Can forest walks, cold plunges and talking to trees make you happier? An anxious American went to Helsinki to see if what she learned there could lift her spirits back home.
The ferry ride from Helsinki’s city center to the island of Pihlajasaari takes only 10 minutes and deposits visitors at a playground of beaches, trails and rocky shoals excellent for sunbathing. But I had a different mission: to speak to a tree.
This was meant to be a therapeutic exercise, one championed by the Finnish biologist Adela Pajunen. Finns, she’d told me, sometimes share their worries aloud to trees or birds. Occasionally, they may even sing to them.
On shore, I followed a gravel path in search of the perfect tree. I ruled out several pines before spotting a short black alder. I clambered onto a rock and began to tell the alder my woes: I’d been romantically involved with someone who just told me he wasn’t ready for a relationship. Still, I told the alder, I was hopeful things might yet work out. He and I had kept in touch, sending voice messages back and forth. The alder’s leaves rustled in response, a sign I interpreted as sympathy.
I had come to Finland to see whether I could bring happiness back to America with me. Finland has topped the World Happiness Report for the past eight years, a merit largely attributed to the Nordic welfare state, trust in the government, and public policies like free education and universal health care. Under these criteria, living in the United States (No. 24 on the list) is practically a recipe for misery. But the Finns also find contentment in more attainable ways, such as their close relationship with nature (74 percent of the country is covered by forest) and visiting the sauna daily (there are three million saunas for a population of 5.5 million).
Visit Finland, the country’s tourism agency, uses the happiness ranking to entice travelers. And it appears to be working. Tourism is up to almost five million visitors in 2024 from about two million in 2022. Last June, it hosted its second “Find Your Inner Finn” master class, awarding winners chosen from a social media challenge a free trip to Helsinki to learn from five locals known as “happiness hackers,” including Ms. Pajunen and D.J. Orkidea, a top Nordic electronic music performer.
I didn’t enter the contest, but I liked the idea. Like many other Americans, I’ve struggled with unhappiness since the pandemic hit, sometimes experiencing anxious dreams, feelings of dread and crushing loneliness. So I sought out some advice from the happiness hackers, and planned a trip to Helsinki last June to put it all to the test.