Wintering Thoughts… and What is Hygge?

This essay originally appeared in the Monday morning newsletter on 1/17/22.

As the saying goes, you don’t truly appreciate something until it’s gone.

And for me, that applies to the Januarys and Februarys I experienced growing up in Florida.  

Daily temps around 70 degrees… Hardly any rain… Bright blue skies… 

Okay, need to stop now. I’m torturing myself because as I write this, the airplane I’m on just reached a cruising altitude of 30,000 feet above sunny Florida on its way back to Chicago, where the weather is just a little different than 70 degrees and sunny. 

But joking aside, I really am so excited to get back to Chicago. With remote work continuing, it was nice to have some extra time at home to start the year, but I can’t wait to be in my apartment, see my friends, resume my routines. 

The only thing that makes me nervous – as it does every year – is getting through the season of winter. 

It might be wishful thinking – or the Vitamin D pulsing through me from my time in Florida – but I’m intent on making this the year where I don’t just make it through winter, but actually embrace it. And maybe even enjoy it a bit…

(Yeah, I know. I too can hear the Chicagoans laughing… but stay with me a second.)

A few weeks ago, I came across this book called The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering The Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country. It was a fun read, and interesting! I mean why are the Danes famously some of the happiest people in the world despite frigid, dark winters (that last even longer than Chicago’s! With even less hours of daylight!) and high tax rates? 

They say the high tax rates have something to do with a collective sense of responsibility or belonging (in return, education, including university level, is free, there’s free quality health care, parental leave and more). But in regards to winter, it appears this Danish concept of “hygge” might have something to do with it.

Hard to explain, and even harder to pronounce (“hoo-ga”), hygge has exploded in popularity around the world. From what I’ve gathered, it loosely translates to a sense of comfort, togetherness and well-being. (Here is a visual manifesto… think lots of candles, cake, comfy clothes). 

As Meik Wiking writes in his book, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living, “it is about making the most of the moment, but it’s also a way of planning for and preserving happiness… to do ‘something hygge,’ we ask ourselves what we need, and make a plan for it.”

I guess, also according to Wiking, that hygge is only possible if it stands in opposition to something that is “not hyggeligt,” which makes sense why hygge is synonymous with winter (think cozy vibe indoors contrasted against frigid conditions outdoors). As he writes, “Hygge may be the closest we come to happiness when we arrive home after a long day’s work on a cold rainy day in January.”

I still don’t fully understand it, but what I can get onboard with is the idea of figuring out how to enjoy the moment and make the best of it. That’s what I want to do this winter.

One of my favorite Maya Angelou quotes is: “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.”

The last part of that quote really gets me. Hopes and preparations are certainly important but being unsurprised can be powerful, especially when trying to figure out how to enjoy the moment and make the best of it.

What if I tried to be unsurprised by winter this year? It sounds so simple, but as I think about it, I think some of my friction with winters of years past stemmed from me wishing things were miraculously different. Being unsurprised by winter means I’d except the things I don’t like about the season (I will be cold. I will miss the sun. Everything, like even just going to the grocery store, feels harder.) will indeed happen. 

But the flipside is that I can prepare for these experiences. I can’t make them go away, but there has to be ways I can make things just a smidge more enjoyable. 

For example, maybe I need to survey my winter gear or get a daily dose of coziness since I know I will be cold.

Or, because I’ll miss the sun, maybe I need to think about how I want to use different lamps and lights in my apartment while I work. And, if the sun is out, get myself to bundle up and go outside, even just for a few minutes.  

Or, because everything will feel harder, maybe I proactively make what I can feel easier (limited decision making, paying for grocery delivery, laying out the hat, coat & gloves the night before).

Are any of these magical solutions? Definitely not. In the grand scheme of things, are my concerns about winter trivial? Yes. I will be fine.

But I also believe the little things matter.  

Little actions can have surprisingly large consequences. Laying out a coat, hat and gloves might not seem like a grand gesture, but it’s eliminating that frenzied experience of running around, unable to find what you need and cursing winter for making you late. And without that experience, you feel lighter and have more capacity for handling those bigger, tougher things. 

So, on this Monday, what do you need to enjoy the day and make the best of it? 

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