Have you heard of Hygge yet? It’s this awesome new lifestyle concept that apparently I’ve been doing my whole life already.
If you haven’t heard of it, here are the basics.
- Comfort and warmth are the cornerstones of this concept. So anything that is comfortable and warm is hygge.
- Candles are a must. Since I’ve moved out on my own, I’ve had a candle lit in my house almost every day.
- Baking is big, but not difficult baking because this is all supposed to be very soothing. My recently discovered butter cookies are working really well for this.
- In the colder months (so not right now, that’s for damn sure) knitting and weaving are big things. Making it, wearing it. Cuddling up under blankets and reading.
- Warm drinks like coffee, tea, hot chocolate, warmed wine. Hot chocolate mixed with red wine. These are all things that I love.
- Warm food like stews and chili. Really any good meal cooked at home.
Really, there are only two things about hygge that I don’t love. One is the focus on fresh cut flowers this time of year. This one is personal for me. I’m a Unitarian, and we generally don’t believe in killing things without good reason. So I don’t approve of killing flowers just to brighten my house when I can buy silk flowers and be quite happy with them.
The second issue I have with hygge is the focus on lessening screen time. I’m a huge tech geek, everyone in my family is. And I couldn’t do any of my hygge things without my computer or tablet.
Here then are seven ways I use technology to practice hygge in my house.
Watching movies in bed on my computer with my kids.
I’ve always considered having a TV in my bedroom to be a very bad idea. Of course, I’ve only owned one tv at a time my whole adult life, two TVs total.
For the most part, my family is really happy with this decision. TV watching is a family event, no one in the house watches it alone. But sometimes I do want to watch movies with my kids in bed. While I don’t want that temptation to watch TV all night, I do like bringing my laptop into my room, cuddling together, and watching something on Netflix.
Attending church service online.
As you may know, I’m a Unitarian. There isn’t a Unitarian church around here, so recently I found an online service.
This has been wonderfully cozy. We watch service, with a candle lit for our chalice, sitting together on the couch with my computer on my lap. While it would be really nice to have a church to attend, this is a pretty comfortable way to worship.
Keeping in touch with family who live far away.
This isn’t one that I practice personally but using online communications to spend time with family is pretty amazing. While some might say that if you miss your family just pick up the phone, I say why just talk when we can talk and see each other.
Finding stories to read by the campfire.
We love having fires in the summer. We also love reading scary stories to each other by the fire, which can cause some major damn eye strain. Reading scary stories on a tablet is a lot easier.
Reading in general.
I know a lot of purists don’t like reading on tablets. To you, I say, “I can carry the whole Harry Potter series around in my bag, including the screenplay of Cursed Child. Can you?”
So many a cozy afternoon has found me curled up on my couch or back porch reading on my tablet. Could I do it with a book? Sure, but it’s a lot less convenient.
Looking up recipes and crochet patterns.
I do not own a single damn cookbook, nor do I want one. When the time comes for my husband and me to send our children off into the world, armed with a dirty sense of humor and all of our family recipes, they’ll be in an Evernote document.
The same goes for crochet and knitting patterns. I love looking up new patterns. I also love being able to locate them again. If they’re on a piece of paper that’s just not going to happen.
Using my tablet and a coat to make a waiting room cozy.
This one’s going to go a little personal. As you all know, my family has some health issues. Not so long ago, we found ourselves in the emergency room. This time it wasn’t a life or death situation, my mother in law broke her leg. She’s absolutely fine, don’t worry.
But we were in the waiting room for awhile. Any amount of time in a waiting room at night is a long time. But this really was a horribly busy night. So while my husband was back with his mother, I was in the waiting room with the kids. They were scared and the room was just full of people. Including one person who was exhibiting drug seeking behavior.
So I staked out a couch. We bought a couple bottles of orange juice and a cup of coffee. We used our coats as blankets and I pulled up Youtube on my tablet. We cuddled up together and watched Youtube for hours, making that couch our own little hygge oasis in a sea of really unhappy people.
We as people are evolving and technology is a big part of that. I am all about using every tool I have to make a cozy, happy environment for my kids. But I’d love to hear what you think! Do you practice hygge, with or without technology? Let us know in the comments below.
Recent Comments