Biting your own toe

The snow disappeared the day after it came, and it was once again grey and dreary outside. Instead of fussing about the weather, I thought I'd write a few lines about the stress of everyday life.

There is so much stress in the background of our lives today, I like to compare it to programmes that you don't use, but that makes the computer get warm and buzzy. You can turn these programmes off so your computer doesn't run out of battery quicker than necessary. The same goes for you and me. Get rid of the noise and focus on what's important. How do you do that, people usually ask me. There are different ways, of course, but I recommend that everyone meditate regularly, take walks in nature or just lie on the sofa for a while without anyone/anything disturbing them. It clears your mind and makes it easier to recharge properly! It's all about finding a way that works for you. After all, we're all different!

This is the third week in a row that I am home with sick children. Nothing serious, but still so much that it doesn't work to be in school or kindergarten. Combining VAB (short for taking care of sick children in Sweden) with starting up the business here in Sweden is not optimal. It's not easy to tick off meetings and phone calls when the youngest has a fever of 40 degrees. The idea is to be able to stay at home in Sweden when the children are sick, but unfortunately I haven't gotten into that system yet, and will be completely without income these days. And now there are a lot of VAB days coming up, we seem to be catching every autumn virus that exists in our vicinity.

This is part 6 of 6 in my blog series on the 6 basic principles of a healthy lifestyle - the following articles are also included in the series: Introduction (1/6), Diet and Hydration (2/6), Sleep (3/6), Positive thinking (4/6) and Movement and Breathing Techniques (5/6).

The 6 basic principles work very well when building your health from within. To find the balance between yin and yang, you need to work as much on the basic yin principles: diet, hydration and sleep as on the basic yang principles: breathing techniques, positive thinking and movement. Of course, this is easier to do in theory than in practise. As I wrote earlier, it's easiest to start by making sustainable changes where you feel your resistance is easiest to overcome and then keep working from there. And again, don't make too many changes at once, let it take time!

In my calendar today "Meeting with Johanna" was booked. Unfortunately, I did exactly what you absolutely should not do. I ignored that meeting and did something that I felt was more urgent. I tried to catch up and tick off things on my long to do list instead. Now I'm sitting here at night wondering how I could have been so stupid. That to do list will always be there, just with slightly different content from day to day. I would never ignore and disregard a meeting with someone else if it is booked in my calendar, so why did I not prioritise the meeting with myself today?

Saturday morning I woke up in the middle of a dream. I was on a peninsula surrounded by warm coral blue water. There I was snorkelling and the most beautiful fish I had ever seen were swimming around me. It was so peaceful, beautiful and warm. A real paradise.

But I was only there in my dream, slowly waking up to another reality.

This is part 4 of 6 in my blog series on the 6 basic principles for a healthy lifestyle - the following articles are also included in the series: Introduction (1/6), Diet and Hydration (2/6), Sleep (3/6), Movement and Breathing Techniques (5/6) and Discussion (6/6).

We all have our own set of values that we live by, even if we are not always good at describing them clearly. Values represent the needs we have that must be met in order to live a meaningful life - they define how we want to live our lives. It is only when our lifestyle is in line with our values that we can be truly happy. So take the time and opportunity to question whether you are living your life in a way that makes you happy.