Book in progress!

You might be wondering where we left off with the blogposts, thinking that we are most probably laying on the beach all day long enjoying the unusually shiny Helsinki summer...? Well actually we have been spending this hot hot summer holiday steaming up the book! Interviews, photo shoots, writing, editing pictures and fine tuning, fine tuning fine tuning...
 

It is all starting to come together.

 

And boy are we excited to be able to share it with you all soon!! We are now getting a first glimpse of the book taking form - fascinating yoga stories being framed with beautiful pictures and awesome colours bringing out the juiciest parts of the yogic experiences people have shared with us. Although the journey of making the book is a fabulous experience in itself, starting to see the fruit of all our work just feels soooo exciting :)

'A Million Ways To Love Yoga' photo by DMK Photography

 

To throw you a small teaser we want to share some inspirational pics of a photo shoot where we had to use a guest photographer. While Tiina has been occupied with writing and turning the interviews into lovely stories and although Sofia has been busy shooting all the other interviewees, the one shoot which is tricky to make without someone else holding the camera is of course self-portraits. Especially when trying to hold a yoga pose. Fortunately we are lucky to know lifestyle photographer Dominika Montonen-Koivisto, lovely Domi who is always smiling and ready to shoot! So we persuaded her to give us a helping hand with some shots of Sofia and we love the results <3
 

'A Million Ways To Love Yoga' photo by DMK Photography

 

To be fair, let's add that summer has not been all hunching over the computer... We have also enjoyed summer classics like chilling in the archipelago, spending time with friends and family, lazy late brunches and of course, a fair share of yoga!

 

The Finnish summer is way to short for anything else, so let's enjoy it while it's hot :)

 

Namaste

 

Sofia & Tiina

 

'A Million Ways To Love Yoga' photo by DMK Photography

Preferring natural stiffness to natural flexibility

Ruusu Hulmi is a 31 year old photographer and a mother of two children, who has recently turned her life around for the pursuit of becoming a certified teacher of Iyengar yoga.

Ruusu distinguishes Iyengar yoga as 'engineer yoga' due to its detailed approach to understanding the human anatomy. Studying to be an Iyengar yoga teacher is a thorough process and takes at least five years. Finland is still lacking senior Iyengar yoga teachers and therefore all the teacher training instructors come from abroad.

Ruusu Hulmi

 

Ruusu appears very down to Earth about her relationship to yoga 'Yoga is fun and makes me feel good, that's about it'. Against common belief, Ruusu highlights that flexibility of the body is not a goal in itself in yoga. Ruusu's body has always been naturally very stiff and for a long time she used to consider this as a weakness. But once she got deeper into yoga, she found that in fact it is one of her strengths, making her body more sensitive to signals from within. 'For beginners in particular, it can be good to first have a stiff body, letting your flexbility augment in the same pace along with your strength and technique'.

 

There were many things that made Ruusu fall in love with Iyengar yoga after having been an Ashtanga practitioner for years. By Reading Ruusu's story you will see that whether you are flexible or not does not make any difference, everybory finds their way to yoga! Ruusu also reveals to us other fascinating benefits of trying out Iyengar yoga.

 

Tiina & Sofia

 

Yoga to recover from overtraining

As the title of the book underlines, yoga for different people means different things. One of the incredible benefits of yoga is its ability to balance our lives and give us the missing piece to make our lives feel whole. Emil Heikinheimo was in acute need of restoring his body and he found what he needed through yoga.

 

Emil Heikinheimo

 

In comparison to our previous interviewees, Emil's approach to his yoga practice is very soft and restorative, with a focus on relaxation. In the fall of 2013, Emil's life had taken a turn for the worse soon after he had started extreme crossfit training. A doctor diagnosed Emil as suffering from a state of overtraining, where his body was not able to physically or mentally bounce back from his hard physical training. Crossfit training had ended up being too overloading for his body, but luckily he found restorative Satyananda classic yoga to provide him with much needed body balance.

 

www.yogaacademy.se
 

Emil describes his feelings after his first class "I've honestly never felt so relaxed; I slept like a baby that night". Classic yoga practice soon became the highlight of Emil's week. Read Emil's full story in the book A Million Ways To Love Yoga to discover why.

 

Tiina & Sofia



 

Yoga gives me the best possible start for the day

We are very glad to have had the opportunity to interview Antti Heikinheimo, prominent lawyer and sworn yogi, to hear about his fascination with yoga. As soon as we have shaken hands and stepped into the modern offices of the prestigious law firm in the city centre of Helsinki, Antti Heikinheimo states that "I know I am a bit of an odd one out on the yoga scene, but if I can inspire anyone into practising yoga, I am glad to be of service."

 

And without him saying it out loud we know exactly what he means; the stereotype yogi in modern society would be pictured as a young woman flexible enough to bend in any direction. Antti however is a highly successful lawyer, a man in his sixties approaching retirement and according to himself a little bit stiff as any man in that age would be. Yet, he persistently performs his yoga routine in 99% of his mornings and has even been enrolled in the yoga teacher course of the Finnish Yoga Association for the last 4,5 years!

 A smile spreads on Antti's face when he starts talking about his yoga practise, a huge, sincere, warm smile. "Performing the sun salutation in the morning really gives me the best possible start for the day, which is why I am very reluctant to miss out on it."

 

Antti strikes us with what seems to be wisdoms gathered over a life time of a very intellectual man, boosted by the new found curiosity and deep fascination of the wonders of yoga and Eastern meditation practise. We are very honoured to have the opportunity to listen to Antti and to include his story in our book. We are certain that he can inspire many persons who might think that yoga is not for them.

 

In the book A Million Ways To Love Yoga we will reveal why Antti firmly argues that
"Every man over 55 should practise yoga".

Tiina & Sofia

 

Yoga for clarity, happiness and passion

Even if you are not practising yoga, we bet that you will find Jack's story interesting.

Jack shows us that chasing your dreams, as crazy or as unattainable as they might seem, can lead you to a passionate and fulfilling life. Unexpexted support begin to show up when you are aligned with your passions, doors open up in ways you would not expect. But first you need to get clear on what brings you meaning in life and this is where yoga can help you.

Meeting with Jack Boken is like getting a jolt of pure happiness flipped your way. As a matter of fact, it seems like he just might be the happiest man on earth!
  

 

 

Jack, who is also called "Happy Jack", is a yoga teacher, life coach and musician and he is known for his inspirational teaching style and exceptional ability to connect with other people. It feels comforting when Jack tells us that however content he is with his life today, he has known some very challenging times. What's more, he reassures us that it was yoga that helped him transform his life for the better.

We are fascinated to hear Jack telling us how he has managed to overcome alcoholism, drug abuse, workaholism, obesity and cancer, and that yoga was one of the key corner stones in the process of finally putting these issues behind him.

Happy Jack

See more about Jack on his homepage:
http://happyjack.me

Jack's found yoga in 2010 and his interest in yoga was immediate and overwhelming; it quickly had a huge impact on how he is leading his life. In 2010 Jack was leading a busy life working 16h days in the corporate world - today Jack is following his passion travelling around the world teaching yoga. Read Jack's story and his tips for other yogis in the book A Million Ways To Love Yoga!

Tiina & Sofia
 

Bringing out a better version of you!

Hope for spring is awakening in our hearts when our calendars show the start of the month March. As John Gray once wrote: Men are from Mars and during this month we will reveal five male yogies which have been interviewed for the book A Million Ways To Love Yoga. Our intention is to contradict everyone who still thinks that yoga is for women...

 

Olli Vilppo

We start with a guy who when starting yoga was a bit concerned how his friends would react to his new hobby. When Olli Vilppo started yoga three years ago he was looking for some much needed streching to make his football training more efficient. "My hamstrings were so tight from my workouts that after playing football I couldn't even run it hurt so badly." After the first lessons of yoga, Olli describes his experience as feeling younger and having much more fun on the football field! 

 

 

What's more, Olli started noticing many positive mental effects as well. Olli describes his feelings after a session of yoga: "I just feel like a better version of myself, more concentrated, more energised and above all happier". 

 

Read Olli's full story in the book A Million Ways To Love Yoga along with other male yoga stories to know how yoga can become a man's best friend and bring out the best in you.

 

Tiina & Sofia



The yoga adventure within

Hanna Varheenmaa has been more or less constantly on the move for the last decade or so, currently in the thirties, she is settled in Holland. Hanna found yoga a couple of years back, when she was looking for a physical workout which would not be attached to any time or place. Nowadays Hanna considers yoga to be so much more than just a physical exercise.

 

For the past ten years Hanna has been moving from country to country, but now she says that she no longer yearns for the change of surrounding since yoga makes her experience change within her. Despite Hanna's relatively brief experience of practising yoga, her observations are nevertheless very inspiring and crystallises so well how we all feel about yoga: "I can see change in my practise on a monthly, if not weekly basis. My discoveries in yoga are like an adventure within".
 

Hanna Varheenmaa

 

Hanna is very musical and says that she has fallen in love with the simplicity of the rhythm in Ashtanga yoga. Her head feels empty and light with total focus on deep breathing. "Yoga for me is a strong buffer against negativity".

  

The book A Million Ways To Love Yoga reveals much more on Hanna's exciting yoga experiences and beautiful pictures of the poses that mean a lot to her. The book also reveals the reasons to why Hanna devotes her time to Ashtanga yoga at least three times a week, and why she would not settle for anything less!

 

Tiina&Sofia