Marta Velázquez

In recent years, scholars within positive psychology have been adopting a more nuanced view of positive and negative, recognizing that positive qualities can sometimes be harmful and negative mental states can sometimes contribute to human flourishing.

A year ago, Emilia Lahti launched a project called Sisu, not Silence, a movement for peace and compassion intended to empower people who have survived violence, especially those who have overcome domestic violence. Now, it is only a few days until Emilia starts a special campaign in which she plans to run 50 ultramarathons in 50 days, traversing the length of New Zealand. I invited her to tell us about this amazing initiative that will start on January 18, 2018.

Is it possible that understanding the concepts of joy and well-being from other cultures can help us give a new shape to our own? According to Lomas, the study of emotional vocabulary of a culture may provide a window into how its people see the world: the things they value, their traditions, the way they build happiness or things they recognize as important.

It is a great pleasure for me to interview Emilia Lahti, a researcher whose work revolves around understanding how individuals, groups, and organizations grow from challenges and come out of hardships with a newly discovered sense of strength, purpose, and adaptability. Nowadays, Emilia is working on a Ph.D. on the age-old Finnish construct of sisu.

Sisu is a 500-year old Finnish construct, which appeals to the spirit and strength that enable people to persevere through difficulties despite feeling they have reached the end of their physical or mental capacities.

I was attracted to the course, Mindfulness: Practice, Theory and Applications precisely because it covered both theoretical and practical aspects of mindfulness. I learned about using the body to increase mindfulness, about uses of mindfulness in therapy, and about mindfulness as a life style.