How to Hygge: Meaning and Importance for a Joyful Life

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A smiling woman looking over her shoulder with the sun shining on her.

Discover how to hygge by incorporating more joy and coziness into your life. Learn the hygge meaning and a simple formula for getting started with your hygge life.

I’m sure you are not new to the struggle of keeping up with the hustle and bustle of modern-day life. If you’re like me, the idea of a calmer and slower life filled with more peace and joy sounds like pure heaven!

You’ve probably tried a number of mindful and gratitude practices that helped you feel more calm and joyful in the short-term, but didn’t really bring you to that feeling of  enduring contentment. In fact, many times these self-care practices may have added to your overwhelm, feeling like one more thing you had to fit into your already busy day.

I’ve been there! And for WAAAAAAY too long! (Pretty much my entire adult life! YIKES!)

Enter Hygge: a way of living that focuses on finding more pleasure and joy in the things already in your life and current environment..

I will help you understand the hygge meaning and why it’s important to help you finally ditch the overwhelm and cultivate more joy and peace. Read to the end to learn my simple formula for getting started on your joy-filled hygge life.

What is the Hygge Meaning?

Hygge Meaning According to Americans

According to Merriam-Webster, hygge is defined as:

“A cozy quality that makes a person feel content and comfortable.”

Simple, right? Weeeeeell….not so much!

There isn’t a word in the English language that can fully translate the full hygge meaning. Explaining the word hygge is almost like explaining enlightenment. It’s so abstract that it takes experiencing it to fully understand.

Hygge is an essential and ingrained part of Danish culture. It is something that Danish people experience from the time that they are born and throughout their life. 

Similarly, in American culture, the extensive freedom and endless opportunity that is a given to American people, is hard to fathom in most other countries. And it is something that we Americans don’t even consider as something unique to our culture.

If an American was to take a stab at making a hygge list of things we do or have in our culture they may include:

  • Wellness
  • Family Game Night
  • Mindfulness
  • Self-Care
  • Gratuity Practice

I could keep going, but I think you get the point. While these things are related to the Danish hygge meaning, when we talk about these things in America there is an undertone of striving. 

In America, wellness is not something that we have, it is something that we must practice.

Family game night is not something that American families just do, it is scheduled in and around the rest of our responsibilities.

Mindfulness is not something that we have, but is, again, something that we practice.

I’m sure if you looked at the rest of the items in the above list you would be able to see that Americans don’t simply engage in these things as a regular part of daily life. They require us to take time away from our normal daily activities to do.

Taking time to engage in the things that we enjoy and bring us close to ourselves and the ones we love, is something we strive to do, not something that we just do. In contrast, hygge is a way of living in which taking the time to enjoy life is woven through the fabric of each day.

So how would the Danish people describe a hygge life?

Hygge Meaning According to the Danish

A mom, dad and child sitting on couch enjoying each others company as they play video games in their cozy clothes

Meik Wiking, the Danish author of The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well, writes

“Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience, rather than about things. It is about being being with the people we love. A feeling of home. A feeling that we are safe, that we are shielded from the world and allow ourselves to let our guard down.”

The official website for Denmark explains that “Hygge reflects the values of Danish society: equality and the well-being of everybody.” 

Whereas American culture is individualistic: valuing the success and independence of the individual at the expense of the greater good, Danish culture is collectivist. Each person strives to add to the greater community of happiness and well-being.

Danish people would probably describe success as feeling content and sharing joy with others.

American people describe success as achieving status through money and valuable possessions.

Why is Hygge important?

Hands holding a lit candle

I think I’ve illustrated the stark differences between American and Danish culture and how the hygge meaning is interpreted. But why is it important to compare them?

Before I tell you why understanding hygge is important, let me give you some stats. (And my guess is you’ll get why it’s important without me even telling you!)

The World Happiness Report 2024 lists the world’s countries in order of how happy its people are. Denmark is listed as the 2nd most happy country in the world!

Can you guess how the United States ranks? They are 23rd. Not the worst, but certainly not the best.

If you’re like me: a typical American mom caught up in the never-ending grind of the chaos we call life…

If you feel like you’ll never be able to “keep up with the Joneses” nor do you want to keep up with them (whoever they are!)…

If you want to stop feeling overwhelmed and learn how to live a more simple life…

Then adopting a more hygge life can help you live in a way that is more aligned with your values.

Smiling mom sitting at table with her son and daughter.

Don’t get me wrong: I get that going rogue and completely abandoning the values of our modern American society is not realistic or easy, but let me give you some compelling reasons to make integrating hygge into your life a priority.

I’m all about the American right to free will and living your life as you want, and I can’t make you care about a hygge life, but let me give you some compelling reasons to adopt the danish hygge life.

Adopting a hygge life is important because:

  • It helps you create enduring peace and joy in your life.
  • You will enjoy increased physical and mental health.
  • You will model for your children how to live happier and less stressful lives than we have suffered.

Important: Don’t get stuck in the trap of thinking that if you just wait until you(‘re) ______ [retire/kids get older/have enough income] THEN you will finally have time for the things that bring you joy, peace and fulfillment.

The truth is, your future happiness is predicted by your current level of joy. 

If you don’t figure out what makes you happy and how to make those things the priority in your life right now, then it will just become a habit that is nearly impossible to break once you’ve practiced it for 30-40 years. 

“Compound interest is the eight wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.”

Albert Einstein

What you focus your time and energy on now compounds over time. If you focus all your time and effort on work, then you will make great gains in that area. BUT, this will come at the expense of other things you could be spending time on. 

If you focus your time and energy on connecting with yourself and your loved ones, then you will get more connection and intimacy in your life. I’m sure you can guess which one brings more joy!

This can also apply to emotions. If you spend most of your 30s, 40s and 50s in a state of stress and dis-ease, then you will train your brain to be in a constant state of stress and dis-ease. However, if you focus on building a life that brings consistent and abundant opportunities for joy, peace and calm, these emotions will compound.

Plus, why waste half of your life in the hopes of getting to some desired way of being? Why not just design a life of joy, meaning and purpose now? It’s a free country full of opportunity, after all!

The Simple Formula for Creating a Hygge Life

Hands writing with a pen in a spiral notebook

Raise your hand if you are convinced about a hygge lifestyle but have absolutely no idea where you would even begin. Be honest! 🙋‍♀️

Here’s my simple formula for having a more hygge lifestyle:

Hands holding a whiteboard with the formula: Hygge Life equals your life minus joy suckers plus joy multipliers.
  1. Add in more joy.
  2. Subtract stress and overwhelm

Simple right?! Ha! So much easier said than done. 

But hear me out: if you just start simple and small, you will be able to take advantage of the 8th wonder of the world: compounding interest.

Here are the 4 steps you can take to start a more hygge lifestyle right now:

Step 1: Make a Not-Hygge list

Write a list of things that increase your stress and overwhelm. 

Step 2: Pick one thing to eliminate

Sometimes we can’t simply eliminate something that creates stress in our lives, but you may be able to revamp that thing to make it more enjoyable or easy. If you can completely eliminate something without any real consequences, then do it!

Step 3: Make a Hygge list

Write a list of things that make you feel calm, joyful, safe or cozy. These can be big or small. Just write down anything that comes to mind. 

Step 4: Choose one thing that you can add into your daily life

This should be something that has no barrier to adding or implementing. It should be something that has nothing to do with striving. It could be something as simple as buying a piece of home decor that you can enjoy in your home every time you walk by it. Or it could be an activity that you used to do everyday, but somewhere along the way decided you didn’t have time for.

The goal here is to:

  1. Realize that you are in control of your life and how it makes you feel.
  2. Get you back in touch with the simple joys of life.

What does hygge look like?

Cozy Socked feet next to a mug on top of a book

Hopefully by now, you realize that living a hygge lifestyle is more of a mindset rather than a static goal that you are trying to achieve.

You may also be thinking at this point that I’ve been rather vague about what a hygge lifestyle actually looks like. I’ve thrown around a lot of broad terms like

  • Peace
  • Calm
  • Joy
  • Happiness
  • Fullfilment
  • Contentment
  • Meaning
  • Purpose

But I haven’t really given you specific hygge activities that you can do.

Well, that is because only you can define what each of those above terms looks like to you.

I have friends whose idea of happiness and joy is weight training and running a marathon. For me, that is the very definition of absolute torture! 

If I were to tell you what makes me feel content and joyful, I would tell you how I love caring for and supporting my children and husband by organizing and setting up a clean and comfy home or baking someone’s favorite sweet treat.

If you want to know what your hygge life looks like, grab my Canva Vision Board template below. Fill this Vision Board with pictures that represent all of the things you wrote on your Hygge List from Step 3 above. Print it out and hang it in a cozy nook in your home where you can be reminded of all the things your life already has (or can easily have) that brings you joy.

Example of a mood board template for Canva

Let’s Sum up the Hygge Meaning for Life

Let’s wrap this up, shall we? Here is what you need to remember to move forward with a more meaningful life:

  • Hygge can be defined as a philosophy for living in which you intentionally engage with and become more aware of things that bring you joy, peace and a sense of coziness.
  • Hygge was originally a Danish concept that is directly related to one of the highest levels of happiness in the world for its people.
  • You should not have to strive or put in any effort when incorporating hygge into your life.
  • Hygge does not come naturally to Americans. Start small by eliminating a single joy-sucking activity from your life and adding in one joy-multiplying thing.
  • Don’t wait to begin a Hygge Life. If you start now, then your hygge will compound!

Here at A Warm Hygge, I want to inspire and motivate you to create a meaningful life and cozy home with handmade home decor, homemade bakes, traditional homemaking.

If you want to read more inspirational posts like this and get more information to live a hygge life, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on Pinterest and Instagram.

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