Sanna Marin talks about her symptoms during the corona pandemic in her book Hope is Actions.
Sanna Marin was the prime minister of Finland when the corona pandemic stopped the whole world. Atte Kajova
Former Prime Minister Sanna Marin39, recalls his stress during the corona pandemic Hope is action in his book (Gummerus). During the corona pandemic, Marin served as Prime Minister of Finland.
Marin says that she was under extreme stress and as if in the eye of a storm.
The stress manifested itself as physical rather than psychological symptoms: first, a live mouse in the eye and an irritation in the throat. Later, my stomach was constantly upset: nothing had time to be absorbed, and I started to lose weight.
The scariest symptoms came later, when in a stressful situation I lost almost all of my vision, and everything became blurry for a day – I couldn’t read text or recognize people’s faces. I believe I still carry a great deal of mental baggage from those years, but my mind has built walls to protect me.
Sanna Marin had worrying symptoms during the corona pandemic. Photo from April 2021. Jenni Gästgivar / Iltalehti
Marin describes the first days and weeks of the corona crisis as a nightmare.
“Is this really happening?” I found myself thinking over and over again when I got up no later than six in the morning to wade through the tasks waiting for me that day. The amount of information to absorb and problems to solve was so insanely large that every day felt like a week and every week like a month. We worked around the clock, but still we were always behind.
In 2021, Marin started paying more attention to her health and regular exercise.
Sanna Marin paid more attention to her health in 2021. Photo from April 2021. Lauri Heikkinen
Sitting closely at the conference table had caused my back to ache badly. On a couple of occasions, the pain had been so bad that I couldn’t get out of bed, which was not a very convenient starting point for leading the country as prime minister, even during the pandemic. First, I started walking during the workday instead of driving. Before long, when my condition had improved, I started going for runs in the mornings or after work.
Even though the moment spent on them was away from working days, I felt more accomplished, and running and walking became a way to relieve stress. At the same time, I had conversations and arguments inside my head about everything that was bothering me. If we had had a bad negotiation, or if a minister had done something that upset me, I tried to process my emotions during these runs so that they didn’t affect my work.
Marin served as Prime Minister of Finland in 2019–2023. He left the parliament in autumn 2023 and moved to the Tony Blair Institute.
Italicized passages are excerpts from the book Hope is action (Gummerus, 2025).