tina 00:00:00 Has. A large portion of us are experiencing a lot of chaos right now. How would you guys like to experience a little bit of calm? So this morning I was watching YouTube, as I do many mornings while I'm eating my breakfast and I came across this YouTube channel about Nordic life and there were 12 rules to live a simpler, easier life. And I was inspired to do a podcast on this. And so let's get into it. You are listening to the Soul Aligned Self-care podcast. I'm your host, Tina Stenson, and I had a stroke at the age of 39 from stress and burnout that shook my world. Now I'm laying it all out. The deep level self-care practices and mindset shifts that I needed that kept me healthy, balanced, and thriving. Join me in this intimate space as we explore healing, resilience, and the soul's journey to alignment. This is where real conversations about deep level self-care happen. Let's get into it. I see a common theme that's starting to pop up in my world, where people want to live a simpler life.
tina 00:01:24 They're stressed, they're overwhelmed. They're working really hard, but they're not getting anywhere. And so they're looking at what they're doing and they're saying, why am I doing this? And how could I do this better? How could I live simpler? And it was really interesting when I first woke up this morning. I didn't know what today's podcast episode was going to be, and a lot of times that's how it is. I usually end up writing a blog and then I do a podcast episode. But this morning, and more recently every morning, I've been watching a lot of YouTube and a lot of the stuff I'm watching is gardening and homesteading. And I got into this, like tiny house, watching like all these different people that are building tiny houses and it's so interesting. Anyway, so a video that popped up on my feed this morning was about it was like, I think it was called, I think the title was the 888 rule, and it was about living some like a simple life and it was about Nordic culture.
tina 00:02:30 So I think it was based the person that did the video, and I'm going to post the video in the show notes. But the person that did the video, he was from Finland. His name is I think I'm probably going to say this wrong. It's sev, so I'm just gonna say save maybe. But the name of the channel was Sunny Kind Journey. Anyway, I listened to his video. It was about probably about 20 something minutes long and I would encourage you to go watch it, because I'm kind of going to give my take on what he, he had 12 rules for just living a simpler, easier life, and I loved every single one of them. It was such a good video. I think it got over a million views. So it was really good. Anyway, at the beginning of the video, I think he talks about the Prime Minister and it must be an old video because it was the Prime Minister from, I don't know, I think it was like 2015. His name was I'm going to also mess this up, battery or Po or something like that.
tina 00:03:35 Anyway, you got to go look at that guy. You got to go look at how, fit and like, amazing looking the guy is. The man is. Anyway, no, it doesn't look anything like our leaders. Anyway, so, I'm gonna go over all 12 of his rules and just kind of. From my point of view and share them with you. I loved, as I said, I loved every one of them. So starting with number one, it was the 888 rule, which was eight hours of work, eight hours of, you know, just hanging out and then eight hours of sleep. And, I mean, that would be great. Everybody wants to kind of do that, actually, I'd like to work less than that, but it's it's more about like living a balanced life. It's more about not focusing on work all the time and having how many of us have just eight hours to just hang out. Not many of us have that where we're not focused on work or stressed about something.
tina 00:04:42 Right? So it's about how can I begin to create this space for myself? We all have to work, right that we don't have any trouble getting in eight hours work. So how can I create the space for myself, where I have the eight hours to kind of hang out and do the things that I love. And eight hours to get a good night's sleep. Now I never sleep for eight hours. My like perfect night's sleep is about seven hours. But everybody's different, so everybody needs different. But that was the first one. That one wasn't one of my favorites. but he has a point. A lot of us focus too much on work, and I think it's because we're very obsessed with making money, because money helps us survive. And everybody is at a place of, like, survival right now. We're not thriving, we're surviving. And so it is a main focus. So this is really, for me, a reminder to focus on the other eight hours of having a good time and doing the things I love.
tina 00:05:43 And while I'm doing those things that I love, not focusing on work, which is very hard for me. I love my work and I do focus on it a lot. And as I'm doing fun things I always think about, this would be great for work. This would be good for this. I don't think that's necessarily always bad, but you do need to just have a really good time and not focus on making a living. Number two. Live with the rhythms of nature. So this one you know me, guys, I love being outside. I love focusing on living in the in the rhythms of nature. I like doing the moon work that I do on my Patreon channel, like every two weeks, like for a new moon and a full moon. We do like, I create a journaling worksheet for my Patreon, so if you're interested in that, just head over there and hang out with us. but one of the things that he said, I don't necessarily agree with this, but it's kind of like incorporating nature into every part of your life.
tina 00:06:48 And we know that Finland is pretty cold, right? And they have a saying that says there's no such thing as bad weather. Just bad clothing. And so I don't know if I agree with this, because where I live, it gets really cold in the winter and it's just not my favorite all the time to be outside, even if I have great clothes on a good coat. it is hard for me to get outside. I don't hate the snow, but it just lasts for so long, you kind of get sick of it. As I'm recording this, it is April 8th and it is snowing outside. And it is cold and windy. It's in the 20s, so it's. And that's pretty unusual for this time of year. But, we do get snow in April and I don't really like it because I'm in spring mode right now. But I do appreciate living with the rhythms of nature. So like when the when the time changes, it really screws me up, you know, like spring ahead, fall back.
tina 00:07:48 I try to focus on when the sun comes up and when the sun goes down. And so I change my working hours for those times. Because once it gets dark out. I am just not 100% on when it comes to doing coaching calls and stuff like that. And I know this. It makes me tired as soon as it gets dark out. And so I close my schedule early in the winter, and in the summer I leave my schedule open a little bit longer because it stays light out, you know, longer. So I'm basically kind of adjusting my work schedule to how much light is, you know, out. And I think that being mindful of the way your body feels when these changes come along and honoring that, the way I'm honoring myself by knowing I don't want to work when it's dark out, is, I think, definitely kind of being aligned with nature. And the other thing I that's very important to me, and I think you guys know this is gardening and growing my own food and learning about how.
tina 00:08:56 What plants do well where I live. Because, you know, once again, it's quite cold up here. What I can't grow, how I can grow, some things that grow down south. You know, if I do take special steps and just getting more in tune with how to feed myself all year round with my garden, and I actually just absolutely love doing that. And if I could just do that all day and not do anything else, I'd be very happy person. Now, number three is focus on practicality and simplicity. And what this one really meant is about simplifying everything. And this is something I do in a lot of my programs. And it's work that I do with some of my clients where I declutter. So I help declutter not just space, but also your your mind and then decluttering the processes that you use every day. Simplifying everything to the point where everything is flowing very nicely. It reduces stress and anxiety and it makes life easier to live. Now he talked about like how simple the decor is and stuff like that.
tina 00:10:06 And for me, it's more about being surrounding yourself with the things that you love, that keep, that make you feel calm, that make you feel happy. And for me, that's not simplicity. I like, you know, I like a lot of color. I like a lot of weird things. I like having a lot of plants in my house. And so I would say my style is very eclectic and not simple, but I love it. And that's how I feel comfortable. And I think that's what everybody should do. But simplifying the things that stress your mind and then simplifying the things that stress your space. So like any type of clutter or things that make it hard for you to do your everyday tasks. Like maybe you don't have enough space for your cooking. You know, pots and pans and stuff like that. So you have you have trouble cooking smoothly. It's stressful. It's not fun. So, you know, simplifying that, maybe getting rid of some of the pots and pans, only keeping the ones out that you use constantly and putting the others in storage or something like that.
tina 00:11:14 So like just constantly asking yourself, how can I simplify this? How can I make this easier for myself? And then how can I make this beautiful? So you've taken away everything that adds stresses and, friction in the in your everyday life, your processes and your physical space and your mind. And then after you clear that out and you simplify it and you reduce that stress, then you can add back in some beauty, some comfort, the things that make you happy. And I love this one. This is one of my favorite ones. anybody who's worked with me knows I love decluttering. Number four is Create Calm Spaces, which is kind of part of three, really, but it's about creating calm spaces in your home, in public, all around you. And so if if you're in a place that doesn't have a lot of common spaces, so say you live in New York City and you're like, I would love to have a lot more calm spaces. New York City is in a very calm place to live.
tina 00:12:18 But when you start to learn about all the little nooks and crannies of New York City, you learn that they have these cute little parks everywhere. There is a park. I think it's on the Lower East Side, and it has a little treehouse in it with like a little, bookcase with books. And you can go in there and you could sit and you can read and you can get something to eat and go and picnic in there. And it's very small, and you would never imagine it even being there. But they have these little parks all over New York City. So find your spaces where you can have that piece where you can connect with nature. so like for me, it's very easy. I just have to step outside. I live in a very rural area. just finding my favorite spaces in nature. I love being near water. I always have, and, bringing the peace and the calm that I enjoy nature back into my house by bringing plants into my house and adding as many of them as possible.
tina 00:13:19 I have lots of baby plants right now. Now number five, I have my notes I have to share with you. I have my notes all over a piece of paper, and I was taking notes this morning while I was listening to it because I was like, I'm definitely going to do a podcast on this. And so it's like a it's like a little hunt trying to find number five. And they're just notes all over little pieces of paper and stuff. So number five is truth and boundaries. So it's about speaking your truth and having clear boundaries. When we do this, when we speak our truth. And to me, that's about showing up as your true self, showing up as your authentic self, and, setting clear boundaries of what you will allow and what you won't. To me, this is about being not just respectful of yourself, but being respectful to other people. You're not. You're being completely upfront and honest with them. They know what to expect and they know what you expect.
tina 00:14:18 And so it makes it. It makes it easier for them to have a relationship with you. And, it makes it easier for them to show up authentically as themselves. And it makes them more comfortable to be around you because you speak the truth and you know they know what to expect with you. They also know what your boundaries are. So this one Rings high for me also. setting boundaries. it was very important for me when I was healing, and, it was really hard for me. I was a people pleaser. I talked about this on many, many episodes. I have a whole series on boundaries. It's an eight podcast series. I'll put a link to that in the show notes. But boundaries are so important to me, and I never really thought about it this way. that when you set boundaries and you show up as yourself, it's respectful to other people, especially your loved ones and the people that you're in a relationship with. Number six finish what you start. This one is really close to my heart because when I was a kid, my parents never forced me to finish anything.
tina 00:15:31 And I'm sure they, you know, as parents, we always do our best. My parents were great, right? But, they I don't I wouldn't say they babied me. I just When I, when I was, when I didn't want to finish something, they didn't force me to finish it. And it allowed me to kind of use that, to not be uncomfortable and not try new things. And so I became very aware of this when I was probably in my 20s, and I knew it was something I needed to change. I'm glad I realized it when I was still young and not like now in my 50s, but I had to, like, be very intentional about forcing myself to finish things. And I also kind of forced my kids to finish things too, because I didn't want to do that to them. And so it was about if I committed to something, I was going to do it, even if I changed my mind halfway through, or if I hated it, I forced myself to finish it.
tina 00:16:31 And now I can say that I finished pretty much everything that I start. So this one was very important to me. This is another thing that helps you respect yourself and others. Because if you commit to something, whether it's, you're committing to someone personally, or maybe it's a group of people or whatever it is, it's still let someone down if you kind of back out. And so unless you have a absolutely, really legitimate reason, finishing projects that you kind of commit to is respect for yourself and for others, and it helps you build confidence. So very important. Number seven. Respect time. So this is something I always had a lot of respect for. I'm always on time. If I'm late, I'm distraught and stressed. I get so stressed out if I know I'm gonna be late to something. I'm so stressed about being late that I will show up excessively early. And what's really funny is all three of my kids are like this. All three of them. They'll show up a half hour early to everything, and I don't ever remember stressing this to them.
tina 00:17:43 Like I don't ever remember making a point about it. So I don't know why that happened naturally. Maybe just from them watching me, I don't know. I'm not really sure, but respecting time and other people's time. So there's nothing that angers me more than someone who is consistently always late. When you make plans with them like the same person late all the time, especially if it's excessively late, you know, like 30 minutes or something like that. I just won't do it. You know, it doesn't mean I don't like the person. It just I'm not going to sit there and wait in a coffee shop or wherever in a parked car for someone to show up for 30 minutes. It's just not going to happen. And, you know, if that happens every once in a while, that's normal, right? There's things that come up. But if it happens continuously, it just feels like you're being disrespected, whether it's meant to be that way or not. So I think it's really important to respect your own time and other people's time.
tina 00:18:45 And another way to look at this, also, when you're respecting your own time, is being intentional about the way you spend your time. Don't do things that are a hell no. Only do things that are hell yes. And when you start doing this, you'll just. You'll feel better about yourself because you're respecting your own time. Now, number eight is embrace solitude. Now, the way I. The take that I took away from this. And I don't know if this is what he meant by this, but I think it's really, really important to be able to be by yourself for long periods of time. I think it's really, really important for you to be comfortable with being alone. And I think until you can love being alone with yourself and love spending time with yourself, it's hard for you to have a really functional relationship with other people. And so, I think, you know, for me, it was a very important process after I got divorced to learn just how to be by myself and do things by myself and not just do it, but be happy.
tina 00:19:55 And now I love spending time by myself to the point where sometimes I have to force myself to be social. I guess I would, I guess I could say that I'm a little bit of an introvert. I'm like a extrovert until I'm not. I don't know if that makes sense. It's like I want to make all these plans. I want to do all these things, but I know it just sucks the life out of me. So I have to be really careful about how much I plan. So embracing solitude to me is really important to be able to form positive, healthy relationships with other people. I don't want to ever, ever base my happiness or put my happiness in somebody else's hands. I want to always know that I can be happy completely by myself. And then if somebody else just adds to that happiness, that just makes it so much better. Number nine the value of silence. So I agree with this. I talk about this a lot in my business. I help people heal from burnout and reduce stress and anxiety and overwhelm.
tina 00:21:02 Right? And so one of the main things to do, one of the first things I teach people a lot of times is how to check in with themselves, how to be still and quiet. Do a quick breathwork slash meditation and check in to themselves with themselves and listen. Right? When we're going, going, going. And we're super, super busy all the time. And as all of us are right, we're not really checked in. We're really just we have we're on the hamster wheel and we're running towards life. We're experiencing life and it's not bad to like be busy and experience life, but we have to slow down. Sometimes when we slow down, we, you know, pay attention to how we feel when we slow down. We learn what we love and we learn what we don't love. When we slow down, we pay attention to ourselves. We get to know ourselves. If we never slow down, we lose ourselves. And so I think it's really, really important to create that space.
tina 00:22:10 the next one was space to breathe. I really think this kind of just piggybacks off of eight and nine, like knowing when to, you know, knowing how to be alone with yourself and be happy. And then the value of silence, like just creating that space. But space to breathe is, I think, the way he described it was more about when you're having a conversation, it doesn't have to be rushed. Don't talk over each other. Pay attention. Listen. Before you respond to something. Take a few moments to think about it. He said it's a common practice in Nordic culture to, have this space, whereas in probably American culture, it's like an uncomfortable amount of silence. Right. So it's not the norm. But I think this is really important, and this is something I discuss very often with friends and clients, is that you don't have to respond to everything right away. You're allowed to think about things you're allowed to say to another person, I don't know. Give me a second to think about this.
tina 00:23:17 I'll get back to you. Or I need to think about this for a day and I'll get back to you. You're allowed to do that. You don't have to respond right away. You can respond by just saying, I'm not going to respond to this right away, but I need some time and space to think about it. So when you feel Conflicted and you don't really know how to respond to something. Give your self the space to allow yourself to respond the way you want to. Authentically as yourself. Right? Don't just respond because you feel this pressure that you have to. So that's that's one of the ways. number ten, have that space to breathe. That's one of the ways I think of it. Now, number 11 is a sense of community and contribution. Everybody's actions have an impact on the world and the people around them. And I think that's something, in the USA that has we're kind of lost on that right now, I think. I think it's the way we were brought up to be like individuals and pull up your bootstraps and don't depend on anybody.
tina 00:24:28 And we've basically torn apart a sense of community. Now, some people have really great communities. I look at my oldest daughter and she has a wonderful community of friends, and I am so proud of her that she created that for herself. And I think it's beautiful. But not everyone has that, and I don't think it's the norm anymore. And I think it's really, really important to be a part of a community. And when you allow yourself or your intentional about creating a sense of community with your friends, family, neighbors, whoever, then it's makes everybody's life easier. And as he said in the video, everyone's actions have an impact on the world and the people around them. I think what's also important is if you, the more that you give and support your community, the more supported you are. And so when you look at like the billionaires of the world and you know that they could change a lot of things instead of them focusing on making more and more money, and not paying, say, their fair share of taxes or stuff like that.
tina 00:25:46 It's, that's definitely not a way to be a part of a community. It's definitely not giving back. You know, it's just taking, taking and taking and it's not giving back. The amount of change that they can create is probably incredible, but they choose not to. I never really understood it. I think something happens to you and you, gain that much money and power. And I don't think it's anything good. So I don't think anyone should really have that much money. I feel like the more I feel like the more we give to the community, the more we, kind of intertwine ourselves into a community, the richer we become, the more abundant we become. And I think I wish more people realized that. And I feel like there's a shift going on right now. I think that's why there's such a degree of, people feeling separated right now, because I think the days of the billionaires are over and we're moving into the days of, living in a community. more feminine leadership.
tina 00:27:01 And I'm looking forward to that. Number 12 and the last one. Seek peace over praise. Happiness does not come from material wealth. It comes from pursuing your peace and your joy. Now there's going to be people. And I would be one of them that would say, yes, money can buy happiness. And I think it does at a to a certain point. Right. So there's been a study done on this and I don't know what the study is called, but I think what the study found and this was done back in the early 2000. So I'm sure this amount would be higher now, probably a lot higher. But they found that the breaking point where money, the amount of money you make, didn't. I'm not sure if I'm going to say this correctly. It didn't make you more happier to make more. I think it was like 75,000 or I'm not even sure it might have been 175, or maybe it's 175 now, and it was 75 back then. But past that point, people weren't happier.
tina 00:28:07 But if someone made $30,000 a year and then they kept making more and more money, yes, it makes life easier. It gives you choices, it gives you freedom. But then you reach a certain point where it doesn't really give you that much more. And that's why you see very wealthy people. People. I feel like I should edit that out, but I'm not sure if I will because sometimes I'm lazy about editing, so I'm not going to edit that out. So have a good laugh with that. Sometimes you see very wealthy people who are not very happy. That's why you see that. So I think, yes, money does create happiness. Happiness until you reach a certain level. And, you know, once you have your security and your freedom and you can have fun and enjoy yourself, then you don't need any more to create more happiness, right? And I think seeking peace over praise, and pursuing your peace and joy instead of profit is a much better way to live. And one of the gifts that I get from living in a really rural area, because I don't like it all the time, like I feel very isolated sometimes, and I feel like it's hard to make friends because there's just not a lot of people.
tina 00:29:29 And I live in a very, like, red area, and I'm a little blue dot. so I feel isolated sometimes. But one of the things that I am quite aware of is how abundant everything is. So if you get stuck in like those feelings of lack. So if you feel like you're not making enough money or you're not as successful as you wish you were. I never feel that way. Because even if I'm not doing well, because I look outside and everything is so abundant, right? I look at the grass and the trees, and there's just nature all around me, and there's birds everywhere, and there's squirrels and chipmunks and and unfortunately, bugs. And where I live, plenty of water, lots of water and and it's just beautiful flowers. And it's just it never stops. It just never stops. It's so abundant. And this is also very apparent to me. I remember during Covid when everything was standing still. Like, we, you know, we weren't allowed to work.
tina 00:30:41 We weren't allowed to be social. We weren't allowed to. And I would go on runs. And I was living in Charlotte at the time, and I would go on these runs, and all the humans in the world were standing still, but everything else just kept going like nothing was happening. You know, the trees were still blooming, the flowers were still blooming, the the grass was still growing. The birds were still, you know, singing and going about their business. The animals will still have. Everybody was happy. It was just us. And it was very it became very apparent to me that we live separately from nature. We're way too separate from nature. And I think when you can look outside and you could notice all the abundance, you automatically are richer because of it. so I'm going to leave it there. That was number 12. So as you can see, I think this man's video was brilliant. I, I love every point that he made. And I think it's really important.
tina 00:31:43 And so I guess my action step for you guys and for myself is to, you know, look at these steps, these 12 steps to live a, simpler life as proposed by the Nordic culture, and pick the ones that resonate with you the most and start implementing them and start embracing them. How can you simplify your life? How can you reduce friction? How can you declutter? How can you, focus on your peace and your joy rather than profits? How can you create a community for yourself and or start, you know, or improve the community that you're in. how can you respect time? How can you live with the rhythms of nature? There's so many different ones. And so I hope that you enjoy. I hope this is helpful at a time where we're all experiencing some stress and overwhelm. everybody could use a little bit of simplicity and definitely a little bit of nature. Okay, guys. I'll see you next week. Bye. Hey, guys, thanks for joining me for today's podcast.
tina 00:32:57 If you want to hang out with me more. Head over to my Patreon where I do weekly meditations, weekly self-care tips, and Full Moon and New Moon journal prompts. We have a lot of fun over there, and I just happen to be doing a new series called Seed to Table, where I'm teaching you how to grow your own food and bring it to the table. Okay guys, I hope to see you over there. The link will be right in the show notes. Love you. Bye.
