Friluftsliv: Seasonal Ways To Embrace Nature
One of the things I came across from the very beginning of my living journey in Scandinavia, starting in Denmark, is that Friluftsliv is, at its most fundamental, a deep appreciation for and interaction with Nature.
With every Scandinavian season, there is an opportunity for enjoyment, both at home and in the natural world. The extreme conditions of the north have shaped both the Scandinavian landscape and its culture. This is a place where the natural world is both feared and revered — winters mean holding up, cultivating warmth from within, and light-filled summer days open the world back up, a celebration of the long, sometimes endless days.
This relationship to the natural world has shaped much of the Scandinavian psyche. Winter is inevitable; you must learn to survive. Summer is a long-awaited affair; you must know how to take advantage of it. No matter the season, you immerse yourself in it.
The outdoor activities are immersed in the culture, and one of the rights people have — is Friluft, which means open-air living. The digital society seems a thread these days, but still, people are mindful of keeping their roots with Nature.
People enjoy frequent weekend hikes and one week out of urban landscapes and immerse themselves in a trek up to the high north during the warmest seasons, so they experience only the physical environment and Nature. Perhaps that shall be what keeps people in tune with their lives here.
It’s part of the culture, and people take it seriously to appreciate life and be thankful for the region’s outstanding natural areas. Somehow it can be seen as a meditation practice.
For generations, friluftsliv has always been part of Swedish culture, though never in quite the recognized way it is today. Primarily, it was driven by survival. History’s friluftsliv still had, at its heart, an appreciation for Nature.
Today, even kindergarten-aged children learn how to cook outdoors, dress for the weather and navigate. It seems a Scandinavia-wide phenomenon. People recognize that money can’t buy everything, and indeed, the secrets to a good life are in the free things and, ultimately, priceless.
According to several texts, friluftsliv offers essential emotional and spiritual gains. As Sweden’s most celebrated national and universal pastime, friluftsliv finds individuality in how people choose to experience it — that intensely personal way to ‘leave it all behind and find peace in their surroundings, without feeling pressured to Instagram the moment.
At the fully integrated end, some suedes adopt the simplicity of well-equipped cabins. In pursuit of challenges, others scale the glaciers equipped with tents to try to achieve the never-ending peaks.
It seems impossible not to embrace this fundamental practice. As the years pass, I feel that connection to the wild and understand why sometimes around the year is vital to keep balance in the post tech world of the human race.
Every time I fly away to other places outside the Nordics, I see it as a forgotten world or a hidden gem I have the opportunity to encounter anytime I am here, which is most of the year. I sometimes think to myself, how would it be possible to live without?
For some people, it seems like a forgotten world, mainly to those who live in megacities, where the air quality is inferior due to the lack of government incentives for the quality of living.
That act of slowing down and finding a renewed appreciation every day is what I found the most exciting and precious while living in the Nordics. The forgotten world revived.. Slowly.
