A piece of wisdom from
December 24, 2025 · Wednesday
The quote
“The autotelic personality finds value in doing things for their own sake.”
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi · Flow State
The concept
Sisu
The Finnish word for the strength that shows up only when everything is gone.
Two hundred days of darkness a year. Forty below in winter. Russia next door. The Finns had to invent a word for the strength that shows up only when everything is gone, and they named it sisu. Sisu is not grit. Not resilience. Not courage.…
A practice for today
When the next difficult feeling arrives, ask yourself: the lesson of Sisu. The Finnish word for the strength that shows up only when everything is gone.
From the Bhagavad Gita
Verse 18.78
यत्र योगेश्वरः कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धरः। तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर्मम॥
“Wherever there is Krishna, the lord of yoga, and wherever there is Partha, the wielder of the bow — there will be prosperity, victory, abundance, and sound morality. This is my conviction.”
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