Why I Built My Life Around Two Icelandic Words: þetta Reddast

Petta Reddast, pronounced (thet-ta re-dust) is an Icelandic phrase that literally translates from Icelandic to English as:

þetta = “this”

reddast = “to be rescued, fixed, resolved, or sorted out”

I have spent over a decade trying to figure out how to cope with my trauma. Searching for something, anything, that I could cling to when I felt like I was drowning. There are SO many positive phrases, proverbs, parables, and scriptures that help hold people together – trust me, I know… I sought them all out. Scouring the internet, looking into philosophies, reading about different religions… I was desperately hunting for just a little thread of hope that maybe, just maybe, it won’t always be this bad.

Then one evening in June 2023, while sitting with my little tribe watching Discovering Happiness with Rain Wilson, I found my thread! This show, this episode, seemed to resonate so much with what I had spent years trying to navigate and change about and within myself. The episode was based in Iceland, and I felt like I had finally found a group of people who collectively thought like I try to. I had been sitting on the floor while the rest of the family were sitting on the couch behind me (this is a regular thing – I’ve always preferred the floor for some reason) and as the show was playing, I kept getting so excited that I had found a people who think like I had been changing my mindset to be and what I was desperately trying to help show my family. I had found words to voice what had been growing in my soul. A little phrase that had not really been highlighted too much in the show, became my mantra, my motto, my calling card… it is who I have become. Þetta Reddast. But I feel that there is so much more depth and meaning packed into those two little words, that we need to go deeper to fully understand the impact of the phrase.

In my quest to find some sort of a foundation I could stand firm on, I stumbled upon a magical land of fire and ice (shifting glaciers and erupting volcanoes) who live half the year without any sunlight, which sounds depressing enough by itself, and vastly unpredictably fast-changing and extreme weather. In the show they mention that there is an Icelandic mentality of ‘you either live together or you die together’. Basically, that translates to the nature of survival being so harsh and so extreme that in order to make it through the elements, you have to overlook each other’s differences and learn to like something about one another – because you can’t survive on your own. You have to rely on the help of other humans, whether you personally like them or not. For anything from food and warmth to comradery and entertainment. It is very difficult to live alone and survive, much less thrive in Iceland (although modern times have eased this some, these truths remain). You actually need each other. Not only that, but you can’t just half-ass things there either. Hence the: you either do the best you can and set aside the things that aren’t as important to focus on doing the best you can towards the things that really matter and learn how to thrive together; or you give in and just wallow in your own shyte until you all die together. This concept hit me hard. I love the idea of either giving it your all or gaining nothing in return. It has a certain fairness that just made me feel vindicated somehow – as if it confirmed that all my efforts weren’t entirely in vain. Within that phrase of living together or dying together, there is another little phrase that is so often used in Iceland that it has almost become the country’s unofficial motto; Þetta reddast.

Now keep in mind that while this saying sounds like all sunshine and rainbows, you can’t have one part of the culture without understanding all of it. Meaning, the phrase that it will all work out in the end coincides, and is inherently linked, with the Icelandic way of either giving your all and thriving together, or half-assing it or only doing enough to get by and dying together. What that meant in my life, was that if I give it my all, my best and allow others to help and transform me, while learning to truly look into the souls of other people, then no matter what happens, I’ve literally done all I can do and somehow it will work out in the end – one way or another.

You would think a land like that would produce harsh humans. However, in the midst of all this turbulent and chaotic environment, Iceland’s endurance and resilience to remain happy despite the circumstances surrounding them, sets them apart from the rest of the world in a completely different way! This too was part of the inspiration. They didn’t sulk in what they couldn’t change. They accepted it, adapted to it and did anything they possibly could to be prepared for whatever comes – and in knowing they gave it their all, what else can you do but enjoy the moment you do have, and deal with the rest as it comes. I so badly wanted to be like that. To have that inner happiness where circumstances couldn’t shake me or take away my footing because I stood on something grounded. That’s what petta reddast did for me. It gave me a voice when I had none and understood my thinking without having to say it in so many words. Sometimes we spend our whole lives looking for meaning, only to find we just needed the language that finally explains what we’re trying to say.

Þetta reddast isn't the belief that ‘everything will always work out in your favor’. It’s the understanding that we can meet life’s challenges with preparation, resilience, community, and the willingness to keep moving forward no matter how bad it gets.

Do what you can today to make your tomorrows better – þetta reddast.