A Psychologist Explains The Concept Of A 'Soul Landscape'

Inspired by the Finnish idea of 'Sielunmaisema,' this concept invites you to discover and nurture the inner and outer places where you feel most deeply at home.

By Mark Travers, Ph.D. | May 28, 2025

The Finns have a word: Sielunmaisema. In English, it roughly translates to "soul landscape" and describes a physical place — a beach, forest, cabin or city street — that feels like home because it reflects something in your "soul." The concept captures a deep sense of connection you may have felt before — perhaps while visiting a place that felt like it was made just for you.

But what if you could build that feeling into your everyday life?

Here are two surefire ways to own your "soul landscape" by using psychology to build a life you feel more at home in.

1. Travel, And Bring Some Of The Soul Landscape Back With You

Some people find their sielunmaisema in far off places.

For instance, for someone who finds that kind of calm in Middle Eastern landscapes, a scent could potentially become a memory.

In much of the Arab world, oud — a deeply resinous, smoky perfume oil derived from agarwood — is layered into the culture. It's burned in homes, worn on skin and floats in the air of social spaces. For someone who finds their soul landscape in this region, oud might become the scent of inner peace.

Psychologically, this is significant. Scent has a uniquely direct line to the brain's emotional centers tied to memory and mood, according to research. That means a single whiff of oud back home, months after your trip, can evoke the same emotional quiet you may have experienced in your sielunmaisema.

This is what soul landscaping can look like: you travel far, but you don't leave it all behind. You bottle the feeling. You make it portable.

The same is true for music.

Take Tame Impala, for instance. Kevin Parker recorded much of the act's breakout debut album, Innerspeaker, in a remote beach house on the Western Australian coast. The setting was wild and elemental — crashing waves, open skies and serene solitude. In interviews, Parker has said the view made even his most basic combination of notes sound profound to him because the landscape lent it emotional weight. The sound was shaped by the space.

Innerspeaker went on to launch Tame Impala's global career. But the soul of that album — its crashing cymbals, warm reverb and its sense of expansive solitude and melancholy — still feels tethered to that beach house in the middle of nowhere, at least to Parker.

This is how you bring a place back with you. Through scent. Through sound. Through any sensory imprint that anchored you to a feeling. Your soul landscape may be a thousand miles away, but the experience doesn't have to be. You just need the right keys to unlock it — and the right rituals to keep it close.

2. Learn To Seek Out Positive Emotion In Your Daily Life

Landscaping your soul is about articulating what's real to you. The most meaningful parts of your inner landscape might not be the loudest. They might be small joys: a comfortable bed, the pride in finishing a book or the calmness you experience after a meaningful conversation.

And research shows that this matters. A 2018 study published in Emotion found that people who could identify and report a greater variety of positive emotions — like awe, contentment, curiosity or gratitude — had lower levels of inflammation in the body, even when controlling for age, health and general mood.

Self-reflection can help build an emotional ecosystem that's rich, complex and alive, much like a soul landscape. The more fluent you become in your inner emotional language, the easier it becomes to cultivate those feelings intentionally — even when you're far from the landscapes that first inspired them.

So, the next time something good happens — wherever it happens — pause. Ask yourself: What kind of good is this? The more clearly you can name it, the more likely you are to feel it again. And that's what makes a soul landscape worth coming home to.

Wondering how close you already are to the concept of a soul landscape? Take the science-backed Connectedness To Nature Scale to learn more about your connection to the world around you.

A similar version of this article can also be found on Forbes.com, here.