Now – Awareness Compassion Pancakes

Pancakes are Positive Psychology

For the last 6 months I have been studying positive psychology, and I now feel confident to say that Pancakes are in deed positive psychology in action.

Just think about it. Actually – just think about pancakes! Are you smiling a little? Feeling good?

My point! And let me elaborate.

The father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, defines well-being as a construct with five measurable elements (PERMA) that count toward it:

Positive Emotion

Engagement

Relationships

Meaning and purpose

Accomplishment

You get ALL these elements, when you bake pancakes for someone.

Positive emotion

Just thinking about pancakes made you smile! Pancakes are comfort food, we make them because we feel good, and because it makes us feel good to eat them. The anticipation when we bake them is a positive emotion – and not only do we look forward to eating the pancakes, we enjoy the thought of sharing them, the thought of making someone else feel good, when we serve them these round cakes of happiness.

Engagement

Engagement is really about flow. It is a present moment, where we are challenged and our abilities are just enough to face that exact challenge. Flow is when we are deeply engaged in something, and loose track of time.

Baking pancakes is a state of flow – especially, when you bake the Danish or French crepes, that are thin, and where precision is needed to flip them without breaking them.

Making great pancakes require presence and focus. Flow.

Relationships

Pancakes are social food. We (almost?) always bake pancakes for another person or for a group. You bake pancakes for people you love, and you know, that someone baking you pancakes is an act of love.

Eating pancakes strengthen our sense of togetherness and makes us feel socially safe.

Pancakes are a part of every close relationship – or at least they should be. #lovetoshare

Meaning and purpose

What could be more meaningful than feeding yourself, and the people you love, great food? I suggest, that it is always meaningful to cook food, since we need food to survive – but in this case there is added meaning and purpose, because of the positive emotions, engagement and social benefit that comes with baking pancakes specifically.

Well-being is the purpose of pancakes.

Accomplishment

Just think of the huge stack of panckes you have baked – that sure feels like an accomplishment! I know, that it is not something that is going to change the world, but it sure feels like an accomplishment, when you put that last baked pancake on the plate. You feel content and proud in a good and non-selfish way.

Need I say more?

Pancakes are positive psychology in action. Now go bake!

P.s. Feel Free

The paradox of a restriction making me feel free, inspired me to write this P.s. to my post A Silent Perspective.

The 2 hours of Silent Sightseeing guided by Bastian Overgaard reminded me, that awareness and selfobservation are key to understanding, that the thoughts in our heads do not define who we are. They are thoughts – thats all! And we are all free to agree or disagree with them, and free to choose our own actions in response.

Being restricted to silence very quickly made me aware of how often my thoughts just turn into speech. The urge to react to my own thoughts by saying something became crystal clear, and having to stop myself from speaking changed my focus and gave room for awareness.

“When you recognize that there is a voice in your head that pretends to be you and never stops speaking, you are awakening out of your unconscious identification with the stream of thinking. When you notice that voice, you realize that who you are is not the voice — the thinker — but the one who is aware of it.

Knowing yourself as the awareness behind the voice is freedom.”

– Eckhart Tolle

This is the point, that the silent experience reminded me of. And yes, we do need to be reminded. Well, at least I do!

There is a big difference between knowing something to be true – because you have read and understood it – and then experiencing it to be true. And sometimes we forget a little..

Inspired by silence and feeling free – let me end this post with another quote;

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”

– Jean-Paul Sartre

With freedom comes responsibility…

Wondering about the flowers in my hair? I felt free!

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.

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..

Pancaking around Amsterdam #2

Would you wait in line outside for the best pancakes in Amsterdam?

I did! And it was absolutely worth the wait.

Before leaving for Amsterdam I did a little research on the Internet to find out, where to go for the good pancakes in Amsterdam.

One place in particular showed up in my search The Pancake Bakery.

Not only does it have a Wall of Fame with visitors like Alicia Keys, Paris Hilton and Miley Cyrus, they also have almost 2.000 likes on their Facebook page, and more than 10.000 visitors. AND they have the domain www.pancake.nl

Reservations at this place is only possible for parties of 6 or more people – so me, myself and I just had to show up, and wait in line, as it turned out.

The weather in Amsterdam was lovely today – sun was shining, no wind and about 8 degrees Celsius. So waiting in line was fine, and I had good company with two groups of Americans who had never had Dutch pancakes before.

I could write a at least a post or two in how I find waiting in line to be kind of a blessing. I will one day, but for now just trust, that it was a pleasure.

The Pancake Bakery is a great place, and the service was a pleasure. Most impressive was the cook sweating in the kitchen swinging the heavy cast iron pans around and flipping the pancakes.

Almost a type of Pancake baking CrossFit exercise!

Since I had pancakes with apple and cinnamon yesterday (#1) I decided to go for the Plain pancake today.

Just plain and simple.

Add a little of the thick syrup.

And some powdered sugar.

And what a treat it was!

Tomorrow I promise to do a follow up post about Pancaking around Amsterdam, and also share with you what type of pan I decided to bring back home for the next Afternoon Pancake event on April 12.

Recipe for Happiness?

Today is the International Day of Happiness, so the topic for my post seems given.

Since one of the categories here on my blog is Recipes, it made me think if there could be a recipe for Happiness?

If someone asked me, what would my recipe be then?

The first thing that sprung to mind was: Don´t take anything personally!

I got this Sentence of wisdom from Don Miguel Ruiz and his Four Agreements;

1. Be Impeccable with your Word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Out of these four (wise) agreements, I find the second one to be the most important in regards to happiness – but they are all important, and if you keep them in mind, they will truly make a difference in your life.

So there! Put on the spot, this would be my recipe for happiness.

And then the dog said…

…. It is always now!

Well, he didn´t really say that, but close enough.

The story about Katrine is a hard one to follow. So I thought I would mention my daily inspiration to live in the moment, and to remember that; It IS always now!

Victor is my dog. And he is that inspiration. Just look at him.

Animals are a great reminder of living in the moment and being present. The present moment is where they live their entire lives. They don´t get caught up in thoughts about the past, or thoughts imagining the future – like most of us humans do.

It has been about 12 years since I first realized, that “now” is all there is, all there ever has been, and all there ever will be. It is always now.

I realized this, reading the book “The power of now” written by Eckhart Tolle. A book that I can highly recommend if you need to really understand this very important fact of life.

So what does Eckhart Tolle has to do with my dog?

Nothing really, but he did write the words to this great cartoon about the spiritual teachings from our cats and dogs.

I have taken the liberty to show you just this one of the cartoons – it is my favorite;

Just remember; it is the NOW now!