Hyvää Elämää - your personal trainer for better resilience and work

Personal trainer for better resilience and work – what’s that?

We thought it is about time to introduce myself and who is behind the Hyvää Elämää posts, blogs, coaching for people at work, and businesses. I’m Anna-Mari Lahtinen, an advocate of brain health, work, and well-being – a bit like a personal trainer for resilience and modern work life.

I am lucky to have a strong support from my family. Hyvää Elämää is a family business; we share the same interests, values, and goals. You can probably already guess that when we get together we very easily start to improve the world a bit ;) Take a look at our team here.

First of all, a big thank you for following Hyvää Elämää on social media or subscribing to our newsletter! There are already so many of you!

A little bit about my background

I’m a specialist in occupational health care and general medicine. However, my greatest success has been raising three children to adulthood.

I’d like to start by telling you about the journey that led me to entrepreneurship and why I want to promote brain-friendly work environments and help as many people as possible to take care of their well-being in time.

Why does an occupational health doctor want to help improve resilience, brain health and work life as an entrepreneur?

My journey to this point actually began in 2001 when I started specializing in occupational health care. I became aware of the multiple, many times complex reasons an employee may have when losing the ability to perform their job tasks, and how "recipe-book solutions" don’t really work for everyone.

Over the years, I’ve worked in Human Resources  team in large companies and had the opportunity to experience work life from the perspective of being a leader and a manager.  I’ve also worked to develop methods to support the work ability and well-being of employees. During those years, I became very familiar with the services of the pension insurance companies and how to purchase occupational health services.

For over 10 years, I’ve been involved in working with executive teams and in managerial roles. These roles, in my experience, are rewarding on good days, but on tough days, it can be very demanding and lonely work.

I can say that, thanks to this journey and the experts I've met along the way, as well as all the research I've studied, I now have a pretty clear picture what comes to brain health, resilience and the challenges of modern work life.

Too often, when solving problems, the root causes of the challenges stay hidden. Without addressing the root cause, those who need help, tend to receive more of a “band-aid solution.” If the help provided is not fixing the root cause, we do not get the impact we would like to see – whether it is about an employee, manager, or business leader, struggling at work.

When all three parties – the employee, the manager, and the owner or CEO or board of the company – focus on the root cause, the harmful mental load that stresses the brain, everyone benefits. This means better results for the employee, the team, and the business. Healthy employees and well-managed work environments tend to result in better business.

Brain-friendly work is more important now than ever

Challenges related to resilience and mental health, particularly anxiety and depression, have been rising sharply for several years. In addition, more and more people are suffering from insomnia and feeling constantly stressed.

In my work as an occupational health doctor, I see this every day. Almost every person who struggles at work has some of the above-mentioned issues in their background. Very often, a patient’s visit ends with the sentence: "The root cause behind the symptoms seems to be prolonged, harmful stress."

I haven’t made it through my journey without some bumps, too, but every experience, every lesson, and every research paper has added tools to my toolkit when it comes to burnout, brain health, and overcoming the challenges of modern work life.

Why was Hyvää Elämää founded?

The services of Hyvää Elämää are based on my deepest desire to help employees, managers, and business leaders to take care of their stress levels early enough and to develop work environment that support brain health. As a doctor, I can help one person at a time, and I will continue this important work, too, but with our company, I can help many more – and before a diagnosis and/or treatment are needed.

Are you worried about your own or a loved one’s stress levels or mental health?

Our services to companies are already available, but please keep on reading, as there’s more to come. :)

• Coaching for Managers: How can you lead work without harmful mental load?
• Lectures for Work Communities: How to take care of brain health and your own stress levels?
• Work Ability Management Consulting: How to incorporate work ability management into other leadership tasks?
• Support for Occupational Health Care Collaboration (e.g., reducing occupational health costs, updating occupational health contracts and action plans).
• Coming Soon: Online coaching to support resilience, stress levels and mental health.

You are warmly welcome to join us on our journey!

Subscribe to our newsletter and take care of your resilience and brain health! 
And don't forget to follow us on social media as well! 

If you are a leader, a manager or an HR professional, let's get in touch and discuss how I can help you and your company! 

Looking forward hearing from you!

With brain health regards,
yours Anna-Mari