“Hygge”: this mysterious word hides so many secrets to live a happy and peaceful life. This enigmatic and almost unpronounceable concept is about feeling cosy and warm everywhere. Let yourself embark on a journey towards Danish peace and harmony.
How I practice hygge as a vegan
The art of lightening your home.
Lights are so important if you want to embrace Hygge serenity: the art of lightening your home will reveal the brightest parts of your life. Danish people consider candles to be the most important element to create a Hygge atmosphere.
Indeed, creating an environment in which you will breathe tranquility will require soft lighting. It is not about creating a campfire in the middle of your living room, it is about choosing simplicity with beautiful candles and minimalist candle holders.
First of all: choose candle smells and designs that correspond with the cozy mood you want to create for you and your loved ones. Danish people don’t usually buy scented candles but let’s add an extra-comfort to our vegan version! Then, put those candles in places of your home that will make the candles live.
A note on choosing your candles.
When choosing your candles, don’t forget to think about ethics. Indeed, how can a lifestyle really be cosy if it contains animal abuse in it ? Something as simple as a candle can hide different types of animal suffering.
First of all, let’s speak about the amazing work bees produce when they make beeswax or honey. It would be kind of cruel to steal their wax when we can buy soy wax, don’t you think ? These admirable yellow and black creatures deserve better so let’s think about them and never buy beeswax candles or even honey fragranced ones. Also, soy wax is clean and safe so let’s enjoy all these advantages without harming anybody.
Another animal abuse candles can hide is animal testing. The fragrance contained in candles may have been tested on animals as well as some components of the wax.
To be sure you are buying something clean and cruelty free, you can go on the PETA website: they offer a nice selection of cruelty free candles and the fragrances are amazing ! Also, having a PETA candle in your living room will intrigue people so you will be able to share everything you just discovered with your friends. You can also choose candles from Mrs. Meyers, Lush, Overose, etc. Never hesitate to have a look on the internet to find more Vegan and Cruelty-Free candles!
A fireplace?
The final touch to make it intimate would be to create a big fire in your fireplace and get a warm living room with a delicious woody smell. Do you know that you can make it even if you don’t have a fireplace? Easy and fun : let’s find a long Youtube video of a fireplace and put it on your TV screen. And to feel warm even without the true flames, just prepare yourself a comforting hot-water bag wrapped in a fluffy blanket.
Fresh and comfy linen.
Speaking about blankets, do you know that it is part of the Hygge atmosphere to be surrounded by fluffy and cosy plaids and cushions ? Yes but, once again, we will have to choose them carefully to be sure they are free of animal suffering.
We have to keep in mind that duvet comes from ducks. We don’t need to steal their precious duvet to feel comfortable. H&M Home, for example offers a large selection of cruelty-free pillows and they are so fluffy (and cheap, which can help if you have a small budget).
Also, let’s think about sheeps and their beautiful wool or foxes and their admirable fur for example : we don’t need and we don’t want to steal from animals to make our homes more peaceful. We can find amazing cruelty-free plaids and blankets. Once again, H&M Home provides a large selection of beautiful plaids free of animal suffering and so « Hygge compliance », we can not miss it !
Feel Hygge in your clothes.
We used to hear that we have to feel comfortable in our clothes. Let’s bring it to the next level and feel Hygge in our clothes! Think how amazing that would be to have clothes that make us feel at home ! Once again, it is part of the Danish peaceful lifestyle to wear clothes in which you will feel so good that you will believe you are bringing your shelter with you everywhere.
The idea with clothes will be the same as with the blankets : let’s be sure that we completely avoid animal suffering. Here we will have to be careful not to buy cashmere, wool, leather, fur, etc.
Togetherness, Gratitude and Presence.
Another great power of Hygge is that it reminds us to be present, to really live our lives without spending hours looking at our phones. Indeed, the typical picture of a Hygge moment would be a cosy living room with friends, having exciting conversations without being annoyed by phone rings. Create a safe space for you and your loved one in which you can remember good memories and speak about sensational adventures to come.
Speaking of memories, enjoying the present moment and being excited about moments to come: Hygge also invites us to cultivate gratitude. Indeed, we always have to be grateful for what we have even if it seems obvious. For example, let’s always remember that we are amazingly lucky to be able to spend an afternoon with friends having a cup of mulled wine.
Don’t forget that Hygge is also a mindset. To develop this harmonious mindset, the best teachers will obviously be the animals who live with you. If you don’t live with animals, let’s visit the closest sanctuary or shelter: animals will teach you so many lessons…
And now, let’s have a hyggelig time!
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Photo: Maria Krafft via Unsplash
