Testimonials

Yoga leaded by you has freed my painful hip & butt muscles. I walk differently now, like a guy 10 years younger!

Thank you for the course Metsätanssit! You are very professional, gentle and considerate in guiding and inspiring other people. Everything in the course was well organized in every detail. You created a safe atmosphere and helped in getting contact with myself, others and the nature

It was such a touching and magical journey with the most loving group and a really sensitive, great pedagogue Gabriel. Thank you so much, looking forward 😍🐬💖

A big THANK YOU to ElinMaria Moving Heart from us in Korpo FRK 😍 Elin Maria has spread joy at elderly care Service (boende Regnbågen/Palvelutalo Sateenkaari) with her artistic dance and movement exercises together with the clients.

It’s great that professionals like you can be found to brighten the lives of our seniors.

To live and survive. Five people with different traumas in their baggage meet and tell in words and dance what their experiences have brought. The feeling of sadness and inadequacy is embodied in movement to the music and on the dance floor a deeply human community emerges. good-feel dance documentary about the darkness of life and a tribute to the body, conversation and the importance of feeling alive.

But ElinMaria, you learn on your own mat to land in your body and sort of push everything else away and just be for a little while. In the evening in bed, I can use yoga to relax. Yoga is so very good!

A great kayaking trip in the archipelago sea.
Soul and mind nourishment at its best. Thank you 💚

The children come out in a different way in the dance, in how they are together in the group; both individually and as a group. I have seen sides of the children that I have not seen before; maybe that some children are more shy and don’t take much space verbally but that the body can say so much more. I experienced in dance that children are capable of much more than we adults think, especially based on what we expect in terms of age.

When normal life and desperation are not kept apart but are melded together so that desperation becomes the norm, and everyday life becomes desperate, it is not the laughing, shooting Israeli soldiers who provoke the most (they are cinematically speaking a pathetic cliché) but the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. It is impossible to distance oneself.

For me, the experience was like cotton to the heart. We listened to all the sounds in nature and took careful steps forward on the path that led us to the sea. On the way, we chose a tree and hugged it, listening and feeling the bark. At the beach everyone sat on a rock and just listened to all the sounds and felt the sea breeze. Afterwards we got together and told each other how we experienced nature and what impressions we got. For me it was to stop and become one with nature. We really got to use all our senses. We should do that more often, to stop and just enjoy and gather strength from our wonderful nature.

Dear lovely ElinMaria and dear lovely Gabriel, kiitos paljon ja tack for our magnificant Lappi gathering, it gave me confidence in dancing more CI in the future. Your pure, clear, enthusiastic approach helped me a lot to feel safe and create a joyful space full of trust, responsibility and self-care. I will definetly go with you once again on such a journey.

I have found a welcoming atmosphere, a great group and a program to fully relax and embrace the warmth of my own self via the body&soul connection exercises offered, thanks to ElinMaria facilitating this as well as the great group we were all toghether! The sauna with singing / ceremonials and the sea dips were as refreshing as a month of holiday!… Many thanks to all participants!.. Let’s do it again!

But most of all I have noticed a shift in me, I am more calm and understanding toward myself. In these times when I am all by myself and restless feelings come up (mostly also thoughts of beeing not enough, doing wrongly and so on) I seem to connect on a deeper level with me and these strong thoughts and old beliefs calms down. So grateful for these experience together with you all and so grateful for experiencing my connection to the nature and animals even stronger than before. Thank you so much for your silence, your words and inviting to listening to my body.

These are two amazing teachers of land and water movement! Thank you for teaching us in the Koh Chang festival! I so much appreciated your gentle and sensitive approach. I keep so many guidelines , you truly shifted my perception for movement in the water. I can now dance so much more freely and effortlessly, and experience every moment as pure pleasure Thank you from the heart, what you offer is a gift.

I found Aguahara by coincidence through Facebook. An add about a three week training in Thailand somehow catch my eye. I didn’t have any previous knowledge about work in water or other Moving Heart’s courses.

So I took a chance and went to Thailand to find out that I found a new home for myself in water and in the playful, ever so allowing and accepting family-like community that Moving Heart creates through cherishing everyone’s individuality within the connectedness of a group. This feeling of belonging comes from the security of holding a space for one another that underlines that you are good enough just the way you are at any given moment. Not to sound too cliché – but to get to know to the community and the work that Moving Heart does really have changed my life for good and for the better.

I take with me something that lets me be present, to value life as it appears, with sense that there’s always lightness and nice funny things to observe, and just be really kind in all circumstances.
The body is a friend, always supporting me, and it has wonderful ways to adapt. My special moment of this class was to embrace my body by the presence of conscious compassionate thought and sensing. ElinMaria you bring sych a nice atmosphere to your classes, I enjoy every time. Thank you. Life is short and sharing these together is like a most precious jewel in the darkest of times

The course was very relaxing to me and a soft approach to being.
Seemingly small thing but particularly worth mentioning was that you encouraged to do things fully in own rythm, to take and honor breaks.

This has been a fantastic and important experience. The filming, the process was fun and it is special to experience. It was a big challenge for me to dare to dance. But in time, I let go and it became fun. You got us to see the beauty in each individual’s expression. You created an accepting atmosphere. I have grown by daring to let go of the barriers and open up.

I think Sydänvirta got the children on board very well right from the start, and it was interesting how they would use their bodies to express themselves and not their mouths.

The movement explorations were Super important for me to tune in to the curious and improvisatory state of mind in aquatic work and learning process. In my opinion I was provided with a nice balance of thecnique and encouragement to be explorative and find my own style.. ..Personally I enjoyed a lot the anatomical approach and touch work in finding my neck and hara area. Having spent so much time in the past years with anatomy and the emphasis of anatomical knowledge when treating people I was Super happy that it was part of the education in an explorative way… ..My experience is that you took AMAZINGLY good care of the group process and really were feeling where the group is at any moment and what it needs to bloom.. …I’m impressed by both of you and the way you work together. Aguahara is total magic and is good that it is the knowledge of it is transferred by people who respect what they are teaching and the way that it is taught. By heart magic people 🙂

Inspiring material and beautiful way to teach it piece by piece, encouraging us to discover. I love your teaching and what you share: creating the space and the atmosphere, teaching complex things piece by piece and GENTLY putting them together into complicated moving patterns without the students even realizing the difficulty. I also appreciate your honesty of not always knowing and sharing how you feel, that’s admirable!

I recommend! The wonderful island of Nötö and the kayaking guides

The best Yoga out in nature. ElinMaria is a calm and clear instructor who can give different options of a movement. You can participate in ElinMaria’s yoga even if you have no previous experience. ElinMaria succeeds in creating a nice calm atmosphere. After the yoga you feel rested , energetic and satisfied. Can highly recommend ElinMaria as a yoga instructor!”

ElinMaria’s lessons are relaxing, the instructions are clear and precise. She motivates well the benefit with different movements. All in all, I am very satisfied

Meditative poetry in motion. With the invitation from Moving Heart, a gate opens to feel community and love, a space where everyone grows through impressions and expressions. Unconditional guidence in nature together with ElinMaria and Gabriel, in movement, silence and dance. More love and harmony.

I can warmly recommend Elin Maria’s yoga. It provides increased mobility and creates an inner calm. The sessions are adapted to the participants and have a very permissive atmosphere

The film highlights the human aspect of the archipelago in an entirely new way and beautifully illuminates the diversity of people in everyday situations within a completely unique environment. The film resonates with the innermost essence of the Archipelago Sea’s UNESCO biosphere reserve, “Man and the Biosphere,” a balance between people and nature.

Thank you so much for beeing, for your teaching and for changing our lives!
The course changed my life so much that I can´t describe it, so much pain that has been released, so much creativity is growing and showing!

Your teachings was energetic and caring, attentive, gentle and building up materials not only phase by phase, but with an organic flow. This has been a calming experience, much like the life I would like to live, from day to day

A warm-hearted, honestly told travel book that depicts the lives of ordinary people in difficult conditions. The work serves as a travel guide, information resource, and cultural study. The work’s rich illustrations and clear narration are noteworthy.

With ElinMaria, yoga doesn’t have to be so complicated. I can use the exercises in my everyday life, if the exercises were too cumbersome I wouldn’t use them

I’ve participated in many of ElinMaria and Gabriel’s workshops and courses that they’ve held in Umeå, Sweden. And also co-arranged a couple of workshops. Their approach to dance (CI and dance improvisation) is playful and allowing. They have a great combination of giving clear instructions and listening and adapting to what the group needs. They are very present and encouraging, which makes you connect with yourself and the group on a deep level. Nourishing for both body and soul. I would describe their workshops as fun, light, playful and truly inspirational!

A course which enable me to connected with yoga nidra. A form of yoga that I really enjoyed. Grounded in ElinMarias professional, calm guidance. The course was structured in a way that enabled to be grounded in the processes of the course. I can recommend it strongly.

A documentary from the inside that upsets us and conveys the fear of the nightly curfew, when the Israeli soldiers take control of the streets and randomly open fire” “The children play with grenades they’ve found on the ground. They imitate the sounds they make. Demonstrations and armed conflict are part of everyday life as walls are built up around the Palestinian town of Ni’lin, on the West Bank.

As an experienced paddler, I want to mention that it was a great trip and I was reminded exactly of techniques that were familiar at the time, but less used. In addition general easiness, vigilance and bringing us to magnificent sea scenery – for which I thank you. This dance teacher can also be a great seakayaking guide!

Being able to work artistically with the film has meant, to me, that I got a chance to see my body as something artistic, a tool for expressing myself, something nice to show, which should just be just as it is, because that’s how it is meant to be. – these are thoughts about my body that I, as a disabled person, very easily forget among all other ideal images and media around where the norm is, far from the reality of how my body looks and seems … I am so grateful for that!

Incredibly well, you managed to motivate and keep their focus with the dance. The concentration was incredible even for children with npf problems.

Yoga with ElinMaria provides peace and quiet and to find and feel your different muscles and body parts at a leisurely pace. The classes can be adapted to your own capacity and to skip the performance

I am still really thankful for our weekend, I really liked the pace we were having and you showing trust in the time and pace so I didn’t need to become unpatient about it. I am very thankful for the guidance of ElinMaria during this workshop – remembering me of my own supporting qualities of breath and heartbeat, finding the strength for clarity.

I loved the way that ElinMaria seamlessly combines themes around consent, self-compassion and somatics by grounding them in nature and our environment. The beauty of it is that these can be really big and complex theories and ideas, but she makes it so simple and easy to understand

Thank you for all the techniqal support. I felt the last days that I found some new softness and listening in my movement. I understood new ways to follow other bodies with a soft flow also while giving weight. That was a beautiful sensation.

It was such a touching and magical journey with the most loving group and a really sensitive, great pedagogue Gabriel. Thank you so much, looking forward 😍🐬💖

You are very professional, gentle and considerate in guiding and inspiring other people. Everything in the course was well organised in every detail. You created a safe atmosphere and helped in getting contact with myself, others and the nature.

Thank you so much for what was for me an amazingly unusual beautiful visit to nötö.
I love the way you guide meditation. So gentle and smooth and natural. Gave such a beautiful safe comforting feeling in my body and whole being.

It is very useful to break the way you do things in a certain way and to try something new. You come from outside and open doors for the kids that we might not be able to do here. It’s great fun to see how dance can become a common language for everyone, where the children can do something together regardless of how the children otherwise speak and what their mother tongue is. I think it’s great fun! It is something we need; that very thing of being able to talk to the body.

You both have a gentle and playful way of guiding and I had some amazing experiences! While playing in the snow, I was a child and I forgot everything else, spinning on the floor brought me closer to my innermost being. And while following the authentic movement, I forgot the difference between the mover and the moved, nature and man/human body seemed to be similar parts of nature. Thank you for maintaining the space and facing all the feelings. I personally really liked the lifting exercises!

On a night tour. Such an amazing experience. Gabriel is so charming as a person that he makes this experience completely his own.We could not have asked for anything more. (Well okay, more time to float in this bubble, so next year I reserve the whole weekend here) My heart has truly been moved. What a wonderful experience!

Yoga with ElinMaria has been good for my fibromyalgia, that I feel stronger and relax better in my body. When you have pain in your body, you tense up, but after yoga I feel really light

Learning about Aguahara and being guided by gentleness, humor and supportive presence of Gabriel and ElinMaria made the aquatic journey a very enjoyable and inspiring experience. Detailed learning of various techniques and invitation for improvised movement make a great combination for aquatic bodywork. Group support and co-learning with very amazing heartfelt participants along with Gabriel and ElinMaria have created magical moments of trust and community. Finding gratitude and connection with ourselves, with the water and with each other has given me such a gift <3