Hello, Bonjour & Grüezi
My name is Karin Baltisberger and I founded Yoga Journaling. I can truly say that Yoga Journaling found me and not the other way around. On this page you will find my career - and I can tell you one thing: Yoga has not always been part of my life.
I speak four languages: English, French, German and my mother tongue Swiss German (a dialect of German). I have completed over 1000 hours of yoga training - including: Hatha/Vinyasa, Myofascial Integrated Alignment by Dylan Werner, Yin Yoga, Pilates, Handstand, Yoga Nidra, Teaching yoga beginners.
One-horse town, Switzerland
Born to be a leader
I grew up in a very small village. But even then I had big plans. When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said: I'm going to be a boss like my father.
My father was a self-employed civil engineering contractor. I also always knew that I had this entrepreneurial drive in me. But my path was to take me in a different direction first.
Becoming a journalist
Digging up cover stories
After graduating from high school, I studied journalism and immediately started working as a journalist. I dug up a lot of cover stories and loved the thrill of the work.
I soon took on management responsibility as one of the youngest people ever. Step by step, I climbed the career ladder. I worked long hours because I was passionate about it.
During this time, I also gained almost 10 kilograms because I simply wasn't mindful enough and didn't feel my body.
Career highlight
Hello corporate world!
When one of the largest Swiss insurance companies asked me if I would like to become their Head of Communications, I immediately said yes. I was by far the youngest person to ever have this job.
I learnt so much in such a short time. I was able to make a difference, made a lot of changes, introduced innovations and worked day and night.
I discovered yoga during this time. I am still grateful for that today. Yoga helped me to reconnect with my body and recharge my batteries.
No one wanted to publish my book
Put into a niche
As a yoga teacher, I always prepared my classes with stick figures (according to the method of Eva-Lotta Lamm) and always got good feedback. So I was looking for a publisher who wanted to publish a book about my sequences. But I only got rejections. They said that yoga stick figures were a niche.
So I started my Instagram account Yoga Journaling in spring 2022. I didn't think much of it, just posted my flows. And lo and behold, it wasn't a niche after all. More than 100,000 people followed the account within a short time. And the account is still growing by hundreds of followers every week.
Founding my own business
Ready for a new adventure
In 2023, I took the plunge and started my own business with yoga journaling. Of course, it came with a lot of fears, insecurities and doubts, but I knew that this was the right next step for me.
I developed my own stick figure: Toby was born. I worked on innovations such as the Asana Stickers or the Sequencing Magnets and I wrote my second book Chakra Flow.
This is not the end of the story
Working on my secret project
In March 2024, I traveled to Mallorca to work on my secret project, which will be released in my store in October. There will be another completely new product that is not available on today's yoga market and perfectly complements my current product range.
So you can look forward to it. If you don't want to miss anything, then sign up for my newsletter!
My vision for Yoga Journaling
Think big, start small. I have big plans for my yoga start-up. My mission is to bring as many people as possible to yoga and to support yoga teachers in their work. Because yoga makes us better people. This world needs better people.
Read my visionKarin was a guest on a podcast