A lagom life

“Haha, now I've done it again. I’ve been hard on myself. I'm so good at that, right?”

The words, freely translated from Swedish, are from the band Bob Hund and their song “Tralala lilla molntuss, kom hit ska du få en puss”. It came on today when I was out walking. It struck me how well the lyrics describe the feeling that keeps haunting me.

Maybe that’s why I always restrict myself so much. Believing that the less I have, in one way or another, the less chance there is of me feeling that I’ve done something wrong.

There’s always this sense of having to pick one thing or another, never both. Yoga or weight lifting, reading books or watching movies, this or that blogging platform...

It’s stupid, tiring, and doesn’t help in any way whatsoever. On the contrary, life becomes very complicated.

I wish I had some “whatever” in me. On the other hand, I prefer being “too restricted” rather than being “too unrestrained”.

Maybe that delicate balance is what many of us are looking for. The feeling of lagom (just the right amount), as we say in Sweden.

A lagom life, it’s got a nice ring to it. But how do we find it?

Maybe we’re looking in the wrong place. Maybe “place” is what’s making it impossible to find. Maybe we should be looking for a world instead, a world where we find the balance that’s right for us.

Too restricted for some, too unrestrained for others, but perfect for us.