It’s an age old extensional query: What’s the secret to happiness?
To unlock the reply, 31-year-old Akso Heart took a four-day happiness masterclass at a wonderful Finnish Lakeland resort — and said the key lies in nature, fresh food and limiting materialism and societal pressure.
“Every part appeared like a natural way of being” and folks avoided “unnecessary needs or wants,” Heart, of London, told The Post about his experience being considered one of just 14 people picked by tourism officials in Finland — the “world’s happiest country” — for the category earlier this month.
“We never really take the time to stop, pause, and take into consideration our decisions,” the Brit said, adding that he and the opposite contest winners learned to “prioritize your mental well-being first — which isn’t quite common in other countries.”
Mornings throughout the four-day retreat began with a dip in a crisp lake followed by an invigorating sauna session and a farm-to-table breakfast.
It was “tremendous,” said Heart, an artist who also works as a content creator for a pharmaceutical company under his given name Abdul Rashidi.
Heart was considered one of 150,000 individuals who vied for a spot within the happiness masterclass, and was chosen even after he gave a TikTok auto-generated interviewer sarcastic answers throughout the application process.
“I used to be very surprised I used to be chosen,” Heart said last week, adding that he did give a heartfelt written response about what he was seeking to get out of the seminar.
“I used to be type of determined to work out what’s it concerning the culture that makes them joyful,” he said.
Finland has been ranked because the world’s happiest country for six straight years by the World Happiness Report, which ranks nations by their GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity and corruption or lack thereof.
Others chosen for the seminar at the plush Kuru Resort were between the ages of 20 and 50 and hailed from places including Recent York, Turkey, Italy, France and Japan. Guests enjoyed sauna-equipped private villas “surrounded by fragrant pine forests and breathtaking views,” in keeping with Heart and organizers.
The travelers also ate a lot of fish and berries prepared by a private chef and met with locals within the bustling capital of Helsinki and folks living off the grid in additional rural areas of Finland.
“It was type of like a reality show,” Heart said, describing how a contestant from Japan proposed to his girlfriend on the last day of the seminar in Helsinki.
“Within the short time we spent together, we definitely made life-long connections,” said Heart, who vlogged about his experience.
One thing that separated the Finns from other Westerners is their “unique connection to nature,” and a culture that de-emphasizes status symbols and greed, Heart observed.
“It’s not as materialistic as other countries, where they’re consumed with impressing people along with your clothing and your own home; that doesn’t exist there in my experience,” he said.
“In fact, money is privilege, and we don’t should worry about things that other people would should which have less … but it surely was more the mentality people had, moderately than what varieties of clothes, or money or their jobs.”
The possessions that Finnish people did own appeared to mean more to them than in different places, thanks partly to a concentrate on smart design — with value being assigned to things based on “how long [the item] it can last or how it can make them feel,” Heart recalled.
The contestants also learned the right way to forage, fish and cook for themselves, which is a trademark of the Scandinavian nation — and a contrast to the processed food more common within the US and UK, he added.
One particular instance that made a giant impression was a visit to a farm that had been in a family for “generations upon generations.”
Nonetheless, the family’s youngest daughter told the group she was more fascinated about music than farming.
“My family would support me selling this farm and following my dreams,” she said, in keeping with Heart.
“Relating to careers and life they really put themselves forward and there’s no judgment on ‘OK you’ve got to do that, or ‘you need to go down this path’ or ‘it’s essential to have a family,’” he recalled.
“Everyone looks out for themselves first, but not in a selfish way,” Heart added, saying that individuals were each open-minded and supportive.
“It’s not even the country itself and even the life-style; it’s the culture, the mentality,” he said.
That topic also got here up in group workshops throughout the seminar.
“We talked about trusting ourselves and our decisions and that was a really emotional topic for a number of the contestants, including myself,” Heart said.
Finland has continued to top the annual happiness list despite the fact that it borders Russia, which is ranked 74th, and likewise lacks the nice and cozy climate that many would associate with wellbeing.
“I believe that was quite a surprising thing for us as well, how close it was to certain regions which can be obviously going through some tough times… but there was no worry about that,” Heart said.
The US was fifteenth on this 12 months’s list while the UK got here in at nineteenth.
Finland enjoys considered one of the world’s most robust and comprehensive social service programs and has a poverty rate of 10.8%, in keeping with 2020 data from The World Bank.
The poverty rate within the UK was 20% in 2020/21, in keeping with The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and was 12.8% within the US last 12 months, census data shows.
“I’ve all the time thought, give me the sun that’s all I would like [to be happy] but truthfully I believe it’s the each day life,” Heart said.
“You have a look at London, yes it’s rainy and gloomy, but greater than that, I believe what stresses us out are the stresses of life.”