Back

Look for what you need in what you have | Day 168 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Jun 18, 2023

🇩🇰 Also available in Danish 🇩🇰

We live in a world of consumerism.

Always shopping.

Always using something.

Always on the lookout for more, for adjustments, for the next thing.

It is destroying our lives and our habitat. But it is addicting. Very hard to stop.

And maybe we do not even need to stop.

We need to stop and think. For a while.

Looking for what we really need. Looking for the hardest of all choices: What do we want? Truly want. What is important?

So, this is a tough question, and our culture of separation, individualism, consumerism, and accomplishment is tearing us apart while NOT leaving space for this core question.

It is a curse to have so many options, to be able to do almost everything. I think many young people live under a curse combination: They have all options, but they have to SHINE.

There is no ordinary left.

You can not dream about a life as a dentist with a small house and two kids in the neighborhood where you grew up. That would not be a success.

Everything has to be EXTRAORDINARY.

It is tricky to handle this on the base of a life lived in institutions and schools, a technically stressed-out life with other people's agendas filling your day until you are twenty years of age.

You fight for your little bits of freedom to do YOUR thing but have no time to really find out what that is, and get absorbed in the loop of options, of the urge to shine. You can always grow your followers, always write another book or take another course or shine just a bit MORE.

It is down the same road. Consuming life, overachieving, running too fast.

What if we stop?

Stop to think.

What if we let go?

Allow other people to make their own choices. Allow ourselves to make mistakes. Work wholeheartedly to find and nuance our own values, goals, passions, and focal points in life.

In my experience, this work always leaves me knowing I have all I need and everything is unfolding perfectly.

Exactly because I stopped to breathe and think and be.

I can highly recommend it.

Traveljourneywise: We spend another day together in the Swedish forest and by the lake. It was beautiful.

Love and light

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

🇩🇰 Also available in Danish 🇩🇰

See more pictures on Facebook

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our life like this, and we get very happy when we get feedback from you. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

Unschooling and Parent consulting, conversations, blogposts, and podcasts on family life and learning

Hi, I'm Cecilie Conrad. I'm a trained psychologist, mother of four, radical unschooler and full-time traveller. I have lived with unschooling for over a decade and help other families find their own path – whether it is about homeschooling, unschooling, or the bigger question of how you want to live as a family.

I offer guidance, conversations and talks. I call my work grandmothering – not coaching in the traditional sense, but presence, professional insight and concrete help navigating motherhood and finding your way home to your own values.

Am I the right person to help you? You can book a free discovery call, and we'll talk and figure it out.

Listen to my podcasts

I share my knowledge and curiosity about family life and learning in my two podcasts.

Da Ladies - cover
self-directed-podcast

Read my latest blogposts

intro-Info 1. This text has been translated with AI, I did not bother to check it, so please reach out if something simply does not make sense.  …Read more
I'm walking the streets of Prague, piecing together the legend of Václav the Good — a medieval king who may never have been king, and yet defines eve…Read more
I'm walking through Prague while the magnolias bloom — watching skaters fall and rise, and talking with my teens about feelings, time, and letting th…Read more
I stood in front of a painting of Saint Christopher in Prague and didn't take a photo. Now I can't stop turning over the question it left behind. Read more
Standing in the rain at Luther's church in Wittenberg — I find myself connecting to the Reformation, to story, and to why being in the world with you…Read more
The work-life-nomad balance includes a lot of moving around. A lot of adapting. A lot of driving in our case, as we are based out of our van. And som…Read more
How it all ties together: The unschooling, the love, the strategies, the stories. And how we ended up studying math while driving on the Autobahn fro…Read more
What happens when fully unschooled young adults with no preparation and no big planning suddently decide to enter the educational system? And how doe…Read more
Did I also write about love yesterday? Is there anything more important—will there ever be anything else at the center? Read more