Keri Leibovitz

I am now a winter person, although I would say that I'm a reformed winter hater.

So...

During undergrad, I became really interested in the science of well-being and studying human flourishing and how we can help people thrive.

And I learned about the work of this professor, Jor Vitterso, who just happens to be this world expert on human happiness, who lives and teaches at the northernmost university in the world, the University of Tromsø in northern Norway.

And then I sort of started thinking about, isn't it kind of fascinating?

funny or weird or surprising that this professor who is a world expert on happiness lives in a place that is so far north that the sun doesn't rise for two months each winter.

So in the end, I ended up moving to Northern Norway for a year to do this research.

And so Joar and I conducted a research study on what we call wintertime mindset.

So what people think about when they think about the winter.

And what we found is that people in Tromso relate to winter differently.

So they're really not focused on the downsides of winter, the unpleasantries of winter, the discomforts of winter.

Broadly speaking, they're oriented to the season's opportunities.

So the darkness and the cold is seen as a time of year to be cozy, to slow down, to rest.

The winter light is really seen as sluggish.

special and magical and beautiful, which the winter light there is very special and unique.

But really, they tend to orient towards the things that they like about the season instead of just sort of seeing it as a time of year to endure.

It is so magical.

So the polar night, right, is this time of year where the sun doesn't rise directly above the horizon.

And when you hear that the sun doesn't rise for two months, maybe like me, you're picturing total pitch blackness.

But that's not what they get in Tromso.