The Hyggelig Journey

The patient entered, draped in their finest attire, as though fabric alone could mend the fractures time had inscribed upon the body. There was something deliberate in the way they carried themselves, an unspoken belief that dignity could be preserved through careful presentation. The pressed linen, the impeccable cut of the fabric, the way the collar sat just so — none of it was accidental. Their makeup — poised, restrained — was not vanity but a quiet act of defiance against the slow erosion of time. And when they spoke, their voice carried the measured cadence of a life spent selecting words with care. It was polished, deliberate, softened by the patience that only years can bestow. Yet beneath this cultivated poise, the body bore the weight of too many summers. It had known heat and fatigue, had stretched itself across decades, and had grown accustomed to carrying burdens both visible and unseen. A body that understood, without resistance, the quiet art of endurance. Th...

Life weighs, yet it does not. It slips through your fingers like water, and just when you think you have grasped it, you find you were holding only the wind. There is no fixed form, no final certainty — only desire, thrumming beneath the skin, always just beyond reach, dissolving the moment you try to name it. You wanted meaning — something solid, something to anchor yourself to, something you could hold without fear of losing. A truth that would not shift with time, would not vanish under scrutiny. But the truth — and it was truth because it hurt — is that life is too light to be held. It is insubstantial, elusive, impossible to contain. And it is this lightness that unsettles you. If everything is possibility, where do you stand? If you are free, then who are you? Freud would say you desire what you cannot have. Jung would remind you of the shadows you refuse to face. Lacan would laugh and tell you that you are nothing but lack, a hollow space forever seeking fulfilment. ...

Love has a way of clouding the sharp edges of our rational minds. I have spoken before about how objectivity falters when we turn our gaze towards those we cherish. This loss of clarity is never more evident than in the intimate entanglement of lovers. Neuroscience reveals that when we look upon someone we love, key regions of the brain — such as the amygdala, the frontal cortex, the parietal cortex, and the medial temporal cortex — quieten, as if surrendering to the experience. The amygdala, our primal sentinel of fear and anger, dims its watchful intensity. In its silence, a deep sense of security and contentment blossoms, making love feel like the safest refuge. It is this neurological hush that allows us to trust so freely, to lay down our defences, and to offer ourselves with a vulnerability that would be unthinkable elsewhere. The frontal cortex, the seat of reason and judgement, relinquishes its command. In love, the need for meticulous discernment dissolves; we aba...