While hygge is a thing in Scandinavia, so is the law of Jante. This is one of the larger reasons why Americans are so easy to spot where ever we go because we are mostly the antithesis of this.
The Laws of Jante go back to a fictional book by the Norwegian writer Axel Sandemose. In his brilliant book from 1933 called A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks, he writes about the Danish town called Jante and the unwritten social code that defines everything in it. This novel describes the author’s alter ego, Espen, a sailor who sets about discovering himself through his childhood in a town. In fact, what Sandemose really did was document this social code that was present all over Denmark and Norway and to an extent Sweden, too. Across all of Scandinavia, this peculiar set of ‘laws’ or rules exists. Not mentioned, but always there, silently enforced by everybody in unison. These are known as ‘The Laws of Jante’:
The Ten Rules of Jante
Don’t think you are anything special.
Don’t think you are as good as we are.
Don’t think you are smarter than we are.
Don’t convince yourself that you are better than we are.
I presume that happens in most provincial areas with relatively static populations.
I’ve lived in California since the 70s and The Laws of Wyandotte (Michigan) are foreign to most people. The core of those Laws dictate no bragging, take care to not offend, and be considerate of others.
I started Zooming during the Pandemic with some dispersed Wyandotte friends I grew up with in the 50s and 60s. These are people who I hadn’t spent a great deal of time with since high school graduation in 1968. What was immediately and continuously familiar was the pace of conversations, the context, the leaving room for the less vocal participants: It was like taking a trip in a time machine.
That’s not to say everyone was a uniform robot, just that there are deep understandings–that should be universal, god damn it.
You are a GD miracle. Humility is great, but should not come from a place of even mild to moderate self-deprecation. You are a friggin’ angel learning to be a human. You are source energy. Source creates. You are the source of energy. Your wisdom, energy, (call it imagination or creativity) comes from source energy…the divine. It is love…it is your gift…you are gods gift to the universe, a part of god/source. If you show up as YOU…you show up as love. Here’s the catch*
You must also recognize the aforementioned holds true for ALL people.
You are a miracle…SO ARE THEY…therefore miracles are “normal”.
We are all god/gods creation/source energy.
YES…Fall more deeply love with yourself…but also fall in love with others. They are all your teachers. They are all your students.
Know that you are better than you think, and that as you grow, your creativity and imagination will grow as well. You are capable of more love, more fun, more magic than your current level of understanding can comprehend. Always be looking to grow into more love and abundance.
Truly important to know → we don’t know what we don’t know. The main thing we should be seeking to more deeply understand is love. Love is abundance. I could go WAY deep on this one, but this would get unreadably long.
Love asks questions. Ego tells stories. Seek to understand others and they will be more inclined to do the same. We ALL get better together though this principle.
There is nothing anywhere more important than you.
Also, there is nothing anywhere that you are more important than.
Love is all that exists. Sometimes love doesn’t feel like love in a moment(s), but it is always perfect and is always a teacher if you witness it with a learner’s mindset.
You are BRILLIANT at being YOU! YOU are the gift. As we fully and powerfully express, we are a gift to the universe as we are being divine perfection and giving others to do the same. Learn to celebrate your magic. Learn to celebrate teh magic of others.
Laugh at/with EVERYTHING. Fun is a form of love. Give it to yourself and others. Humor/laughter can be done in many ways…use it to connect, not to tear others down.
People truly see the world through their own lens. People are so tied up in their own “stuff” that rarely are people talking about/thinking about…us
For this reason, dont’ take things personally…even personal attacks. If you are connected and operating form your highest self, you can not expect others to do the same. even if we are perfectly emotionally well, 99% of the time, there is still 1% where we are “triggered”/disconnected from our highest self…same goes for others. Don’t seek validation from others and you will not run into the “issues of the co-dependent”. If you don’t care what ppl think, you can simple create a little distance from a place of loving neutrality and maintain your own peace. Give up your peace = giving up 100% of your own power.
You are EVERYONE’s teacher.
EVERYONE id your teacher.
While it is true that we can’t teach anyone anything, we can provide them with tools to learn. it is 100% up to THEM to take that info or leave it. They WILL run it through their current lens. People learn in levels and layers. Just be YOU and don’t worry what others take from it. If they get out f sorts, that’s their insecurity and their trigger. Learning of this variety is always most effective when coming from a space of feeling safe. If someone is insecure, they feel unsafe. The learning/growth is coming from a space of insecurity, so it will either not be received as well, as deeply, or received at all. It may be flat out rejected.
THIS^^^ is why faith/trust is so important. If you can not trust, if you feel triggered, you are not perceiving through a lens of peace, and therefore don’t have access to deeper truths. Seeing through a chaotic truth will scatter your energy, take away your peace, hence take away your power.
If you want elaboration or clarity on any of this, I would be happy to oblige!
Hope someone enjoys this and/or gets something out of it.
As I understand it, the Laws of Jante have nothing to do with government and everything to do with social culture. If you want to fit in while visiting and not repel the citizens, you cleave to those behaviors listed in the Laws. You don’t have to though. You can be boorish like a Dallas Cowboy fan and still not be thrown in a Scandinavian jail, unfortunately.
Happiness is a story that we all define through our own lens of the world. I assist people in redefining what it means for them and growing into a space of greater happiness through the vehicle of living a more fulfilled life. Already did it once this morning.
People who reach for happiness like it is a drug will always experience extremely high highs, and low lows.
People who live a fulfilled life with honest conscious effort and deep meaningful relationships will by default experience happiness more frequently & from a deeper place than “getting drunk, having great meals, gambling, numbing with shallow relationships, drugs’n’such, etc, etc, etc.” Those things can be experienced with more depth where the thing isn’t the thing…the experience is, especially when shared with a loved one.
We are taught to “be happy”. “This or that will make… you happy”.
And as always, society is wrong about this and we get it screwed up in our heads and hearts….
Happiness is a feeling, not a state of being. Happiness comes and goes…. It is not nor will it ever be a continuation….
But, peace or Serenity in my soul, regardless of what’s going on around me, is a different story. I can have peace in my heart no matter what the tribulations in my life are. I can be sad and grieving and still be at peace in my heart or I can be happy (like when the Lions win a game!)!! But still he at peace in my heart….
Serenity is a state of mind one must work at constantly where as happiness is a feeling that comes and goes.
So, by the worlds standards it is an illusion as it’s defined incorrectly…
Put happiness where it is made to be, just a feeling that comes and will go as well, and each individual learns to accept that, then happiness is not an illusion.
My question for you is….
How do you find and maintain peace and Serenity in your heart no matter what the situation is? How do you have peace in your heart in the midst of a family member or spouse dying and thus grieving that loss?
connection to deeper truth…Love.
Energy is merely transmuting. Energy can never be created nor destroyed, it only changes form. Humans are energy. What does their energy come back as? It’s already “coming back” before they ever transition in the first place.
