June 6. The National Day of Sweden. Here is Ulf Lundell’s “Open Landscapes” – the unofficial National Anthem, after the real one and… ABBA’s Dancing Queen 😉
Cheers Sweden! Enjoy…
Johanna
Circle of Light December 8, 2010
Halo Phenomenon Dec 1 2010, Tullinge Sweden (LennartWennberg.wordpress.com)
Today my father would have turned 75. This very morning I get an email from a man – fellow blogger, Lennart Wennberg – from the suburb Tullinge where I grew up in Sweden. He had found me because I used the same tag #Tullinge in a previous blogpost and wanted to share a photo his son had taken from there. A circle of light – beautiful. Isn’t our nature pretty amazing!?
This is for you Dad – Happy Birthday!
Thank you Lennart for sharing the beauty!
Grateful,
Johanna
Good Morning Sunshine November 6, 2010
…come say hello!
As I wrote the title, the song came to my mind… and looking it up – little did I know that I had been singing the wrong lyrics all my life!
That is what happens. In Sweden. At the dance school. The instructions by Lasse Kühler in preparation for the shows were “Sing along – if you don’t know the lyrics – make it up. Sing the Norweigan national anthem!”
I got an invitation Thursday morning from my dear cousin in Sweden, to send her a photo of my sunrise so she could post on her blog http://www.naturstigar.se (Nature’s paths), to include in the post Sweden vs. San Francisco.
A couple of days later, below are the photos I took this morning. Check out her site to see the one from Stockholm. AND – what does yours look like? Share with us in a link to your tweet, facebook, flickr (or whatever you use!) in our comments!
We will reflect your sunlight and twinkle back right to ya!
Have a lovely day.
Johanna
Hair Cast – Good Morning Starshine Lyrics
La da da da , da da da , da da da , da da da da da
da da da, da da da, da da dad a, da da da da da �.Good morning starshine
The earth says hello
You twinkle above us
We twinkle belowGood morning starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we sing
Our early morning singing songGliddy gloop gloopy
Nibby nobby nooby
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba dabba
Le le lo lo
dooby ooby walla
dooby abba dabba
Early morning singing songGood mornin’ starshine
There’s love in your skies
reflecting the sunlight
in my lovers eyesGood morning starshine
so happy to be
My love and me , as we sing
Our early morning singing songGliddy gloop gloopy
Nibby nobby nooby
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba dabba
Le le lo lo
dooby ooby walla
dooby abba dabba
Early morning singing song(music interlude)
Can you hear me?
Singing a song
Loving a song
Laser Focus September 28, 2010
What walks around comes around. I love when what you put out there bounce back at you. It sort of hits home in a different way.
Berlin Marathon - Michael (right) is crossing the finish line
In a coaching session today with one of my clients from Sweden, Michael, he shares his experience completing the Berlin Marathon this passed weekend. He was running in a steady pace, with a smile on his face, and as he got into a more heavy passage, one of my tweets (!) came to his mind: “Laser Focus!” A tweet! That one tweet kept his focus on the finish line, which he passed at 4 hours and 16 minutes.
Congratulations Michael! Thanks for the permission to share your story and celebrate your achievement!
Now – I know what I will put my laser focus on today. How about you? What is it that you would love to get done, and believe that you might not be able to? What is it that is urgent and important for you to get out of the way? What is it that is non-urgent but very important that you just haven’t had time to tackle? What if you actually could do it all, if you just gave it a little bit of extra special attention.
One more principle that could help on the way: good for now. It doesn’t need to be perfect. As long as it is good enough – that is what matters.
Go do it – and share it with others. You don’t know what you can inspire them to do. Just the possibility of it makes it worth it.
Celebration, with love,
Johanna
Workation or Frimester? August 5, 2010
The Swedish language got 30 new words last year 2009, of which 10% relates to vacation… maybe not surprising in a country where the employees are entitled to a minimum of five-weeks paid vacation, usually taken 4 weeks in a row, during the month of July. Right – six or seven weeks is not unusual. You can get your one week ski-trip in too. No worries. And a couple of weeks to Thailand during the holidays to escape the cold darkness.
The word for vacation in Swedish is “semester”. The new words were:
- “hemester” (home-ation or staycation), when you spend your vacation at the home location,
- “svemester” (USation), vacation spent in Sweden (or US), and
- “frimester” (freecation), vacation completely free and disconnected from work via mail, cellphone etc.
I on the on the other hand got what I asked for, “to be flexible in terms of where I work and be able to spend more time in Sweden”. Doing my best to squeeze in a little vacation too. Speaking with a fellow coach while in Sweden, she said “in America we call that workation“. I am not surpriced.
My experience, workation during a start-up phase in Sweden during the summer, is a recipe for burning the candle in two ends. It is easy to work from there, where ever and when ever. Computer, comviq surf and skype – that’s all I need. Great opportunity to get new clients in Social Media Marketing. There is also so much to catch up on with home, friends and family. The fact that the sun almost never goes down, and up very early, makes you believe that there is so much more time at hand… “It is possible to do it all”.
So the goal for next year is to E-Myth (by @michaelegerber) the business and also having a vacation – why not a Freecation. That should be possible. Maybe not 4 weeks in a row – but one. To start with. If you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it. A little bit of action needed too, to make it happen.
Are you getting what you need to charge your batteries during vacation?
Make sure you do. It not only benefits you, it also benefits everyone around you.
Enjoy,
Johanna
Perfect Union April 11, 2010
Last week I had the pleasure to go to a kirtan with Jai Uttal at Urban Flow Yoga. The room was full with people and the atmosphere was sort of upbeat, friendly and loving at the same time. Rusty Wells yoga teacher training had kicked off with the first session that very day, and those participants were in the room, with a big relaxed smile on their face. It’s interesting – I could see the same light in their eyes, that I feel when I come from his class. I can only imagine how the teacher training is… I so hope there is someone there that will open up a kick ass Urban Flow Yoga studio in Stockholm one day. I’m just putting it out there.
Jai Uttal opened up singing a mantra with us called Sita Rama. The lyrics mean, “you represent perfect union, you are love.” The introduction was that when Jai started with kirtans 30 years ago, he used to feel afraid initially sitting on stage with a room full of strangers looking at him. He felt that they would judge him, dislike the music, etc etc – and so he always made sure to know where the EXIT door was. (At this moment all of us knew where that door was!)
Today we started with that mantra through which he could greet everyone welcome. Singing Sita Rama, Sita Rama, Sita Rama Jaya Sita Rama, with that very message of perfect union and love directed to each and every participant; seeing them and inviting them instead of being afraid of them. I think we chanted two mantras in two hours, so I am sure we did it long enough for every one to get their personal greeting and feel that we were in it together.
How do you greet strangers, or handle a situation of discomfort? Do you always keep your back-door open, eyes on the exit door, or do you stay to meet the person or situation to find out what it really is about and create the best of it? Do you invite the connection to your audience when you are in the spotlight? Do you invite the perfect union?
The following day I walked on Union Street where there was a fair in relation to Easter. The golden moment was to see children in a fenced little area get aquainted with some animals. In particular this little British boy, who with curiosity and care really was seeking contact with this creature, for him something or someone unknown. That is a perfect example. The children are such good teachers and sources of inspiration.
Sita Rama, with love,
Johanna
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