This is Rika

If you came across this page and don’t know me yet: Tervetuloa, I am Rika, a Finnish yoga teacher and space holder, happy to bring together people from around the world, to hold space for you to find your own Finnish bliss through retreats and events, to allow you to come back home to yourself and honestly to show you how easy it can be to just be.

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I guide people through challenges with playfulness and ease. Not just on the mat but in real life. At home, in Berlin’s many studios and through unforgettable journey ins Finland.

  • I was born in Finland and raised partly in Finland partly in Germany but always with the influence of two Finnish parents. I truly appreciates the Finnish culture in many many aspects and therefore have dedicated my journey to show you what makes Finns the happiest people on Earth for multiple times in a row.

  • I like to see yoga as a way to explore your body and mind. Yes, yoga in its essence is about stopping the fluctuations of the mind. And maybe that is exactly what we need to create the space to hold life differently. But maybe it is also about finding the calm in the midst of the storm. When you move, bend and flow into different forms, you teach your body to be flexible and hold challenges with commitment and discipline no other practice can teach you.

  • Very present in yoga but rarely focused in every day life. We like to say “just take a few deep breaths” and meaning then everything will be fine. But we have long forgotten what a few deep breaths actually can do. In a world where stress and constant doing are glorified, the breath can act as an anchor. And if we allow it to be, it can be one of our greatest teachers. I always like to say, how you breathe, is how you live. When we constantly hold our breath, we hold on in life. When we give space to breathe deeply, we give space to experience fully.

  • Did you know our voice is as individual as our fingerprint? Everything in this world vibrates on its very own specific frequency. Our bodies, our minds, the world itself. Experiences, thoughts, words, actions. They all vibrate and, yes, what you send around comes back around. We can use vibrations and frequencies to align our energetic bodies and actually give our body the rest it needs in this (big city) hustle we call the modern world.

  • I don’t talk about Nervous System Regulation because a nervous system regulates you, not the other way around. But if we understand how our nervous system woks, we can support it by giving signals to work with. Everything we do in life, is based on how our nervous system perceives it. If we have learned to be threatened by a fly, we will always be threatened by it, unless we become aware of it and use the small window we have to decide differently today. The more we practice making a different decision, the more we can reframe what our nervous system perceives.

I have been sitting here a long time, …

… thinking about what story to tell. I would describe myself as someone who doesn’t like to dwell on the negative or hardships in life, although I know they are important to experience and important to acknowledge. But sharing them in an online space where I don’t know who is behind the screen, doesn’t feel quite right.

For me life is about authentic, deep, meaningful connections. And throwing out all the hardships and challenges I have gone through in a couple of sentences without the person who hears them in front of me feels off.

Of course they have shaped me, probably more than anything on my path, but it isn’t about what I have gone through (at least not at this point) but instead how I have learned to cope or weave the learnings and experiences into my everyday life.

If there is one thing I want to share it is this: slowing down and allowing rest in a world that is ever-changing is a key element for deep inner healing and well-being. No trend, no modality, no outside activity can bring you there, if you don’t allow yourself to take the time to feel, breathe and just be.

And what better way to do this, than in a group of people that have the desire to understand, see and feel you too?

I want to be that person that brings these people together, to learn from each other, to express their true being in a space that feels welcoming, inviting, open, vulnerable, loving, caring, understanding, and supportive.

Maybe this is what you are longing for: a space to be and feel.