Book of Nordic Self-Care (eBook)

Elisabeth Carlsson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023
208 Seiten
Ryland Peters & Small (Verlag)
9781800652897 (ISBN)

Infos

Discover the secrets of the Nordic way of life to gain meaning, calm and happiness. The Nordic countries are renowned for being among the happiest in the world, and in this beautifully illustrated guide, Elisabeth Carlsson shares the keys to their lifestyle to help you improve your health and wellbeing. In the first chapter, learn about the benefits of wellness practices such as saunas and find skincare rituals that you can try at home. Next, take inspiration from Nordic foods by focusing on simple flavours, seasonal produce and preparing your meals as an act of self-care. There's also a chapter on immersing yourself in nature through cold-water therapy and wild swimming. Embracing and adapting to the seasons is one way that the Nordics cope with the dark winters, and you'll find methods to help you tune in to your environment through seasonal celebrations. From small self-care rituals to ways to shift your mindset, this guide includes plenty of inspiration from the Nordic countries to help you simplify and savour your everyday life.

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exercise and well-being

Fitness and staying healthy are generally big priorities for the people in the Nordics, and I can guarantee that if you chat to a Swede the conversation will eventually lead to them telling you about what they do for exercise or their latest health interest or outdoor pursuit. Being present, connecting with nature by practicing friluftsliv (see page 68), and staying active without pushing yourself in a gym is usually the Nordic approach to fitness. The same goes for beauty and skincare: the Nordics keep it simple, sustainable, and naturally sourced.

Self-care is all about looking after our needs, improving how we feel, and being resilient to events around us. It involves having simple daily routines which help to achieve some of these goals, and physical exercise is definitely up there as one of the core methods to increase your well-being. Research has shown that minimal movement is better than none, so just some gentle walking or even gardening can help. Often we get put off because we link exercise with the idea of losing weight, and lots of people have negative associations with this which is understandable. However, exercise has numerous benefits that have nothing to do with stepping on a scale. For example, it improves cognitive function and makes your thinking sharper, as it stimulates the production of new brain cells. My son, who is now 15, is a prime example of this as when he started exercising and strength training in his last year of high school, his memory and grades improved and his teachers asked if he was the same boy. Movement is also protective against aging of the brain, as it increases the size of the hippocampus, which controls short-term memory.

By exercising you are also investing in yourself, which can help you feel powerful. Strength training and increasing muscle mass is key to reversing insulin resistance, which is critical in preventing diabetes, high blood pressure, and other metabolic diseases. The muscles are also the main reservoir of amino acids (the building blocks of protein). If we are unwell or being starved—think going on “diets”—the body relies on this ready supply in the muscles to make essential proteins. Having more muscle protects against osteoporosis as the bones grow stronger by bearing a heavy load, that is muscles. So you see, there are loads of benefits to exercise that won’t have you checking your scales.

We all find it pretty hard to get out there and exercise regularly, but the Nordics don’t seem to have this problem so much. It’s thought their penchant for outdoor activities is related to the values of puritanical Lutheranism, which have historically been especially influential in Sweden and Norway. With the rise of consumerist individualism in other countries, the popularity of outdoor exercise has arguably suffered. Although, according to 2022 data from the Eurobarometer, which conducts surveys on behalf of the European Commission, the Nordic countries have the lowest value of non-exercising people, with just 8 per cent in Finland, 12 per cent in Sweden, and 20 per cent in Denmark, compared to 23 per cent in Germany and 45 per cent in France.

The high levels of people doing sporty activities outdoors in the Nordic countries probably also has something to do with the importance they place on being in nature. Outdoor exercise is widely believed to build character, and children from a young age in the Nordic countries are used to doing outdoor activities to boost fitness and resilience. The half-term school holidays in Sweden are even called sportlov, sporting holidays, which tells you all you need to know really. I remember orienteering fondly from my schooldays mainly because we were running around in the woods and could take cheeky breaks behind a pine tree. “For individuals who have not exercised for many years, the forest is a place with a low threshold,” says Kati Vähäsarja, who has run Moved by Nature, a Finnish project promoting exercise in nature. Not only is it free or inexpensive, but it has so many brilliant advantages other than fitness—see page 68 for more on the Nordic concept of friluftsliv (free open-air life) and its benefits.

holistic skincare

For me, skincare and beauty have always been quite low key. I remember mixing together some herbs and water to make a face tonic as a teenager, because where I grew up there was a distinct lack of any kind of beauty store and I wanted to experiment beyond the soap my mom would buy.

I had to make do with the homemade stuff, using nature as my pharmacy and sourcing ingredients from plants, flowers, and the odd lump of clay too. A highlight in my teens was when my mom allowed me to order shower gel and lotions that used only natural ingredients from a French mail-order catalog—I was very excited when it finally arrived in the post.

Nordic skincare is very much inspired by nature and often contains locally sourced ingredients you cannot find elsewhere— think extracts from marine algae, nourishing tree sap, and antioxidant-rich berries. In order to endure conditions so far north, plants must adapt their defences—making for more potent ingredients. When used in skincare, these antioxidants make for powerful protection against free radicals that can cause various signs of skin aging.

Laura Heikkilä, who is the founder of Nörre Nordic, a Finnish company that focuses on skincare products says, “The Finnish people have a deep connection to nature. Finland… is the most forested country in Europe covering more than 75% of the land area… Finnish people are drawn to the natural beauty of the forest and are passionate about using natural ingredients in their skincare routine. Finnish forests are rich in unique wild plants, berries, and herbs that can’t be found anywhere else on the planet. I think Finnish skincare is special because it takes advantage of these unique and potent ingredients that are abundant in the Nordic region. These ingredients have been used for centuries by our ancestors to nourish and protect the skin from the harsh weather conditions. Finnish skincare products often utilize ingredients straight from the forest—like wild picked berries (e.g. lingonberry, cloudberry, bilberry, sea buckthorn, cranberry) and wild herbs (e.g. lady’s mantle, nettle, meadowsweet, birch leaf)—to create products that are not only nourishing and gentle on the skin, but also highly effective in addressing specific skin concerns.”

Reducing toxins in our environment is a key component of health. This is especially the case for women, as our hormones can easily be disrupted by too many chemicals and toxins, so seeking out natural body products can be one way to practice self-care. By doing this, we also put less of a burden on our environment. Using natural ingredients and following a Nordic approach to holistic skincare—also considering lifestyle, diet, exercise, and stress levels—is the way forward, helping to achieve beauty that is radiant from the inside out. Choosing natural ingredients also applies to cleaning products for your house, because who needs a different bottle of cleaner for each type of dirt when one will do. My mom only ever used pine liquid soap for everything and I am pleased to say I can now find it in the UK.

A lot of new Nordic beauty brands focus on using sustainable ingredients and environmentally friendly packaging, reducing the impact on the planet. This comes from a deep respect for and connection to nature. Avoiding the depletion of natural resources is the key to sustainability and maintaining ecological balance. Laura Heikkilä says, “The rest of the world can certainly learn from the Scandi approach to skincare, as it emphasizes the importance of taking care of one’s skin in a natural and sustainable way. By using locally sourced and minimally processed ingredients, Nordic skincare has a lower environmental impact while delivering effective results.” She emphasizes that this holistic approach values simplicity, and focuses on the power of nature. This means that your skincare routine can be minimalistic and yet very effective.

The lagom (balanced) approach is at the core of Nordic beauty, and the balance of mind and body, and the internal and external, is inherent in a Nordic lifestyle. If you are healthy, your skin looks at its best. Look after yourself and increase your knowledge about what makes you feel good in terms of food, exercise, spending time outside, simple skincare, and enjoyment. Make a plan with a vision about what you believe a happy, balanced life should be. But be patient as nothing happens overnight, and embrace aging by focusing on staying strong and healthy.

creating a skincare routine

After many years of experimenting, using both very high-end and lower-end products, I find that less is definitely more. If you focus on restorative sleep, hydration and mineral-rich foods, lots of nature walks and natural light, your skincare routine can really be very simple. Use a gentle cleanser in the evening that doesn’t disrupt the skin’s barrier; I like the oil-cleansing method in the colder months. Then apply a simple plant-based oil such as jojoba or a serum, or nothing at all. In the morning, depending on the season and your skin type, wash only with water, followed by a tallow-based cream or a light lotion to moisturize.

STINGING-NETTLE TONIC

If you fancy making your own skincare, try this easy natural tonic recipe. Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are a flowering plant and...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.10.2023
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Entspannung / Meditation / Yoga
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Esoterik / Spiritualität
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen
• Schlagworte: Celtic • Celtic history • celtic symbolism • Meditation • Mindfulness • mythology and celts • Nature • Nordic • Spirituality
• ISBN-13: 9781800652897 / 9781800652897