About
Hi there, and welcome to my universe. I'm Signe, and I'm so glad you found your way here.
I'm a researcher with a background in physics and digital health, now doing a PhD at Høgskulen på Vestlandet in Bergen on how AI and digital tools can support women through pregnancy and early motherhood. But, I'm also a yogi, trained in dance, music and creative crafts, and at the end of the day simply a woman and a human being. I've created this space to reflect on living and balancing all of that. Let me introduce you to my world.
I started Balance Between as a place to share my PhD journey: the professional and personal learnings, and the perspectives I discover along the way. But I also wanted a space to reflect on balance itself.
The idea first became clear to me during my yoga teacher training in Goa. I found myself drawn to Ashtanga, the most physically and mentally demanding part of the training, the one that asks you to focus hard and push through. Yet just weeks before leaving, I had injured my knee. I'd wanted to arrive prepared and in shape, and ended up overdoing it, pushing through too much without knowing where the balance was. So for the whole training I had to practise within limits, listening to my body and learning when to stop.
Sharing this experience with other aspiring yoga teachers probably taught me the most. It was like looking into mirrors. Some had the same energy as me. Others were almost the opposite: so attentive to their limits that they held back, afraid of going too far even when they were nowhere near the edge. And some were simply balanced. I realised that this was my real journey in Goa: finding that balance. In yogic terms, it became about two chakras, the elements of fire and air.
At first I saw fire and air as separate, conflicting, even opposite elements. But I came to realise that they co-exist. A fire needs air to grow; oxygen is part of the chemistry of every flame. Too much wind, though, and it blows out. To be as fierce and fiery as possible, you need air: breath, breaks, softness, compassion and love, everything the air chakra stands for. I believe you can't be truly powerful without also being soft.
From there I saw that balance runs through my whole life. Of course it does for everyone; learning to balance is present from the very moment we take our first steps. But because I keep trying to learn and expand my world, I often live in several places, fields, cultures and interests at once, making balancing a key element of navigation. I went from pursuing dance to studying physics, and wrote my thesis between physics and sociology. I've worked in tech while insisting on staying present in the tactile world. I switch between Danish, English and French across my work, family and partner. My life is split between Copenhagen (home), Bergen (work) and Lyon (boyfriend), and working remotely means working nowhere and everywhere at once. There's balancing career and hobbies, time for myself and time for others, dance and yoga where you literally balance with your body, and research where you balance with your head (or at least the thoughts inside it). And in my work, there's the balance between technology as innovation and technology as harm.
A PhD is, in a sense, the Ashtanga yoga of academia – very demanding and known to push people over the line, risking injury in the form of stress. So going into this project, I wanted to be very mindful and carry what I learned on the mat into the years ahead: balancing ambition with compassion, and giving my fire just enough air to keep it alive.
Balance Between is where I'll reflect on all of this, in my research and in life. I hope it can be a place for others doing a PhD, for anyone balancing elements of their own life, and for anyone curious about women's health tech and responsible AI innovation, whether you work in the field or simply want to learn more.
Cheers, bisous, hilsen,
Signe