| Why Insightseeing™ Matters Today | Finding Meaning Through Place and Presence
Why mindful sightseeing, cultural insight, and inner reflection matter when the world feels overwhelming.
End of January 2026. It's the first time in my short Instagram life (been active on the platform since 2024) that I've found myself doomscrolling.
And all because of the damn news… yes, those same news I talk about in my second blog post, the one about not letting news get you into a fear state 🙄.
Unless you're living under a rock, in a place without internet, you must have been touched by the unsettling news and images from around the world. The heart-wrenching (had to look this one up, I don't use that word so often…) stories of people I follow who are either on the front lines of the events unfolding in the streets or who have assumed their role as voices of protest. They are all a rum ball of rage and tenderness, grief and hope, exhaustion and strength.
It hit me when I realized I was scrolling through this kind of content - especially because I've carefully curated my Instagram feed to be inspiring and uplifting.
Why is all this "suddenly" appearing on my feed?
In Denmark I have my home
The line comes directly from a very popular poem written in 1850 by Hans Christian Andersen -yes, the famous Danish fairy-tale writer you probably grew up reading. (The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid ).
The poem was later set to music, and it's basically a love declaration to the country and the unofficial Danish national anthem… some have even proposed using it instead of the current one.
The opening lines read:
I Danmark er jeg født,
dér har jeg hjemme,
dér har jeg rod,
derfra min verden går
In Denmark I was born,
there I have my home,
there I have my roots,
from there my world goes
I wasn't born in Denmark but here I have my home.
I have almost 20 years of roots in these shores, and my world very much goes from here -from the smallest Scandinavian country, whose capital, the city where I live, keeps being ranked amongst the most livable cities in the world.
A shower of reality
So where does this 19th-century poem fit in my 21st-century dilemmas?
A rather accusing voice in my head says: "Well, hello… HELLO Eliana! This is real life in most places around the world! Not everyone lives in cute, almost-perfect Copenhagen…"
Yes. That accusing voice is at times loud enough to make me feel guilt about happiness.
What do you do with this awareness-hot-potato?
I let that sit for a while.
And then when it was time to work on my next blog post, the answer was crystal clear: I'm here to harvest it and make Insightseeings™ out of it.
What is Insightseeing™
Insightseeing™ is a concept I created to bridge the gap between traditional sightseeing and mindful presence.
It is the practice of exploring a physical place while simultaneously observing your internal landscape—your thoughts, emotions, and reactions to the environment. And the best part? You don't need to travel to practice it. Your everyday surroundings —or even your inscapes (inner landscapes)— work just as well.
Where in the world did I come up with that? Well, that's what happens when a tour guide in Copenhagen (yours truly) dives deep into mindfulness practices and personal growth. After that, almost everything you put in front of me becomes an invitation to find meaning, not only in places I visit, but within myself.
In a world of "checklist" travel and endless stimulation, Insightseeing™ encourages slowness. It turns a simple walk into a reflective journey. It upgrades an ordinary moment into a mirror of your inner world.
And I firmly believe the change we desperately need in the world starts from a change within.
Inspiration for a better world
From Denmark with Love
Here are three examples that cute little Denmark offers as an inspiration of how to go Insightseing™, as a community or as an individual.
The pictures in each example are links to Instagram Reels that illustrate my points better, so feel free to click!
The post-industrial one
Værftets Madmarked (Danish for The Shipyard Food Market) is located in a couple of hangars that used to be part of Elsinore shipyards.
These halls -operational until 1983- once employed most of the town's citizens, but they ended up closing down because it became too expensive to build ships there (Asian shipyards took over). Today, the food market is a lively place furnished completely with recycled or discarded materials and pieces of furniture.
It reflects to perfection what has happened to Elsinore: it has gone through a major revitalization in the last couple of decades, focusing its economy on culture and tourism.
The resilient one
South of Copenhagen, there is a protected natural area called Kalvebod Fælled or the Kalvebod Common. Most of it looks like a huge, barren swamp, but there's a lot of life that has found its home there.
Located on the island of Amager - the same island where Copenhagen's Airport is- Kalvebod Common is made up of land that was reclaimed from the sea in the 1940s, and thanks to this, the island of Amager is today 3 times bigger than its original size.
As resilient as nature is, a birch tree forest was born there, on the old seabed, with seeds carried by the wind from Sweden across the Øresund Strait, one of the busiest waterways in the world.
Talk about going against the odds!
The cute one
Scandinavians are renowned around the world for their penchant for beauty and aesthetics. But believe me, they do take it to the extreme… and that's something I absolutely love.
They could have just stuck with the story of "our weather sucks" (because it does!) and done nothing about embellishing unusual spaces. But they know well that beauty feeds the soul, so here in Copenhagen, even manhole covers are designed to look great.
The design of this specific one was the winner of a contest in the occasion of the 150 years of Copenhagen's sewers... and you won't believe who the designer was... (read the caption of the reel to find out ;)
Way to beat the Nordic Noir atmosphere!
In a world of "checklist" travel and endless stimulation, Insightseeing™ encourages slowness. It turns a simple walk into a reflective journey. It upgrades an ordinary moment into a mirror of your inner world.
Why bother?
What is happening in the world should not be happening. But it is.
From the poles to the tropics, people are genuinely in fear.
Most of us around the world are -more or less- out of direct reach of the worst consequences of these games of power.
Most of us are not on the streets or under attack, facing the situation in person. That distance might give us the perspective to realize that those who are responsible for creating all this fear are actually outstanding at something:
They're doing an amazing job at showing what most of us do not prefer.
That's extremely valuable information, because next time we're up to make a choice, we can draw on the experience these hard times have given us as a collective.
Insightseeing™ can help you find the distance to put things into perspective. It can give you that insight that serves as a reminder to choose differently next time.
Insightseeing™ can help you generate more joy in your everyday life... and that might be the place to start to help the world change.
- ...the Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales mentioned above link to the first full English edition made by a professional translator who is fluent in both English and Danish? Published by the University of Southern Denmark and available free-of-charge, they present them as "a much-needed reliable English translation" of Andersen's works.
- ... the poem/song "In Denmark I was born" functions as a bridge between traditional Danish cultural heritage and a new Danish identity? Below is a video of the song as performed by Isam B, a renowned Danish-Moroccan singer, songwriter, and former member of the multi-platinum selling Danish trio Outlandish.
In a nutshell...
Why does Insightseeing™ matter in today's world?
Because when the world feels chaotic, Insightseeing™ offers a way to create distance and perspective. It helps turn awareness into discernment, allowing us to reflect on what we see — outwardly and inwardly — instead of reacting from fear or overwhelm.
Is Insightseeing™ only about travel?
Not at all. Insightseeing™ can be practiced anywhere — while traveling, in your everyday surroundings, or through your inner landscapes.
It's a way of relating more consciously to the world, regardless of where you are.