Tag: let’s hug

About hygge, Christmas Traditions and being together!

It is finally December!!! This means Christmas, family, friends, good times, presents and just being together. I am Danish and Christmas is always a very big deal in Denmark; it is probably our biggest and most important holiday. Personally, I think it is because it gets incredibly dark in the winter months and the Danes need something to light their spirits. Already in November it gets completely dark at 16h30 and it only gets worse after that. By Christmas Eve it gets dark at 15h!!

So, you see, they do need some (Christmas) lights to be able to see in the streets! My mother lives in the countryside and just the other day a friend visited her in the afternoon and when he left he asked to borrow her flash light to be able to find his house.

The real Christmas countdown starts on December first. When I was a child my mother prepared small presents for us, one for each day counting down to Christmas Eve. I intend to do the same for my boys this year. On the 13th we celebrate Santa Lucia, where kids dress up in white and walk around with candles and sing. This is a very fond memory I have from my childhood. I went to the European School and all the other sections still remember the Danish girls walking around singing to this day!

Somewhere in the middle of December we get a real Christmas tree and decorate it in a special way. Yes, there is a Danish way to decorate the Christmas tree. The colours must be red and white and some also add Danish flags. We hide candy in the cones for the children, which they are allowed to eat during Christmas Eve day.

The 24th is the sacred family day. The whole family gathers and there is cooking in the kitchen all day long.  After dinner, when the presents which have magically appeared, we sing and dance hand in hand around the Christmas tree! During the final song, we run around the house in one big line. It is so much fun and I have very warm memories of my grandfather running around sillily making us wait even longer for our presents! Finally, we are done singing and the children get to pass out all the presents.

The night ends when all presents are opened and all bottles are empty. We all pass out extremely satiated from both food and presents! But Christmas isn’t over yet.

The infamous “Julefrokost” is a very big deal in Denmark, which translated as a Christmas Lunch. It is not really a lunch, but rather an entire day and night of eating and drinking. The menu is quite interchangeable and so are the drinks. During this event only beer and snaps are served. The snaps you may know from Germany is nothing compared to this one. You may know it as Akvavit and it can taste quite vile, but by the third one they go down quite easily! For me personally the snaps needs to be ice cold and downed while eating herring. Herring is a very important part of the Christmas Lunch menu and goes down beautifully with Akvavit. Every company, University and other institution will host a “julefrokost” for the entire staff. This is the night where it is accepted and even expected to let loose and live a little. This is where office affairs start and embarrassing stories are remembered throughout the year! This party is usually held in November or even January depending on the type of business or when exams are held, etc. and is usually held with family and friends on the 25th or 26th of December.

Christmas in my family would last until the 6th January, day of the 3 kings. This is where my mother would take down the tree and all the decorations. We lived in Luxembourg, so we didn’t have too much of a reason to keep the lights out longer than that, but I do believe that now as she lives in Denmark she keeps them out a lot longer.

The Danes have so many traditions around this holiday and each family also add on their own routines and customs, but the most important aspect of the entire season is to be together! This is so essential. In Denmark it is cold, dark and wet during these months and people need to come up with something to compensate. In a sense “hygge”, which is the Danish word for cosiness, is turned up a notch. And I believe the Danes are doing a great job! After all, it is not for nothing that they have been crowned the happiest nation so many times 😉

This year, I wish for you all to embrace your own traditions and spend lovely times with family, friends and loved ones. Embrace some HYGGE and just BE TOGETHER!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

 

Anne Louise Littlejohn – HealthyLux Passionate Contributor

HealthyLux December theme – Let’s hug

 

Let’s hug! But, what if hugging included yourself?

Yes, the question is relevant. Think about it. Very often the love we express through hugs is projected towards the outside of us: to our partners, to our children, even our parents, siblings and friends. Yet, how much does the theme of this month, ‘let’s hug’, also include embracing the love for our life, embracing every part of ourselves without compromising, and declaring that hugging is just as much about self-love as it is about compassion for others?

Hugging does not just include a physical component. Yes, putting the arms around someone else already allows us to determine a certain degree of intimacy between two people in their relationship with each other. Or, how often do you hug strangers? Mind you, maybe this is what the world needs right now: more hugging strangers. But that is a question for another time.

If you hold someone, it implies that you have a deeply rooted emotion for the receiver of your hug. The bodies touch on a heart level, so your act is out of compassion and righteousness. An intimate act of joy, of love; of demonstrating your feelings for, and sharing with someone.

Now question this! Hugging is about the word “embracing”, and pulling someone closer to you. Yet, how close do you let the person who really is closest to you, inside?  Of course, I mean to say how close do you really let yourself in? How often do you hug your own soul?

Self-love, and embracing (aka hugging) yourself in all your glorious mess and perfect imperfections, is not an act of selfishness or egotism. Quite the opposite. Where love prevails, there is no ego. And where there is love, it just is. Meaning that you also honour yourself, and show just as much compassion towards you, as to someone outside of you.

Can you learn self-love? Yes. Can you feel self-love? Yes. Can you accept self-love? Yes. The teachings of Kundalini Yoga, as brought to us through Yogi Bhajan, give us many holistic approaches, technologies, meditations and lectures on how to overcome the ego and act from a place of compassion and love.

Love what you understand is very different than what love is. In the 1994 Espanola lecture, Yogi Bhajan talks with his students about the subject of love. I would like you to read this extract and reflect upon what it means to you personally:

“You have sensual love, you have sexual love, you have personal love, you have conditional love, you have unconditional love and you can call the love with anything. Actually, love is a self-acknowledgement. When I love myself, I can be so rich, I can love everybody. The depending love, that because you love me, you depend on me and I love you, I depend on you and because I expect, in business now I expect this, you expect this, this is not, that is not love, that is called, what you can call it? Softening the way. Meaning something different, doing something different. Love is the most abused one word in the human vocabulary. Because first condition of love is when you are in love or you love somebody you have no question to be asked. Where there is a question there is no love. Where there is a condition, there is no love. Where there is an expectation, there is no love. Where there is jurisdiction, there is no love. Where there is a territory, there is no love. Which can be defined and have dimension has no love.”

Love has no conditions and no expectations. Is this new to you? If you put expectations onto your love, then it’s not love.

Life is a flow of love, only your participation is requested. Love is an experience of oneself within oneself. It is self-fulfilment, it is self-attainment, it is self-containment, it is self-enlightenment, and it is self-beauty. The love you feel for yourself is gorgeous, beautiful, and blissful. Like the beautiful person you are.

As a Kundalini Yoga teacher and a Life Coach, the number one thing I recommend to anyone who wants to change their life is to practice meditation. No, you don’t have to be a monk, and it does not matter if you have never meditated before. You can learn. Scientifically speaking, meditation has many benefits, and even as little as a couple of minutes a day can really help you improve Your Life.

What are 10 minutes of your day? They are nothing in comparison to the manifold results of the experience. If you don’t have just 10 minutes of the day to yourself, to sit in silent with yourself and listen to your breath and your heartbeat, then what is Your Life – what are you –  worth?

You are everything and everything is you. Embrace yourself – and when you hug someone you love, don’t forget to include yourself in your compassion.

May the longtime sun shine upon you!

 

Melanie Reid – HealthyLux Passionate Contributor

HealthyLux December theme – Let’s hug

 

 

Hugs to you!

There have been notes in the social media, especially on Facebook how women need to be hugged on daily bases. Coming from Northern Europe, we do not give kisses to the cheeks when meeting up with friends, we usually hug close friends. We hug each other when someone is not feeling well, we congratulate each other with a hug and moms usually welcome their kids back home with a big hug.

When watching the international news, especially the USA market, speaking about hugging might be considered also offensive. It is necessary to mention that hug is not always well perceived either. A hug can be sign of possession or domination. A hug can make someone also feel uncomfortable. Should you feel uncomfortable being hugged, it is always fine to state your feeling. No-one should feel obliged to be hugged.

My eldest son is one of those people who is not keen on being touched. His personal space is very important to him. He does especially not like kisses on the cheek. I ask him always his permission to give a hug. Every now and again out of the blue I feel his arms around quickly. Those are precious memories. My younger son is the complete opposite to his older brother. He could hug all day long. He does not mind to be kissed on his cheeks either. Regularly the little one comes and puts his arms around and says “mom, I really, really love you!” It does feel nice.

Being hugged in safe environment makes one feel good. Comforting words together with a hug makes the world feel a much better place. And sometimes there is no need for words. Just a hug to show love.

Who will you hug today?

Kristel Weinreich

Owner at Lumo and HealthyLux Contributor

HealthyLux December theme – Let’s hug