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
Learnings from the Finnish Forest
The lake is still holding onto winter.
Ice stretches across the water, slowly giving way under the soft spring light. The sun hangs low behind a quiet veil of clouds, not yet warm, but already changing something.
Standing at the shoreline, between seasons, you feel it—
the pause before movement.
Nature does not rush this moment.
It allows the transition to unfold.
And perhaps we need the same.
How Nature, Sisu, and the Luontopolku® Method Guide Us Back to Ourselves
Finnish forests are more than meets the eye. They protect, restore, and provide, but above all, they reveal.
There is a Finnish saying: what you shout into the forest, the forest answers back.
Yet it is not the forest that has the voice.
In the silence of nature, you begin to hear your own thoughts,
the echo of what has been waiting within you.
The Forest as a Leadership Mirror
This week, beneath tall pines and across frozen ground softened by the first signs of spring, I guided participants through the Luontopolku® Back to Your Senses journey at Lake Saimaa.
In unfamiliar surroundings at the eastern frontier of the EU something shifts.
When we step outside what is known, we are invited to draw not only from experience, but from our connection to nature and ourselves.
Working in teams, we explored leadership not only as guiding others, but as managing ourselves under changing conditions.
Because every organization, every team, is built from people.
And everything begins there.
Understanding Finnish Sisu Through Experience
Through the Luontopolku® five-step reflection process, we explored what Finnish Sisu truly means:
Pause
Sensory awareness
Threshold recognition
Integration
Forward direction
Sisu is not force.
It is not performance.
It is the quiet decision to continue with responsibility when conditions are not ideal.
Nature supported this process in its own way, through the rhythm of the landscape, the stillness of the forest, and the long, winding trails around a slowly melting Lake Saimaa.
Crossing Thresholds – Personal and Shared
As I shared my own story of crossing borders both physically and emotionally, I was reminded again of the power of thresholds.
Stepping into my grandmother’s home in lost Karelia.
Meeting the current owners in her old kitchen.
Bringing my own family to safety in Finland from a military takeover.
In these moments, I recognised something deeper:
Adaptability is not only survival. It is a strength.
And sometimes, what we carry as loss becomes a hidden gift we are only later ready to embrace.
Redefining Leadership in the Forest
After a long day in the terrain, our integration session brought new insights.
We reflected on our need to:
prove ourselves
perform
be the fastest or the strongest
And what happens when we let that go.
Leadership revealed itself differently in the forest:
knowing when to step forward
knowing when to step aside
giving space to others
adapting when conditions change
showing compassion when performance is not possible
This is self-leadership.
Returning to Ourselves Through Nature
In today’s world, we have in many ways become disconnected, from nature and from ourselves.
But when we pause, when we step intentionally into nature, something begins to shift.
We begin to hear ourselves again.
Through walking.
Through silence.
Through presence.
And sometimes, through the shared quiet of a sauna at the end of the day, we let go of what we no longer need to carry.
We rest.
And in that rest, clarity begins to emerge.
Why Finnish Nature Is the Source of Happiness
Finland has been named the happiest country in the world multiple times.
One of the reasons lies here:
In the forest.
In the relationship with nature.
In the ability to pause and return to oneself.
Luontopolku® – A Path Back to Your Senses
Through my Luontopolku® Back to Your Senses method, I guide individuals and teams to reconnect with themselves through:
reflective nature walks
coaching
slow travel experiences
retreats in Finland and Spain
This is not about escaping life.
It is about meeting it more clearly.
A Final Thought
The forest does not give you answers.
It gives you space to hear your own.
And often, that is where everything begins.