2 Ways To Make Yourself As Confident As the Vikings
Legends hold it that the Vikings stood among the most confident tribe at their time. When digging into the daily lifestyle of the Vikings, we can see two main keys to make the Vikings become so confident. Actually, the two words support and entangle with each other: Body and Mind.
It may seem to be quite simple and I bet you have heard so much about the Body and the Mind. But applying it into reality is another story. So how could the Vikings be confident by focusing on their body and mind?
Body
What is the sight of the Vikings that you commonly catch on the TV? A brutal warrior wielding an axe, roaring, and looking so filthy. That is the common sight that the media has been showing to the mass. The media is not the liar.
In fact, they just want to make the characters on their show more awesome from which they improve their rating. But it goes off to the extent that it is no longer historical but purely the modern exaggeration.
The Vikings were the warriors who were violent and brutal according to history. But in their time, compared with other tribes, the Vikings were not filthy at all.
The first rule to be confident: Appearance matters. So focus on keeping your body fit and healthy.
The Vikings always wanted themselves and the surrounding to be clean. One cool fact about the Vikings is that they bathed many times in a year. It is not a typical activity in the Medieval Age. According to some oral and textual sources, the majority of people in the Medieval Age took a bath once a year. But because the Vikings cared a lot about their body and also about their appearance, they would not allow themselves to do so. The Vikings even despised sharing their tub of water with the others. To be specific, they would not use the water other people had already used. That is to say, they cared a lot about their appearance.
The Vikings even trained themselves since their childhood in order to get a better physique. A better shape is always an element contributing to your good appearance.
Moreover, the Vikings set their society some beauty standards not only for the women but also for the men. The Viking men loved dying their hair blonde. The Vikings fell for the colorful clothes and their favorite was blue and red. Jewelry was common a thing in the Viking Age. Not only did they serve to be the adornments but also the talisman protecting them with the power of their gods.
By some means, the Vikings always spent an amount of their time doing something good for their body. This is one of the key factors that made the Vikings become so confident. Because appearance forever is what grabs the first attention from other people. So what makes yourself be confident in this society is firstly your appearance.
Mind
Only focusing on your body without your soul is like going to the gym without having a healthy diet. These are the two elements that must go along with each other if you want to get your goal. But how the Vikings cared for their soul?
What strikes me the most when studying about this is the Viking trust in Higher Power. They had something to believe in, to hold on to in their life, and to practice the good values of their gods into their daily life.
The Vikings might not have seen their gods in the flesh but they still chose to believe and worship their gods. Because the Norse Gods empowered them so much in terms of mentality. It is not because the Vikings lost all hope in life so they had to find something religious and sacred to believe it. It is simply that they wanted something more to empower and strengthen them in their harsh life and to go through the bloody wars they had to face.
Gods empowered them to possess the mind of the true warrior spirit and the daring heart full of energy to fight off any enemies.
The Vikings once wore the Mjolnir Thor's Hammer pendant as a way they worshipped Thor and prayed for his power and bravery.
Even during the time of Christianization, the Vikings were so mentally powerful that they decided not to be anti the new religion. To carry out such a brave deed, they must have been so strongwilled, which was the result of a lifetime nourishing their mind.
In a war, the aptitude is not the most important thing. Aptitude is a need while the attitude is a must. Without the proper attitude, which was also the mental power, one warrior with perfect skills would tremble at the thought of facing the enemies.
What I am trying to convey here is that the external features are important and so are the internal. The time we spend to care for our mind is never worthless. You are to suffer the ups and downs in your life so there must be a time you need the mental power to get you through a hard time just like the Vikings once did during the Christianization.
Find something or someone to trust and to empower yourself as well. This is the way for you to grow your spirit and mind.
Overall, focus on yourself. Invest in yourself because it will pay the best interest.
The connection between the Vikings and Gods
If we look this through the Norse spectacles, we can see the connection between the Vikings and their gods, especially Odin and Thor.
The Vikings respected and worshipped Odin and Thor the most. This is why these two gods affected the life of the Vikings. While Thor was the embodiment of the good appearance with a muscular body, Odin was the symbol of the mental power with the infinite source of wisdom and knowledge. Somehow we can see that all of the elements to make the Vikings confident intertwine with each other. It is vague. But we still see the connection between the mind and the body, between gods and the Vikings.
To make a man a man, it is necessary to balance the venture into both the body and the mind (the external and the internal).
