Recently, Visit Finland announced the inaugural "Happiness Masterclass".
This is the first time Finland has decided to disclose its happiness password for free after being named the "happiest country" for 6 consecutive years.
△Finland will hold a four-day "Happiness Masterclass". / Visit Finland
The masterclass will take place from 12 to 15 June at Kuru Resort, a lakeside resort in southern Finland. The four-day workshop will cover four topics: Nature and Lifestyle; health and balance; Design & Routine; Food and welfare. The 14 participants will be selected from all over the world and will not have to pay any fees once shortlisted.
In addition to filling out a basic information form and motivation letter, these lucky applicants completed a challenge that proved that "they may be Finns who have been separated for many years from their hometown that they have never met".
△ Finland is often dubbed "the hometown of never met" by social fear netizens. /pexels
Behind the frozen humor, Visit Finland is actually expressing the unique understanding of happiness in this country -
Happiness is not some kind of metaphysics, but a skill that can be shared and learned.
Of course, whether you can learn or not is another matter.
Happy Finns, why can't they laugh?
In March this year, the United Nations released the latest annual World Happiness Report, and many netizens' dream hometown Finland once again topped the list.
△Finland has been named the happiest country for 6 consecutive years. /Global Happiness Report
The report interviewed a total of 100,000 people around the world, covering 137 countries and territories. Factors such as the happiness index, life expectancy, GDP per capita, social assistance, corruption, freedom, and generosity of people who help others between 2020 and 2022 are all measured by each region.
Happiness cannot be completely quantified, but how to achieve happiness is a profound question that haunts contemporary life.
Why Finland again?
With a lifelong education system, high welfare policies, minimal social corruption, sustainable economic development models, stunning natural beauty, there seem to be enough enviable elements of Finnish happiness to support this realistic utopia.
Finland is like a reality utopia. /Visual China
In the eyes of others, it would be rude for Finns with such a living environment not to laugh. In fact, if there is anything in the world that is less combustible than Boruto, it should be the Finns.
Finnish happiness is not what people imagine, smiling every day, but expressionless and flat.
In 2018, Finland's Helsamdayung newspaper conducted an online questionnaire about how Finns feel about happiness, but the most common key word in Finland was "life is secure and unremarkable".
In 2018, when Finland was awarded the title of "Happiest Country in the World" for the first time, its official social media account "This is Finland" responded with a four-panel cartoon in response, a happiest Finn in the world, a heartbroken Finn, a frying Finn, a passionate Finn, all of whom had expressionless faces in common.
△ Finnish expression management. / This is Finland
This is not the Finn in Versailles, as in 1993, the CBS news program "60 Minutes" introduced pedestrians on the streets of Finland:
"This is not a national state of mourning in Finland, these are Finns in a state of nature; contemplative and intimate; coldly engaging with anyone but their own; The shyest person on earth; Very depressed and proud. ”
Finns, who look sullen every day, win the happiness test, which many Finns attribute to low expectations.
△ "Happiness is our gift" - the promotional slogan on the homepage of Visit Finland. / Visit Finland
In the happiness report questionnaire, participants were asked to rate the test items on a scale of 0 to 10. The highest score (10) represents the best, and the lowest score (0) represents the worst. Participants are then asked to select a rating for their current life. In other words, if the actual life situation is close to the highest expectations, it is considered happy.
And it just so happens that "lowering the standard of what constitutes a good life" is a traditional performance throughout Northern Europe, and Finns are very good at it.
Who deprived Finns of their right to be unhappy?
Since the happiness report linked Finland to the word happiness, Finland is no longer a purely Nordic name, but a sample of life that people around the world aspire to.
Another special thing about Finnish happiness is that people all over the world think Finns are the happiest, except for Finns themselves.
The whole world considers Finns happy, except for Finns themselves. /Unsplash
The flip side of the happiest country is the high incidence of depression in Finland.
Finland has the tenth highest incidence of depression in the world with a 5.6% rate of depression, with young people fare the worst compared to middle-aged people who have started a family or are living in retirement.
According to a national survey of mental health in Finland, about 20% of young people under the age of 30 suffer from depression. Among young people aged 15 to 24, one third of deaths are due to suicide.
Finns seem to have lost their qualifications to be unhappy. /Figureworm Creative
The title of "happiest country" is not so much glory for young Finns as a shackle of gold.
Finns, who thought they were living an ordinary life, were suddenly told that Finland was the happiest country in the world – and they almost lost their right to be unhappy.
According to a 2018 report "Shadows of Happiness" written by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Copenhagen Happiness Institute, about 16% of Finnish women aged 18 to 23 and 11% of young men define themselves as struggling or living with misery. The social environment of the happiness master per capita can make these young people ashamed to talk about their unhappiness.
△ "Shadow of Happiness" report. / Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen Happiness Institute
As a result, the longer Finland remains at the top of the world's "happiest countries", the more Finns oppose the selection, and many Finns even want to slip Finland in the next selection for real happiness.
True Finnish happiness is "sisu"
Although neither you nor I will have access to the free Finnish Happiness Masterclass, perhaps the word "sisu" will help you better understand Finnish happiness.
△ The Finnish movie "Heavy Metal Road" mentally motivated the lead singer.
Finns are said to be more likely to use the word "sisu" to describe their lives than happiness. Unique to Finnish and the most popular word, it can be understood as "extraordinary determination in the face of extreme adversity" and "courage in the face of unlikely success".
After all, as a Finn, you may be born with an adversity called nature.
Finland has a long winter.
From an early age, children have to learn to endure the extreme cold of 52 days of the year without seeing sunlight. Older people have to pour eight or nine cups of black coffee a day and survive the long winter in the pure and violent bitterness.
Finns want a pure and violent experience of bitter coffee. /pexels
In traditional Finnish skiing lessons, the teacher first teaches not the standard position, but a hands-on demonstration of how to fall and how to get up after falling.
In this way, the knowledge and practice of failure has continued throughout Finns' lives.
Every year on October 13, the International Day of Failure, they will boldly show their worst experiences in their lives on social platforms, and netizens hug each other to warm up. There are also detailed "failure guides" that are constantly forwarded for fear that successful people will not notice.
Nokia is the most sought-after national brand in Finland not because they can sell their products overseas or because they are tough enough, but because Nokia has never minced its sudden decline and failure.
△ Destroy the end of a Nokia mobile phone.
But like after a snowy night, you can enter the ultimate Finnish sauna; High taxes are synonymous with early retirement and high benefits. Finns are never outgoing, because they have the courage to wait for the first rays of spring on seemingly endless winter nights.
Finns have the courage to step through the darkness and welcome the sun. /pexels
What do you think is the definition of happiness?
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