What is your field?
“My research field is exercise physiology. I am a physiotherapist and my research is exercise physiology. I did my PhD in experimental clinical physiology. What I teach is how to prescribe exercise supposed to prevent disease and during a disease to use it as treatment. My main field is type 2 diabetes.”
Tell me about the story with the Trädgården hill.
“I chose the Botanical garden for the shooting because when I was 4 – 5 years old we used to go there with my mother and my baby sister, walking the dog and playing. I was biking, always biking, and for me this was a huge venture to hike up these hills. In the summer and spring there are so many flowers and it was like a forest with mountains.
Today it is… a little hill.”
Is there a story you would like to share from the past?
“I can tell something of like a summary to where I am now. When I was young, I knew where I wanted to go and I knew how I wanted to live my life, I knew how I wanted my life to be. I used to make all these plans. But the more I planned the more disappointed I got. Life never turns out the way you planned it.”
“It is nice to live in the present, so to speak. You should have your goals but you should not short of plan everything. It is nice to go also with the flow. If you do not have all these pictures and plans it could be more open to see what life actually is.”
So Swedish society likes to organize and plan?
“Yes, I think so. Especially in the University and research everything is short of planned. You have to ‘’walk’’ a certain path to reach different kind of goals in research. In research you need to get funding, to publish papers, you need to have a certain amount of Phd students; you need to get all these kind of degrees. But I believe that all these can be done also in another way. I was so stressed to achieve all these so I changed and still… I make a good progress.”
“In the University there are so many people that they are so focused in work, studies, research that they forgot other things in life, like smell a flower, travel, meet other people, enjoying whatever makes a life.”
“Not working so hard and taking a step back, in the end is always better, to have a more joyful life.”
What is the “soul’’ of Sweden?
“Luther is very strong in Sweden, in the Swedish mind, the protestantic religion. Is a kind of a way of controlling people, it is a lot about guild and shame, you should not expose yourself too much, in a short of, you are not ‘’good’’ enough as you are…it is an essence of what Luther left behind…”
Sounds like a lot like guilt.
“It is a lot like guilt”
So in the base of the Swedish mentality, what is remained is a strong guilt about one’s self?
“Yes”
Guilt for what?
“For not being good enough, not good enough to do the right thing.”
What is you motivation?
“Share my experience with other students, who are new in their physiotherapist career, not only my exercise physiology knowledge but also the experience of life as also to develop my profession.”
