slowing down

Let’s Hygge! Are you with Me?

Posted by Barbara Techel

Let's Hygge! Are you with Me?

No, that is not an error in spelling of the word Hygge in my blog post title. Though I have found different versions on line of the definitive way to pronounce it. One resource says “HOO-gah” while another says “HEU-gah” and yet another says “HUE-gah.”

Well, no matter how you say it, I’ve been doing it a long, long time. I’ve been attracted to it way before I knew about this term. In fact, the older I get, the more I crave it and need to have much in my life as possible because it helps ground me and keep me in balance.

It’s a feeling, really, like no other.

And until recently, while I knew the name for it here in the states, I didn’t know the Danish had a name for it, which they call Hygge.

What is Hygge, you may ask?  Well, once you know, I know you will want to do it too!

According to the book I read while on vacation, The Cozy Life by Pia Edberg, the Danish concept of coziness is…

the art of creating warmth, comfort, and wellbeing through connection, treasuring the moment, and surrounding yourself with things you love.

I’ll bet you want to join in and Hygge with me now, now don’t you?

I LOVE TO HYGGE!

Some of my favorite ways to Hygge:

  • Snuggle up to the woodstove with a good book and cup of tea or glass of wine (and not to be left out, a wiener dog curled beside me)
  • Decorate my home with vintage, nostalgic, upcycled furniture and treasures.
  • Nap in the winter with the sun streaming on my face (which I just did today!)
  • Create altars in my writing cottage from items in nature, animal totems and oracle/SoulCollage(r) cards
  • Listen to music that stirs my emotions.
  • My favorite person to Hygge with is my hubby John, whether we are nestled in our small living room around the woodstove catching up on the day’s events, sitting around the chiminea on our deck, or out at a restaurant on date night. 
  • Watch my dogs, Kylie and Gidget play outside.
  • In spring, summer and fall, my newest favorite Hygge since getting new landscaping, is walking around the house checking out my flowers and shrubs.
  • A soak in the tub and then slipping into my flannel pajama’s.
  • Spending time at my Sistah V’s home — her house oozes Hygge!
  • Slowly peruse Cottage Journal magazine.
  • Mindfully walk through piles of fall leaves.
  • Sit in silence and gaze out the window.
  • Light candles

I could go on and on, really. So many Hygge things to relish in.

And this time of year…so perfect to Hygge…winters gift of slowing down, getting cozy, and going inward.

Do you have a favorite way to Hygge?

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.

Living with Change

Posted by Barbara Techel

living with change

Last month while shopping at a local vintage and eclectic shop, I gave my credit card to the woman behind the counter to ring up my purchases.

I have the new chip card, so she inserted it into her machine. She commented that she wasn’t so sure about this new “chip thing” as it seems to take longer to go through and process.

I agreed at first thinking about those times I’m in a hurry. But then I changed my tune. I said, “Perhaps it’s a way of getting us to slow down more. So many of us always seem to be in a hurry. Maybe it’s a good thing.”

She smiled. “What a great way to look at it,” she said. “I like that.”

This morning I was reading a favorite blog and the writer, Jon, talked about climate change and how he is learning to live with it and understand it. Just like we are experiencing here, they have had a hot and humid summer. Though they have had much more rain making it feel quite tropical, while here we haven’t had much rain.

I realized at the beginning of the heat wave earlier this season how I’ve been fighting with, and not accepting how I feel in the heat, which I experienced last summer also. While I once loved it and couldn’t get enough of it, my body, and really, my hormones are a changin’, so it’s made it challenging for me to be in the heat for too long. And I was fighting it every step of the way.

But I don’t want to fight it anymore. I’m plumb tired of wishing for what was. So I’ve been moving into an acceptance of this which means doing things differently – like watering my new gardens early in the morning, or later in the evening. And moving slower when I have to be outside. And guess what happens when I open to this new way? I see a sky I’d never seen before, I hear sounds I’d not heard before, I hear more silence (especially in early morning), and the best part? My mind is more at rest, instead of being in a state of wishful thinking and constant battle of wanting it be like it used to.

When I find myself trying to revisit the “way it was” I silently repeat a favorite quote of mine by author Tasha Tudor, “I don’t believe in hurry.” This is a practice for me, and one I truly want more of in my life, but sometimes old habits are hard to break. And in a world where many believe in speed, I can sometimes find myself getting sucked in without realizing it.

And my Lab, Kylie is such a great example for me. She will be eleven in two months and moves slower these days too.  Years ago she loved to hang out in the driveway overlooking the neighborhood for hours on end. But these days she is more content doing her civic duty of making sure all is well in the neighborhood from the spot inside the front door with the air conditioning on. And I’ve not once heard her complain about what was and now is! She simply adjusted and accepted.

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But I’m thankful to be more open to how my mind works these days and the challenge of seeing things in a new way. And I also remind myself that I am a work in progress and to be gentle with myself. Be gentle.

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.