16/08/2026
I'm back after a loooong "creative" break!
Some of you may remember this page from another time.
Back then, I worked with Yoga, Ayurveda and movement meditation. I spent a lot of time travelling and living in Asia, and this work felt natural to me. It was meaningful and deeply connected to the way I wanted to live.
Then, around 2017/2018, something changed.
After many years in this reality, I felt the air had gone out of it. I started rejected all the "new agey" stuff and anyway, making the decision to return to Berlin and "settle down" brought a different reality: marketing, competition, high rents and the feeling that I no longer wanted to continue doing the same thing after more than a decade.
So, inspired by the “lifelong learning” philosophy and “everyone can learn anything”, I started over and jumped head on into an entirely different world, that I had, nevertheless, admired since high school 😏
I went back to college to train as a Software Engineer and moved into the Tech and Agile world. From 2019 until the end of 2025, I worked as a full stack software engineer and then shifting into agile management roles, coaching teams (surprise!) and owning products. I focused on building a new professional identity - and I gave it everything I had.
Changing careers in my mid-thirties felt like a new exciting explorative adventure and also was one of the bravest (and somewhat naive) things I have done so far and I’m still very proud that I had the courage to begin again. To be honest, it wasn't always easy, to be the "Junior" at an age, where most people celebrate the zenith of their career and skills.
A few month into this new career, the pandemic started and it felt like really the best decision I could have made – being able to work remotely from home and I felt very lucky.
Also, at the beginning of the pandemic, I separated from my partner. The months that followed were often lonely, and they gave me space - sometimes painfully so - to face questions I had been postponing. I had to acknowledge that my life might not follow the path I had once imagined, including the question of children and involuntary childlessness.
When the future you expected starts to disappear, entering existential crisis, you have to ask different questions.
What do I want now? Do I have a bucket list and what’s on it? What kind of life would feel meaningful to me? What's the alternative to having my own family and what should my life look like? (For me, No. 1 on my bucket list was surprisingly concrete: buying an old house in Japan and turning it into something of my own! 😆)
Then, around two years ago, my body began to demand my attention in a different way. I was exhausted to a degree I had never experienced before. I woke up with pain, brain fog and no real reserves. Movement that was meant to help could leave me with days of muscle soreness and joint pain. At one point, depression was diagnosed, but the word never resonated or quite captured what I was experiencing. I did not feel fundamentally depressed. I felt profoundly depleted and still I kept pushing forward, proving to myself that I can be a fast-forward successful woman in tech!
Eventually, I began to understand that perimenopause was part of the picture – alongside the strain of work and a need to rethink my everyday habits, nourishment and health support. Learning more about hormonal change and making adjustments helped me slowly find my way back to more energy and a stronger connection with myself.
When I was forced to slow down, I also realized, that somewhere along the way, I had moved further and further away from the parts of myself connected to embodiment, awareness and inner life. My new environment was practical, analytical and often quite sceptical of anything that sounded “spiritual”. Even I began to distance myself from that world.
Yoga stayed – but mostly without the spiritual dimension.
Eventually, I left my last job and needed time to recover. During the past few months, while travelling around Japan looking for „my house“, meeting great people and discovering beautiful places, I explored Ikigai and menopause coaching and began to rediscover something I thought I had lost:
a part of myself that had never really disappeared and had simply been waiting for my attention again:
Now I’m bringing the pieces back together.
• The bodywork practitioner.
• The yoga teacher.
• The Ayurveda & TCM practitioner.
• The curious traveller.
• The software developer.
• The Product Owner.
• The Agile Coach.
• The Explorer, who has changed direction more than once – and knows what it feels like when an old version of life no longer fits.
This page has now become ✨Deep in East – Ikigai Coaching✨
I’m returning with a broader perspective, a few more years of life experience and new ideas about how to support people through change.
My work is about finding direction when life is in transition – through Ikigai coaching, practical reflection, embodied practices and small, meaningful steps forward.
It’s not about becoming a different person, about following someone else’s idea of success, or about finding one perfect answer for the rest of your life.
It is about reconnecting with what matters, listening to what is changing and shaping a next chapter that feels more like your own.
There is room here for purpose, energy, health, work, creativity, relationships, community, career changes and new beginnings. Maybe even for a new business or a completely different way of living.
I’m still working out exactly what this new chapter will become taking, very Kaizen-like, small steps at a time, so keep an eye out for the next updates!
I’m glad you’re here. 💗 💕
Welcome back to Deep in East project space – which is named after my very own personal Ikigai 🍵🥰
