In her thesis for a Master’s Degree in Positive Psychology, Emilia Lahti described “a reserve of power, which enables extraordinary action to overcome mentally or physically challenging situations”. The power she described is sisu, an emotional frame of mind that is new to most of the world, though the people of Finland have been talking about for centuries.
Sisu is something different from a generic persistence, determination, or resolve. It’s a feeling that arises in people sometimes during times of urgent crisis, when the difficulties we face seem certain to overwhelm and destroy us.
A person who feels sisu turns to face the challenges around them, and although the odds of success, or even survival, seem slim, summons the willpower to do what can be done. Sisu enables people to grow in their abilities, even as they are challenged, to be able to accomplish tasks that were at first beyond their abilities.
