Manuel Piña sponsoring her and getting a very young Helena to take the step of moving to Madrid to start making her way in the industry. "Thanks to him, I went from being an insecure clumsy to a girl who walked the catwalk and became someone else," said the model.
At the end of the 80s, at just 18 years old, Barquilla began to stand out in the sector. She became the muse of Thierry Mugler and John Galliano -when he was creative director of Dior- and she also conquered Yves Saint Laurent. In the 90's she also starred in editorials for the most prominent fashion magazines, both national and international.
In addition, Helena, a graduate in Anthropology, can boast of having been the first Spanish angel of Victoria's Secret. The model participated in the first show organized by the well-known lingerie firm in 1995 and which was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Barquilla shared the show with other tops that were sweeping at the time, such as Stephanie Seymour, Catherine McCord or Veronica Webb.
In this first show there were no musical performances nor the iconic wings that angels wore for years. "No wings, the one I did was the first and it was austere if compared to those of now. I remember that the room was full of businessmen. It caught my attention a lot," he said in an interview.
But when Helena had an impeccable and successful career, she decided to retire from the catwalks, at only 25 years old, to look for herself. "At some point I reached the achievements that our society ensures are the keys to a happy life -success, money, recognition- and yet, for me it was not like that, quite the opposite. At that time I felt very unhappy This discomfort was what prompted me to try to understand its causes, with the hope of being able to free myself from the affliction, "he explains on his website.
Barquilla changed fashion for nature. As she states, "I have had very intense and varied life experiences. From the 'glamorous' life of an international top model to another very austere life in the Andes, where I lived with the indigenous people and where I spent a lot of time in nature ".
It was at this stage where he returned to his origins and turned dance into his well-being and creative expression. He was also trained in therapies and body practices that helped him with anxiety. And then came the moving meditation, 5 Rhythms. "From the first session I fell in love with this practice and I was certain that I had found the path of self-knowledge and fulfillment that I longed for. I decided from that moment to do the training. When I met its creator, Gabrielle Roth, I recognized in her my teacher. I started the training process in 2003 and finished my training in the United States in 2008", says Helena.
A year later, he returned to Spain to open his own school of meditation on the move, which is still running today. On his Instagram, where she has 1,250 followers, she posts some videos of the classes so that those interested can see what this practice consists of.
