About The Studio Journal
The Studio Journal was born during a sabbatical that became something much deeper, a turning point.
What began as a pause from routine turned into a journey of unlearning, rediscovery, and reconnection. I wandered, I listened, I wrote. I stepped into unfamiliar places, both on the map and within myself.
This journal is a space to share what I’ve gathered along the way. It holds reflections from the road, questions from the quiet moments, and the stories that shape how we travel, live, and grow. You’ll find pieces of my journey here, but also prompts, insights, and encouragement for your own.
Because transformation doesn’t happen all at once. It happens in the in-between. And this is a place for that.
What You May Experience Through Luontopolku — Back to Your Senses® method
✔ A renewed connection to your own nature
✔ Greater clarity about what truly matters now
✔ Deeper trust in your direction and inner guidance
✔ Courage to move forward with alignment and intention
You Deserve Luxury
Hosting is one of my favorite parts of a Finnish Happiness Camp. Fresh food, wildflowers from the garden, and unhurried conversation on the terrace create space for connection, with nature, with others, and with yourself.
This month, I have been in the luxurious position of hosting visitors in my garden, forest, and lakeside world here in Finnish Lakeland.
Together, we have followed the movement of rainbow catchers dancing in the breeze and sparrows building their nests.
We have listened to young owls calling from the evening forest, picked and preserved spruce tips, gathered nettles, prepared the herb garden, collected horses from their pastures for forest rides, rowed to 5,000-year-old rock paintings, heated the wood-burning sauna, and swum from the shore beneath the midnight sun.
Most importantly, we have paused for meaningful conversations along the way.
Why are we here?
Why does the lake call us more strongly than the forest path today?
What is it about a particular flower, tradition, scent, or place that awakens a memory or stirs something within us?
The Caretaker's View
Looking from another perspective, I am also the caretaker and keeper of this place.
I mow the grass, trim the forest, carry firewood, water seedlings, rake leaves, plant flowers, clean rooms, prepare meals, and varnish terraces.
Yet there is beauty in all of it.
It is the kind of quiet happiness many of us in Finland seek.
There is something deeply satisfying in slowly heating the lakeside sauna, making a birch whisk for a gentle blessing in the steam, arranging wildflowers on the terrace table, or watching the garden flourish through the season.
When I work with my hands, I feel connected, to nature, to myself, and to something much older than either.
I am reminded of both my smallness and my responsibility.
In caring for my surroundings, I restore a little of myself as well.
Giving Attention
When visitors arrive, they receive my undivided attention.
Whether we are walking to collect the horses, preparing dinner together on the terrace, making birch whisks, exploring island landscapes, or sitting quietly by the lake, there is space to simply be.
It is remarkable to think that people travelled these same waters over 5,000 years ago.
Lake Saimaa was the highway of the first settlers.
Along its shores, they left us messages in stone; rock paintings depicting people beneath the waves and hunters pursuing moose for their livelihood.
The waterway was important then, and it remains important now.
It is where the midsummer sun sets in a blaze of red before rising again just a few hours later.
It is where stories have always travelled.
What Luxury Really Means
To me, luxury is not found in excess.
Luxury is breathing in the fresh wind.
Walking barefoot through the morning dew.
Taking a swim when the feeling arises.
Picking chanterelles or berries along the trail.
Napping on a warm terrace.
Listening to waves beneath a pier.
Watching salmon slowly cook in a traditional smoking pot.
We do not need very much.
The greatest luxury may simply be presence.
Being fully present with yourself and with those around you.
No roles.
No expectations.
No performance.
Just being.
Meeting Yourself Again
This is midsummer in Finland.
This is what happens during the reflective moments of the Luontopolku – Back to Your Senses® method.
This is what my Finnish Happiness Camps are about, whether you join for an afternoon nature walk, a day retreat, an overnight stay, or a longer slow travel experience.
Because it is not only me that you meet here.
After a long time, you may also meet yourself.
Creating Space for What Matters
I believe in creating high-value, sustainable experiences that respond to the growing desire for wellbeing through authentic places, meaningful encounters, and a genuine connection with nature.
Rather than trying to do more, I focus on helping people do less, with intention.
To slow down.
To restore themselves.
To reconnect with what truly matters.
You can find my services through The Journey Studio or through the Travel Coach Network.
Alongside my Finnish Happiness Camps and Slow Travel Horse Holidays, there are still a few dates available this summer for reflective nature experiences and private retreats.
I am also beginning to share more stories from this corner of Finland through my YouTube channel, documenting the landscapes, traditions, wildlife, and everyday moments that inspire this work.
Until then, I wish you a beautiful Finnish midsummer.
Take a moment to pause.
Listen to the wind.
And believe in a little magic again.
Mirka Kristiina Bruun
Founder, The Journey Studio
What is your worth?
Standing by the river in Porto, I noticed my shadow stretching quietly along the stone.
It moved with me, but asked nothing of me.
No proving.
No performing.
Just a presence.
I was reminded that
perhaps our worth is not in what we do,
but in who we are when we simply stand,
and allow ourselves to be seen, even by ourselves.
What I am doing, proving all the time.
What is my worth?
Is it what I do?
What I achieve?
What I prove, again and again?
And what happens when I am no longer performing?
The Value We Learn to Prove
In Finnish culture, worth has long been connected to doing.
Preparing for winter.
Taking responsibility.
Being ready for whatever may come.
This way of thinking is not unique to Finland.
We grow up learning to prove ourselves to our parents, our supervisors, our organisations.
We show that we have done our share.
That we carry responsibility.
That we are capable.
We seek recognition.
Affirmation.
A sense that what we do matters.
And it does.
But somewhere along the way, another question begins to surface:
Who am I beyond all of this doing?
When Doing Is No Longer Enough
What is my value when I am not achieving?
When I am not producing?
When I am not being seen?
Would I still matter?
Would I still be interesting?
The truth is, often we become more interesting when we stop trying to be.
When we step out of constant doing, something else emerges.
A deeper layer.
A quieter voice.
Turning Inward
There is something within us, an inner movement, sometimes almost an itch, that asks to be noticed.
Not solved.
Not performed.
But listened to.
When we begin to turn inward, we start to understand:
why we react the way we do
what truly matters to us
what is ready to change
and what is quietly calling us forward
This is where clarity begins.
How Change Really Happens
We often change through:
powerful encounters
unexpected life events
intentional travel
I have lived through environments that force perspective, moving across cultures, witnessing instability, navigating situations where safety is not guaranteed.
Those experiences shaped me.
But they did not bring me peace.
It was only when I slowed down, when I travelled on my own, without performance or expectation, that something shifted.
For a long time, I performed.
I proved myself.
It is something I now recognise in many of the people I work with.
Finding Calm Through Nature and Reflection
There is another way.
A quieter one.
Through reflective nature experiences, we begin to notice what is happening within us.
Not by forcing change, but by allowing space.
On a trail, in silence, through observation,
we begin to hear ourselves again.
And in that, a sense of calm begins to emerge.
From Experience to Guidance
Through my own journey, and supported by my work as a certified transformative travel coach, I now guide individuals and teams who are seeking:
clarity
balance
direction
and a deeper connection to themselves
Because in the end:
Everything begins and ends with the individual.
And when we understand ourselves more clearly, we shape not only our own path but also the teams and environments we are part of.
A Final Reflection
Your worth is not only what you produce.
It is also who you are when you pause.
When you listen.
When you are no longer performing.
That is where something more honest begins.
Continue the Journey
If you feel the need to explore this further, you are warmly welcome to continue the journey with me.
Through Luontopolku Back to Your Senses®, I offer guided reflective walks, coaching, and small group experiences in Finland and Spain.
You can explore more and book your experience via the services section at the Journey Studio.
Seeking Answers
Mirka Kristiina Bruun, travel coach, in nature during a Finnish Happiness reflection walk.
Transformative travel coach and founder of The Journey Studio, smiles warmly while leaning on a wooden railing at dusk. Soft evening light highlights her face as Mediterranean pine trees rise behind her, capturing a moment of calm presence and the ease that nature brings.
I still get lost sometimes and need to return to my nature trails to reconnect. Even in the excitement of building something new, there is a mountain of tasks waiting, not always favourites, yet necessary.
What Is Weighing on Me?
This week, between pitching competitions where I got to speak about my Luontopolku Back to Your Senses® method, the way to Finnish Happiness, to the finals and receive supportive feedback from wellness-tourism leaders, I found myself wondering: What is weighing on me?
There is the pressure of things undone, the constant whisper to do more, the old feeling, shared by so many of us, that we still need to prove something. Even after letting go, the echo returns. In conversations this week, we explored that balance: how to stay engaged without losing ourselves, how to understand what is “enough,” and how to find a renewed sense of meaning and direction.
When I Return to the Trail
Every time I return to a trail intentionally and start listening to the nature around me, something shifts.
The stormy waves inside quiet down.
A pigeon lands and meets my gaze.
A poster on a wall brings back a memory of who I used to be.
When I note down the intuitive thoughts that arise, I begin to see what is missing, why I feel the way I do, and what needs to be released or added to feel whole again.
Nature Shows Us the Way
Nature shows us the way if we choose to listen.
But when we are burned out, overwhelmed or moving through transitions, we often don’t hear anything at all. We operate in a trance, not fully present in our own lives.
We need to break that cycle. Step out.
Travel helps awaken the senses and shift perspective, but we are not always able to travel far. In the end, it wasn’t the height of Machu Picchu that changed me. It was the depth I needed. Myself I sought.
About Luontopolku Back to Your Senses®
The Luontopolku Back to Your Senses® method I developed during my Travel Coach studies doesn’t require distance. It requires listening.
In Finland, we say:
“The forest answers what you shout into it.”
Luontopolku Back to Your Senses® is a nature-based transformational wellbeing and travel method that guides individuals back to clarity and inner balance. Rooted in mindful presence, nature practices and reflective guidance, it offers a structured yet intuitive pathway toward emotional renewal and meaningful change.
Finnish research shows that even 10 minutes in nature calms the heartbeat. Nature walks lower cortisol, support burnout recovery, prevent depression and increase mindfulness.
Luontopolku, nature trail in Finnish, draws from ancestral knowledge, Finnish science and global wellness insights, including the principles of Japanese forest bathing.
Slowing Down to Listen
Meaningful change happens when we slow down, tune in and allow nature to support our inner journey. Through movement, reflective exercises, sensory awareness and meaning-centered travel coaching, Luontopolku becomes a gentle companion toward self-understanding and inner clarity.
By following the steps in the Luontopolku® guide, you begin by asking what you wish clarity on. Then you step into nature, holding the question lightly.
Magic happens: answers appear in leaves, patterns, symbols.
You pause. You listen.
You write down the intuitive thoughts that surface.
The more intentionally we return to nature, the clearer the inner voice becomes.
A Path You Always Walk With Yourself
At 54, I gained the courage to change my life.
And so can you.
You are always journeying with yourself: listen closely to know when to stay on your path, or when it’s time to turn.
Wishing you a wonderfully slow weekend.
Take a mindful walk.
And if you feel called to explore your personal journey through a guided session, online or as a reflective Luontopolku Back to Your Senses® walk, you’re warmly welcome to make a booking.