How the Finnish liftestyle of getting drunk while wearing pants became the new hygge

Many of us are familiar with the idea of stripping to our pants, opening a beer and watching TV. But in Finland ‘Pantsdrunk’ has been elevated to an official activity

It’s been a long day: one meeting after another. You leave your office, happy the working day is finally over. You could head out, network until the early hours, but somehow it doesn’t appeal. What you need, more than anything, is to relax and de-stress.

You might be tempted to turn to the popular Scandinavian antidotes to stress, lagom and hygge. But are they really any good? Lagom, a Swedish word, can be translated as “in perfect balance”, or “just right”. Where lagom reigns, all is as it should be. Proportion is maintained: there’s neither too much nor too little… which is where the problem lies. Although lagom encapsulates nearly all aspects of a well-lived life, its puritanism isn’t compatible with the realities of the modern world. The problem with lagom lies with its emphasis on being a good person: a good person can never really relax. They’re too busy constantly weighing the ethical consequences of every little decision they make. “I could buy a nice pot of hummus to enjoy with dinner, but that plastic pot it comes in is so bad for the environment.”

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2IIbYui
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