We need breathing spaces, breaks and self-love to master giving while growing

As human beings, employees and leaders, we thrive better when we have the opportunity to give while growing. However, we can only do that when we remember to recuperate and take time out for self-loving ‘giving while growing’ check-ups. That is why breaks and mental breathing spaces are so important for our well-being – in fact, they are just as essential as our basic needs for sleep and food.

If you have read my books or attended one of my talks, the concept of fruit trees will not be new to you.

You might even have heard of my ‘fruit tree strategy’. Fruit trees have been one of my key recurring metaphors for many years – and for good reason. Fruit trees are simply brilliant, and they have much to teach us about well-being, meaning, balance – and the need for recuperation.

But Helen, what is it that so brilliant about fruit trees? you might wonder.

I will tell you. Fruit trees flower, produce fruit, go into dormancy and then start over the following year. They thrive because they give while growing, they have a clear purpose, they follow their own rhythm and are not subject to outside demands for constant peak performances. 

The same logic applies to us. Our well-being and sense of intrinsic motivation depends on three specific conditions (Ryan & Deci): a sense of belonging and making a difference for others (belonging and relatedness), self-determination (autonomy) and the ability to learn and develop (competence). In other words: giving while growing!

Recuperation and self-loving breathing spaces 

However, giving while growing is not always easy. Especially not in a growth-oriented society where we are constantly encouraged to go the extra mile. Being in a constant performance mode makes it incredibly hard to check in with ourselves and ask important, self-loving questions, such as

• Am I actually giving in ways that allow me to grow? Ways that give me energy and joy?
• Have I changed, and has that changed what I need? If so, what are my needs now?
• Who have I become? Are there aspects of my life, my ways of being and my motivations that it’s time for me to move away from?
• When I check in with myself, do I find that my working life gives me a sense of relatedness and autonomy and that my competences are put to use in a way that lets me grow? What would I like to make more room for and pay more attention to in my mindset and everyday life?

On an organizational level, we can adjust and move towards enhanced well-being by adapting our structures to encourage dialogues about these issues and promote well-being. Fortunately, however, we can also practice ‘testing the waters’ on an individual basis by occasionally stepping off the hamster wheel and undertaking a personal ‘giving while growing’ check-up.

Mindfulness, meditation and forest bathing 

There are several helpful methods you can use to undertake such a check-up. One approach involves meditation and mindfulness. Research has documented that just a few minutes’ mindfulness meditation will down-regulate the activity in the amygdala (the brain’s alarm system), lower our blood pressure and create new neural pathways in the prefrontal cortex.

Mindfulness meditation offers a breathing space in our high-paced lives, promotes regeneration to help us recover from mental and physical stress, facilitates access to our unconscious and brings us into contact with ourselves and, thus, closer to an awareness of what we need in order to be in a state of giving while growing.

Mindfulness meditation can be practised anywhere. At your desk, in a garden or, for example, as ‘mindful walking’ in a wood. In fact, there are indications that the latter approach is particularly effective. In Japan, the government recommends that the citizens spend several hours in the wood every week, Japanese doctors write prescriptions for ‘forest bathing’ as a cure for stress, and nation-wide, there are more than 60 certified forest therapy centres based on scientific research into forest bathing.

Research suggests that time spent in the wood can lower blood pressure and reduce stress, enhance the immune system, improve metabolism and the cardio-vascular system, lower blood sugar, improve concentration and memory, ease depression, raise the pain threshold, enhance sleep quality and increase energy levels.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? And doesn’t the forest sound like the perfect place for your next ‘giving while growing’ check-up?

That is why I chose to move back to my home island of Als in South Jutland. Here, my home and the Eriksen Institute are now located right next to what is often described as one of Denmark’s most beautiful forests, Nørreskoven, on the sea. Next spring, in 2024, the renovation will be completed, and the Eriksen Institute will be ready to welcome the first course participants. In the meantime, my therapy practice will open this August – much more about this in upcoming blog posts.

Would you like to stay in touch?

And would you like to learn more about natural ways to achieve enhanced well-being, balance and meaning, as a leader or an employee? Sign up to receive my newsletter.

Click here to sign up for the newsletter.

Quiet quitting – what is it really about?

The recent general election in Denmark is now over, and regardless of the political make-up of the next administration, it is time to act. My greatest hope and most deeply felt appeal to the new administration is that it will show action, reforms and human responsibility in a commitment to tackling the ‘sick’ structures and endless budget cuts and efficiency campaigns that for far too many years have been contributing to the erosion of meaning, values and purpose – and resulted in a large number of employees, executives, professionals and citizens who have simply had enough!

In recent months, the debate about ‘quiet quitting’ has been growing in Denmark, heightening the focus on employees, executives and professionals who are engaging in quiet quitting: doing precisely what is required of them and nothing more. In part, the debate revolves around the underlying causes of quiet quitting and what we might learn from the debate itself. Some argue that quiet quitting may be seen as protection against burnout at an individual level, while others point out that there is a growing group of people who want a life where work and career are not their primary source of identity.

These observations have a point, I think. However, I also believe that the debate about quiet quitting calls on us to focus more on the highly demotivating structures, conditions and terms society imposes on competent and talented employees, executives and professionals.

Quiet quitting happens when we experience an erosion of meaning, values and purpose

In my opinion, quiet quitting is first of all an alarming symptom of the erosion of meaning, values and purpose that political decision-makers have been ignoring for far too long, not least in the public sector. This erosion has only become more pronounced with the growing use of management by objectives, efficiency campaigns and documentation requirements, which has now come to a point where municipalities are hiring more white-collar functionaries than front-line workers.

As a result of years of New Public Management, employees and executives are fighting a heroic but uneven battle, doing their best to adapt to the prevailing conditions. They are facing a growing work pace coupled with fewer resources and less time to do the things that have the greatest impact on their job satisfaction, well-being and motivation: the ability to focus on the citizens they serve, whether they are primary school students, hospital patients, preschool children, nursing home residents or any other user group. As human beings, we only thrive and feel motivated when we experience a sense of meaning and purpose, have a voice and feel that we can make a difference. All these aspects are under pressure under the current conditions.

In a large new survey among municipal executives across service areas, more than 40 per cent state that they see it as a major challenge for their units to put the users first in their service delivery. This matches what I hear from the public sector executives I have taught at CBS in the managerial module ‘How do we motivate the demotivated?’.

Time for a new political mindset!

There is an urgent need for political responsibility. It is ethically irresponsible of us to continue to impose structures and conditions that erode job satisfaction and motivation and ultimately result in quiet quitting among our competent employees and executives – as well as poorer services for our citizens. We have thoroughly tested the current New Public Management model and approach. It isn’t working, and we need to do something else. As the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti so aptly puts it,

‘It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.’

It is time for politicians to prioritize purpose and meaning in the public sector and society at large. This is borne out by research into motivation, well-being and sustainable growth.

An obvious place to start would be for the politicians to involve front-line workers in decision-making processes to ensure that their experience can inform policy decisions and shape systems that are designed around human needs instead of requiring people to adapt to the systems. Why not ask the doctors and nurses how we create the best hospitals? Ask school directors and teachers how we can create the world’s best primary and lower secondary school? Ask nursing staff how we should set up our nursing homes?

With heightened awareness, people are calling for more meaning – now 

It takes political courage to change things up and to deviate from the familiar and customary pattern. However, with great power comes great responsibility. I am fundamentally convinced that, more than  ever, politicians would be wise to listen to the people, many of whom are growing more acutely aware of what provides purpose and meaning to each of them and rejecting what doesn’t – not least as a result of living through a years-long pandemic. 

The pandemic disrupted our everyday life, and for many of us, this experience helped shed light on new aspects of what makes us happy and provides a sense of meaning and purpose. We discovered new insights, experiences, priorities and dreams and grew more aware of what we don’t want more of. Comments from the many executives and employees I meet in my daily work speak loud and clear: the challenges of living with Covid and the changes it led to uncovered new possibilities and created a structural centrifugal force that threw out many long-standing but now obsolete methods and approaches and provided a clear existential insight that management by objectives, constant efficiency campaigns, endless documentation requirements, less time for the core service task and widespread bureaucracy are not how we achieve the kind of working life most of us are dreaming of. 

Listening to experienced and competent professionals should be a cornerstone of every democracy. As the call for change from competent and experienced executives grows stronger every day, I think we should join our voices together to try to get through to the politicians and bring home the seriousness of the situation. We should insist that they listen to our experience and professional insights. Anything else would be politically unprofessional and disrespectful. Out of loyalty to the system, we have been putting up with this state of affairs for far too long. In our call for change, we must also continue to be smart about how we act in our near world.

Regardless of political decisions, our culture is still being shaped and reshaped by all of us in our day-to-day interactions with each other. We should remember to acknowledge ourselves and each other for the hugely important difference each of us makes in the society we live in. We need to focus on our mutual interdependence and prioritize dialogues about how we can design everyday life in our organizations, departments and teams in a way that lets us preserve our spirit and our sense of humour and maximize meaning, purpose and well-being in order to put the individual user first in the services and solutions we provide.

#Moremeaning #Moremeaning.now #Well-being #Jobsatisfaction #Purpose #Interdependence #Wearetheculture

 

 

Yes, it is time for us to move on, as individuals and as organizations, AND that calls for a focus on constructive, honest, awareness-building dialogues about meaning, well-being and what we have learned from Covid-19

Almost two years with Covid-19, turbulence and extraordinary challenges have naturally taken their toll. But fortunately, the Covid fog is now lifting, and we find ourselves in a position where we can pave the way for greater well-being, meaning and job satisfaction by listening to our own experiences and the science of well-being and making room for focused presence, calm, self-compassion, nurturing conversations and the sharing of experiences.

If we look at some of the recent studies of well-being, it is easy to see the exhaustion, fatigue and depletion many employees and leaders are currently experiencing:  

• One in five Danes feels that their mental health deteriorated in 2021
  (Kanter Gallup, February 2022).
• More than half the members of Djøf (Danish Association of Lawyers and Economists) have experienced physical symptoms of stress within the past two weeks (Djøf, October 2021).
• One in four managers or executives in the private sector has often or constantly felt stressed during the past two weeks – an increase of 40 per cent since the Covid pandemic began (Lederne, January 2022).

Figures such as these paint a clear picture, but when we interpret them, we need to bear in mind that they are not a reflection of a lack of resilience or adaptability. Far from it.

As I see it, they are instead proof that we are all living, breathing human beings who are affected both mentally and biologically when we face change and uncertainty, as we certainly have during the Covid pandemic. And precisely because we are human beings, not machines – thankfully – we need to acknowledge and accept exhaustion and fatigue in ourselves and each other as a natural human response.

It is time now to focus on well-being, meaning and job satisfaction

Luckily, the Covid fog is beginning to lift, and as individuals and organizations we can begin to explore what we can do, together and as individuals, to move on and bring more joy and energy into our workday – and less exhaustion, fatigue and depletion. We might even find this experience to be a source of learning that can move us much closer to the well-being paradigm we urgently need to embrace, as employees, organizations, citizens and society, at a general level and not just right now, in the wake of a global pandemic.

A good place for us to start is to look at recent research into well-being. What does it suggest that we prioritize, as employees and organizations?

One thing we know from research is that whether we are managers, executives or employees, job satisfaction and well-being increase when we work in an environment with room for humour, laughter, appreciation and self-compassion. An environment where we have the opportunity to be curious about what is meaningful to us, where we can give while growing and where we can be open, honest and present in the moment. Where our words and actions are not met with animosity or criticism (Blackburn, 2019).

If enough of these factors are present in our everyday life, it is actually possible to measure well-being right down to the level of the human DNA, where the protective caps of our chromosomes, the so-called telomeres, grow longer. That in turn means that we live longer and struggle less with the so-called diseases of civilization. And the longer the telomeres are, the lower are our stress levels. Meanwhile, neuroscience tells us that mindfulness and the opportunity for focused immersion, calm and curiosity help us expand the neural networks in the frontal part of our frontal lobes, the prefrontal cortex. This is the brain region we use to plan, to navigate in complexity and to observe ourselves from outside in certain situations, so that we can fight and work wisely – without being swallowed up and perishing (Blackburn, 2019). 

Four pieces of advice for employees, managers, executives and organizations

Naturally, the above is just a brief summary of some of the exciting things we can learn from research, which is explored in much greater detail in my talks, courses and books. Another key point is that it would, of course, be helpful if the essential findings from the science of well-being were more closely incorporated into the way we think and act, as individuals and in relationships, and into the structure and content of our working lives.

For inspiration I have formulated four focus points below that are helpful to bear in mind right now, as many, naturally, have post-Covid fatigue and as we urgently need to examine what we have learned from Covid and how we can incorporate this learning into our focus on what is truly meaningful, what actually generates value and why a high degree of employee involvement, now and going forward, is the key to sustainable well-being.

1. Instead of increasing the pace, we need to ‘fight’ with wisdom and reflection

When we reach a point where we feel almost completely depleted, the urge to ‘flee’ is only natural. But instead, we could focus on how we ‘fight’ in a more reflective way, with well-being as our top priority. To do this, we need to develop a greater awareness of our own behaviour and reaction patterns, both as employees and as managers/executives.

By practising self-observation and from a conscious place reflect on, are we giving while growing, consciously appreciating each other, being curious and wondering The word responsibility also has in its meaning: the ability to respond. And it is precisely this awareness-building responsibility each of us with advantage could strive to take on, unfold and practice with curiosity, free of prejudice, as individuals and in our groups and communities.

2. Third gear is fine for now

Calm, focused presence and “seeing each other anew” are some of the most important steps we can take in order to make more room for well-being and job satisfaction after a prolonged period with the extraordinary challenges brought on by the pandemic. To achieve this, it is important that it is accepted, both in the team and by management, that it is possible to carry out good and important work while staying in third gear – for now. By lowering the pace, which is not necessarily the same as reducing efficiency, we legitimize opportunities for spontaneous appreciation, warm and sincere ‘good mornings’ and sharing a laugh when we meet around the coffee maker. And that’s really needed right now.

3. Cultivate dialogues that promote well-being

From outside, we may look the same as before, but inside, many of us are transformed after two years with Covid. From a well-being perspective, it is therefore important, not least right now, that we regularly check in with each other and prioritize good, empathic, open and reflective dialogues. Conversations about what gives us job satisfaction right now, what helps us grow while we give and what we learned and experienced during the pandemic. What did we miss? And what did we appreciate? What promoted our well-being and sense of meaning? The latter includes, not least, a discussion about whether we, as employees and managers/executives, necessarily need to work in the same way as before corona, and how our organizations can best accommodate diversity and make room for different interests and needs.

 4. And finally, let us also insist on learning … from Covid!

Covid blew up our notions of what was possible. Management by objectives, meticulous documentation, efficiency drives, control and monitoring were temporarily suspended – otherwise we would not have been able to accommodating, seize and invent the new ways of cooperating and innovating that worked. Working from home proved useful for most of us. In many workplaces, management took a more facilitating role. The situation allowed employees to be creative and to self-organize.

Let us help each other not just to remember but also to insist on continuing to integrate and build on what worked and promoted well-being during the pandemic. If we do that, I believe we can make a quantum leap from the current prevailing growth paradigm to a well-being paradigm, where a sense of meaning and job satisfaction can flourish. In the acknowledgement that well-being not only precedes growth in significance but actually drives it.

Would you like to know more about well-being, meaning and job satisfaction?

If you would like to learn more about how you – as an employee or as a manager – can pave the way for a working life that promotes well-being, sign up for my newsletter.

Click here to register for the newsletter.

 

We need an executive focus on purpose, meaning and well-being to transition to a good new everyday life after the pandemic

The Covid crisis ripped us out of our everyday routines, and in the midst of all the frustrations and all the things we miss, for many of us, the crisis has also sparked a search for what actually makes us happy and provides a sense of meaning. It has given rise to new insights, experiences, priorities and dreams that we should now address together and activate as a resource in our joint effort, as employees and managers, to promote meaning, motivation and well-being in the new workday that is waiting just round the corner, past the pandemic.

Research has documented the highly adaptive nature of human cognition. We are generally quick to adapt to change. This might cause us to expect that the return to post-pandemic everyday life will be straightforward, if we just get a little time to get back into our familiar routines and procedures from before the first lockdown last year.

I don’t think that is true, though, for several reasons:

First of all, we need to be aware that the employees and managers who return to the workplace will to some degree be  mentally exhausted. That alone underscores the need for a transition that focuses much more on well-being than on efficiency – and the need for managers to acknowledge that the primary focus should not be to get back up to speed as quickly as possible in order to make up for lost time, even if it might seem tempting. The Danish leadership centre CfL recently published a survey documenting that the level of well-being among Danish employees and leaders has declined during the pandemic*.

Second, I believe that we are underestimating the existential change the pandemic has initiated in many of us, if we think that we can simply pick up where we left off. When we are ripped out of our familiar routines and contexts, we are affected at an existential level. Over the past year, I have spoken with many leaders and employees who tell me that they have had new insights, priorities, aspirations and dreams for both their working life and their personal life during the pandemic. Moreover, the pandemic has given many people a more acute awareness of their own mortality, which in turn provides both a conscious and an unconscious basis for self-reflection, personal development and an adjustment of one’s value base.

The need for dialogues about meaning and purpose to promote well-being

On the outside, we may look the same, but inside, we are changed after living with Covid for more than a year, and we need to treat these changes with the utmost respect – not least from a leadership point of view, where the most important priority right now might be to meet the employees who return to the workplace with empathy and sincere curiosity.

To promote well-being, it is time for dialogues about:

• What worked well during the pandemic?
• What generated well-being? Motivation? And what did not?
• What did we miss?
• What did we discover?
• Which of our previous routines would it be helpful to leave behind or use less in the future?

In other words, there are many issues – including existential ones – for workplaces to address now, and the only way to do it is to focus on well-being, meaning and purpose.

If we fail to engage in dialogues aimed at enhancing well-being and instead focus exclusively on what the pandemic has taught us about efficiency, online work and so forth, I fear that well-being and motivation will suffer both long-term and short-term.

Well-being drives growth – not the other way round

I admit that I sometimes get a little tired and disheartened when I see in the media that some leaders seem to focus almost exclusively on how to preserve the efficient procedures that were established during the pandemic or how to bring their staff back up to speed as quickly as possible once they return to the workplace.

I am concerned when I see that well-being does not come first – even as we are in the midst of a global pandemic. It illustrates that we are still stuck in an outdated mindset that puts growth before well-being, rather than the other way round.

Of course, we might make minor cost cuts in the short term by following the dogmas of the growth paradigm, with its focus on constant efficiency drives and profit optimization, but we lose our sense of meaning and the purpose-driven, professional and intrinsic motivation that enable organizational development, well-being and sustainable growth.

In my opinion, we should use our experiences from the pandemic to cultivate these latter qualities.

A window of opportunity

If we listen to each other with an open mind and are not afraid to challenge the familiar – because it no longer makes sense – we can take advantage of this unique window of opportunity to discover new perspectives and possibilities that can transform the way workplaces maximize sustainable well-being, development and growth.

For example, we may discover new perspectives that inspire new organizational structures, including self-management, followership, interdisciplinary collaboration, facilitative leadership and much, much more. These are some of the perspectives I address in my new talk ‘The organization that took to the wing and became a murmuration’, where I take my audience of leaders and employees on an energizing, humorous and, not least, philosophical journey to a more coherent, synchronous organization.

Just imagine if the Covid crisis could lead to a sustainable culture revolution – and, perhaps, mark the decisive step on the path from a growth paradigm to a well-being paradigm.

*Source: Voldsom mental corona-nedtur hos både ledere og medarbejdere 

 

A new chapter 

 
That’s how many people on the planet feel about a new year, I think. 
That it marks the beginning of a new chapter.
Or, at least, that gives us cause to reflect on what happened during the past year.
What are you happy about?
What would you like to leave behind you?
Are there any areas of your life that you would like to focus more on, or dreams that might be possible if focused on them?

We have probably all found ourselves in the following situation. We do our best, we feel, and we do, and we’re being honest, and yet, we don’t actually achieve what we had hoped, even though we can tell that it’s important. Not only for ourselves, but also because it might make a positive contribution to somebody else’s life. 

Perhaps we think we don’t have what it takes, 
that we need more training to achieve it, 
or maybe somebody else can do it better, 
and after all, what do we really have to offer … 

Or maybe we’ve waited so long that we’re too old to make a change?

That might be a fitting description of periods in most people’s lives. 
Most of us don’t believe that we’re good enough. 
We do what we can to cope, make things work out anyway, after all, we have to find a way to get by. 

But imagine if each of us could reach a point where we realized that we are precisely good enough, exactly the way we are?

Interestingly, this beautiful self-acceptance contains such a powerful declaration of love for ourselves and, thus, for life that once we acknowledge that we are good enough as we are, we actually become aware that in that exact constellation we have so much to give. 

Each of us has so unbelievably much to give. SO much that we just have to get started.
And in that zone, where we can feel how much is really calling to be put in motion, we don’t mind supporting the people around us doing exactly the same. Living out their unique calling. 

Finding one’s calling does not have to be about an elevated or religious purpose.
Really, it just means having that intuitive feel for what it is one can contribute with in the big picture. It is a way of giving while growing in a coherent universe, as I described it in my book The Fruit-Tree Strategy – Giving While Growing, back in 2000.

Sure, that’s a few years ago now, but I don’t think it is any less true now than it was then, perhaps on the contrary. The world, the planet, is calling for many things that most of us can see would really be improvements.

Imagine that it begins with us, you and me, so that with our calling and our unique contributions we can create a ripple effect that sets things in motion. 

It has to start somewhere. And it could start with you. Right here. Right now. Today, this month, this year. NOW.

Have you considered what makes your life meaningful?

I ought to spend more time at the gym; spend less time on NETFLIX; eat more broccoli; go to bed earlier; focus more on my career; be a better partner, parent, colleague or leader. The growth paradigm, with its ideals of ‘faster, higher, longer’, has instilled a basic condition where we constantly strive for personal optimization and drive. Often, this makes us forget to sense ourselves and think about what is really meaningful for us, the way we are, with our unique differences. What if we are actually good enough exactly the way we are?

‘What if …’ That is one of my favourite phrases, because it inspires me to wonder. I often wonder. Especially, I wonder about the growth paradigm and whether its dogmas and ideals have pushed us away from a much more coherent understanding of our place in the world that would hold much more meaning for each of us.

The growth paradigm that we have lived under in recent decades has made it legitimate and prestigious to strive for constant personal optimization. We are constantly driven to go onwards and upwards, achieving more and more, as illustrated, for example, by the constant attention we shower on our mobile phones or computers instead of being present where we are. Under the growth paradigm, being present in the moment has become almost unthinkable. And to keep up with the people around us, we tell ourselves that we had better flash our drive and enthusiasm, reflecting society’s ideals of boundless energy and capacity.

But what if that’s not where we are supposed to search for meaning? What if our efforts to achieve the ideals of the growth paradigm are really just making us more sad and frustrated than we realize? What if it is really the discourse of the growth paradigm – with its dogmas and ideals – that has led us astray, caused us to believe in an illusion that simply goes against nature and the way our bodies and minds work. Causing us to take anti-depressants because of the constant need to self-optimize and live up to expectations that are so far removed from our true nature that they make us stressed, depressed and incapable of making sense of our lives?

Look to the fruit tree to learn about leadership, following and self-management
What if we are really supposed to find the path to meaning, well-being and wholeness somewhere else entirely? What if we could learn from our bodies and from nature? The fruit tree is one of my main sources of inspiration.

The fruit tree blooms, yields fruit, goes into hibernation, only to start all over and get even stronger the following year. It gives while it grows, it has a natural rhythm, and it needs room to breathe. Exactly the same is true of human beings; we too are incapable of ‘peaking’ all the time, as required by the growth paradigm.

With inspiration from the fruit tree, I like to view human beings as organisms in a larger, coherent cosmos, able to find meaning and unfold our potential when we are allowed to give while we grow. We need room to breathe in our everyday life and time to consider, intuitively and continually, whether what we are doing makes sense and provides meaning.

Give yourself a check-up: are you giving while growing?
So wherever we are in life, I think we need to insist on maintaining an intuitive approach to ourselves and our life. We need to preserve our ability to ask those intuitive questions that the growth paradigm has made us forget. What brings meaning to my life and makes sense to me – exactly as I am? At work,in my family, with my friends. Who said that pursuing a career is the only way to live? What if the sense of having a purpose in life, a calling, could be an equal or even greater source of meaning?

 

Coherence, responsible insistence and more meaning. Now.

What’s not to like – fasting is mind-blowingly great!

April 14, 2016

There’s something I’d like to share with you. Something that has meant a lot for me and enabled me to do a lot of things that I couldn’t have done if I hadn’t experienced and discovered it. And maybe it can play an important role in your life too.  Who knows?  Here it goes.

I couldn’t believe it when I woke up one morning, 34 years ago, in connection with a fasting course at Gerlev Sport College by the Danish North Sea coast to find that my asthmatic bronchitis was gone without a trace.

It was my fourth day of fasting, and I discovered it simply by noticing that I was able to breathe more freely than before. Gone was the strain associated with breathing. I was nineteen years old, and I had had trouble breathing my whole life. So this was a wild experience. So wild that I almost lost my breath thinking about how wild it was. So while the others were still asleep in the summer cottage, I threw on some clothes, and off I went into the fresh sea air. I’ll never forget that morning. There was so much more light on the waves, and the colours in the sea and the sky were unbelievably clear.

And I was able to breathe. Freely. Completely freely.

Later in the day, most of us taking part in the fasting course, which targeted very active sportspeople from various types of sports, realized that that we had far fewer infiltrations and knots in our muscles than normal. And something we found fully fascinating and spent hours talking about was that after the first tree days of fasting, when the body has used up its sugar stores and switches from metabolizing glucose to metabolizing fat, we had a huge burst of energy and also had a sense of that our thinking was much clearer.

The great thing is that now, so many years later, there is extensive scientific evidence for the full range of transformations we experienced, on a psychological as well as a physical level.

Following this experience, I have continued fasting one day a week and a least one full week a year. And of course, I wanted to share the good experience and have therefore held annual fasting courses ever since and still do. I do it because I have yet to come across an activity that has the same intense and profound ability to bring me home to myself and help me connect with the things that seem essential in life. And when I fast it is completely effortless. I typically have my best ideas while I’m fasting. And I usually do it in spring or summer, where the weather warms up slightly and lets me ‘come into full bloom’ along with nature itself.

And now it’s springtime, and yesterday I had my weekly fasting day, which gave me the energy to write this. And that is another amazing benefit that I have gained by giving my body and my mind a break from eating and digesting: a huge and fairly fascinating wealth of possibilities for becoming aware of and changing my basic assumptions about how much food I need to eat, how often, and what types in order to function well and remain a kind and caring person without becoming too irritable and impossible to tolerate for the people around me. I have found, as have my many course participants over the years, that we have learned to ‘bear’ and ‘digest’ much of the more unpleasant stuff we all experienced on our path through life by compensating with the stuff we eat. So when we have spent about five days in a safe setting doing an organized fasting process under skilful guidance where we stop eating stuff, the bad experiences gradually diminish and evaporate, and in a profoundly humane and ultimately bearable almost loving way, we are now able to observe the content as it leaves our bodies and minds, freeing us of the stuff that made us feel hurt, sad, bitter and angry.

This has a completely prosaic scientific, biological explanation, which is that virtually everything we experience is also stored as memory in our cells. And some of the most challenging experiences tend to be stored as memory in our fat tissue. So on the third day of fasting, when the body begins to metabolize fat stores, we are actually giving ourselves and our systems a chance to let go of old memories that unconsciously took up a lot of energy and caused us to be stuck in old behaviour patterns – the way we think, feel and act.

And because we can choose when we fast to ingest only herbal teas and organic soup with loads of alkaline-forming substances that help the body get rid of stored acid in the body’s cells, muscle and tissue, that too promotes the gradual physical and psychological cleansing.

No wonder, then, that fasting has been a part of the essential rituals in many ancient cultures. The interesting point is, not least, that neuroscientists can now explain that when we fast the liver produces ketones, which have a strong generative effect on the brain and on the brain’s ability to exercise its neuroplasticity – that is, its capacity to form new neural pathways and networks. This means that our cognition, our focus and our memory improve, and we help ourselves and our brains prevent Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia etc.

I just love food. And still, I look forward like a child before Christmas every time I have an opportunity to fast five days in a row. Simply because it does my soul and body good on every level. So, despite my affinity for good food and drink, every time I’m fasting I just wind up with, ‘What’s not to like – fasting is mind-blowingly great!’

Friendships, mindfulness and the speed of light 

Thinking that friendships are among our most precious possesions.

A place where we can always go to find support and a warm heart to lean on. Where we know that we are accepted just the way we are. People in whose company we don’t need to change a thing about ourselves, be any different, smarter or wealthier, have better-paid jobs or have just returned from a trip to the Maldives, in order to qualify for a place at the table.

Finding that mindfulness is golden. Because it feels so immensely good simply to be present, together with others who are present too. Mindfulness can give us that sense of emotional satisfaction and wholeness.

As in completely satisfied and whole.

A strange sense of calm spreading within.

Not the sense of calm that we know might be shattered in an instant.

No; an almost existential, brilliantly luminous calm that we know is ours to keep, in our innermost core, if only we can be present in the moment or share the moment with others who do their humanly best to be focused and present.

And then sometimes, in the company of good friends, time dissolves.

And there is so much that feels brilliant and good, inside and out.

Those moments that we sometimes wish would last forever.

What the Danish philosopher Grundtvig might have called lifting up a tiny corner of eternity.

Einstein suggested that time and space may dissolve, be suspended under certain circumstances.

Or that our sense of time and space is altered when we operate at the speed of light.

Quantum physicists believe that we two-legged beings are in fact light, because we are consciousness, and consciousness is light.

Hmmm

At the speed of light 

Oops, there goes the table where we sat, laughing our heads off and playing games for hours,  just a moment ago, slipping away into the beyond 

Bang, there go the chairs, where our preconceived views and notions were seated so comfortably, seconds earlier,  whisked away into the galaxy.

And hey, now we see, 

gazing straight through suits and silk dresses,

plaid shirts and water resistant trousers, 

through running tights, bicycle shorts and wetsuits, 

through lies, strategic cob webs and painstakingly constructed self-images,

through beautiful truths and mad illusions 

through you, through me, through us.

Perhaps to behold something resembling light. 

We hardly believe our eyes, and yet we do, because right here it seems so obvious that each of us is brilliant.

Brilliant stars in the galaxy. 

Ah, seems like time just slipped away too, and space as well 

So here we are now 

We are now 

We are

Are

Perhaps mindfulness, brilliant friendships and genial relationships simply act as our GPS when we aim for the speed of light and unity with everyone and everything. Who knows?

And if that is the case, I for one would like to see 2016 guided by just that. A sense of unity with everything and everyone. And sustainable actions to keep it all together.

There is so much each of us can give while we grow.

Simply by being who we are.

There is so much good that we can do for each other, if only we take the time and remain mindful enough to seize it.

And science now confirms the age-old truth that giving gives back, that making others happy makes us happy.

I wish you a happy New Year!

All the best, 

Helen 

THE ERIKSEN INSTITUTE

– bridging science and consciousnness

www.heleneriksen.com