Personal – Page 2 – Awareness Compassion Pancakes

Picture Perfect Now

A picture says more than a thousand words – but it also captures the now and becomes an elegant reminder that the present moment is all there is. It is always now!

Sometimes looking at a great pictures is just what we need to become present. In a way it makes time stop – or at least makes the storm of thoughts in our mind stop. A great picture lets us feel the moment. We can not truly enjoy a picture, or any other form of art, without being present.

In that way a picture is a “double” now. It captures a now – and you can only enjoy it now.

Please join me, and take a look at some great pictures, that 3 photographers very generously have allowed me to share with you. And stay on until the end – the last one is my personal favorit.

The first three pictures I will share with you are taken by Thomas Gregersen – my (dear) ex-husband. Me, the dog and a beautiful spring forrest. Open each picture – and feel the now.

Now – now – now! And how Thomas has kept reminding me of that..

Twice within the last month I have had the pleasure of working with Photographer Elona Sjögren. I needed some portraits and some pictures for a special work project, and Elona came highly recommended.

Elona challenged me in a great way, when we made the portraits. This first picture is not what I imagined – but it is me. She caught me!

The next picture was actually taken after we had finished the photoshoot, and it is one of my favorits. What a now! I was getting up from the floor, and almost lost my balance. Look what she captured. So very unexpected.

Elona, I love how you inspire and capture the now.

And now, let me keep you present!

That should get your attention!

This picture, and the ones to follow, are the genius work of Lin Sebastian Kayser. I met Lin at TED Global in Rio last year. One afternoon we where standing in line to get in to the talks, and he showed me some pictures he had taken. Time stopped. When you see these next pictures, I am sure they will make time stop for you as well.

I promised you the best for last, right?! Well, here it is. This picture by Lin Sebastian Kayser was taken at the Memorial to the murdered jews of Europe in Berlin. Lin, this takes my breath away!

One last note of thought; look around you now! The now is picture perfect – you just have to stay present, and see what is there. It is always now.

New York state of mind

Off the record. I will spend the next five days mixing business with pleasure, the best way I know how, in New York City!

I feel grateful and humble.

This past year I have met a lot of new and amazing people – they have inspired me in many ways, and have changed my perspective on life and the way I relate to other people.

People who know me have sometimes heard me say, that I have slight social phobia. They usually laugh, when I say that – probably because they see me at work, teaching, talking to a lot of people, being passionate about my work and so on. I don´t come across as shy.

But meeting new people has actually always been a challenge for me – especially if I was the one who had to initiate contact.

I have to overcome myself at conferences ans social events, if I don´t know anyone there, and I often get the urge to just go home instead of facing the situation.

But – this last year I have managed to convince myself, that whenever I hesitate – and can not find a rational reason for the hesitation – I need to step forward, not backwards. And doing that, has resulted in me meeting great people, and finding the best of friends.

These next five days I will be meeting with some of the people I have recently met.

I will go to a concert at Carnegie Hall listening to music composed by Georgia Shreve. I had the pleasure of meeting Georgia at a Positive Psychology conference in Amsterdam last year, and she was kind to invite me to her home in New York shortly after. What an amazing woman!

Also I will meet with great friends, that I met at TED Global in Rio 2014 – a conference that I went to ” all alone”, knowing no one there, and facing my fears head on. And what a joy it turned out to be.

I did say business too, right?!

And yes of course, I will also be meeting with 3 dedicated and talented guys working on a new business idea for the US market. I look forward to that with anticipation too.

My New York state of mind is to step forward when I hesitate – all good has come of it so far!

You should try it.

Iceland my love

There is nothing like the forces of nature to force you into the present moment, inspire awareness and make you feel love in every cell of your body. Iceland my love, how you do just that!

For the last three days I have traveled Iceland, and enjoyed the amazing scenery, fresh air and good company.

Visiting a place like Gullfoss makes you feel insignificant in a good way, and it made me feel grateful and humble at the same time.

Water falling, and water rising – the Geysir was absolutely worth a visit. I enjoyed watching people SO present just focusing on the surface of the geysers not knowing, when it would do its magic and spray high in the air.

There is something about perspective! And seeing things from above gives you a whole other impression. We went on a small plane ride for 40 minutes overlooking the Reykjavik area, and it was beautiful.

I you want to hear sweet music that best describes the love of Iceland – take a few minutes, and listen to this:

Iceland my love, you will always have a place in my heart – and I haven´t even tasted your pancakes yet..

Danish Design meets American Buttermilk Pancakes

Afternoon Pancakes #3 combined the great taste of American Buttermilk Pancakes with the aesthetic expression of Royal Danish Porcelain.

As you can see, I had made quite a tall stack of pancakes, trying to follow the good example of Rasmus Klump also known as Rasmus Lump. I grew up with the comic strip of Rasmus Lump, but never got to enjoy a stack of pancakes as tall as his. Yesterday came close.

The pancakes turned out great, and I served them with fresh berries and syrup. The fresh berries gave them a taste of summer.

I found these pancakes to be the best ones yet! But more are still to come.

Wednesday I will travel to Iceland, and maybe find inspiration for another great recipe.

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

In a couple of months I will visit San Francisco for the very first time and I can promise you, that I will make sure to wear some flowers in my hair.

This sunday I am hosting the third Afternoon Pancake event. The theme is American Pancakes, and I will serve them with fresh berries and maple syrup. If I am lucky maybe some of my guest will celebrate the beginning of summer, and wear flowers in their hair.

Flowers are such delicate and fragrant beings, and have been the inspiration for many artists, poets and mystics.

Looking at a flower can give you a sense of joy – raising your awareness and increasing your presence.

“Buddha is said to have given a “silent sermon” once during which he held up a flower and gazed at it. After a while, one of those present, a monk called Mahakasyapa, began to smile. He is said to have been the only one who had understood the sermon. According to legend, that smile (that is to say, realization) was handed down by twenty-eight successive masters and much later became the origin of Zen.”

– Eckhart Tolle

There has been many interpretations as to the point Buddha was making; one is that things come and go (this too shall pass), another, that Buddha was trying to illustrate the concept of “suchness” – that things are just as they are, and a third, that an enlightened (ego-less) mind springs from our egoistic minds in the same way a lotus flower springs from pond muck.

We don´t have to agree on any of the interpretations – but I do hope, that you will wear flowers in your hair this sunday.

Don´t mention the C-word!

How does Calorie-awareness affect what and how much you eat? Does it have any affect at all?

On my trip to California my travel companions and I had interesting experiences with calories, and the “in your face” listings of calories on menus.

When we arrived in California we all knew, that maintaining our weight would be a challenge. The concept of Vacation-fat is not strange to us, and it is a term widely used I Denmark.

Pretty fast we agreed on not mentioning the C-word. There should be no talk of calories! Not in the way that we would just eat without any thought to the consequences, but almost…

Staying unaware of the (huge) amount of calories in the (big) servings of food we where offered in restaurants and diners turned out to be a challenge we had not seen coming.

A lot of the menus we where handed had listings of calories on them. And even though we are all pretty well educated, and all work with health related issues and therefore have a lot of knowledge about nutrition – we where still surprised!

We where surprised at how many calories was actually in some of the servings! A breakfast containing 1200 – 1500 calories was not that uncommon. And knowing, that a woman of my size only needs about 2000 calories per day, that was a bit frightening.

But mostly I think we where surprised, at how these listings actually affected what we ate, and how much.

Needless to say, that calories are usually not something you find on Danish menus.

I personally chose the “Healthy alternative” when possible, and I usually did not eat everything on the plate. I also cut down on the in between meals, so that I would have enough calories to spend on the main meals.

I think, that my rationale was, that with the amount of calories being brought to my attention in this way, deciding to not mention the C-word, and dwelling on the calorie–unawareness, made no sense! There was a limit to how much denial I could get away with – even when visiting California.

As a result I made it through the week without gaining any weight. And I still had a good time, and ate a lot of good food. Including pancakes of course.

The opinions of my travel companions differed a little. One found that the listings of calories gave us an unhealthy focus on how much, and what, we ate. But all in all I think that we all used the information in a good way.

I should add, that in Denmark we are not used to serving sizes as big as the ones we saw in California! And also meals usually don´t contain such huge amounts of sugar, as Pancakes with syrup for instance. So should we have had to guess the amounts of calories in a serving, I think we would have underestimated quite a lot. Who would ever be able to guess the amount of calories tucked away in this nice serving of pancakes..

Do you have any comments or experiences in this area? Please share.

Afternoon Pancakes #2 – I confess to an egg.

Actually I confess to two eggs! Afternoon Pancakes was once again a pleasure – friends and pancakes are a combination that just can´t go wrong.

I do however confess to “pimping” the recipe with two eggs…

When I did a trial run on Friday, I found that the pancakes needed a little extra, when served “plain”, which means without anything cooked into them. So I simply added 2 eggs. It did the trick!

Baking these Dutch pancakes was a bit different, because of the fresh yeast that goes into them. It was fun to try, and worked great. Amazing to watch the yeast bubble in less than 10 minutes. Just look at this;

I made 2,5 times the recipe for 7 people. There was 2 pancakes left over (no one held back), and Katrine got those to take home to her boyfriend, so that she wouldn´t have to bake her self.

None of my guests had ever tried Dutch Pancakes before. They all liked them, and the syrup (stroop) and powdered sugar where a hit.

If you haven´t tried the recipe yet, I recommend you invite good friends and try them soon. With or without the eggs..

Upside down in California

I love to travel! Meeting new people, seeing new places, getting inspired and having my world view challenged.

And of course; awareness, compassion and pancakes – makes every journey a joy.

This last week in California offered all that, and at more times than one, I felt like my world was turned upside down.

You know the feeling, when reality hits?

I experienced that, mentally, emotionally and physically – and it was a pleasure.

Anthony De Mello wrote (something like this) in one of his books: “We see the world as we are and not as it is.”

We get caught up in our own view of everything, and run on autopilot!

But when we travel – we usually don´t get away with that. At least I don´t let myself get away with that.

For instance I had a nice little wakeup call, when we where looking at the stars one night, and I said out loud; “Something is wrong with the stars, the Big Dipper Constellation is turned upside down!”

Obviously nothing was wrong with the stars! I was just looking at them from a different angle on the other side of the world.

So there Camilla! Stop thinking that you are the center of the Universe.

I have nice little tales to tell about my week in California, and I will do so in the week to come.

For now some pictures to inspire:

San Juan Capistrano

San Diego

Manhattan beach

Santa Monica Pier

And did we have pancakes? Almost every day!

I will give you just one shot to make your mouth water – it os strawberry season in California;

More to come. Love to share.

California Dreamin’ with Pancake Friendly Friends

Arrived in LA last night and I am looking forward to spending a week in California.

I am traveling with 3 good friends from Denmark – Pancake Friendly of course – and we can’t wait to explore.

We didn’t know that it was Spring Break but I am sure that will only make the State even more alive.

So a week of Pancake Spring Break for us. I will keep you posted.