Hygge: Carrying comfort and joy into January

A different approach to the New Year based on the Danish concept

Now that the holiday season is over and the new year is here, you may have a sense of dread or overwhelm about the weeks to come. 

While the hectic scramble to shop, organize, host, and socialize during the holidays is over, so are the fun traditions and the break from work and/or studies. 

After the festivities of December, January can feel uninspiring and maybe even daunting as work starts up again and people discuss their ambitious goals for the new year. 

You don’t have to hit the new year at full force. Entering the year gently and allowing yourself some grace as you get back in the flow of things can be a beneficial start that prioritizes your mental wellbeing.

People invented this idea of coming at the new year in full force — making new goals, starting new habits, and becoming a new person — and society puts pressure on everyone to follow this formula. 

The reality is, while rethinking how you want to live your life is beneficial, it can easily be taken too far. 

Entering the year gently and allowing yourself some grace as you get back in the flow of things doesn’t mean you aren’t working hard and starting on a new path. It just means you’re taking care of your mental health so you can keep working toward your goals and making a positive difference in your community. 

So if the new year feels overwhelming, plan to take some breaks throughout your week!

What do we mean?

Try this…

A cozy lifestyle

One culture that knows really well how to relax and recover is the Danish, who invented the concept of hygge (pronounced “HOO-gah”).

Hygge is simply being intentional about taking a break from the rush of life to enjoy the simple pleasures — it can be with family and friends or alone. It emphasizes coziness and comfort, making winter the perfect time to embrace it into your life (“Danish hygge,” n.d.).

Hygge emphasizes coziness, comfort and “surrounding yourself with the things that make life good, like friendship, laughter and security, as well as more concrete things like warmth, light, seasonal food and drink” (Norman, 2024).

Scandinavian Standard describes Hygge as: “coziness and surrounding yourself with the things that make life good, like friendship, laughter and security, as well as more concrete things like warmth, light, seasonal food and drink” (Norman, 2024).

Some examples of hygge include:

• enjoying cookies around the fire with your family 

• wearing fuzzy socks

• a bath in candlelight 

• just talking with friends for a while

• sitting on the couch with your cat

Resolutions of rest

The next time you feel stressed or sad when thinking about leaving December behind and entering the new year, make a plan to incorporate hygge into this new month. You might consider writing your plan on a sticky note, reminding you to add some calm to your week. 

How to add hygge to your day

Here are some easy ways to add hygge to your day:

• Have an evening in with your friends and enjoy tea or hot chocolate.

• Read one chapter of a book every evening, or whenever you have a free moment.

• Schedule one hour where you mute all notifications from your phone to be fully present.

• Get comfortable on the couch and call a relative who lives far away.

These are only a few of the many ways you can add more comfort and coziness to your new year. It may seem like a small thing, but we often don’t realize how much stress and anxiety builds up throughout the week when we don’t stop to let our minds and bodies rest.

Taking back your time

It’s easy to let comparison and expectations get in the way of taking breaks. 

There are so many people out there who take on ambitious home improvement projects in their free time, or work extra late, or continue responding to emails until the minute they go to bed… And all these things can become unrealistic expectations. 

Our society doesn’t prioritize rest, and we are constantly faced with demands for our time. This makes concepts like hygge even more important. 

Why?

They remind you to take back some of your time because you can’t continue to function if you aren’t getting that valuable rest in between. That leaves you vulnerable to burnout. 

You can be a committed, hard worker and still save time for you.

Cheers to inviting calm and presence with you into 2026! 

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For more simple ways to add self-care to your daily routine, you can check out our self-care seeds blog post and our Instagram series.

References

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. (n.d.). Danish hygge. Denmark.dk. Retrieved January 4, 2026. https://denmark.dk/people-and-culture/hygge 

Norman, R. T. (2024, October 2). What is Hygge?. Scandinavia Standard. Retrieved January 4, 2026. https://www.scandinaviastandard.com/what-is-hygge/