Hi everyone. I'm so excited to be here.
My name is Emilia Lahti and I'm a researcher.
Some really smart person once said
that research is often, in fact, me-search.
We tend to get interested in things
which are of some personal significance to us, and I'm no exception.
What I will share with you today is a discovery
that has impacted my life and thinking in a really profound way,
and it originates from a trauma that I survived to, a few years ago.
As a result of these experiences,
I became very interested to understand
how humans persevere in the face of extreme adversity,
and how do we keep on going
when we feel that we've reached the end of our capacities.
I'm sure we can all think of some people like that from our lives.
Here's one person like that, whose story I would like to briefly share.
Her name is Kati Lepistö van der Hoeven,
and she may look like a completely ordinary woman to you
- well, excluding the fact
that she looks like some ethereal goddess of Lapland in this photo -
but, the truth be told, Kati's life is a beautiful ode to human resilience.
20 years ago, she experienced a massive brain stroke,
which left her locked inside her physical body.
Today Kati is able to communicate
through using eye movements and an alphabetical board.
For Kati, everyday of her life is a beautiful example
of how humans push through adversities,
and an example of how you have to imagine realities
beyond the current reality that you see.
I'm so happy to share Kati's story because it's a beautiful Segway
to what I will share with you next.
To be her requires something more than just resilience,
which means to bounce back from adversities,
or perseverance, which means to strive for a long term goal.
To be Kati requires something
that we have in Finland for centuries, known as "sisu."
"Sisu" is something
that we pretty much learn before we learn to talk or walk.
"Sisu" means to be able to strive over extraordinary difficulties,
and it means to be able to have extraordinary determination and courage
in the face of extreme adversity.
It means you don't see a silver lining,
but you jump into the storm anyways.
In the core of "sisu" is this beautiful idea
that there is much more to us
than what meets the eye at a given moment.
The thing here is that even though "sisu"
is so deeply integrated into Finnish culture,
it's something that bears significance to you
if you are a human living anywhere in the world.
We all face adversities,
and we all have to strive through them somehow.
"Sisu" is really embodied
by those who hold on to hope anywhere in the world.
That is something that is one of my greatest passions
to talk more about that.
The thing with "sisu" is
that it doesn't have a direct translation in any language.
So it's not merely the Finnish equivalent for willpower or perseverance,
but is something more than that.
In the Finnish culture,
"sisu" is often seen as this mindset or a life philosophy.
You can associate things such as integrity and honesty to "sisu."
We have some words which technically could have become the word for "sisu,"
and here is one which is 'periksi, ' 'anta, ' 'matto, '
and there is more, 'periksiantamattomuus.'
For someone who is not Finnish,
it may take a little bit of "sisu" to even say that.
"Sisu" has been a big part of our culture for a long time,
and we haven't been able to necessarily explain what it is in its core.
I became interested in this.
One thing that you will definitely find
if you Google "sisu," is Finns during the Winter war,
and how we were against this massive opponent,
and we prevailed against all possible expectations.
This event raised "sisu"
to this almost sacred status in Finland for generations to come.
The New York Times, back in 1940 wrote:
that "Sisu is the word that describes Finland,"
which is really powerful.
But at the same time,
even though "sisu" has been such an integral part of our country,
I wasn't able to find an answer
to whether "sisu" is some kind of a character trait, is it a tendency,
is it just a myth,
or maybe it's some genetic mutation of people who have to endure
almost a lifetime without sunlight?
I don't know.
I became interested,
because some happenings in in our life
always involve a little bit of serendipity.
In 2012, I happened to meet this wonderful woman
called Angela Duckworth,
who's a research psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
I actually crashed Angela's course one wintry February morning,
where she was talking about her research on grit,
which stands for passion and perseverance for a long term goal.
I became interested in seeing
whether "sisu" and grit somehow overlap, or maybe we can learn something.
I sent Angela an email with one simple question asking,
"Have you ever heard of "sisu"?"
Angela being Angela, of course she had heard of "sisu."
She affirmed my intuition
that "sisu" is something worth examining at its own right.
I think that was the first push to start my own journey
into the land of "sisu" as a research subject.
As a result of this, I started looking into other kinds of ideas
maybe little bit outside the usual scope.
Then I ran into
this 19th century philosopher called William James,
who was saying that we don't know enough about the human spirit,
and he was saying that we would need to create something
like a topography of human spirit or human strength,
which for someone unlike William, who went to Harvard at the age of 12,
so to put that in plain language:
to get some kind of an understanding of this map of how do we endure
significant adversities in our lives.
Because if we understand that maybe we are better able to understand
human life and maybe help each other.
William James also said
that we rarely run far enough, or push ourselves enough,
to realize that we have what he called "a second wind."
Like there is this extra power tank
or something that gets ignited when we run far enough,
and it's something that only activates when we really need it.
This brought "sisu" to my mind and I was really excited to see
whether understanding "sisu" a bit better could maybe add
a little piece to this puzzle of this beautiful human experience,
and maybe we could learn something through this.
In 2012, I conducted a survey,
and I wanted to understand the deepest essence of "sisu"
like what is it really all about.
One of the main findings about "sisu" was this idea
that it is some kind of a extraordinary ability for action
when you feel that you've reached
the end of your physical or mental abilities.
So it's more more about that than maybe striving for a long-term goal.
At the same time, the thing that rose up was
that "sisu" also seems to render itself different
from these other psychological capacities that we have.
For example, resilience refers to the dynamic process
of positive adaptation to a difficult situation.
In the core of resilience is this idea to bounce back
start anew, get your head back above the surface.
I was thinking that "sisu" is more like
something that acts as a pathway to this.
Before you get head back above the surface,
you need to sometimes fight
some really strong undercurrents to get there,
and "sisu" is something that helps us fight first,
and then we can continue from where we left it.
Perseverance is striving for a long-term goal and not giving up
even though you have obstacles along the way,
so you have your eyes fixed on something.
Grit that Angela researches is perseverance
infused with zest and passion.
With "sisu" it's not so much about passion.
"Sisu" is really about when you are in that place
where you feel that there is nowhere to go,
when you've reached the end of every possible single capacity,
or you might be at the wrong place.
You're too short, too slow, something,
and even people around you are saying
you shouldn't go there; you are not up for it.
"Sisu" is that something that pushes us beyond the boundaries.
In short, you could say
that "sisu" is more about the short term intensity in that moment,
and not so much about the long-term stamina;
This is this a very important distinction.
At the same time when it's this power capacity,
it also seems to give rise to what I call 'an action mindset.'
An action mindset is this consistent, courageous approach toward challenges.
It's so beautiful to think that if this represents
your opportunities and the limitations of the current moment,
there is something that evokes this vision of you in the future
where you might be able to go if you dare to reach.
There is something that elicits hope in "sisu"
what is one of the most exciting things to me about this construct, honestly.
But at the same time, as you can see from my slide,
it's kind of scattered around.
I was trying to find a way to describe "sisu" in a way
that would pull everything together
because it seems to be so multilayered and so nuanced, and so extraordinary.
One evening when I was watching Cosmos,
I started thinking that maybe,
the solution to this is right in front of my eyes.
I thought of the carbon atom
and how carbon is this unique, otherworldly amazing atom
because it's the only thing that's able to bond
with up to four atoms at the same time and with itself.
In that way, it creates a system
which enables the bigger entity to function.
If you look at this molecular diagram you can see that maybe,
"sisu" is like the carbon atom would be in this diagram.
Something that is this life-enabling agent or creative power.
Something that helps build a bridge between this moment and the next one.
I think that's one of the core ideas,
and why I feel like "sisu" could be something that could help us
see we could use that in the future to empower people.
The thing is "sisu" is nothing new to you
if you've encountered adversities in your life.
It's just that you might have not had a word for it.
We could say that future is first an idea, or it's a story that we tell each other,
so as long as we don't have a word for some phenomena or a construct,
we sometimes fail to tap into its potential that it withholds.
We are a sense-making species,
we try to understand the events in our lives through these constructs,
and we pass on knowledge through using the stories;
and we also learn and find meaning in our lives
through reflecting on these stories.
I found "sisu" through this similar self-reflective process,
I found "sisu" through my struggle.
What I am doing today... All began as this one woman's quest
to make some sense of what had happened
and how she somehow survived.
After a while I realized
that whatever I was doing in trying to figure my own shit out,
was actually helping other people as well.
That was a wonderful discovery,
how you can see people come together when we inspire each other,
because we are all in this together.
As a result of that, I quit my job - which I had for a very long time -
and I went back to school and study psychology,
which always was my first love.
I wanted to see what we could possibly do with this thing.
Today, this "sisu" and the topics around it
is really the reason why I wake up each morning.
With my amazing team at Filosofian Akatemia,
we are really excited to bring "sisu" to the world
because there is so much amazing potential in it.
Next year will be 'the Year of Sisu' globally,
and February 28th will be the 'Day of Sisu' in Finland,
which actually is already in our calendars;
if you check you will find it.
The reason why we are doing this is
because we are share collectively adversities, we all encounter them.
What we also share is this amazing ability to overcome them.
That's in the core of this idea of the 'Year of Sisu, '
to inspire people to transform those barriers into frontiers,
and more importantly, to support each other in this process,
to see that the strength within them
is stronger than the adversities that we often encounter.
Since "sisu" is such a powerful thing
it's important to remind that we shouldn't be fooled to think
that it's the only thing we need, and "sisu" alone.
Just push hard; that's it.
To answer the question what enabled me
to go through my own experiences was definitely yes, I had "sisu"!
I kept on showing up for life, and I didn't give up,
although I felt like doing so many times.
But there is one thing which just cannot be left unsaid,
and it's that I had someone
who believed in me before I believed in myself,
and who saw this angel in that raw piece of marble before I saw it,
and who also stuck around long enough to discover it.
That person is my best friend and now husband.
We have an immense power to open doors for each other
and also close them.
Through our actions, through our gestures, through our words.
I believe that when "sisu,"
this inner amazing, beautiful power that we have,
when that is met with social support, compassion, and love,
there are very few things that are impossible to us.
This sculpture here is one of my favorite ones.
It was created to celebrate triumph over a massive sea battle.
It depicts the goddess Nike, "Nike" meaning victory.
She is over 2,5 meters tall and 2,000 years old.
One of the most beautiful, moving things about this sculpture for me,
and why it is my favorite,
is that, despite this significant damage and incompleteness
this sculpture is one of the most celebrated and valued masterpieces
of our human history.
And I believe
that's something that we can transport to our daily lives.
How, if we see each other,
despite some imperfections, some bumps,
but with that potential and beauty,
maybe we can help create a world
where we are able to heal, and flourish, and exceed ourselves.
I strongly believe that there is so much more to us than what meets the eye,
and I'm not just talking about carbon atoms,
but I'm talking about this other kind of life-giving ingredient called "sisu."
I believe that if we acknowledge and we celebrate
this amazing potential within all of us,
this universal potential
which goes beyond cultural boundaries and geographical boundaries,
if we include "sisu" in our collective conversation of our future,
maybe, not only are we able to empower individuals here and there
but perhaps, we are able to bring this human family a bit closer together.
That, I believe, is an idea worth sharing.
Thank you.
(Applause)