The Finnish Way

Finding Courage, Wellness, and Happiness Through the Power of Sisu

By: Katja Pantzar

Narrated by: Karen Cass

Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

An engaging and practical guided tour of the simple and nature-inspired ways that Finns stay happy and healthy - including the powerful concept of sisu, or everyday courage 

Forget hygge - it's time to blow out the candles and get out into the world! Journalist Katja Pantzar did just that, taking the huge leap to move to the remote Nordic country of Finland. What she discovered there transformed her body, mind, and spirit. In this engaging and practical guide, she shows listeners how to embrace the "keep it simple and sensible" daily practices that make Finns one of the happiest populations in the world, year after year.  

Topics include:  

• Movement as medicine: How walking, biking and swimming every day are good for what ails us - and best done outside the confines of a gym. 
• Forest therapy: Why there's no substitute for getting out into nature on a regular basis. 
• Healthy eating: What the Nordic diet can teach us all about feeding body, mind, and soul.
• The gift of sisu: Why Finns embrace a special form of courage, grit and determination as a national virtue - and how anyone can dig deeper to survive and thrive through tough times.  

If you've ever wondered if there's a better, simpler way to find happiness and good heath, look no further. The Finns have a word for that, and this empowering audiobook shows us how to achieve it.

©2018 Katja Pantzar (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Interesting and inspiring

Learned a lot about Finnish culture prior to traveling and now have ways I hope to adopt some of these life habits

Loved it

Great info about Finnish culture and Suzy mixed with her personal experience. I highly recommend.

Inspiring

This book really resonates with me. It's so positive and inspiring. I bought several copies for my coworkers and used examples for our team building excises.

Informative

Besides some well-calculated injections of feminism & political correctness, I learned a lot. Good story & sense of empathy.

Meh

It’s a woman’s journey to find peace in her own life. She uses examples from Finland that were nothing new to me as a North American. I suppose swimming in the winter is “new”, but athletes do cold water soaks to relieve muscle pain and ice fishing is certainly not unheard of. Nothing new for me in this book.

I liked her accent and the performance without that I could have gotten everything this book has to cover in a two page synopsis.

Enjoyed both high level and personal take

I have Finnish roots but have yet to visit. I found this book to be great for me because I don’t know much about my heritage and the pieces of Finland she shared really resonated with me. I would not recommend this to someone who is not intrinsically interested in learning more about Finland or improving their mental/physical health with some anecdotal (and some evidenced-based) advice.

I loved this book

I interrupted my reading to take breaks to experience what Katja described. Ice swimming, cycling and walking in nature. See more in less. Her life stories resonate. I am really taking this book to heart. It is to live by.

Great Book

I really enjoyed this book. I was mostly interested in the Sisu discussions. Now I want to go cold water swimming. I even tried taking cold showers :) Now following lots of #finland accounts on Instagram. Sorry if that makes it sound cheesy. It is not, the book is great.

Beautiful

I picked out this book due to my Finnish heritage originally. As an American there were themes that could be seen taking root or even starting to be fads here especially in more social progressive cities like San Francisco, however hearing these themes spoken about as a cultural identity, saunas, cold water bathing/swimming, cycling, walking in nature, it put it in a retrospective that was suddenly not just a hipster fad but, a lifestyle. The idea of Sisu was masterfully articulated just as my grandfather had spoken about it when I was just a boy. Though we may see some of these things in the west already, they are not coming on as much as some other reviewers seem to believe. The ideas and concepts expressed are typically only practiced in very small portions of society. I feel this book shows that these practices are for everyone and discrimination is not necessary for anyone to practice. This book brought many subtle, but in reality huge, changes to my life and my family's life especially in priorities. Thank you.

Love it but wish the chapters were in order

Love it but wish the chapters were in order. It is helpful and inspiring in an achievable way.