I didn't set out to become a yoga teacher.
 

At sixteen, I left high school to study fine art. I spent seven years studying painting and other visual arts, and for a while I thought that was where my life was going.
 

At some point I realised I wanted to experience more of life outside the world of art. I travelled, explored, and eventually found Ashtanga yoga when I was 27. I felt like I had come home.
 

I had been looking for some ease from anxiety, and movement felt like a natural place to begin. I had always loved dancing and movement felt like a natural place to begin.
 

Ashtanga gave me something I hadn't known I was looking for: a sense of space and ease, and a way to become quiet without feeling less alive.

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I never planned to become a yoga teacher.

 

After art, and later studying Spanish philology, I started studying Education. I had a feeling I would eventually become a teacher of something — I just didn't know what.

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My yoga teacher at the time, Juha Javanainen, first asked me to assist his classes and later to teach. I started teaching yoga while I was still studying, and gradually it became clear that this was what I wanted to do.

I eventually completed a Master's degree in Education.

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Practice in India
 

I first travelled to Mysore in 2009 to study with Sharath Jois. After that, I returned to India every winter to continue studying with him. He authorised me to teach the Primary and Intermediate Series in 2012.
 

From 2013 to 2020, I lived in India, mainly in Mysore and partly in Goa, where my then-husband and I ran a small Ashtanga yoga shala.
 

I was also part of an Indian family during those years, and that gave me a very different experience of India from simply being there as a visitor. Family life, everyday routines and the culture around me became an important part of my experience.
 

In 2018, Sharathji asked me to teach his afternoon classes first in Gokulam, and then in Sharath Yoga Centre. I taught there until 2020, when the pandemic brought me back to Finland.

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What India taught me
 

One of the things India taught me was that practice isn't separate from everyday life.

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Sadhana is not only what happens on the mat. It is also how you move through an ordinary day. The sacred can be part of the most mundane things.

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India, and Sharathji, taught me to trust more deeply and to simply be present. To wait instead of always rushing towards the next thing. I still have to remind myself of that.

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Over the years, I've also come to appreciate kindness more and more — towards myself, towards other people, and towards the practice.

 

Chanting became an important part of my practice in India. These days, meditation and simply sitting quietly have become just as important.

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​​​The practice has to live here, too.
 

Back in Finland, practice had to fit into a different kind of life.

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Alongside teaching yoga, I've worked as a special education teacher and learned what it means to have an ordinary job, responsibilities and a full calendar.
 

Growing older has changed my practice, too. As my body and energy have changed, I've had to learn to adjust my asana practice so that it supports my life rather than depletes me.
 

I still practise the same traditional sequences I practised in India. But I'm much more willing now to adapt when needed, and to pay attention to what is actually happening rather than what I think should be happening.
 

I think that's part of growing into the practice: learning the tradition well enough to know when to listen to the person who is actually on the mat.

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What I hope to offer

I hope my classes can be places where people feel at ease.

Places where you can practise without having to perform, prove anything or become someone else.
 

I love seeing people understand something about themselves through practice — especially when they start to question old beliefs, expectations and ideas about who they are supposed to be.
 

Sometimes the practice doesn't give you a new version of yourself. It simply helps you see more clearly what was there underneath all along.
 

And I hope you find good company here, too. I care about creating a friendly, genuine community where people can practise together, be themselves and feel that they belong.

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​A few things you might not know about me

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After returning to Finland, I started painting and drawing again.

I love nature and animals. My dog Laddu was born in Mysore.

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I resisted teaching online for a surprisingly long time. I never expected it to become such an important part of my work — or that people practising in different homes and even different countries could feel so connected.

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And I still find it slightly funny that all those years ago, when I studied Education, I was right about becoming a teacher.

I was just completely wrong about what I would teach.

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I’m still practising, still learning, and still finding new ways for yoga to be part of an ordinary life.
That’s the practice I love to share.

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