Search Results

Ingredients: 350g (about 12 ounces) of tagliatelle pasta (M. sweet) 30ml (2 tablespoons) olive oil (XL. fat) 6 shallots, thinly sliced (XL. sharp) Juice of 1 lemon (XL. sour) 240ml (1 cup) white wine (L. sour, S. bitter) A handful of fresh basil leaves, torn or chopped (M. sour, S. bitter, S, sharp) Freshly ground black pepper, to taste (M. sharp) 60g (1/2 cup) grated Parmesan cheese (M. salt, M. umami) Salt, to taste (optional) (XL. salt) Instructions: Cook the Tagliatelle: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the 225g of tagliatelle pasta and cook according to the package instructions until al dente. Drain the pasta and set it aside. Sauté the Shallots: In a large skillet or frying pan, heat 30ml (2 tablespoons) of olive oil over medium heat. Add the thinly sliced shallots and sauté them until they become translucent and start to turn pink, about 2-3 minutes. Deglaze with Lemon Juice and White Wine: Pour the lemon juice and 120ml (1/2 cup) of white wine into the skillet with the shallots. Allow the mixture to simmer for 2-3 minutes, letting the alcohol evaporate and the sauce reduce slightly. This will give the dish its pink colour. Add Fresh Basil: Stir in the torn or chopped fresh basil leaves. Let them wilt slightly in the sauce for an additional 1-2 minutes. Season and Finish: Add freshly ground black pepper to taste. Be cautious with salt, as Parmesan cheese can be salty. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Combine with Pasta: Add the cooked and drained 225g of tagliatelle pasta to the skillet. Toss everything together, ensuring the pasta is coated evenly with the pink sauce. Add Parmesan Cheese: Sprinkle 60g (1/2 cup) of grated Parmesan cheese over the pasta and toss it in. You can add more cheese if desired for a creamier texture and extra flavour. Serve: Plate the Pink Pasta in individual servings, garnishing with additional fresh basil leaves and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese if you like. Don’t forget to share and enjoy.

Ingredients: (for about 6 pancakes) 130 grams flour (any type you like) (M. sweet, S. bitter) 2 large eggs (S. salty, S. umami) 360 ml milk (M. sweet, S. umami, S. salty) 15 ml lemon juice (freshly squeezed) (XL. sour) 3 grams ground cinnamon (L. sharp, M. bitter) a pinch of Salt (XL. salt) Butter or vegetable oil for frying (XL. fat) Instructions: Prepare the Batter: In a mixing bowl, Add the milk, cinnamon, salt, eggs and lemon juice. Whisk to combine. Add all the flour spoon by spoon and keep whisking (this prevents lumps). Heat the Pan: Heat a non-stick frying pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add a small amount of butter or vegetable oil and swirl it around to coat the pan evenly. Cook the Pancakes: Pour a ladleful (about 60 milliliters) of the pancake batter into the hot pan, tilting it to spread the batter evenly. The size of the pancake is up to you, but Dutch pancakes are typically larger and thinner than for example American pancakes. Cook the pancake for about 2-3 minutes or until the edges start to lift and the bottom is golden brown. Flip and Cook the Other Side: Carefully flip the pancake using a spatula. Cook the other side for another 2-3 minutes or until it's also golden brown. Make more: Repeat the process with the remaining batter (or until you have enough pancakes), adding more butter or oil to the pan as needed. You can keep the cooked pancakes warm by sandwiching the stack between 2 plates. Any leftover batter can be transferred to a bottle and stored in the fridge for a day or 3. Don’t forget to share and enjoy.

Atomic Habits by James Clear Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results First published: 2018 ISBN 9781847941831 What is the book about? In Atomic habits James Clear takes us on a journey passing all the current knowledge we have about habits. It is written in a very simple and accessible way and really drives home his message. A message very valuable in a world where habits (and especially bad ones) are taking over big time. Which very well may explain the more than 8 million copies sold. In this book James Clear takes us on a journey from how powerful habits are in shaping our personal world, how the 4 laws of changing habits work and how you can adapt your life to better facilitate change and ends with a large inspirational part really pressing us to start changing those habits we want to change. What are the main takeaways when it comes to communicating with the primal being? Habits are part of the primal being: When it comes to habits it is important to realize they are one of the things in our daily life that our primal being is doing to keep us safe(r). Seeing most habits have hardly any conscious effort involved it is exactly the parts of the primal being we love to talk about. However the choice to change a habit is usually a conscious one. We also need to realize that it is always hard to convince your primal being to “change their mind” about ways it uses to keep you safe(r). The 4 laws: These laws in our worldview all translate to one simple thing: make use of your primal being’s resistances to make change happen. All 4 laws work by making the targeted habit more or less attractive on a subconscious level. This allows us to make use of our conscious choice when we are strongest to prevent bad habits from taking over. Habits are not just the action itself, they set the stage for your choices afterwards: Checking your phone is not in itself a bad habit, however having your phone opened for a quick check can invite you into hours of mindless scrolling. Every habit sets a stage for new choices. It can start a hard to control domino effect impacting minutes, hours and sometimes even days after. Environment matters more than most of us think: Your surrounding influences the limited choices you can make. It’s hard to overeat in a gym, or workout in a restaurant. The people you are with shape that surrounding when settings are more neutral. Just as a small habit can start a domino effect, so can your surroundings shape your choices for a long time afterwards. Most people don’t start smoking without someone else giving them their first cigarette. Habits prove your personality: By doing what you do each day you can see for yourself who you are. Habits are a subconscious way of showing yourself every day who you are. This can work against us if we do dumb shit, but has great power if you can show yourself day after day that you are becoming who you want to be. Showing up is more important than results: With all of the above it is a logical consequence that showing up matters. You tell yourself who you are, you change your environment by being where you want to be and you shape the choices you can make afterwards. This is using the domino effect in your favor, which matters way more than getting a direct result. Wrong measurements breed wrong habits: Focusing on the wrong goal will invite you to start using shortcuts to exactly that goal. Wanting to get to a healthy weight can’t be some magic number on a scale. Because that number can be reached in very unhealthy ways, missing half of your goal. Be clear about your intentions in goal setting to make the right change. Don’t work against your nature: Everyone is different and has different needs. But more importantly: we have different strengths and weaknesses. We all have things we like and dislike because of this. With no sense for rhythm myself, dance never appealed to me as a fun way of exercising. Choosing an easier, more likable path for yourself to a realistic goal is never “giving up” or “failing”. Work with what you like, what your body and mind are built for and enjoy the path to your best self. 1% better or worse every day matters: Baby steps matter, it’s all about baby steps. Using the domino effect things can escalate quickly. Only 1% improvement each day can make you 37 times better over a year, where getting worse 1% each day will make you almost 100% worse in a year. Consider how little we need to do today to be 1% better than yesterday. Should you read it? If you are looking for an easy way to understand more about what you can do to change habits, definitely. However it is important to note this is a very simplified book and misses a lot of nuance and depth when it comes to how habits are shaped in the brain and body, But maybe more importantly it misses a lot of guidance about how to apply the knowledge in day to day life. Many applications are described in a very general way, which invite you to try and shape the tips to suit your day to day life. With the limited knowledge you gain in just this book this may prove a challenge slightly too big for many. All in all it is an amazing book as a start into habits and changing for the better. And we do advise you to read the book at least once. In our opinion you should however be ready to follow up with more books afterwards for the best results. But then again, what is the harm in reading more?

It has to have been a Wednesday, the manager meetings were always planned half way into the week. We were short staffed because of people being sick and our workload started piling up. We just divided all the essential tasks among the colleagues present when our manager came up to me. “Good morning, I see we are behind. I need to get into a management meeting to inform them about the status. Will you be able to catch up by the end of day?” Surprised by the question I took a moment to reply. “No, impossible. With luck we can half the workload, but there is no way we will be caught up by the end of the day.” The manager wasn’t used to getting a no, especially from me that could often keep things running smoothly. “There has to be a way! There are enough people.” he responded. After I briefly explained the plan for the day, emphasizing the essentials I confirmed there really was no way. Everybody was doing all they could. “But what do I tell in the meeting?” “That people are sick and we are doing our very best to keep the damage under control?” By now I started to get annoyed, I don’t often give a no, but when I do I’m certain. “Can’t I just tell them that we will be caught up?” “You can, but it won’t happen.” He left irritated, not getting the answer he wanted to hear. My colleagues were happy I stood up to him. We were under enough pressure already, we didn’t need more. Afterwards he returned to us and apologized for the way he handled the bad news. Realizing we were both on the same team, doing our best to get the same result. He had even more of my respect afterwards. When it comes to listening to your primal being you will often get answers you don’t want to hear. Oftentimes your primal being is so far ahead of your consciousness that it can keep you from getting into deep trouble. It can tell you when things are moving in the wrong direction even when it looks like things are right, often triggering that resistance you get when you hear bad news. Can you remember that time your gut feeling turned out to be right? Or that time your emotions were all over the place without clear reason? Or when there was that nagging feeling in the muscles of your neck? Can you remember the signals your primal being sent you ahead of time, only to realize later what was happening, often too late to be doing anything about it? It’s important to learn to really listen to your primal being to make sure you can take its suggestions into account. Hopefully still in time to change the outcome. Simply having the chance to keep yourself away from “wrong” people or situations or taking a couple of hours rest instead of going down sick for days. Let’s be clear: listening to your primal being doesn’t mean following its every suggestion unquestioning. Like my manager did, one can argue and try to find a better solution. Taking a moment to reflect instead of just moving on blindly never hurts. When you’re both working towards the same goal, getting conflicting opinions often even makes the results better. And when the goal is to live a happy and full life, why would we not want to improve our result? But how can one actively choose to listen to the part of our thoughts that so easily gets drowned out during the noise and chaos of everyday life? There are different ways of listening, many more than we can expand upon in a single blog. That’s why we created an entire website and are always working on new courses. But it is possible to at least point you to a start: Mindfulness is a beautiful example of a process to take time and listen. You choose to keep the noise and chaos away from you, at least for a while. This silence makes it easier to pick up on the signals your primal being is giving. Meditation is obviously an even deeper and effective part of mindfulness that allows us to be more in the moment and grants us the possibility to listen better. For both however it is really important to do it “right”. Many meditations focus on not thinking at all. Where some mindfulness teachers tell you to ignore everything that may “distract” you. In a world where emotions (and all other parts of the primal being) are considered a “distracting thought” it is easy to fall into the trap of ignoring the primal being even while doing these exercises. Checking in with your body is another great way to figure out if something is up. Are there pains, is there tension or are you restless? A simple full body check can already give you an indication if there is anything that needs your attention. This way of listening won’t often give away the “what” of the situation. But it’s a start to figure out “if” something is wrong. Inviting you to listen more to your gut or emotions. The last tip that is really easy to incorporate is intuitive decision making. You may need to take some time to train this for yourself. But once you get the hang of it things become much easier. Choosing what you want to eat, where to go outside or what type of exercise you would like to do right now are probably the most recognisable day to day examples. The best way to reach this is to simply plan less and have more available. A yoga mat allows for a hundred different types of exercise and having a few (long shelf life) back up meals in your cupboard never hurts. Right now you may be thinking that it may be a lot of hassle, or you’re sure that you won’t like what the primal being has to say to you. Both may be true, let’s be honest it most likely is. It's been ignored long enough, so it may have some harsh truths to share and a life built ignoring a part of yourself will almost always need change to fit your needs. Change is always scary and hard at first. But in a year (or two, or three) your new way will be what you don’t want to change. Change is always happening if you want it or not. Listening to your primal being, listening to yourself, to make every single change work out for the best, that’s worth some effort.

There already was a drizzle when I switched into my swimming pants an hour ago. By now the drops have become bigger and the sound of rain hitting the leaves around me fills my ears. My arms and legs are moving in unison, guiding my breath in preparation of what is to come. I’m standing in the middle of a forest with twelve other trainees ready to get into the ice bath, the first step of my cold exposure training. My mind wanders for a moment, perplexed at the fact that the ice is the start of this training not the end goal. A big drop hits my nose and pulls me back to the training. I’ve been moving around in the rain for an hour in hardly any clothing, I should have been cold by now. But I have to admit I’m warmer than usual. The drops don’t bother me anymore. The trainer invites me to get into the ice. I’m one of the last students to get in, most of the people before me froze when they touched the water or screamed from the cold. Most were happy to get in and out as quickly as possible. I’ve researched a bit upfront and have an idea of what’s coming and it shows. As I lower myself into the water I don’t flinch, don’t scream or hesitate, only a single staggered breath gives away what my entire body is screaming: THIS WATER IS ICE COLD! Within seconds I will my shoulders to relax and the rest of my body follows. “As if on a sunny beach. Where is my cocktail?” I joke, the trainers looking in stunned silence. Minutes later they tell me to get out to not take any risks of hypothermia, so I do. This story sounds like that of a victor, someone beating their fears and instincts, someone in complete control. Looking back with what I know now, there is so much wrong with this picture. I missed so many signals and have to admit I was proud of missing them, as I had been taught to be. By now I’ve learned. We live in a society that has made comfort their greatest achievement and total control over yourself the most valuable skill one can have. For centuries (and arguably millennia) we have been told our body (primal being) and mind are separate and it’s the job of the mind to be in control. Intellect became the number one virtue so we took away all the hardships our bodies needed to go through, so our minds could receive ever more attention. From our earliest childhood we are conditioned to think this way and with modern luxury this only accelerates. Schools are a great example of this: Sit still, don’t make noise and get rewarded (mainly) for intellectual success. And a child that doesn’t follow suit is considered a troublemaker. We are told to “play nice”, “use our words” and “behave” all telling us to keep self control and not give the primal being the upper hand. Specialized studies are praiseworthy, where choosing to go for manual physical labour jobs is seen as being “lower”. It is so ingrained that the term “higher education” translates almost worldwide. It’s strange really, because we all know that we couldn’t function without these lower jobs. Using your head is good and using your body is bad, that’s the message. And we decided to take that to extremes. Most of us hardly need to use our bodies to keep ourselves comfortable. We can work from home, groceries can be delivered, warm meals can be brought to your doorstep, we can meet people online all while sitting in a comfy chair. Even those that focus on keeping their bodies in peak condition everything seems about self control, be it losing weight or lifting them. All in pursuit of what society thinks is right, providing the comfort of validation. Society is so deep into its comfort zone that even keeping ourselves warm using our own body heat is considered strange. (Why didn’t you put on a jacket?) When self control is rewarded by comfort, why would you ever want to break that agreement? We’ve been told all our lives that we need to keep in control of ourselves for the benefit of society. Together we build the rules and thrive on it, so you have to play your part, or else you become an outcast. Being an outcast is dangerous, at least it feels that way instinctively. The group protects you, right? Well, it should. But in a world that is no longer built on the tribe (or even family) structure, that seems no longer true. Let me be clear: there are definitely reasons to practice self control. When you start going around killing people on instinct, society will (and should) consider you a threat. However there is a more reasonable limit that doesn’t need to push out the value of your primal being. And let me add that comfort is really nice. Total (self) control may serve society and keep everyone comfortably away from the harsh world, but doing so at the cost of your own mental and physical health seems irresponsible. Our comfort is slowly killing us and our image of what self control is keeps the idea that it is a good thing going. Sitting still for extended periods of time has shown to be more dangerous than cigarettes. Not just physically but maybe even more mentally. Never before have there been so many people in need of mental help as now. Over the pandemic we have seen what happens when we really take the body out of the equation. No longer allowed to leave the house, we couldn’t keep the primal being silent. Living with an ignored primal being can make your life hell. The “monster” inside that society has banned, will keep clawing and roaring until it gets attention. Anger and fear will fester and the lack of taking care of yourself will make you sick. While at the same time all it wants to do is keep you as happy and healthy as possible. It doesn’t always know best, but its intentions are good. When you have a friend who looks out for you, has only your best interest in mind and knows you through and through, why would you “cage” it? Only because others have told you they are a bad friend? I was in total control when I entered that ice bath. My primal being had a lot to say, but I chose to ignore it. All that it was telling me to keep me safe was silenced, as I had been taught to do. My mind being so well trained and strong, that my body could not “be disobedient” (As Seneca told us). I forced every fiber of my being to do what I wanted it to. All in fear of what it might say otherwise. Not about the bath itself, but about everything else in my life, as a good friend should. There is of course a balance to be had. One where we start embracing the discomfort our primal being may bring. One that allows us to open our eyes to the uncomfortable truths around us. One that allows us to communicate with our primal being without considering it a loss of self control. The primal being is an essential part of ourselves, a part that wants to help us to be comfortable by our own rules and standards. And let’s be real, is that not what true self control should be?

The captain is looking out over the world from the bridge of his ship. He is proud, confident and skilled in what he does, he has never done another job in his entire life. Surrounded by a vast array of equipment he knows everything that is going on on his ship, he needs no one else. Screens surrounding him inform him of every little detail, reports show up on his desk every morning with a full assessment and the lights and beeps from the panels let him know what needs his expertise and attention. The world outside is familiar to him, the sea his home. The sound of the massive machine below him has become a monotone droning he is used to by now and manages to ignore most of the time. Only when the sound changes it may receive his interest. His crew knows what it is doing and doesn't need his supervision. At least most of the time it doesn’t, but then again when things go wrong it will show up on his equipment. His position is on the bridge where he is in control of everything, right? It’s strange to think this captain actually knows everything there is to know, isn’t it? How he never seems to have the need to get the opinion of anyone else? However most people (us included) have been taught that is how our brain and consciousness works. We are in control of everything we do. Our body is nothing more than a vessel we control from the command center that is our head. “The body should be treated rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind.” a position held by Seneca, an old Roman philosopher. Many have followed in his footsteps by emphasizing that the body and mind are completely separate, and the body is supposed to be obedient to the will of the mind. Descartes is one of the most famous that followed this philosophy even further. He is one of the founding fathers of the idea that reason is the only knowledge worthwhile. All of them advocate (or are explained in such a way) to ignore the “crew” and its opinions. This crew however is what we call the primal being inside every single one of us, and today I’ll do my best to introduce them to you, or at least make a start, the crew is huge after all. And maybe more importantly I will try to convince you about the value of listening to them. So let’s dive into the thick of it and start at the beginning: What is the primal being? The primal being is the combination of everything that happens inside us without our conscious choice. It represents our deeply rooted innate, instinctual, biological and emotional needs, behaviours and responses. It goes by many names depending on where you encounter it: An inner voice, habits, your subconscious, body language, self speech, your personality, even muscle memory is part of it, and of course many many more. As you can imagine when you start zooming in on all the “different” things these names mean, and start picking them apart, many overlap and/or share roots in the exact same parts of our 'being'. Those are the parts that came into existence and helped our survival during our earliest history. The parts we share with many beasts and most of us tend to call the savage part of human nature. Our most 'primal' instincts if you will. With simplicity in mind and to stay as far away as possible from confusing nuances we decided to simply group everything under one new name: your primal being. So again for simplicity's sake, let’s stick to the ship-analogy for a moment. Now it’s time for me to introduce you to some of the key “members” of the HMS Primal Being. Your body: We can not not start with the most important part of your crew: the ship itself. Your body is with you every single second of your life, it takes the blows of the outside world and keeps you alive to the best of its ability. It transports you, keeps the organs running, heals itself and gathers an unfathomable amount of information from your surroundings. All so the rest of the crew can do their job. Your basic needs: You can see this as the measuring devices checking on the functioning of the ship. Some things are simply biologically and evolutionary ingrained into our very nature. We all need sleep, food, water, safety, connection, stimulation of the senses and expression of emotions. When we don’t or can’t satisfy these needs we will go crazy and in many cases even die, from some of course more directly and/or swiftly than others. Your instincts: Now the crew becomes involved and starts acting upon the signs they are getting. Most of your instincts are closely related to how we respond to our basic needs. Feeling the urge to rest when we get tired, not wanting to go into a dark alley because it doesn’t feel safe or looking around for food when we get hungry. Most of these responses happen without any conscious choice and are really hard to suppress. Your habits: Consider this the training your crew has gone through. Some of it good, some of it definitely not. They know how to respond to certain situations without any input from the captain and will not ask for involvement unless something new and unexpected happens. Your habits are responsible for almost half of your daily activity and in most cases you don’t even notice them taking over. Depending on the habits that have formed that can be a good or a bad thing. Your authentic self: We can’t ignore the moral and sense of identity when looking at the entire ship. When led with an iron fist, negativity or ignored, nothing will function as it should. However when we handle it with love, respect and understanding a ship will feel like a lifelong friend. By paying attention to what is happening aboard the HMS Primal Being, we can truly reach living life as our most authentic self. In a world where we all have been taught that our body is little more than a vessel that has to be controlled, it is extremely hard to take care of ourselves. That reality however shouldn’t stop us from trying to make the change. We can’t ignore all the signals our primal being is giving us and hope to be healthy and happy. No longer should we treat the body rigorously to make it obey the mind. We don’t want to be tyrants to ourselves, do we? There is no better time than the present to change our worldview, change the way we interact with ourselves and start on the path to a better way to work with our crew instead of against it.