Hi, I’m Jonathan
For over 30 years, I’ve been on a journey to translate ancient wisdom into practical tools for modern life—helping us find inner peace, navigate challenges with clarity, and awaken a more genuine happiness—and now, I’m here to share them with you...
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A Spiritual Awakening
From an early age, I experienced vivid moments of awakening—flashes of clarity and pure awareness that stirred a deep longing to understand the nature of mind and reality. At sixteen, that longing found direction through my meetings with the celebrated teacher Ram Dass, whose presence and teachings profoundly shaped my early path. Inspired by his guidance, I began a dedicated meditation practice, sitting regularly with a small Vipassana group, and took up yoga as a living path of self-inquiry and embodiment.
In my late teens, I trained privately for two years in Kripalu and Classical Yoga, deepening both the physical and contemplative aspects of practice. After finishing school, I moved to a Buddhist meditation center, where I devoted myself to meditation, study, and daily practice. During this time, my understanding of the Dharma matured, and I was introduced to the highest Tibetan Buddhist yoga practice of Dzogchen through the lineage masters Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and Lama Surya Das.
In the years that followed, I continued my studies in both yoga and Buddhist traditions—training with teachers such as Gangaji, Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Ani Tsering Chodron, and others in the non-dual wisdom traditions. Their guidance deepened my understanding of mindfulness, compassion, and liberation, and inspired my own way of living these teachings as an embodied path of awakening. Through their wisdom, I came to see that freedom is not about retreating from ordinary life but meeting it fully with an open heart and mind.
Though my spiritual understanding was advanced in many ways, I was still young—idealistic and somewhat detached from the everyday struggles I had yet to face. Life, however, has its way of humbling us. The challenges that followed would soften and ground me, teaching that awakening is not separate from life but lived through it.
From Simplicity to Struggle
For years I lived in a remote eco-village, surrounded by nature, simplicity, and community. It was an idyllic life close to the wilderness, where each day supported both spiritual practice and creative work. I painted visionary images of goddesses and deities, tended my garden, and lived sustainably on the land.
Everything changed when I moved to Norway to be with my partner. I left behind the cabin I had built, my vocation as an artist, and the harmonious life that had sustained me—sacrificing it all for love.
But the relationship ended in divorce, leaving me a single parent to my newborn son. I chose to remain in Norway and raise him, far from my family and the supportive network I had once known. Unable to continue as an artist and without work, I entered the welfare system—sitting side by side with refugees as I began the humbling process of starting over. It was a descent into uncertainty and insecurity, marked by chronic back pain, anxiety, and depression. I took on odd jobs while struggling with a new language and enduring the long, dark winters. Isolated in the city, I felt the weight of loss—of relationship, community, homeland, and the vocation that had once given my life meaning. I had reached my lowest point.
My guiding light became the love I felt for my son—the purpose he brought into my life, and the inner strength I was forced to uncover when there was nothing left to lean on. In time, that love became the ground from which healing began. The depth of my loss slowly revealed itself as the beginning of transformation, becoming my greatest teacher.
A Turning Point
In this dark period, I made a pivotal choice: to stay, to face my challenges, and to rebuild—not only for myself, but for my son.
I turned again to mindfulness, compassion, and yoga—the very practices that had carried me before—but now with a renewed purpose. I immersed myself in their therapeutic applications, completing intensive training in mindfulness-based programs such as MBSR and certification in Mindful Therapeutic Yoga. Gradually, I began applying these methods to my own struggles, using them to work through pain, anxiety, and depression. Through steady, compassionate practice, I healed both body and mind, freeing myself from chronic pain, anxiety, and depression.
The calling that had first awakened in me—to help ordinary people navigate the challenges of life—was realized through these experiences. My awakening became embodied and grounded in daily life, a source of inner strength and inspiration regardless of circumstance. Healing and awakening grew together, cultivating presence, compassion, and resilience.
These challenges also awakened a deeper empathy. They opened me more fully to the suffering of others and gave rise to a genuine wish to share these practices of healing and awakening with the world.
A Life Transformed
Since arriving in Norway in 2006, I had been teaching meditation to yoga students, sharing the practices that had long supported my own path of mindfulness and awakening.
After completing my education in therapeutic yoga, I took a leap of faith in 2014 and began teaching full-time—offering mindfulness, compassion, therapeutic yoga, and the wisdom of my own awakening as practical support for resilience, healing, and spiritual growth. Drawing on my personal journey of transformation, I pioneered the integration of Mindful Yoga into yoga studios, blending meditative and therapeutic approaches. In 2018, I created Norway’s first Mindful Yoga Training through Oslo Yoga, and since then, I have guided retreats, trainings, and courses in Mindful Yoga, Mindfulness/Vipassana, and Non-dual meditation—supporting students in deepening their path of presence and awakening.
Through these years of teaching, I have witnessed how these practices nurture balance, clarity, and inner strength. They are not only pathways to ease suffering but also doorways to awakening—revealing our natural wisdom, freedom, and genuine happiness. Teaching has become a continuation of my own practice, a way of sharing what has carried and transformed me.
Today, my work continues to evolve into what I call an embodied path of awakening—a holistic approach that unites mindfulness, compassionate awareness, therapeutic yoga, and non-dual meditation. It brings together the grounding of mindful embodiment with the recognition of awareness itself, offering a complete path of healing and awakening for modern life.
An InvitationÂ
Through all these challenges, I’ve learned that healing and awakening are possible for anyone willing to take the journey. The same practices that transformed my own life can help you find peace within yourself, even in the midst of change and uncertainty. Today, I share these teachings with the hope of guiding you toward greater inner peace, clarity, and a more meaningful life.
"Jonathan is a person of real wisdom, integrity, and loving-kindness. Anyone working with him will be fortunate to benefit from these qualities he so beautifully shares."
— Timothy Conway, PhD
Spiritual teacher, counselor, and author
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Experience and Credentials
If you’d like to learn more about my experience, training, and the path that shapes my work, you can explore my credentials here:
