I grew up in Finland, worked as a health professional in villages and refugee camps in Pakistan, lived four years in Sri Lanka during the civil war while home-schooling my children, and started my first meditation and yoga class in Cairo, Egypt in 2000.

My meditation journey started in 1987 with four months of training at the Himalayan Institute in the US and in India. My health challenges deepened my practice and led me to study therapeutic forms of yoga and mindfulness. It is thanks to a wonderful women’s group in Cairo that I ever considered teaching yoga and meditation. They fostered self-care, healing, and empowerment among their multicultural participants. I take a secular, modern approach with my classes that builds upon the scientific understanding of the benefits of meditation and yoga. I hope to inspire others to tap into their own unique inner resources for insights, well-being, and success.

I currently teach mindfulness courses and workshops at Duke Integrative Medicine and yoga through Yoga for Life in North Carolina.

After my sons were born, I felt a need to express my feelings in writing and have done so with poetry. I found the process meaningful and it quickly became a habit. Pausing Mindfully is a self-published work that reflects on diverse topics, from meditative insights to painful encounters with people in conflict. I post some of my poetry on Instagram and Facebook, with the hope that others find their own meaning in it.