How to Practice Self-Care with Hygge
For my painting, “Ray of Sunshine”, in the About Painting section I spoke about hygge (pronounced “hoo-gah”).
Hygge is derived from an old Norwegian word that meant something like “well-being”, or “protected from the outside world."
Hygge doesn’t have an exact definition, but generally “means creating a warm atmosphere and enjoying the good things in life with good people.”
Meik Wiking, the author of The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well and CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, says,
“Hygge has been called everything from ‘the art of creating intimacy’, ‘coziness of the soul’, and ‘the absence of annoyance’, to ‘taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things’, ‘cozy togetherness’, and my personal favorite, ‘cocoa by candlelight’.”
Because of Denmark’s dark, wet, cold, and long winters, the Danes tend to spend more time indoors during the season and that’s where I feel all the coziness and candles come in, but hygge is practiced year-round; for example, in the summer hygge can be picnics or backyard cookouts.
In hygge, I see self-care - doing things that make you happy.
It can be done either alone - drinking hot cocoa under a throw…
it can be done with people - food and drinks in a candle-lit room…
or done with one other person, as it is in my painting, “Ray of Sunshine” -
cozy in the covers,
present with the peace,
in ease with the echo,
at home, by my lover’s feet.
As I asked in the Self Reflection section on Ray of Sunshine webpage,
What are 3 self-care things you can do for yourself?
How can you incorporate that each week or day?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to hear from you.
