Thirty Ways to Add Hygge to Your Life

As a follow-up to my initial article on Winter: Cracking the Code I’ve listed some practical ideas for implementing hygge in your home and life, at your own pace. start with one or two, and add on as you see fit. Enjoy, and let me know how it feels to make these adjustments.

To recap, let’s remember the restoration and conservation component of the winter season:

(1)    Winter is a time of slow-down. Slow down a little and find a pace that matches your environment.  Look around you and you’ll see lots of evidence of the world in hibernation mode. It’s in its annual period of dormancy, preservation, and conservation. It is the yin cycle of the year. We can’t run at 100% capacity all year round; and by extension, neither do the animals and plants. They have their periods of repose and rejuventation. And we humans could learn from our environment by giving ourselves permission to do the same. It’s actually imperative for our heatlh. It’s why you feel like garbage trying to squeeze the same amount of bustle and activity in a day that you would on a sunny day in June. It’s easy to run from dawn to dusk in the summer because the sun literally energizes us to do so. The winter is a different beast. I know when the sun goes down, it’s becomes major concerted effort to even leave my home. I am down for the ‘home-hunker’ count. And I don’t fight it. It’s taken me years to allow myself this respite. The most important piece here is to validate your own personal experience of winter. We do effectively ‘slow down’. Use this slow down as an asset and ally for yourself.

(2)    Do things that make you feel relaxed warm and cozy. This for me was the beginning of the hygge experiment. Both my spouse and I loved how it made us feel, that we’ve kept and introduced more hygge into our life each year.  Just today he was commenting on how much he appreciates hygge. He mentioned how it relaxes him after a long day at work, and makes him feel cozy when he comes home. It allows me to mentally downshift and chill.

Here are 30 ways to introduce hygge into your life:

a.       Buy candles (my faves are beeswax or soy votives) and light a few in your main spaces. Put them wherever you want to experience relaxing ambient light. I use them in rooms, in hallways, in the bathroom, you name it. That said, PLEASE use a flame-retardant holder (like glass or metal) that can ensure a fire-free experience! This is why I use votives in a glass holder. Also some well designed candle holders can diffuse the light to a far greater extent. Avoid synthetically-scented candles— they can wreak havoc on your endocrine system.

b.       Install dimmers where you can in your home. Hallways and bathrooms especially (think especially in those wee dark hours in the morning you don’t want to blind yourself for no reason).

c.       Have lamps that use warm white (incandescent) light or special bulbs that emit little to no blue light. Blue light is what stimulates us in the morning and what keeps our body from producing melatonin, a chemical that prepares the body for the sleep and restorative cycle. Too much late night blue light will impede and interrupt REM sleep and a whole host of biological events. So to put it bluntly, it’s really bad, especially if you have sleep problems. Lamps provide more natural-like & soft light, and create ambiance more than any pot light can (trust me on that). Reduce the light intensity to match the time of day (don’t use daytime light intensity inside when night falls).  I actually gradually turn down the lights more and more as I get closer to bed. It’s not a OCD task, but I do it because it feels good and sets me up for a relaxing slumber.

d.       Set-up twinkle lights inside in an area for atmopheric lighting; consider rechargable-battery powered candles (there are some really good ‘artificial’ candles out on the market.

e.       Put on relaxing ambient music in the background when you get home. To get started, you can search online for spa, meditiation, classical, or intstrumental collections.

f.        Acquire an atomizer and find your favourite blend of essential oils (not synthetic). Saje is my favourite go-to Cdn company. Their scents are incredible to the senses, safe and organic.

g.       Practise activities that are engaging indoors or have some winter projects. This is a time of year that I specifically put things aside (throughout the year) that I can look forward to tackle indoors in the evening.

h.       Learn a new skill. Devoting a few hours a week over several months will make incredible progress.

i.         Read. Invest in some self-development materials and personal-growth learning. Make the winter months an opportunity to get ‘horny to learn’ and be a better, more exceptional human.

j.       Mastery of an existing skill. Do a craft.  Sew. Knit. Embroider. Learn how to install drywall. Learn a style of woodworking. Refinish a piece of furniture. Paint a room. Do a mural. Write poetry. Crochet. Start an online business. Hell, you can even garden indoors (think indoor mini greenhouse with timed light control, mushroom growing, or anything else that tickles your fancy). A great project to start with the kids and see the daily progress with some seeds, soil, and a flourescent lamp.

k.       Learn a new language. Get CDs, apps, find a TV show in that language and practise.

l.         Get outside. This is super important. Go for walks outside, day or night. Take your pet. Get some sort, any sort of exercise outside. Trying using the AllTrails app (free) that gives you access to parks and hikes in your neighbourhood and also globally. I’ve found a bunch of wonderful new parks and hiking trails nearby that I didn’t even know about/or never ventured previously (outta sight, outta mind). Your body needs the sun—even in the dead of winter, it provides more lumens than the best of indoor lighting. This regular exposure will help mood and disposition during the winter months.

m.     Go for a paddle (SUP) or a surf. Winter water communities are growing quickly. This is my first year, and it has blown my mind. I didn’t think i was that girl….but I now AM that girl…and i freakin’ love it. As long as you have some basic gear, and a cooperating body of water nearby, there are many free online communities that you can get involved with and learn from.

n.       MOVE. Do yoga. stretching, calisthenics. Essentrics is this active strengthening and toning situation that I found onlne through a friend and love. It’s more active than yoga and a little like ballet-dance, and you feel it after in your bod. Canadian mother-daughter team who designed the concept. Pretty cool. This is the time to enjoy exercise at home, at a slower pace, and no gym commute, especially with all the online options & subscriptions available.

o.       Participate in a winter sport. For a few hundred bucks (or less!) you can get good skates, snowshoes, or cross-country skiis and get started. These can be solo, partner, or group events. Hey, I’ve gone on frozen lakes for a 30 minute skate. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Many city skates are free and rentals are just a few dollars. Hell, tobagganing and snowtubeing are basically free too!

p.       Theme it out! Create a personalized festival on a prescribed week and have some fun! It could be an “Anime Festival” and throughout the week where you watch a curated list of films/TV shows. Create a music playlist that you listen to, create any foods, dress or make-up in the style of, recreate a trope or common activity from anime stylings. Have fun and go to town. This creates a togetherness and sense of celebration to the ordinary, especially as January has no public holiday break (save the New Year).

q.       Cook, bake, try new recipes, organiize a potluck dinner. Bake some cookies with the kids. Make a themed dinner event. (I have a winter folder of new recipes and baking to try that I add to throughout the year. It’s yielded some fantasticly delicious food experiences.)

r.        Play online video games with friends (but get off by 8 pm!) Or go old-school and find some fabulous board games/card games to bring out in the winter months. Have a regular group of folks to play against!

s.        Go to a spa or sauna (go regularly in the winter). Get some treatments, soak in warm waters, get a massage, roll in the snow.

t.        If you live near a safe and accessible body of water, do a cold water dip…or super-short cold showers at home. Yes, this sounds crazy and awful, but there is more and more research coming out on the therapeutic benefits of cold water therapy. (Have a look at Win Hof’s work if you want a starting place…)

u.       Do regular super-short cold showers (this practise boosts endorphins). This may not sound very hygge-ish, but the Nordic peeps practise this regularly (with sauna). It gives you an incredible high and you feel super relaxed afterwards. Seriously.

v.       Get some quality skin care items and pamper yourself. Try dry brushing, regular masks, nails, skin treatments, and make time in your evening for a nice warm shower or bath and a pleasant skin ritual.

w.     Curate a family film list to watch in the evening; add popcorn, or fruit for treats (apples are satisfying, as are dates and walnuts)

x.       Get a blanket and snuggle with your honey;  grab a book and some tea.

y.        Go to bed earlier (like one hour plus). Get up earlier too and have some quiet meditation time. Early morning rising used to feel painful, but has become a practise I look forward to— time by myself for journalling, meditiation, wriitng, reading, or just being.

z.       Make an outdoor fire and fire gaze, and roast marshmallows! We inherited a chiminea and have had so many lovely evenings with it outside. We start it up around dusk, sit for an hour or two, and then go in for a relaxed dinner. It’s a great transition from light to dark.

zz. Shut off devices and tech by 8pm. This will help you wind down and put the focus back on you, your peeps, and the present moment.

zzz. Make time for funky ooh-la-la time (solo or duo). ;-)

zzzz. Meditate. Find a spot and connect with yourself.

zzzzz. Oh yeah, most important one, sit with yourself and just be.