Hygge (pronounced “hoo-guh”) is the Danish word for cosiness and comfort – the feeling of being wrapped in a soft blanket in front of a fireplace when it’s snowing outside. Beyond the purely physical, it is a mental state of presence, belonging, and togetherness.

“to hygge is to invite intimacy and connection. It’s a feeling of engagement and relatedness, of belonging to the moment and to each other. Hygge is a sense of abundance and contentment. Hygge is about being, not having.”

In many areas of my life, I aspire to efficiency and pragmatism (and in a strange way, this in itself makes me happy). I picked up this book in an attempt to create more balance: adding deliberate inefficiency to help me “draw meaning from the fabric of ordinary living”. There is a lot to learn from the Danes regarding comfort and style – how they create spaces and social experiences that emphasise shelter, connection, and contentment. At the same time, too much hygge seems boring to me. The author describes how hygge pervades Danish culture, praising the uniformity and stability of life there. Comfort and contentment matter, but I want the vibrance of the real world, the ups and downs that life has to offer, rather than monotone cosiness. Hygge seems antithetical to progress and self-improvement.

The book itself is unfocused, filled with lots of feel-good statements about what hygge is. To that end, it is probably unsuccessful as a rigorous exploration of the philosophy of hygge. Instead, I think the author intends the reading of the book to be a hyggelig experience in itself; filled with beautiful images and warm quotes, it’s an ideal book to read in a comfy chair on a winter’s day.


Key ideas


Highlights

To hygge is to invite intimacy and connection. It’s a feeling of engagement and relatedness, of belonging to the moment and to each other. Hygge is a sense of abundance and contentment. Hygge is about being, not having.

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There is a bedrock of contentment beneath everyday life in Denmark that is more stable than the waves of happiness that flow above it.

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Hygge is mindfulness more akin to noticing than contemplation, a quality of stillness born of contentment and awareness.

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Accepting that hygge is a fleeting enchantment and that we will have to move beyond the pleasure of the moment is almost a precondition for enjoying the experience. We don’t hygge to be content; we find contentment in hygge.

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In hygge there is an element of serenity in the recognition that we cannot quite grasp the mysterious character of the world, but choose to let go and simply let things be as they are.

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Keeping certain places protected and dedicated for special activities facilitates hygge – an armchair in a corner set aside for reading, a table left uncluttered to enjoy our hobbies.

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Hygge rekindles our awareness of the importance and pleasure of mutuality and celebrates our interconnectedness. It keeps us engaged with the lifelong task of living in intimate and loving relation to the world around us.