Welcome back to the blog! It’s Kim here. Today I want to talk about hygge and how it can help us take care of ourselves and boost our winter mental health. Yes, I know hygge is trendy, but the actual practice behind the word is really helpful and healing. I don’t know about you, but with the weather being what it was this year, and with the continuation of COVID and everything, I’m feeling a little bit like one of those animals that heads to their den and just hides away. You know, take care of myself, lick my wounds, and hopefully be able to come out fighting for a new day. This was what got me thinking about hygge.
I read a book a little while back called, The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell, and it’s a great exploration of hygge—it helped me grasp this concept and how hygge can help us heal ourselves. It’s a book about a journalist whose husband gets his dream job at the Lego factory and so the two of them have to decide whether they’re going to move to Denmark. She decides to chronicle their year there and she really explores the Danish culture. So I want to share this book with you and talk about how to create this concept of “hoo ga”— which is how you pronounce hygge—to talk about what Helen Russell learned in a way that is trauma-informed.
I created about video about this, so you can just hop in and watch it, or continue reading the blog below!
What is Hygge?
This book really hooked me because it really talks about simple ways that we can heal ourselves, in a way that North Americans doesn’t typically acknowledge.
The concept of hygge dates back to about the 1800s, and there are different components to hygge. These are: atmosphere, presence (the ability to stay mindful in the moment, which I’m not always great at), pleasure, gratitude, comfort, and togetherness. Togetherness is something that we’ve been lacking because of COVID, but I think that we can tackle some of the other things.
Hygge is actually practiced year-round, not just in winter. And it’s actually practiced in all Scandinavian countries, which are typically ranked among the happiest in the world. So I think we could learn a lot from them.
Just for an example—while I was working on this, I kept being interrupted by Cooper, my puppy! But that’s part of what hygge is. Coop makes me happy, so I’m patient with him and enjoy him.
Now, people in Scandinavian countries may have a little bit more freedom to feel this way and practice this way because Nordic countries make sure that the basic needs of their citizens are met. It’s important to remember this. So what that means is is that they have free university education, social security, universal healthcare, and paid family leave. They pay out the nose in taxes for that, but you can see how that can change the opportunity to explore this freedom and lifestyle. With that said, though, I do think that there are concepts that we can apply in our culture. As another author notes, hygge is really a practical way of creating sanctuary in the middle of a very real life.
Isn’t this what we’re faced with right now? People are being triggered like crazy.
We’ve been stuck in this COVID reality for what feels like forever, and it’s taking its toll on people. So we have to find a way that we can heal ourselves, especially those of us that already had pre-existing trauma.
Ways to Practice Hygge
So anyway, back to the good stuff. Hygge is not about having more stuff, it’s about a feeling. It’s not a practice where we have to run out and buy a bunch of equipment, thankfully. It can be anything! It can be really enjoying the peacefulness of a hot cup of coffee in the morning, for those of us that like coffee.
Or for me, it’s cuddling with Cooper in the morning. This morning, he just laid his head on my shoulder and we just took a couple extra minutes in bed and just enjoyed that moment.
It could be walking out in nature and hearing the crunch of the snow and watching the birds flit in and out of view.
Or, if it’s summertime, it could mean actually enjoying the warmth and turning your face towards the sun and letting yourself feel that.
You know, anything can be hygge. It’s about setting the atmosphere, being completely in the moment, being grateful, and letting ourselves pause enough to experience the pleasure of hygge. Now, why am I talking about this?
Well, Bessel van der Kolk, who is one of the preeminent researchers of trauma, is quoted as saying, “When you heal trauma, you heal the nervous system. And when you heal the nervous system, you heal the emotional body. And when you heal the emotional body, you heal the empathetic body and that results in lasting healing, because then from there, your reality can change.”
Part of being able to heal trauma is to take care of ourselves, to nurture ourselves, to allow ourselves to put down our armour. And hygge is a great way to create our spaces so that they feel safe and nurturing and rejuvenating. But it is about that feeling, it’s not about the stuff.
So I challenge you to find one way to bring hygge into your life. It might be taking a moment to notice the cool way that they do the foam whip on top of your coffee. I don’t know how they do that—that’s amazing. It could be taking up a new hobby like photography or painting, or doing paint-by-numbers even, or doing something that you used to love as a child. It could be just relaxing in a hot bath or wrapping up in your favourite blanket with a great book. It could just be letting yourself breathe and noticing the moment.
I challenge you to find one way to hygge, and I would love it if you would share it with us on our Facebook page, or on Instagram.
But anyway—I’m being distracted now by my lovely puppy, who is now experiencing hygge by tearing up a ball. See, they enjoy the simple things! Our pets can teach us a lot about hygge!
If you need anything, please contact us. It’s 780-446-0300 or by email at info@dochas. And until next time, please take care of yourself and nurture yourself. Bye for now.
About Dóchas Psychological
Dóchas Psychological Services is a well-established and trusted therapy clinic located in Spruce Grove, Alberta. At Dóchas we value the idea that everyone deserves a safe space. Through connection and education, our team works hard to build a trustworthy relationship with each of our clients. It is our goal to create a community for our clients to feel like they belong.
Disclaimer
Information provided through Dóchas Psychological Services blogs or vlogs is meant for educational purposes only. They are NOT medical or mental health advice. You can read more about our disclaimer here.
