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Hi everyone. I'm so excited to be here.

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My name is Emilia Lahti
and I'm a researcher.

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Some really smart person once said

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that research is often,
in fact, me-search.

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We tend to get interested in things

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which are of some personal significance
to us, and I'm no exception.

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What I will share with you
today is a discovery

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that has impacted my life
and thinking in a really profound way,

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and it originates from a trauma
that I survived to, a few years ago.

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As a result of these experiences,

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I became very interested to understand

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how humans persevere
in the face of extreme adversity,

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and how do we keep on going

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when we feel that we've reached
the end of our capacities.

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I'm sure we can all think
of some people like that from our lives.

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Here's one person like that,
whose story I would like to briefly share.

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Her name is Kati Lepistö van der Hoeven,

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and she may look like
a completely ordinary woman to you

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- well, excluding the fact

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that she looks like some ethereal goddess
of Lapland in this photo -

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but, the truth be told, Kati's life
is a beautiful ode to human resilience.

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20 years ago, she experienced
a massive brain stroke,

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which left her locked
inside her physical body.

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Today Kati is able to communicate

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through using eye movements
and an alphabetical board.

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For Kati, everyday of her life
is a beautiful example

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of how humans push through adversities,

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and an example of how
you have to imagine realities

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beyond the current reality that you see.

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I'm so happy to share Kati's story
because it's a beautiful Segway

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to what I will share with you next.

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To be her requires something
more than just resilience,

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which means to bounce back
from adversities,

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or perseverance, which means
to strive for a long term goal.

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To be Kati requires something

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that we have in Finland
for centuries, known as "sisu."

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"Sisu" is something

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that we pretty much learn
before we learn to talk or walk.

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"Sisu" means to be able to strive
over extraordinary difficulties,

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and it means to be able to have
extraordinary determination and courage

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in the face of extreme adversity.

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It means you don't see a silver lining,

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but you jump into the storm anyways.

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In the core of "sisu"
is this beautiful idea

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that there is much more to us

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than what meets the eye
at a given moment.

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The thing here is
that even though "sisu"

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is so deeply integrated
into Finnish culture,

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it's something that bears
significance to you

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if you are a human living
anywhere in the world.

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We all face adversities,

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and we all have to strive
through them somehow.

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"Sisu" is really embodied

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by those who hold on to hope
anywhere in the world.

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That is something that is
one of my greatest passions

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to talk more about that.

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The thing with "sisu" is

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that it doesn't have
a direct translation in any language.

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So it's not merely the Finnish equivalent
for willpower or perseverance,

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but is something more than that.

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In the Finnish culture,

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"sisu" is often seen
as this mindset or a life philosophy.

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You can associate things
such as integrity and honesty to "sisu."

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We have some words which technically
could have become the word for "sisu,"

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and here is one which is
'periksi, ' 'anta, ' 'matto, '

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and there is more,
'periksiantamattomuus.'

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For someone who is not Finnish,

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it may take a little bit
of "sisu" to even say that.

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"Sisu" has been a big part
of our culture for a long time,

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and we haven't been able to necessarily
explain what it is in its core.

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I became interested in this.

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One thing that you will definitely find

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if you Google "sisu," is Finns
during the Winter war,

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and how we were against
this massive opponent,

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and we prevailed against
all possible expectations.

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This event raised "sisu"

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to this almost sacred status
in Finland for generations to come.

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The New York Times,
back in 1940 wrote:

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that "Sisu is the word
that describes Finland,"

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which is really powerful.

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But at the same time,

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even though "sisu" has been
such an integral part of our country,

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I wasn't able to find an answer

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to whether "sisu" is some kind
of a character trait, is it a tendency,

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is it just a myth,

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or maybe it's some genetic mutation
of people who have to endure

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almost a lifetime without sunlight?

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I don't know.

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I became interested,

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because some happenings in in our life

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always involve
a little bit of serendipity.

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In 2012, I happened to
meet this wonderful woman

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called Angela Duckworth,

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who's a research psychologist
at the University of Pennsylvania.

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I actually crashed Angela's course
one wintry February morning,

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where she was talking about
her research on grit,

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which stands for passion
and perseverance for a long term goal.

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I became interested in seeing

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whether "sisu" and grit somehow overlap,
or maybe we can learn something.

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I sent Angela an email
with one simple question asking,

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"Have you ever heard of "sisu"?"

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Angela being Angela,
of course she had heard of "sisu."

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She affirmed my intuition

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that "sisu" is something
worth examining at its own right.

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I think that was the first push
to start my own journey

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into the land of "sisu"
as a research subject.

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As a result of this, I started looking
into other kinds of ideas

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maybe little bit outside the usual scope.

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Then I ran into

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this 19th century philosopher
called William James,

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who was saying that we don't know
enough about the human spirit,

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and he was saying
that we would need to create something

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like a topography of human spirit
or human strength,

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which for someone unlike William,
who went to Harvard at the age of 12,

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so to put that in plain language:

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to get some kind of an understanding
of this map of how do we endure

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significant adversities in our lives.

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Because if we understand that
maybe we are better able to understand

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human life and maybe help each other.

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William James also said

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that we rarely run far enough,
or push ourselves enough,

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to realize that we have
what he called "a second wind."

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Like there is this extra power tank

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or something that gets ignited
when we run far enough,

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and it's something that only activates
when we really need it.

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This brought "sisu" to my mind
and I was really excited to see

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whether understanding
"sisu" a bit better could maybe add

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a little piece to this puzzle
of this beautiful human experience,

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and maybe we could learn
something through this.

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In 2012, I conducted a survey,

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and I wanted to understand
the deepest essence of "sisu"

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like what is it really all about.

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One of the main findings
about "sisu" was this idea

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that it is some kind
of a extraordinary ability for action

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when you feel that you've reached

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the end of your physical
or mental abilities.

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So it's more more about that
than maybe striving for a long-term goal.

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At the same time,
the thing that rose up was

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that "sisu" also seems
to render itself different

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from these other psychological
capacities that we have.

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For example, resilience refers
to the dynamic process

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of positive adaptation
to a difficult situation.

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In the core of resilience
is this idea to bounce back

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start anew, get your head back
above the surface.

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I was thinking that "sisu" is more like

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something that acts as a pathway to this.

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Before you get head back
above the surface,

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you need to sometimes fight

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some really strong
undercurrents to get there,

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and "sisu" is something
that helps us fight first,

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and then we can continue
from where we left it.

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Perseverance is striving for
a long-term goal and not giving up

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even though you have
obstacles along the way,

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so you have your eyes fixed
on something.

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Grit that Angela researches
is perseverance

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infused with zest and passion.

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With "sisu" it's not
so much about passion.

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"Sisu" is really about
when you are in that place

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where you feel
that there is nowhere to go,

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when you've reached the end
of every possible single capacity,

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or you might be at the wrong place.

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You're too short, too slow, something,

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and even people around you are saying

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you shouldn't go there;
you are not up for it.

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"Sisu" is that something
that pushes us beyond the boundaries.

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In short, you could say

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that "sisu" is more about
the short term intensity in that moment,

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and not so much about
the long-term stamina;

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This is this a very important distinction.

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At the same time
when it's this power capacity,

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it also seems to give rise to
what I call 'an action mindset.'

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An action mindset is this consistent,
courageous approach toward challenges.

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It's so beautiful to think
that if this represents

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your opportunities and the limitations
of the current moment,

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there is something that evokes
this vision of you in the future

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where you might be able to go
if you dare to reach.

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There is something
that elicits hope in "sisu"

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what is one of the most exciting things
to me about this construct, honestly.

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But at the same time,
as you can see from my slide,

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it's kind of scattered around.

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I was trying to find a way
to describe "sisu" in a way

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that would pull everything together

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because it seems to be so multilayered
and so nuanced, and so extraordinary.

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One evening when I was watching Cosmos,

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I started thinking that maybe,

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the solution to this is
right in front of my eyes.

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I thought of the carbon atom

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and how carbon is this unique,
otherworldly amazing atom

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because it's the only thing
that's able to bond

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with up to four atoms
at the same time and with itself.

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In that way, it creates a system

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which enables
the bigger entity to function.

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If you look at this molecular diagram
you can see that maybe,

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"sisu" is like the carbon atom
would be in this diagram.

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Something that is this life-enabling agent
or creative power.

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Something that helps build a bridge
between this moment and the next one.

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I think that's one of the core ideas,

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and why I feel like "sisu"
could be something that could help us

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see we could use that
in the future to empower people.

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The thing is "sisu" is nothing new to you

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if you've encountered
adversities in your life.

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It's just that you might have not
had a word for it.

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We could say that future is first an idea,
or it's a story that we tell each other,

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so as long as we don't have a word
for some phenomena or a construct,

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we sometimes fail to tap
into its potential that it withholds.

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We are a sense-making species,

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we try to understand the events
in our lives through these constructs,

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and we pass on knowledge
through using the stories;

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and we also learn
and find meaning in our lives

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through reflecting on these stories.

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I found "sisu" through
this similar self-reflective process,

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I found "sisu" through my struggle.

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What I am doing today...
All began as this one woman's quest

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to make some sense of what had happened

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and how she somehow survived.

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After a while I realized

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that whatever I was doing
in trying to figure my own shit out,

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was actually helping
other people as well.

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That was a wonderful discovery,

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how you can see people come together
when we inspire each other,

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because we are all in this together.

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As a result of that, I quit my job
- which I had for a very long time -

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and I went back to school
and study psychology,

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which always was my first love.

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I wanted to see what
we could possibly do with this thing.

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Today, this "sisu"
and the topics around it

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is really the reason
why I wake up each morning.

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With my amazing team
at Filosofian Akatemia,

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we are really excited
to bring "sisu" to the world

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because there is so much
amazing potential in it.

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Next year will be
'the Year of Sisu' globally,

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and February 28th
will be the 'Day of Sisu' in Finland,

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which actually is already
in our calendars;

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if you check you will find it.

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The reason why we are doing this is

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because we are share collectively
adversities, we all encounter them.

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What we also share is
this amazing ability to overcome them.

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That's in the core of this idea
of the 'Year of Sisu, '

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to inspire people to transform
those barriers into frontiers,

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and more importantly,
to support each other in this process,

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to see that the strength within them

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is stronger than the adversities
that we often encounter.

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Since "sisu" is such a powerful thing

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it's important to remind
that we shouldn't be fooled to think

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that it's the only thing
we need, and "sisu" alone.

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Just push hard; that's it.

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To answer the question what enabled me

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to go through my own experiences
was definitely yes, I had "sisu"!

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I kept on showing up for life,
and I didn't give up,

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although I felt like doing so many times.

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But there is one thing
which just cannot be left unsaid,

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and it's that I had someone

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who believed in me
before I believed in myself,

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and who saw this angel in that raw piece
of marble before I saw it,

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and who also stuck around
long enough to discover it.

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That person is my best friend
and now husband.

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We have an immense power
to open doors for each other

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and also close them.

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Through our actions, through
our gestures, through our words.

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I believe that when "sisu,"

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this inner amazing,
beautiful power that we have,

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when that is met with social support,
compassion, and love,

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there are very few things
that are impossible to us.

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This sculpture here is
one of my favorite ones.

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It was created to celebrate
triumph over a massive sea battle.

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It depicts the goddess Nike,
"Nike" meaning victory.

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She is over 2,5 meters tall
and 2,000 years old.

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One of the most beautiful,
moving things about this sculpture for me,

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and why it is my favorite,

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is that, despite this significant damage
and incompleteness

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this sculpture is one of the most
celebrated and valued masterpieces

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of our human history.

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And I believe

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that's something that we can transport
to our daily lives.

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How, if we see each other,

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despite some imperfections, some bumps,

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but with that potential and beauty,

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maybe we can help create a world

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where we are able to heal,
and flourish, and exceed ourselves.

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I strongly believe that there is so much
more to us than what meets the eye,

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and I'm not just talking
about carbon atoms,

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but I'm talking about this other kind
of life-giving ingredient called "sisu."

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I believe that if we acknowledge
and we celebrate

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this amazing potential within all of us,

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this universal potential

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which goes beyond cultural boundaries
and geographical boundaries,

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if we include "sisu" in our collective
conversation of our future,

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maybe, not only are we able
to empower individuals here and there

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but perhaps, we are able to bring
this human family a bit closer together.

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That, I believe, is an idea worth sharing.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)