Sweet Serenity in Sweden - How a Week in the Swedish Forests Can Change Your Life

Hello again Sweet Steemers,

We are (unfortunately) back to reality and the fast-paced everyday of city life. Even our cat is sad about it. I would be too after having the adventures she had while making her great 36 hour escape, only to return to the confines of our apartment and we feel horrible about it.

Truth be told, its probably because we know exactly how she feels, because we felt it too. We FEEL it too.

City life can sometimes feel like the confinements of an apartment. The constant noise pollution by neighbours, construction workers and congested traffic keep the body, the mind constantly alert. Evolution has trained our brain to be aware of sounds, of noise lurking in the distance, so we could react in the names of danger and survival.

My cats ears are in a constant state of swivel - she too is alert.

Our little summerhouse in Sweden has been in my husbands family for almost 20 years. Besides replacing a few broken windows and some rotting wood floor, the house remains in its original format without electricity or running water, though in the past couple of years, the family has invested in a few solar panels and propane tanks to make cooking and keeping warm a little easier.

In the Swedish forest, (or any forest, I imagine) it is truly easy to find your rhythm - it follows the sun, and sleeps with the moon. 🌞 🌛

In the mornings, we fetched water, heat water, made coffee and prepared our breakfast table. We sat and slowly sipped our coffee and spread homemade forest berry jam on toast, while pondering everything from what we should do that day to whether or not now was a good time to start having children or transpersonal experiences and Carl Jung.

The days always floated on, naturally in our serene surroundings, with no pollution of any kind, only that of which nature intended.

When the weather was nice, we brought our books and our coffees outside and left our clothes at the door. Basking in the sun energising our bodies and our brains, we would sit until hunger took hold in our empty stomachs.

The afternoon followed along with the suns western journey. With it, came new activities. Sometimes we ended up on a canoe, sometimes we end up going on long walks, picking mushrooms and blueberries hidden amongst the forest floor.

Time passed so effortlessly and before we knew it the sun was setting and with it our que to head indoors.

We fetched the last bit of water, to hold us until the morning and began to warm water to make dinner and clean the afterwards.

This year, the forest was giving and we found enough mushrooms for 3 rounds of wild mushrooms sautéed in garlic and olive oil with spelt spaghetti noodles!

On occasion, the vast black veil of night baited us out of house, so that we might catch a glimpse of the milky way and the unfathomable depths of the universe and ponder that which lies beyond. Talks about space, and the universe always led to conversations about our dreams and our ambitions. 🌟 🌟 🌟

Other nights, we stayed in drinking wine by candle light and playing scrabble, or digging deeper into the pile of books we had brought.

Amongst these books, I can highly recommend:

Busy - By Tony Crabbe
Heart of Desire - By Dr. Stella Resnick
The Holotropic Mind - By Stanislav Grof
Stealing Fire - By Steven Kotler & Jamie Wheal

Busy by Tony Crabbe - was the perfect addition to our trip in which our main ambition was to 'stop doing busy'. This book though, and all of its good tips i'll save for another steemit entry, as it deserves the space for itself.

After 9 blissful days at our summerhouse, we are sadly back in the city, but beaming with new outlooks. Since being home, David (my husband) has gone from a fulltime position, to a part time position in software development, so that he can focus more on psychotherapy and psychology and fulfil his dreams.

We have put our name on a waiting list, for a collective community outside the city, where we hope to grow our family. And slowly but surely we have begun implementing some routines, as recommended by Tony Crabbe, to reduce the busy in our everyday.

We are working on taking things on one at a time, one step at a time, because happiness, health and wellbeing does not come in like a flood, but rather, a small window of here and now or supposedly as psychologists say 'within a three second gap'.

And just like our cat, the forest has endowed us sense of power and drive while thirsting for more. 🐯 🐱

Sweden has been the break from busy we both needed, as well as a breath of positive, refreshing air we both had hoped for. Time to wind down and reflect upon what has been and where we want to go.

Life is lived fast and forward, but sometimes we need to hop off the tracks to reflect constructively on what has been, at least I think so anyway.

I am so happy I 'accidentally' forgot my jackets at the summerhouse. I guess that means we will have to head back soon.

OOps. 😝 😉 😙

Ciao for now, Sweet Steemers.

💖 💖 💖