Jouko Kivimetsä

After having a quite regular and successful career in advertising and later business incubator development in several countries, Jouko Kivimetsä realised that his biggest development job was within hiself, his own body and mental health and having a meaningful mission. All those were in bad shape. At the age of 40 Jouko just let his career go, sold his company and stayed at home with his only child going to school at the age of 7. Jouko studied whatever was available in mental and physical health, to form a holistic way of living heatlthy and happy in a natural way.

This quest led Jouko to be one of the leading experts on Cretan diet, cosidered to be healthiest on Earth, totally based on old traditions that were, still at that time, kept so well. He has studied and taught these holistic principles (quite close to Functional Medicine ideas) now almost 30 years.

One of the features in the Cretan diet is the use of edible wild plants, called horta. From 1998 onwards Jouko has been working on the different ways of using them as superfood nutrition and ailments, how to make products out of them, how to teach to large audiences. Jouko became the leading developer and teacher in these themes in Finland and growingly also internationally.

After experiencing earlier a bad burnout based on too much working and neglecting nature, Jouko studied the principles how nature can heal stress symptoms, melancholy and give direction to one’s life. He added to nature and natural food also touching and music. All these have always been a part of healthy life in human kind. Jouko developed Brain Relief concept where touching and therapeutical music are integrated. About 400 practitioners have been trained in Finland and results are amazing. Now the concept is going international in the following years. (See https://brainrelief.fi/briefly-in-english/ )

Diplomas in international advertizing, translator (Tampere University) and Vocational Teacher (HAMK, Finland)

1.What are your main values in life? Everybody’s lifelong challenge is to continuously improve becoming the best version of himself. Then he will be in harmony with his close ones and nature, does his mission where he serves others with personal talet gifts. This is, in my mind, the foundation of true happiness that will shine to all around.

2. How do you understand healthy balance? One part of being healthy in a balanced way is not to stress about being healthy. That will only upset the balance which comes from good choices for mind and body at every step of the way. It is good being always open to hear what the choices might be and how they change along the aging years. Testing them on oneself will lead to new choices, if they feel good with you. Not because they are trendy.

3. What inspires you? I am inspired by meeting people who have realised how much unused potential they have in themselves. To learn from them what new ideas they have used to harness that potential - and to teach them the multitude of my tools I have gathered in several decades of self-development.