Look out, hygge, there’s a new Nordic buzzword to live by. Sisu is a Finnish way of being defined as “stoic determination, tenacity of purpose and hardiness”. I try my best to channel it one February morning in Helsinki as, teeth chattering, I shed my towel and climb down a ladder into the frozen Baltic Sea, the surface crusted over with a slush of ice that bobs with the tide.
Cold water swimming may be having a prolonged moment in the UK, but the Finns have known about the mental and physical benefits of talviuinti (ice swimming) for centuries. In a country where lakes are frozen over from October until May each year, many Finns think nothing of starting the day by drilling their own ice hole for a dip in -20C water. Assuming there’s something to this uplifting ritual, championed by global names such as Dutch motivational speaker Wim Hof, could this extreme bathing be one of the reasons Finland is officially the happiest nation on the planet? I’m determined to brave the cold and find out.
At Rauhaniemi Public Baths in the city of Tampere – Finland’s “sauna capital” – I wade into the pitch-black water one snowy night, ice threatening to close in around the edges of the aavanto (the hole drilled into the frozen surface). Breathing deep, I tread the inky water. Staying still in this cold brings a strange rush of pain and pleasure. My toes ache, but the rest of me feels incredibly alive, my skin tingling and my head clear.
Niina Kärkkäinen is bobbing next to me in the water. A guide for Adventure Apes, which runs sustainable sauna and swim tours across Finland, she encourages me to stick it out by telling me that ice swimming will boost my endorphin levels, stimulate blood circulation and relieve pain. The benefits of cold water immersion seem a small price to pay for chilly toes, and the sting of the ice dip is soon softened by the prospect of another local tradition – the sauna.
Ice-cold dips surrounded by pure nature in Finland
(Sian Anna Lewis)
Wood-fired bathhouses are an ancient part of Finnish culture, believed to date back to 7,000 BC. Originally the only space for washing one’s body in a Finnish house (you will still meet Finns who were born in one), the sauna has evolved into a communal ritual. There are still more saunas than cars in the country, and every Finnish embassy in the world has a bathhouse, where international diplomats are sometimes invited for casual meetings in the nude.
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