Category Archives: Uncategorized

Uncategorized, Lifestyle

Well hello, yellow April!

Leave a comment

Little by little color yellow has entered into my life. From a flea market I bought two yellow cups to drink my evening tea. And then in a grocery shop I have a habit to grab a bouquet of yellow tulips to color up our home. This time of year it feels like yellow is giving more energy and makes everything seem lighter after the heavy winter season. Spring is a wake up call for many of us; it is a promise of new starts and new beginnings. Maybe we don’t know what is coming up yet, but surely the spring brings us some changes in life. Here is my April’s favorite list that includes new scents and relaxing moments on your yoga mat – maybe it helps you to prepare for the new season and new adventures that are waiting in a corner.

Scent: Smoke up a little piece of palo santo “holy wood” to clean up your space. They say that palo santo has a therapeutic healing power. For me, I have a habit to light up palo santo before entering on my yoga mat. It is a ritual and it makes me come into my space.

Organic cosmetics: Spring is a good period to change your perfume for more lighter and summer-like scent. For me, perfume was the last cosmetic that I changed for organic one. I used to love my Yves Saint Laurent fragrance, but now I am a fan of Abel’s perfumes. My favorite at the moment is Abel’s White Vetiver. It scents like grass, lemon and little bit like a vanilla cigar. For me it sends a message that summer is almost here.

Drink: In my yellow Kermansavi mug I drink Yogi tea’s Ginger lemon – it is my favorite at this moment.

What to wear: Light up your outfits by wearing light blue or white jeans – they change your look completely. Easy step, big deal!

Asana of the month: Urdha mukha svanasana ”upward-Facing dog pose”

After the pregnancy I am happy to do my sun salutation rounds completely including doing upward-facing dog pose. I have enjoyed to do a pause in this asana and to examine how it is done correctly. I remember in my teacher’s training, that a lot of students had problems with this asana. So I kindly remind you to pay attention to these points:

Check,

that the shoulders are not scrunch up towards the ears and making pressure to the neck.

that your toes are extended and the top of the feet is firmly down. When the feet are rooting down, the legs become more active.

That the tailbone is pressed toward the heels.

That you press firmly into your hands and the chest is lifted.

That the wrists are aligned directly beneath the shoulders. Check also that the index finger is pointed straight forward.

For my Finnish readers I have recorded a guided meditation practice, in future I try to make one in English too.

Have a beautiful month!

Read more:

On meditation

Looking for that lost balance

sustainable lifestyle, Uncategorized

Sweet boredom

Leave a comment

Milan Kundera writes in his novel La Lenteur (1993) something that goes like this: When things happen too fast, nobody can be sure of anything, nothing really. Not even ourselves.

Things like friends, family, community, connect us to this planet – and they require time so that they can flourish.

During the holidays I realized: I don’t want a family that communicates with notes on a fridge, are in a hurry in the mornings and have a full schedule planned for weeks ahead on the door of fridge. Nope! But when you start to slow down, it also means less money. You need to give up on something and make sacrifices. For us this means, for example, that instead of making lots of money to buy a big apartment, we are going to get a little one – if we want to follow this path and stay in Finland.

Last autumn, I attended to a Mindfulness course at the Adult education center. This course was important in so many ways. Because of the low price, we were a group of variegated people: pensioners, young students, middle age women and men already tired of the working life, housewives and curious minds like me. Everyone had their backgrounds and reasons to attend this course. However, one factor was common: they all seemed to suffer from a strong stress experience and a feeling of inadequacy in their daily lives. From the mindfulness course they had come to seek more conscious presence and stress management skills in their everyday life.

During the course we did meditation and relaxation exercises, we ate a candy in a mindful way (very slowly) to taste all its variations. We did a walking meditation a playground near by and discussed. At the end of the course, a spouse who had recently lost her husband stated that she had noticed the benefits of doing regular mindfulness exercises in her everyday life. She said, that she felt less stress in her everyday life and she had started to do things more consciously, such as, for example, washing the dishes.

During Christmas, I did a social media detox and went offline for some days. Although, I think my Instagram use is still under control, I did notice that without a phone in my hand every “boring time” I did get to experience sweet boredom … even when I did get things done more efficacy than usual, I did get to actually feel a bit bored – the felling that we hardly experience today. We have so many things to do all the time. I could have take my computer and write a new blog post or to advance my work projects, but this time I decided to surrender for this sweet feeling of boredom. After a couple of days when I finished my detox, I forgot to open my Instagram and I realized I wanted to be more offline. A pause did its work.

During those days I had more time to think in clear mind and make place for new ideas.

In his book Slow – Live Slower, Carl Honoré summarizes the philosophy of slowness in one word: balance. And for that, there’s no shortcut or magic button to press. For experience balance in life we just need to practice more conscious presence in our everyday life.

After I participated in a meditation and relaxation teacher training, I find that, I have become a bit more hippie than before, but I feel that the most important thing we can do to maintain balance in our life is to practice conscious breathing, where the thoughts are guided for this moment and your breathing rhythm only. For me, this insight has helped me in everyday life and all the challenges that I have faced. Always: just take a deep breath.  I recommend. Try it and make it a habit.

Instead of starting the year in a rush and putting the barrier even higher, I decided to lower it this time. For my family and me, our common theme for the year 2019 is slow growing in various areas in our life. Its cornerstones are presence, balance and enjoying our time here in this planet.

I wish you a conscious and slow year 2019!

Picture: Christophe Adam, Raahe, Mikonkari.

Read more:

A slow down list for the autumn

Dream on my dear

On meditation

Uncategorized

The story of four eggs

Leave a comment

First I thought I was going to feel so lonely here in Barcelona region, in a small village where I don’t know anyone, but oh boy how wrong I was. It hasn’t been a day that I haven’t been talking to someone who I don’t know, and often we don’t even share the same language.

These last weeks we have been invited spontaneysly to a Sunday lunch to our neighbours’ house when they saw as walking near they house. They even give us some eggs from their chicken ( yes, this is how countryside we are living now). And while we were going to our neighbours’ place we end up talking to other neighbours next door, and they invited us too for a lunch. This kind of thing never happened to us in Paris or in Finland. I really am amazed how friendly people are here. I never seen anything like this.

I have to share another story, too. I was washing dishes in the kitchen when I saw our neighbour shaking hands to try to get my attention. I went outside to see what he wanted, and then he reach for the barrier and gave me two bags. In the other there were eggs and in the other lemons.

Not only people are friendly, helpful and open-minded, but they want to share things.

In the other day, when we were leaving from the lunch date from our neighbour’s place, our lovely hostess said: “welcome again, my house is your house, too”.

Okey, I still got lot to do with my Finnish attitude where we mostly leave our neighbours alone, to start to be as open as our neighbours are. I can already feel that the wind is changing.

I will continue my exploration here, in Catalonia.

Read more:

5 things that are differently

Why did we move to Catalonia?

New Start

Uncategorized

You Christmas nut!

Leave a comment

Myönnetään: olen jouluihminen, joka myös elää jouluihmisen kanssa. Tämä tarkoittaa, että joulukoristeet kaivetaan esille ajoissa, joulukonvehteja napsitaan heti, kun ne ovat ilmaantuneet kauppojen hyllylle. Kynttilöitä poltetaan joka ilta, ja kuusi, sekin koristeltiin marraskuun puolella. Tarkalleen ottaen kuusenkoristeet kaivettiin esille eilen. Jouluihmisenä rakastan ranskalaista tapaa hankkia kuusi jo joulukuun alussa, niin että siitä saa nauttia pitkälti yli kuukauden. Kuusihan on kaunis sisustusyksityiskohta; se luo tilaan aivan erityistä tunnelmaa. Kun iltaisin taustalla välkkyvät kuusenvalot, jaksaa töitä paiskia keskiyölle asti.

Siinä missä Pariisin auringonpaisteessa ja syysmaisemassa tuntuu hullunkuriselta ripustaa joulukoristeita, on kaikessa tässä koristeellisuudessa ja valaistuksessa jotain lohdullista, lempeää energiaa, joka pakottaa hidastamaan – tunnelmointia kun ei voi suorittaa! Pariisilaisravintolat puolestaan houkuttelevat lempeänpunaisella valaistuksellaan poikkeamaan juomaan lasin kuumaa viiniä. Ihanaa joutilaisuutta.

Sen sijaan, että aloittaisin joulukuun lahjastressillä ja ostohysterialla, keitän toisen kupin kahvia, nappaan konvehtirasiasta vielä yhden suklaapalan ja tuijotan hetken tuota upeaa joulukuusta. Lahjomisen sijaan tänä jouluna keskitytään hyvän mielen välittämiseen ja tunnelmointiin.

Ei suoriteta tätä joulua, eihän?

Eläköön valon juhla!

I am a Christmas person, I can easily admit that. Also, I am living with a Christmas person, too. As my husband is a Christmas nut like me, we start the Christmas preparations early. That means that we buy a Christmas tree as soon as they get to the florist, we start buying chocolate boxes as soon as they hit to the supermarket, and we also light candles for every occasion we can.

Now when it is officially December we can be open about our Christmas mania. And technically we got our Christmas tree yesterday, so it is not that bad? I love this French style when you get the Christmas tree inearly December, not on a Christmas Eve. This way you get to enjoy the tree longer. And let’s face it: it is a beautiful decoration detail in our living room. And I think our little one likes it, too. At least she hasn’t stopped staring it and it makes her kick her feet (a good sign).

I think in all these lights and in the middle of Christmas decorations there is something comforting and some silent energy. Also, I have to admit that Parisian restaurants with their cosy red lights have something to do with me wanting to stop and take a break more than ever. But then again: can the Christmas spirit be performed?

So this is a thought for December: forget stressing about Christmas gifts! Instead, concentrate on transmitting good energy onto others, be kinder to yourself, light a candle and just let it be.

Let’s not try to perform this Christmas!

Light on!

Uncategorized

Join us, will you? You must read this!

Leave a comment

Kynttilöiden polttamisen ja piparkakkujen syömisen lisäksi viimeaikaisena kiinnostuksen kohteenani on ollut Manson-kultti. Kaikki alkoi Emma Clinen Tytöt-romaanista, jonka päähenkilö, 14-vuotias Evie, ajautuu kiehtovan Suzannen johdattamana Mansonin klaanin valloittamalle maatilalle. Mediaseksikkään aiheen lisäksi Cline tarkastelee Manson-kulttia mielenkiintoisesta tulokulmasta käsin. Samalla fiktiivinen teos on myös nuoren, epävarman tytön kasvukertomus 1960-luvun lopun Kaliforniassa.

Nuoressa kirjailijassa viehättää myös se, että Cline kirjoitti esikoisteostaan kurinalaisesti ystävänsä pihavajassa kahden vuoden ajan. Lisäpisteitä tämä lahjakkuus kerää myös sillä, ettei naisella ole käytössä älypuhelinta, vaan vanha simpukkamallinen matkapuhelin. Ei turhaa chattailua tai somessa roikkumista! Ei ihme, että Cline on onnistunut kirjoittamaan tämän vuoden yhden kiehtovimmista ja koukuttavimmista kirjoista. Suosittelen siis.

Clinen kirjan jälkeen latasin puhelimeeni Manson-kulttia käsittelevän You must remember this – podcast-sarjan. Kuuntelin podcastit kätevästi lenkkipolulla. Ja voi pojat, kilometrit taittuivat helposti! Kokeile perässä. Takaan, että tämä on yksi mielenkiintoisimmista podcasteista, jonka olet koskaan kuunnellut.

Nyt lukulistalla on Simon Liberatin California Girls. Fiktiivisessä teoksessa seurataan Manson-perheen elämää 36 tunnin ajan Tate-murhien tapahtumista alkaen. Kunnianhimoinen hanke, sillä ostin kirjan ranskankielisenä. Tarkoitus on myös harjoittaa ääneenlukua. Mies ei niin innostunut, mutta vetosin ranskan kurssin opettajani kehotukseen. Sitä paitsi, kun käden ulottuvilla on kiinnostava kirja, selviän siitä varmasti ranskaksi.

Aina on hyvä olla optimisti.

Recently, I have had three obsessions: burning candles and trying to find and eat as much gingerbread I can (not so easy to find them in France). The third one is what I actually wanted to talk about. It’s the Manson family or Manson cult – or whatever you want to call it. It all started when I read The Girls by Emma Cline. The book tells a story about fourteen-year old Evie who joins the Manson family. She meets the fascinating Suzanne who seems to be free and do whatever she likes, and with her Evie ends up at the famous Manson ranch.

Besides the book I have to praise the author. Miss Cline wrote the book in her friend’s garden shed where she lived for two years. Such discipline! Also, Cline avoids pointless chatting and whatsapping: she only owns an old cell phone. No wonder she gets things done, like this novel. I definitely recommend adding Cline’s book on your reading list. Also, it is a good idea for a Christmas present, too.

After reading the book I wanted to learn more about the Manson family (I am sure you will too, when you finish the last page of Cline’s book), so I downloaded the 12-part You Must Remember This podcast series, which concentrates on the Manson cult, on my phone. I listened to the episodes while I was out running. And oh boy, how the kilometers went by fast. Just try for yourself; I am sure this will be the most interesting podcast that you have ever listened to.

And I didn’t stop there. Recently, I bought Simon Liberati’s book California Girls from a Parisian wine bar bookshop. It deals with the life of the Manson family 32 hours before and after the Tate murders. It was an ambitious act, because I bought the book in French. So far I have started to read the book to my husband. He is not that excited, but I according to my French teacher: we have to read out loud. Anyway, when the subject is interesting, I am sure I can handle it in French, too.

Or at least it is good to stay optimistic.

Uncategorized

Holiday is where your home is

Leave a comment

Vielä muutama vuosi sitten haaveilin matkalaukkuelämästä: siitä että tiedossa häämöttäisi aina uusi maa, uusi kaupunki, uusi kulttuuri. Tai työstä, jossa pääsisi matkustamaan mahdollisimman paljon. En enää. Todellisuudessa jatkuvasti paikasta toiseen siirtyminen ja matkalaukkujen pakkaaminen on niin uuvuttavaa, että sana “loma” harvoin linkittyy matkalaukkuelämään – etenkään lapsiperheen kohdalla.

Kahden kuukauden reissaamisen aikana olemme pakanneet ja tyhjentäneet matkalaukkumme lähes kymmenen kertaa. Suomen-reissulla meillä oli eri majapaikkoja, joten toisinaan kävi niin, että matkalaukut ehti avata ja niistä sitten kiskottiin kiireessä puhtaita (lue: matkalaukussa ummehtuneita) vaatteita ja paineltiin suoraan illallistreffeille tai milloin minnekin. Kun sitten viimein pääsimme kotiin, totesimme kumpikin: ei vähään aikaan minnekään! Häämatka saa hetken odottaa.

Tajusin, että loma tarkoittaa meille sitä, että ollaan ihan vain kotona ja nautitaan siitä kivasta arjesta omine rutiineineen. Tämä lienee paras oivallus hetkeen, sillä siihen kulminoituu ajatus, että kaikki on hyvin juuri nyt. Edessä ei tarvitse häämöttää seuraavaa lomamatkaa, jonka voimin jaksaa rämpiä sen harmaan arjen, vaan se arki itsessään on jo ihanaa seikkailua. Nautin arkisista askareista: pyykinpesusta, omassa keittiössä puuhailusta, siivoamisesta, kaupassa käynnistä ja tietysti Pariisissa harhailusta rattaiden kanssa.

Haastavaahan se arki on toisinaan, tai oikeastaan usein, mutta oikeassa tiimissä jaksaa nauraa kaikelle: porkkanatahraisille vaatteille, uudelle paidalle oksennetuille maitotahroille ja jopa sille, ettei koskaan enää ehdi tehdä mitään.

Tai nyt huijaan, kuvat kertovat, että ehdin viettää jonninjoutavan hetken Grazia-lehden parissa. Hyvä niin.

Eläköön arki!

(Note: aina arkena ei kuitenkaan ehdi meikata, kuten kuvista näkyy.)

When I was younger, I dreamed about a life in which I could travel a lot. To visit new countries, new cities and to get to know new cultures. Always on the road – that would be cool, I thought. Or a job that allows you to travel a lot.

I disagree with the younger version of myself. Today I would say that everyone will get tired of traveling all the time at some point, and an in-between life is just a passage where you don’t want to be too long.

During the past two months of traveling in France and in Finland, I realized how tiring it is to change location and to pack and unpack your suitcases all the time. Especially from the point of view of a mother.

So after packing the suitcases for the 10th time and then heading back to home, I realized that this is kind a holiday for us: just being at home. Even though it does mean that I have less help, when I don’t have my mother around and my husband is doing his normal working hours, but still: the pleasure of doing laundry, cooking, cleaning and walking around in Paris. Of course our everyday life is intense like for most families. But when you are in the right team, all that mess and milk stains on your favorite shirt will make you laugh after all.

And when you say you never have time for yourself, it is not true… it is a question of point of view. Even ten minutes is a moment that you can use for drinking a cup of coffee or doing like me: for reading a magazine in silence. (Or maybe I am just dreaming.)

Note: A busy mother doesn’t always have time to put some makeup on, not even for the photos, and especially not when there is 30 degrees outside.