About The Studio Journal
The Transformation You Can Expect from Life Reconnection Signature Program — Back to Your Senses
✔ Reconnect with your true self
✔ Gain clarity on what to focus on
✔ Feel empowered to make bold decisions
✔ Take aligned action toward meaningful change
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.
The Circle Closes
Between movement and stillness, I found myself smiling again. This is what transformative travel offers: intentional journeys that restore wellbeing, deepen self-connection, and bring you back home to yourself.
This January 2026, I am returning to Helsinki Matka Nordic Travel Fair an altogether different role: as a fellow traveler.
Once a travel executive and promoter of the Lake Saimaa region, I now stand here to tell how travel can take us to places, but more importantly, how it can bring us back home, within. When we travel intentionally, paying attention to ourselves and our surroundings, connecting with people and places, we also journey deeper into ourselves. Travel shows us how else life could be. It takes us off autopilot, sometimes even out of our comfort zones. In doing so, it resets us, supports our wellbeing, and invites reflection: are these new experiences something we want more of in our lives?
Travel as a Counterbalance
While the world speeds ahead and constantly pushes our boundaries with its demands, travel becomes a counterbalance, a resetting force that allows us to slow down and return to something that calls us. A feeling. A place. A moment where we see ourselves glowing again. As travelers, we are free, at our purest. When nobody knows us, we can shed our masks. We no longer need to play roles. We can simply be.
And we do not need to travel far. Or for long. We only need to turn our ear inward and allow ourselves the moments we truly need.
Nature as the Way Back
For me, nature has always been that place of return. It has echoed my answers back to me, allowed me to be alone in safety, and reminded me of who I am. Solo moments in nature; walking trails, slow rituals, quiet reflection, inner conversations bring us back to our own path. The more often we return to nature with a question in our hearts, seeking clarity, the clearer the picture becomes. Our breath softens. Our direction sharpens.
I believe it can be that simple.
Our nature is calling us all.
Listening Instead of Performing
We do not need yoga or breathing techniques, although I know they are wonderful and do much good. We can simply begin by giving ourselves time. By walking. By listening. By allowing what moves us to guide our choices and, in time, our travels.
A Year of Transformation
Last year marked a profound turning point for me as I founded my own business as a transformative travel coach. It has been a year of change, of reconnecting with wonderful people, both familiar and new, and of building wellbeing-focused travel experiences in Finland and abroad.
Returning to Helsinki Matka Nordic Travel Fair
At Helsinki Travel Mart this year, I am speaking as the founder of The Journey Studio, sharing my story and my Luontopolku Back to Your Senses® method. I am also honored to represent my dear partner Aktiv-Resor, speaking about how travel can bring wellbeing into our lives through experiences such as our “Appelsiinipuut kukkivat jo Valenciassa” retreat.
I will be available to meet from Friday 16 January to Sunday 18 January, and on Saturday 17 January from 13:00 to 14:30 you are warmly invited to join us at the Aktiv-Resor stand 7p128 for a connecting hour with my inspiring friend Saimi Hoyer.
Back Where I Belong
Travel and taking time for myself brought me back to where I belong: happy, present, and on a journey I now build consciously, day by day.
I look forward to meeting you at the fair, later this year, or wherever your path may take you. I would be honored to walk alongside your journey.
Happy travels,
Mirka
Read more about:
Whycation to Youcation; From Another Level to Gravity
This photo captures a moment from a Luontopolku Back to Your Senses® nature-based coaching walk, where participants pause by the sea to reflect, share insights, and reconnect with themselves in a calm coastal environment. A transformative travel experience that supports wellbeing, presence, and personal growth.
While listening to morning news podcasts, I’m bombarded with advertisements about how to capitalize on the transformation AI is bringing to businesses: reducing costs, elevating customer and entertainment experiences, making 3D mainstream, promising leverage to grow.
I shiver a little. I am no longer walking those endless corridors or joining meetings where I was already thinking about the next one unpresent in the moment, and unpresent in myself.
I had another glimpse into the state of today during a sustainability communications training I recently attended. Suddenly our group found ourselves in a shared room, tasked with solving a problem together to be presented in 15 minutes.
I was the only one with my video on, introducing myself and asking for input.
Silence.
I suggested an approach. One voice, calling from a car, said: “Great, and sorry, I’m barely able to participate.”
I solved the issue, shared it with the group who remained quiet, busy with other tasks or unable to face others, and then presented it to the full class.
Today, I am in a privileged position: I choose where to be present.
Not necessarily financially, but mentally and emotionally.
We are expected to grow businesses, utilise the newest tools, and take experiences to “the next level.” But with all these loops, hurdles, and levels, we begin to lose our ground spinning like whirling dervishes.
Presently in Bangkok, between executive speeches about growth and market insights, we heard the Tourism Authority of Thailand share how, in just one year, they shifted from cultural experiences and parties to a new theme:
“Luxury of Healing.”
Soundless nature escapes, singing bowls, natural spas, stories, and sustainability.
Again I was reminded of the balance we all need.
There is a gravity pulling us back: a craving for nature, for simple ways, for nostalgia.
When transforming and growing businesses, we should not lose the most important factor:
ourselves.
Companies and people should invest first in wellbeing, inner connection, and personal growth.
Machines still need humans to learn from: people who can think for themselves and for others, after first taking a deep breath for themselves.
Whycation to Youcation
There are deeper reasons we travel.
Why means more than where.
You mean more than anything.
I walk alongside you, observing and listening. I offer my ear so you can shape the solution you already carry within you, once you start listening in.
You might be amazed by how much you have inside when you lend yourself an ear and quiet the noise.
It may be Thailand, Finland, or another land entirely that wakes something in you, but you are the one who takes the learning home and integrates it into daily life.
My gentle solution is simple:
listen to yourself when you step intentionally into nature, wherever you are. Pay intuitive attention and begin to notice what your inner self is whispering together with a trusted coach, next to you or online, present.
Take a leap, and allow yourself to land for a moment.
You will be happy you did.
Schedule a Complimentary Discovery Call
Your nature is calling you. Luontopolku Back to Your Senses® and I are ready when you are. Book a complimentary call.
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.