For the past year or so, I have been fascinated by the Danish ritual of ‘hygge’. ‘Hygge’ has been defined as “a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being”. Sign me up!

For me, a person who struggles with anxiety and living in the present moment, this sounds like the ultimate goal so set myself the challenge of trying to introduce hygge in to my daily life for one week – wish me luck!

Before, I set out on my quest for Hygge (pronounced “hugh-guh”, apparently) I needed to understand it. For those of you wanting to do the same, you can fall down a similar YouTube rabbit hole and watch the hundreds of videos online dedicated to this exact art. If you surround yourself with some comfy blankets, some scented candles and some tasty snacks while doing so, you’re half way there already.

But hygge, I discovered, is so much more than just being comfy…..

I chose to focus on 3 areas or ‘cardinal rules’ of hygge that I selected from a list I found online; home, flavours and mindset.

Day 1- Home

The first step to making my home more hygge was to light some candles. I lit all of the candles around my room and turned off the lights. (If you are using scented candles, you might want to consider scent combinations. There’s lots of info online about what fragrances complement each other). This created an ambiance of ‘cosiness’ right away, but I wanted to go one step further. For those of you who didn’t know, you can find just about anything on the internet. Even on a screen you can find things that bring hygge into your life. For me, it was an eight hour YouTube video of a fireplace – sounds kind of sad, but when you’re curled up in bed, with candles lighting, the sound of the crackling fire really enhances the atmosphere – especially when it’s a howling, grey evening outside.

Once I had my faux fire and candles alight, I thought “Why stop there!”.  I needed to re-examine my lighting situation. Wanting to avoid the overall main lights that were harsh, I instead, opted for twinkly fairy lights above my bed – (Emma’s Imagination, anyone?). I find fairy lights so magical and paired with the faux fire, I was hygge-ing up a storm- a very, very calm storm!

I made a conscious effort during the week to surround myself with soft textures, blankets, pillows and dim lighting wherever possible and I must say that it did have an impact on my overall tranquillity level. I found it easier to sleep and in general, felt more positive and present.

Stay tuned to find out how the rest of my hygge adventure goes!

 

 

P.S.

If you are interested in making your home more hygge like, I have one word for you, my friend – Pinterest! It’s full of tips and tricks on how to live a more hygge life and images for some major hygge inspo!