Do you know the feeling you get after a day where you really feel, you have achieved something? To me it is like fuel into my good mood engine and it makes me shine inside, it makes me feel alive. And if you have not noticed yet, I am additionally proud when I did something that generally is not expected from women. This just adds some awesomeness to the good feeling.
My mom heats her house with an oven, so once in a while we go to visit her in order to help out preparing the wood: cut it, pile it up, carry it into the house, etc. Early spring we do the biggest wood day of the year, where we actually go into the forest and get wood we have bought from the ranger. As I lived in Denmark until recently, I was hardly part of any big wood events, but this year it was ON! We even had to cut down a tree on our own. It was a ca. 50-year-old beech tree and as one of our closest friends is a (female) ranger, she cut it down for us.
the landing
After overcoming some start difficulties, Jana performed wonders with her chain saw. She knew exactly how and where to cut in order to let the tree fall where she intended it to: in the middle of the path. I was buzzing with anticipation and then the signal came: “Tree falling!” and like in slow motion the tree touched the earth, blowing dust and leaves in the air that would stand still and then join the slow motion on their way back to the ground. The sky was bright, sun was shining through the trees and we had a tree to take away from the path.
We were three women who had to make the tree disappear until dusk. We took off the branches you could not use for fire wood, we divided the tree in pieces, carried the pieces into our van and drove them to a place where we later can cut them into fitting pieces for the oven.
Better get to work!
It was hard physical labor, but it actually made me feel good. Out in the fresh air, working under time pressure, I had a real feeling of hunger. I generally eat irregularly and unhealthy, but here my stomach told me to eat. We had some bread and some typical German sausage, but no knife, so we broke the bread and ate the sausage separately and it was the most delicious meal I had in a very long time. The work grounded me and cleared my head. Suddenly I was one step closer to an important decision I have to make. I have a tendency to over-think stuff and working with my mom and Jana showed me that happiness really only depends on very few factors. To me doing things on my own, putting some sweat into them is a very fulfilling activity.
So, how much did your Saturday contribute to your own happiness?
Last night, I had the most wonderful dream. I was riding a very strange but awesome rollercoaster with my grandfather (!) and at the right moment, time would slow down, so we could take pictures.
It gave me a really good feeling in my stomach, which persisted all morning. So I thought, I would share it.
P.S.: On my seach for rollercoaster pictures, I found this blog with crazy rollercoaster moments.
I promised in my post yesterday that I would tell you about a relaxing exercise, which involves warmth and a cocoon.
It is called liver compress and helps your liver to supply with blood and thus will be able to better detoxify. It is part of the “Buchinger-method”, which entails a fasting ritual and god knows what. My mom heard of it in one of her therapist seminars and was told that it is especially good for people with depressions. In Germany we have a saying: “He had a bug crawling his liver” – which means, the person is in a bad mood. And that does not come out of the blue, the liver somehow is connected to our mood, so if our liver is healthy, we are more happy. After what I read online, you have to do it at noon, but I always do it in the evenings. Just remember to do it after you have eaten.
I just like the liver compress, because it really helps me to relax and calm down, especially after a long day at work.
So here is what you need:
-a hot-water bag
-a linen towel
-a bigger towel
-a couch and a blanket (preferably cozy)
Step 1:
Fill the hot-water bag with boiling water and make sure there is no air in the bag, so it can lie flat on your stomach. Let it rest for ten minutes.
Step 2:
Prepare the couch/ bed: Put a blanket flat on the bed and a pillow, so you can lie comfortably on it. Turn on some calm, relaxing music.
Step 3:
After the ten minutes are over, take the linen towel and wet it with warm water. You can also make an extra herb infusion, just google what you need for that. Lie down and put the towel on your stomach (where the liver is, right under the right chest).
That's were the liver is located - and the belly button :-)
Step 4:
Put the hot-water bag on the towel on your stomach. Take the bigger towel and wrap it around your stomach, so the other stuff is pressed against your skin.
Step 5:
Wrap yourself in the blanket like in a cocoon. It is important that you have everything very tight to your body: the hot stuff, your arms and the blanket.
Step 6:
RELAX! Let your day pass in your imagination, think of something good and enjoy 20 minutes of perfect warmth and happiness. Probably you’ll dose off and many times I fell deeply asleep, so you might get into your pajamas for this exercise.
Try it out yourself. It is a nice exercise to connect body and soul. Wow, that was my first health post – are you as excited as I am?
Review of Cody and Murder at Café Zapata, Berlin, 02.02.2011
Cody
Murder
It is weird for me to write reviews, because I really like to do it, but I am extremely subjective and often write on matters I am not really an expert on. I just discover things for myself and want to share it.
When it comes to music, I have phases, when I go out and find cool stuff all by myself. Most of the time, though, my friends have to stick my nose into new stuff and I will eventually love it. The same goes for this one: my roommate Nicolai told me to come to this cool act, called Murder, an Neo Folk band from Denmark. There also would be a Danish band, “Cody”, as intro act.
Nicolai is a very considerate person, so the night before yesterday, he gave me the latest album of Murder to get into the mood. I went into my cocoon with a hot water bottle, called a liver compress (which has to be explained in another post) and listened to the album. It was just great: me on a wave of wonderful music doing a journey through the past day. It really was what made my day that day and Murder was a big part of it. So then I really looked forward to the concert.
It was at Zapata, in the ancient Tacheles complex, a Berlin icon from the 90’s and today crowded with international students and tourists. It is a quite diverse bunch of people there, because they have really cool and different concerts.
Because I am so lazy, no: so smart, no: so effective (!), I went there right after work, got a new book and a Falafel and sat at the bar for a beer to read a bit, before the whole thing started and my roommate would arrive. The early bird gets lucky sometimes, because I was in before they started selling tickets, so I had saved the 13 € entry fee.
I liked meeting the Danish boys I would enjoy the show with and off it goes with the bands:
Cody:
They are a group of six, with very diverse instruments (2 guitars, drums, cello, violin, and contrabass). Each one of them is a very good musician and together they do magic. I was fascinated by their performance and how good their live sound was. It really filled up my barrel. I have this personal metaphor: there are things that take energy away, like negative stress and there are things that give you energy. It is like a barrel that gets filled and emptied. Due to work and a lack of after work activities, my barrel was quite empty, but it got filled up, when I saw them. So, I used the money I had saved on the entry fee to by their latest LP.
Murder:
They are quite known in Indie circles. The appearance of the lead singer Jacob Bellens on stage was quite interesting, as he looked like a history teacher who could not find his classroom – in a good way. Anders Mathiasen does guitar and vocals and he reminded me slightly of a young version of my dad, which is weird, but in some way also a compliment. They also have a base player and a drummer. They had this Danish humor, which was entertaining and the quality of their performance was top. A lot of it is carried by Bellens’ great voice. I have to admit, that my heart was sold to Cody, so to me they could not really do better.
All in all, it was a splendid evening and I really enjoyed the entire experience. It gave me a lot of new ideas and hope, which was good, as I was quite negatively loaded that day. I have a feeling that I will finally get what I wanted from a city. I am able to see great cultural events, be it music, exhibitions or whatever. I always missed that in the past few years. The thing is, that it was there in the other cities as well, but I did not make anything out of it. Now, I am taking in as much as I can and it really is uplifting.
...was für eine Sache du unterstützt. Denk nach, bevor du dein Geld zum Fenster rausschmeisst und fang an, wieder selbst Dinge zu machen. Das ist überhaupt nicht schwer. Echt!
