What the Lofoten Islands Taught Me About Living Well

Two weeks above the Arctic Circle and a few lessons I’m taking home with me.

As I write this, I’m sitting in the Lofoten Islands at the very end of two weeks travelling around northern Norway. And I feel… really bloody good.

Not in an I’ve discovered the secret to wellness and now wake up at 5am to meditate kind of way. Just rested. Clear-headed. Present. And probably more regulated than I have felt in a very long time.

And as I sit here, I keep coming back to one question:

What have I actually learned here as a 31-year-old functional health coach, about to go back to real life in London?

Not in a dramatic “I’ve changed my life forever” way. But in small, very human reflections I want to take home with me. Because I don’t think I needed another breathing exercise. I needed to change how I was living.

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Lofoten basically forced me to slow down

For anyone who hasn’t been, the Lofoten Islands sit above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway and are genuinely one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever seen. Huge mountains coming straight out of the sea. Tiny fishing villages. White beaches. Water so clear you’d be forgiven for thinking you were somewhere tropical until you put one toe in and remembered you’re in the Arctic (trust me...so cold).

And life here just feels… different. My partner Justin and I came here to hike, so most days have revolved around a mountain, the weather and where we were going to eat afterwards (ofcourse).

Very simple.

And, for me, surprisingly challenging in one particular way:

You cannot plan anything.

Okay, slight exaggeration. But the weather in Lofoten changes CONSTANTLY.

You can wake up to glorious sunshine, look at the forecast and see rain, drive 20 minutes and find fog, wait an hour and suddenly have blue skies again.

As someone who loves an itinerary, this required me to be…

Spontaneous.

Yikes.

There were days when the hike we’d planned simply wasn’t going to happen, so we changed the plan. We waited for clouds to clear. We moved things around. We decided what we were doing that morning rather than three weeks beforehand. And nothing terrible happened!!!

And that was the first lesson I’m taking home:

Not everything needs to be controlled to be okay.

For someone who has spent a lot of her life trying to control what’s coming next, that was probably a lesson I needed.

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Most days, we just walked (and forgot everything else)

And walked. And walked. Up mountains. Around fishing villages. Along beaches.

Some hikes were a couple of hours. Others took up most of the day. And for huge chunks of that time, neither of us was looking at our phones. Partly because we were actually talking to each other. Partly because the views were ridiculous. And partly because when you’re halfway up a Norwegian mountain trying not to fall off it, Instagram suddenly becomes significantly less interesting.

There was no workout class to rush to. No “I need to get my steps in.” No trying to optimise my exercise. We were simply outside, moving our bodies for hours because we wanted to see what was at the top.

And then there were the quieter moments too.

Like sitting on Ramberg Beach wrapped in a blanket, drinking a Lofoten pale ale (a dangerously good IPA, by the way), watching the sunset melt into the sea and realising neither of us had spoken for about ten minutes because there was nothing to say.

Just… stillness.

And that was the second lesson:

Presence is what makes simple moments feel full.

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Then there was the sauna (and yes, I absolutely risked my life for it)

One of my favourite experiences of the trip was doing a sauna followed by a cold plunge directly into the sea.

May I remind you that WE ARE NORTH OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.

So you can imagine how f*cking freezing that water was. I would love to tell you that my extensive health knowledge allowed me to calmly regulate my breathing as I gracefully lowered myself into the Norwegian Sea.

It did not.

Justin went down the ladder the first time we plunged because there were jellyfish around, which felt like a very sensible, adult decision.

Naturally, I saw this as a personal challenge. So I jumped.

Fully dramatic. Fully committed. Fully aware I was potentially about to meet a jellyfish and my maker at the same time.

I did not, in fact, die for those of you worried.

And yes, sauna and cold exposure are very trendy in wellness right now, but what I actually loved about the whole experience was how immediate it was.

You are not thinking about anything else when you step into that water.

You are not planning your day.

You are not mentally rehearsing conversations or ticking off your to-do list.

You are just there.

Fully in your body. Fully in the moment. Fully aware of every sensation.

And that was the third lesson:

Presence isn’t something you think your way into - it’s something you experience.

What I mean by that is this: I can understand stress. I can analyse it, explain it, coach it, write about it.

But standing in freezing water, gasping, laughing, fully alive in my skin… there is no intellectualising that moment.

You either meet it or you miss it.

And sometimes I think I spend too much of my life in the “thinking about life” category, rather than actually being in it.

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Naturally, I also rubbed seaweed all over myself

Because apparently throwing myself into Arctic water wasn’t enough. At one of the saunas, we were given local seaweed to rub into our skin and hair.

Obviously, as a health coach, I was immediately intrigued. Seaweed contains minerals and bioactive compounds, including polysaccharides and antioxidants, which is why you’ll see marine algae used in plenty of skincare products. Topically, certain seaweed extracts can help support skin hydration and have soothing properties.

So there I was, above the Arctic Circle, covered head-to-toe in Norwegian seaweed thinking:

This counts as professional development.

My hair was questionable. My skin felt fantastic. 10/10 experience.

And the fourth lesson:

We don’t always need more products to feel well - sometimes we just need to use what’s already around us.

There is something so grounding about being in a place where nature is the source of everything. The food. The water. The air. Even the “wellness” experiences.

And again, it made me think about how unnecessarily complicated wellness can become. Sometimes supporting your health looks remarkably unsexy.

• Eat nourishing food.
• Move your body.
• Get outside.
• Sleep.
• Spend time with people you love.
• Put your phone down.
• Rest.

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And that’s really what this trip has taught me about stress

In functional health, we spend a lot of time thinking about foundations.

Before obsessing over supplements, protocols and optimisation, we have to look at the environment we’re asking the body to function within.

• How are you sleeping?
• How are you eating?
• Are you moving?
• Are you getting outside?
• Do you have meaningful relationships and connection?

And importantly:

What does your everyday life feel like to your nervous system?

Because stress isn’t only the enormous things that happen to us.

It’s also the constant low-level inputs.

....The rushing.

....The notifications.

....The back-to-back meetings.

....Eating lunch over your laptop.

....Thinking about work when you’re technically not working.

....Trying to fit seven things into an evening because technically there are enough hours.

....Always thinking about what’s next instead of where you actually are.

I know this pattern very well. I’ve spent years in high-pressure corporate jobs, climbing the ladder, chasing the next promotion and the next salary increase.

And ambition gave me a lot.

But there were also periods when the way I was living affected my mental health, my social life and how I felt physically.

The irony is that now, after moving into women’s health, I’ve realised that stress management isn’t the fluffy part of health that you get around to once you’ve perfected your diet.

It’s one of the foundations.

And this trip has made that feel very, very real.

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I’m not moving to a Norwegian fishing village

Don’t worry, ladies.

And I know that two weeks travelling around Lofoten is not real life. It’s much easier to feel relaxed when your biggest decision of the day is whether the clouds are going to clear enough to climb a mountain.

I have a business to build. I have goals. I love London. I like being busy. And despite everything I have just written, I will absolutely still make an unnecessarily detailed itinerary for my next holiday ;)

I’m not trying to become a different person. But I do want to take pieces of this version of life home with me.

• More time outside.
• More movement that isn’t about exercise.
• More locally sourced, simple food.
• More phone-free time.
• More flexibility when plans change.
• More time actually with the people I’m with.
• And more space between all the doing.

As this trip comes to an end, that’s what I’m thinking about most. I don’t want to go home and recreate my holiday. I want to go home and build a life that gives my body more of what these two weeks accidentally gave it:

Movement. Nature. Connection. Nourishment. Rest. Play.

And occasionally, apparently, jumping into the Arctic Ocean for absolutely no logical reason.

...for health purposes, obviously :)

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FOR REGULAR GIRLS 💩

Because good digestion deserves good food.

Miso salmon + herby yoghurt bowl

You'll need (serves 2):

• 2 salmon fillets
• 1 tbsp white miso
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 120g brown or basmati rice
• ½ cucumber, sliced
• A handful of spinach or rocket
• ½ avocado
• 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt
• A big handful of fresh dill, chopped
• Squeeze of lemon
• Sesame seeds

To make it:

• Mix the miso, honey and sesame oil and brush over the salmon. Bake at 200°C for around 12–15 minutes, until cooked to your liking.
• Meanwhile, cook your rice and mix the Greek yoghurt with dill, lemon and a pinch of salt.
• Build your bowl with rice, greens, cucumber, avocado and salmon, then spoon over the herby yoghurt and finish with sesame seeds.

Why your gut will thank you

You've got omega-3-rich salmon, fibre and plant diversity from the veg, plus live cultures if you choose a yoghurt that contains them.

Until next time,

Katie x

I’m Katie, a women’s functional health coach sharing what I've learned about gut health, hormones, nutrition and the nervous system - without making wellness more complicated than it needs to be.

For more, come say hi at @harayahealth on Instagram & TikTok.

Big thank you from me for joining my little corner of the internet for women who want to understand their bodies better - from gut health and hormones to nutrition, stress and everything in between.