Iceland review - 2016, Page 45

ICELAND REVIEW 43
W E L L N E S S
her life after suffering from a life-threatening breast infection
and then later burnout. “In life you rarely get the opportunity
to see things from a different perspective. The health clinic
is like a shelter. I think of it like this: I was like a cactus, all
shriveled up inside. My stay allowed me to flourish, to get
the light, rest and nutrition I needed to survive instead of
living like I was always squeezing out my last drop of energy.
People have families, work, debt, all sorts of problems—eating,
sleeping, marital. This all adds up and rarely do people get the
chance to stop and make real changes to their lives. My time
in Hveragerði gave me a unique opportunity to do just that,”
she says, adding: “It took me several weeks to relax and I had
already been on sick leave for several months before that so it
wasn’t even like I was working full time and then going straight
to the clinic. One day I went for a mud bath and then straight
to the relaxation class. I fell asleep, which is not the aim of the
class, but afterwards I realized that that was the first time I had
experienced deep relaxation in many years.”
LIFESTYLE CHANGE
Heiðrún is critical of what she describes as the Icelandic men-
tality of trying to do it all. “In Iceland we always talk about
being duglegur [‘efficient’; ‘hardworking’]. We make heroes
out of people who do too much; we actually encourage them
to do and work way too much. This is classically Icelandic.
You shouldn’t complain or talk about sickness in our society.
People always say, ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ I thought
so, too, but I learnt that this is not true. It took a long time for
me to accept this, especially having grown up in the country-
side where people—like fishermen and farmers—are known
for being particularly strong and hardworking.”
Heiðrún says she grew up with a positive attitude towards
the NLFÍ clinic. “My grandparents regularly stayed at the clin-
ic and later my parents did, too, so I knew about it growing up.
I asked the doctor if I could spend some time there.” Having
spent time at the clinic in May and again this past autumn
Heiðrún has now returned to work part-time. She says while
her stay helped to get her life back on track, this was just the
beginning. “[At first] I thought that once I was done, I would
have recovered and just return home and continue as normal,
but it doesn’t work like that. They said to me at the clinic: ‘No.
You need to make big changes.’ Some people go right back
into their old habits and return to their old lifestyle. My stay
in Hveragerði was just the beginning of a lifestyle change. Of
course I’m still learning to say ‘stop’ to myself.”
Located in the hot spring town of Hveragerði, the clinic makes good use of the healing properties of warm water.