Katja Pantzar - Everyday Sisu : Tapping into Finnish Fortitude for a Happier, More Resilient Life

On an overcast day in February, Im riding my bicycle through the streets of Helsinki toward a wellspring of culture and well-being housed in a grand neoclassical 1841 building by the sea.

Its cold, and as I feel a blustery, bone-chilling wind thats familiar from living in rainy cities such as Vancouver on Canadas west coast, where I grew up, I start to pedal faster in an effort to warm up.

I pass a young couple bundled up in their winter coats, wearing colorful scarves and hats. Walking together, they are holding hands, which makes me smile and gives me a sense of hope about the future.

As I cycle off the pavement onto a gravel road that leads into the parklike setting housing the complex, my destination is Visit Peace, a new wellness space thats tucked into Lapinlahden Lhde (lhde means spring in Finnish), a community center that focuses on arts and culture and mental and physical well-being in a range of ways that incorporate the role of nature.

Although Im heading to do an interview with the founder of Visit Peace for a magazine article, I must confess that Ive already fallen in love with the centers name, for who wouldnt like to visit peace? So many people around the world seem to be struggling with the stresses and demands of modern life on so many levels.

On a personal level, as someone who suffers from depression and anxiety from time to time and has a tendency to take on too much and then crash because my energy is depleted, I feel I could benefit from practical help in better understanding how to manage my own mental and physical energy, as well as bigger-picture societal issues such as the state of the planet.

Since moving from North America to Finland many years ago, Ive become fascinated by sisu, the unique Finnish concept of resilience, courage, and grit in the face of all manner of challenges. Through ongoing research, Im convinced that a good sense of sisu holds the key to helping us all develop a greater sense of resilience in dealing with the challenges we face daily, whether big or small.

A few years ago, I wrote a book about Finnish well-being, sharing the story of how I had gradually adopted many elements of the Nordic lifestyle after moving to Finland. I spoke about how I gained strength and better mental and physical health by embracing simple and sensible activities such as spending more time outdoors in nature with friends no matter what the weather, and taking up popular activities such as winter swimming and year-round cycling.

I interviewed a range of experts and regular folk to ensure factual and science-based information was included on the various topics, such as the health benefits of the Finnish sauna steam bath. The Finnish Way was translated into twenty-two languages and published in twenty-two countries (thanks to my agent), and since then Ive received a fairly steady stream of interview requests from around the world from media ranging from NBC to El Pas. This media interest has been fueled in part by the fact that Finland has been named the worlds happiest country for four years in a row (2018 to 2021) by the World Happiness Report, a publication of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which uses a range of metrics to rank the quality of peoples lives.

At around the same time, I was juggling my work as a freelance writer, editor, and journalist along with major life changes such as the end of a long-term relationship, which left me doing a lot of solo parenting (I have an absolutely amazing eleven-year-old son) and reevaluating many aspects of my life. Even with a very supportive family and a close network of friends, I started to seriously falter.

And then my own sense of sisu took a significant tumble.

Overwhelmed by all of lifes demands, I began having a hard time keeping up. I also made the fatal mistake of not heeding my own sisu advice, which in a nutshell is to practice simple self-care so that you can take care of others. Scrambling to manage everything, I was spending less time in nature, in the water, on my bicycle, and not doing commonsense things such as eating and resting properly.

I felt exhausted and depleted much of the time, and my general sense of malaise was also seeping into other areas of my life, disturbing my sleep. I would often wake up in the middle of the night in a panic, worried about work, finances, and relationships.

At times, it felt as though everyone wanted a piece of me, and in my earnestness to respond, I sometimes gave toxic people and situationsboth in my personal and professional lifetoo much of my limited energy.