Where the heart is

Denmark is continually rated as one of the happiest and most contented societies in the world, so it’s no wonder we’re fascinated with their secrets to happy living. A big part of the Danish way of life is experiencing hygge.

You have probably already experienced some of the hygge “trend” that has been rippling across the world. Chances are you are attracted to the cosiness and closeness that’s central to this Danish-born philosophy.

While hygge is not new to Scandinavians, this way of living could not have been shared with the rest of the world at a better time — when we are all living such fast-paced and technology-overloaded lives.

Hygge offers us respite from the modern problems of exhaustion, adrenal fatigue and disconnection; from ourselves, our communities and where we live. It seems that hygge encompasses all the things that our minds, bodies and souls are craving.

Meik Wiking, author of and CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, has spent years studying the magic of Danish life. Wiking writes that hygge has no direct translation and has been called everything from “cosiness of the soul”