Prolog Coffee Bar — Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen, Denmark 🇩🇰
I visited Copenhagen, Denmark early in my career for attending a technology event organized by a famous multinational technology company. The trip was sponsored by my employer. Colleagues from host company and my team joined me in this first ever (and last) trip to Copenhagen. By last, I don’t mean that I hated it. To the contrary! I would love to visit this country again, and København specifically, for its kind people, beautiful nature, and amazing heritage.
Copenhagen is the capital and most populous city of Denmark. The city has a population of 763,908, of whom 601,448 live in the Municipality of Copenhagen. The larger urban area has a population of 1,280,371, while the Copenhagen metropolitan area has just over 2 million inhabitants. Copenhagen is situated on the eastern coast of the island of Zealand; another small portion of the city is located on Amager, and is separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the strait of Øresund.
— Wikipedia
Danes rank among the world's most happy people. In Copenhagen and the beautiful surrounding region, you'll learn why. The buzzing capital mixes royal history, modern architecture and loads of culture with sustainable living and a mouthwatering restaurant scene.
— VisitCopenhagen
Prolog Coffee Bar — Pin📍
What a lovely coffee house. Although I have not visited it, it reminded me of my walk in the neighborhood surrounding the hotel I stayed in during my visit. It was early morning, a fair day with partial clouds. I decided to have a walk from the hotel (Park Inn) to the location of the event. I enjoyed that walk more than anything in that trip.
Look at them.. relaxing in the sun and having a chat to cut through their days. I wonder what got them here in the first place. Was it because it is a weekend or a day off for some of them? Was it a meeting to discuss something of importance to them or their work? Or was it just a desire to sit and welcome the sunshine on your skin. If I happen to visit this place in the future, I would love to take a chair in the shade of the coffee windows. Of course, my kindle should be with me where I could read something entertaining, engaging, or both.
Walking That Heals
Open walking under the sun is not something I would do here in Saudi. Okay, I might do it in specific regions and under specific conditions. But remembering my walk in Copenhagen back then reminds me of how healthy routines can be much easier when the weather is lovely and helping. It was a short walk, possibly 15 minutes or so. I headed to what would look like “work” - an event about cutting-edge computing and hardware.
To be honest, I faintly remember the details of the event, but I remember how that walk was touching my sole and mind. I walked in the neighborhoods and the streets leading to the conference location. It was partially cloudy and at times sunny. All in all, it was a walk that for sure healed me from the inside. I really wish I could do it again soon. Just imagine if this can be your daily walk to your work or whatever you wanted to reach each morning. Healing on every morning, or at least some mornings depending on the season. That is what I would like to think about it.
10 Keys to Happier Living
The idea of “walking” reminded me of one great book I read about “happiness”. It is called “10 Keys to Happier Living” by Vanessa King. In that book I found a practical person who talks about happiness in tangible terms. She also enriched her book with great research and science. What I still remember about the book is the summary at the end of each chapter, which I always love to have in a book. It is a great way to summarize long chapters in few key takeaways.
10 Keys to Happier Living
'Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions' The Dalai Lama, patron of Action for Happiness. Vanessa King, positive psychology expert for Action for Happiness has created 10 key evidence-based actions that have been shown to increase happiness and wellbeing - at home, at work and in the world around you. If you have read The Art of Happiness, The Happiness Project or Sane New World, this book will be the perfect complement.
In this book, Vanessa talked about the 10 keys of happiness which can be shortened in GREAT DREAM. Here is my review of the book, posted on Goodreads:
A great book indeed! It took me so long to read it, not because it is difficult or boring, but quite the contrary. I found it insightful and needed to stop every now and then to scribe a thoughtful note, or complete an exercise, or simply branch out reading an article or another book referenced in its chapters.
The book simply makes sense, and defines happiness as 10 keys shorten in GREAT DREAM: Giving, Relating, Exercising, Awareness, Trying out (i.e. learning), Direction, Resilience, Emotions, Acceptance, and Meaning. It is practically 10 mini-books in one volume, and you can read each chapter/key on its own. The author does her best to connect the keys, and they are connected, but yet you still can deal with each one on its own.
The book is backed with research and science, though I wished the author cited the references inline instead of referencing the name of the authors or piling them up at the end of the book.
I highly recommend reading it.. and be ready to immerse yourself in its ideas and activities!
— Abdurrahman, Goodreads.
Danes, as it is known, are ranked among the happiest people. But, what brings this book in my entry here is “exercising”, specifically. Throughout the years I found exercising very intimidating. Not because of it, but because of the idealistic image we have about it. I learned from this book that exercising is way more natural and much easier than going to the gym or running your breath away!. I learned how standing on its own is twice as better in burning calories compared to sitting. Brisk walking, and sometimes just plain normal walking, became my favorite. I found myself procrastinating sometimes, but it is much easier to breakthrough this procrastination compared to heavy gym-going.
A few quotes from the book to close with.
Dr Ray Fowler, clinical psychologist and former American Psychological Association President, emphasised this very point in a lecture I once attended, ‘Exercise is the closest thing we have to a magic bullet for health – physical and mental.’
— Vanessa King in “10 Keys to Happier Living”
Exciting new research shows that aerobic activity, such as brisk walking, trotting and running leads to growth of new brain cells and greater protection for existing ones.
— Vanessa King in “10 Keys to Happier Living”
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