6 Seasons of Life, 6 Transformations: Becoming Uniquely Me
By Tiina
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
— Steve Jobs
For more than two decades, I’ve walked a path shaped by self-discovery and reinvention—all the while anticipating the moment when the dots would finally connect. With a quiet ache in my heart to align my life with the direction that felt true, I paved my road forward.
This is the story of my unfolding — six seasons that led me back to myself.
As you read, I invite you to reflect: How can you embrace the changing seasons of your own life, and let them guide you toward the truest version of who you are becoming?
🌱 Season 1: 1983–2002 — Awakening to My Uniqueness
Define success on your own terms, and suddenly, life stops feeling like a competition.
I grew up side by side with my brilliant twin brother, whose natural gift for math drew praise like a magnet. Though we shared classrooms, teachers, and milestones, our inner worlds were galaxies apart — each of us wired for something beautifully different.
While he solved equations with ease, I explored human emotion — drawn to the worlds of Father of the Bride, Dawson’s Creek, and quiet conversations about life and love. I wasn’t interested in being top of the class. I was trying to understand why we feel the way we do, and what it means to truly connect.
The 90s didn’t make space for that kind of exploration — especially not in a small, working-class city where blending in was the norm. And yet, deep inside, a fire flickered. I didn’t have words for it yet, but I knew I was meant to give something meaningful to the world.
What I didn’t yet realize was that this ache in my heart — this desire to live fully and differently — was my gift. And it would one day become my compass.
✈️ Season 2: 2002–2008 — Diving Into Cultural Conditioning
Through new cultures and languages, I journeyed beyond the edges of my conditioning.
The day I graduated high school, I felt free for the first time. While others celebrated diplomas, I felt a surge of liberation — and I followed it all the way to London. I worked as an au pair for a French family and discovered the freedom of reinvention. In London’s streets, where no one cared if you wore pink hair or fluffy coats, I finally felt like I could breathe.
Between 2002 and 2008, I studied and worked in international business across Helsinki, London, France, and Japan. I also met my Swedish-speaking husband. Each culture shaped me, expanding my perspective and slowly unraveling the conditioning I’d once believed was “me.”
As I became fluent in four languages, I noticed how my thinking and energy shifted dramatically with each one — as if every language unlocked a different version of me. It revealed just how fluid our identities can be — and how much of what we believe is simply what was modelled to us in childhood — not what we truly chose.
It was the beginning of my deconditioning journey — a return to who I was beneath all the conditioned ways of thinking.
💡 Season 3: 2008–2017 — Learning the Art of Standing Out
Brand strategy taught me how to name what I had always felt: we are meant to stand out, not fit in.
Almost by accident, I found myself in the world of branding — a field whose entire mission is to make things distinct. I had no idea why it felt so right. But now I know: it gave me language for my own longing.
I devoured every book I could find. For the first time, I became the top student — not because I had to, but because it fed my Soul.
And as I studied brands, I saw something profound: the exact same principles applied to people.
We all crave to be seen for who we truly are. We’re all here to express something unique. It makes no sense to waste our energy and time on trying to fit in.
In branding, I found not only a career, but a mirror — one that reflected the beauty of owning your uniqueness, and the power of building meaningful relationships by being authentic and different.
To borrow Oprah’s words, when I discovered Jean-Noël Kapferer's book on brand building, “That was the day my job ended, and my calling began.”
🪶 Season 4: 2013–2014 — Starting to Express My True Self: Writing from the Heart
Motherhood cracked me open and gave birth to my unique expression.
When I became a mother, something shifted. The fire inside me roared louder. I was no longer just a daughter — I was now a mother, a guide, a mirror for someone else’s becoming.
During maternity leave, I began writing. Not for work. Not for status. But because the words had to come out.
I wrote two books during nap times:
A Million Ways to Love Yoga — interviews exploring the diverse ways people connect with yoga
How to Model Your Child a Love of Nutritious Food — a heartfelt guide on shaping a child's relationship with nourishment
Each project deepened my understanding of individuality — and reminded me that there is no one right way to live. We are each here to walk our own path, in our own rhythm.
🔥 Season 5: 2017–2024 — Your Body Knows the Way
Wisdom doesn’t come from thinking. It comes from listening — especially to your body.
After returning to brand strategy post-motherhood, something felt... off. My body was speaking louder than ever. The intuitive force I had felt during childbirth — raw, unfiltered, and primal — now refused to be ignored.
I began studying reflexology and the elemental forces. I launched a healing practice that soon became known for its Journey of Self-Discovery — a path that guided others back to their own inner wisdom and truth.
For seven years, I supported people in tuning into their body’s wisdom — helping them find peace by honoring how they truly feel.
And through it all, I learned: Our bodies speak in cycles — inviting us to reflect, expand, receive, and release. When we honour these inner seasons, we stop feeling stuck and start moving in harmony with life’s natural flow.
Although I closed my healing practice in 2025, these elemental insights remain a sacred part of how I live and guide.
✨ Season 6: Present Day — Becoming the Guide I Once Needed
Through transformational coaching and Human Design, I help others reconnect with the truth of who they are.
Today, I lead The Giraffe Circle — a space for people ready to rise, see life from a higher perspective, and embrace their unique path.
Transformational coaching is at the heart of my work. It offers the well-deserved pause so many of us need — a moment to ask better questions, shed disempowering beliefs, and return to our inner knowing.
And then there’s Human Design — the science of differentiation. It’s a tool that reminds us: you are not here to be anyone else. You are here to be you.
To me, Human Design is radical empathy in action. It teaches us how to love ourselves, lead ourselves, and honor the design that makes us who we are — limitations and all.
It is safe not to want to be the next Oprah, Michelle Obama, or Tony Robbins.
It is safe to live your destiny imperfectly.
It is safe to simply... be you.
🌿 If this resonates...
I’d love to hear from you. Share a comment, a reflection, or even a season of your own becoming.
Be the truest, most beautiful version of yourself that you can imagine.
With love,
Tiina
