Happy Spring / Summer,
Seems like we have the seasons all mixed up this year. We had heat like never before, then rain like never before, now cold that is not in season.
This all adds up to a strange growing season and keeping the clothing for all seasons close at hand.
I have been reading a couple of booking on living Danishly and on Danish Parenting. Add these to the self work I have been doing on mindfulness and it's an interesting mix.
The Danes believe that work and life need to be in balance, The average danish worker puts in a 37 hour week and takes 5 weeks of Holiday. In this time they spend a lot of energy on family and community connections.
I have been trying out this with my family. As a stay at home dad with a family of 4 mindfulness and intention is a big thing. I don't mean intention as I intend to do 1 thing I mean parenting and spending time with intention. I try my best not to waste time of energy on things that 1 don't help my family and 2 don't help me. as I work on this I have been seeing what seems to me as a lot of wasted life energy. I see people plugged into screens ( electric ones) all of the time. Not really doing anything but looking. I remember Garrison Kelior talking on MPR about how he loved TV but never had time to watch it. He was to busy living life. This seems to make sense and is the way I want to live.
Mindfulness really get into listening to your self. Last night we got back from a great trip with the kids to Ely Minnesota. We has fires, fished, hiked, ate and had a great family time. I did not exercise as much as I would like but I made that choice to be more with the family. When I got home last night I was really tired. I was going to spin for 2 hours to get ready for a 100 mile bike ride I am doing this weekend but I listened to my body. I could have done it and the old me would have done it. I was sore and tired and am doing 2 a day workouts all week. I decided to clean up a little and go to bed early. I relaxed my body and mind and did not over do.
In that time that we give our mind and body space we can really know what we need to do. I find that I need to slow down, do less things, realize how many distractions there are and embrace the important things.
To me this means exercising in my free time, screen free summer, taking time to be with family and friends and prioritization of life energy spend.
As my weight goes I am up a little. I just signed up for another workout round with my friend Tony and his Gladiator class and I am moving back to cutting sugar our of my diet.
The weight will come off.
In being mindful always think of the glass with marbles, gold balls, sand and water.
If you fill your glass
1 . Family time - golf balls
2. Friends and extended family - marbles
3. Work - sand
4. Volunteering and extra commitments - Water
Then the family works, your friends have time, you work and have time to do extra things in the community.
Often in the USA people treat work as golf balls and leave no room for the things that make life worthwhile.
If you make extended family and parents golf balls it also does not work. The goal of a family unit is to raise children that are ready for the world. Make your immediate family safe and the most important thing in your world.
Mindful parenting is hard so is mindful living.
