Are you ready for some hygge? I know I am. The weather is turning cooler and even more days are expected to be spent at home and inside. If “cabin fever” has not already set it, you might want to prepare to ward it off, and if it has already set it, keep reading for some ways to send it packing.

First, you might be asking, “what the heck is hygge”? It’s pronounced “Hoo-gah”. I know – how can something that is spelled like that be pronounced “Hoo-gah”!?

“Hygge… is a Scandinavian way of life that celebrates coziness, shared meals, and companionable interactions with loved ones. Emphasizing warmth, kinship, and an appreciation for the little things, hygge is a perspective on life that started in Denmark and has contributed to the nation’s consistently high happiness ratings. Now, Americans are turning to hygge as a way to find happiness from within.”   

Brinton Parker, (December 10, 2019), 11 Ways to Embrace the Hygge Lifestyle This Season. PopSugar

Hygge is a great way to embrace self-care that extends to all family members. Think about all the things you love about your home and the things you like to do there that provide that much-needed extra layer of comfort.

I just put together my hygge list to support and comfort me:

• Time alone in the comfy leather chair in my office for journaling my thoughts and renewing myself spiritually
• Adjusting my power chair in the den and watching a PBS Nova nature series program with my husband. (I love the ones about the big cats!)
• Sipping on a warm cup of cocoa with mini-marshmallows
• Decorating my home with items of personal family memories (I’ll show you around soon and point out all the “old things” that are so special to me!)
• Watching HGTV – any shows on HGTV (personally, I love the Property Brothers and Home Town, among many others!)
• Putting on an eye mask and listening to soothing music as I take a short afternoon nap
• Curling up (OK – I mean metaphorically curling; it has been a long time since my knees allowed me to actually curl up!) with my iPad to play Candy Crush, Soda Crush, Hearts and Rummy. I’m ashamed to tell you how high I’ve gotten on Candy Crush. I am curbing my “addiction”.
• Playing Sudoku and Kakuro. There is just something satisfying about being able to solve one of these puzzles.

Now, how about you? Do you have a hygge list, even if you don’t call it that? Comment or email me at vicki@herlifehacks.com and let me know one or two things on your hygge list. I would love to be able to write a post of collective hygge experiences.

Want to know more about hygge? Here are links to several popular books about hygge.

https://amzn.to/3jLmUId is the link to the book in the featured photo at the beginning of this article.

And here is a link to two popular books on Amazon – https://amzn.to/35SUgA6  .

Finally, coloring books are very comforting activities on the hygge list of a lot of people. Here is where you can get a hygge coloring book: https://amzn.to/382GwW9.

Get started now on your hygge fall and winter. It will help comfort you through these times.

You know that life isn’t fair. And not just because you’ve been told that but because you’ve experienced it for yourself to the extreme these past few months. Trying to deal with something that is not just unfair but even a complete injustice, can really play havoc with your happiness if you allow it. 

To live through times like we’ve all been experiencing requires special attention to how we are coping and taking action to counteract the damaging effects of becoming a victim to circumstances.

Maybe one or more of these suggestions can help you deal with these unjust times. Find one that speaks to you and focus on applying it in your life.

1. Be Compassionate to Yourself – The one person in the universe that can treat you with the utmost fairness and kindness is yourself. At the very least, make sure you are being compassionate to yourself because when it comes down to it, you are your own best friend.
2. Focus on Now – Learning how to be more mindful about what is happening in your life right now is important. If watching the news makes you feel particularly bad right now, focus on you and your family and the positive ways that interaction can sustain you. Look for ways to enhance your family’s well-being. Make things fair, at least for yourself and your family. 
3. Separate Facts from Emotion – While some types of injustice, such as systemic racism for example, are rage-inducing even when you look at them on a factual basis, sometimes the facts will help you cope. For example, when the media gets obsessed about something, it always seems worse than it really is. Avoid social media that is filled with extreme opinions expressed through hatred. Check the facts; don’t trust your emotions.
4. Learn to Breathe Right – Did you know that most people don’t even breathe correctly. To breathe right so that your oxygen levels are the way they should be and to reduce the anxiety, you should breathe into your diaphragm like a baby. Sometimes, just taking a deep, letting-go breath (or several of them) can ease the anxiety of the moment.
5. Eat Right and Exercise – There isn’t much that can replace good nutrition for avoiding depression. While it isn’t always going to rid you of it entirely, it will help you avoid nutritional deficiencies that can lead to depression. Moving more will also help you feel better because it’s going to help you feel more alive and in tune with your body.
6. Sleep Enough Each Night – The next most important item after food is to ensure that you are sleeping a full 7 to 9 hours every single night. When you sleep enough, you give your body and mind time to repair. Take time to wind down before going to bed by doing things that comfort you or even bore you to sleepiness!
7. Avoid Alcohol and Drugs – This is especially important when you are feeling down, angry, or depressed. Most drugs aren’t going to do anything but enhance the emotions, causing you to be even more depressed. Of course, if you need prescription medication, that is different.
8. Avoid Depression Triggers – Most people have triggers that make them get worse when it comes to depression. If you know what yours are, just avoid them. That doesn’t mean that you’re putting your head in the sand. You can always help in another way if it’s interfering with you dealing with the injustice.
9. Help Other People – Find a way to get outside of yourself and help others. Everyone is suffering in some way. Sometimes a simple phone call or card can do wonders for those feeling isolated and alone. Fresh baked goods or soup left at a neighbor’s house can be so comforting.
10. See a Counselor – A large number of people can improve their lives by acknowledging they cannot go it alone and need to seek therapy. If you are struggling and worried about depression, realize that sometimes depression is not situational; sometimes it’s chemical. Seeing a professional can help you identify which you’re dealing with so you can learn ways to deal with the unfairness of life without depression.

It’s one thing to work toward a better world, but it’s another to let it ruin your world right now. Focus on doing what you can as an individual, but also focus on the here and now so that you can live a satisfying life even though things aren’t fair yet. If you look at the world historically, you will know for sure that the world really is becoming a more inclusive and fairer world that puts justice first. It’s just happening slowly.

Is your current mindset helping you cope or does it need some adjustments? My simple ecourse guides you through some fun and revealing activities that will help you choose a mindset that will serve you both now in the future. Take a look: Designing Your New Normal Mindset. Get it now before the price increases!

You’ve heard it said that we should let go of the past. You’ve also heard that some things are easier said than done. Letting go of the past and moving forward certainly fits under the category of “easier said than done”.

William Faulkner said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Without getting into a literary discussion of what Faulkner meant, my reference to the quote is to acknowledge that our past has certainly influenced who we are in the present and will most likely continue to shape our future. However, if we recognize its impact, we are in a better position to either use your past or let it go for an even more positive life from this point forward.

While there may indeed be things in your past that may have limited you in many ways, let’s focus on the most recent past, specifically most of the current year.

What has been the impact on your life of the lockdowns, social distancing, and worldwide chaos? How have you responded?

Common responses in times of extreme stress are to “flow, flee or fight”.

People who flow may be simply trying to weather the storms of life. They accept what is and wait for what is to come. They may feel they have little control to make decisions that impact their lives in positive ways. Just getting through each day is as much as they can handle.

People who flee may be denying the reality of the situation by responding as if they can continue life as it was before the changes thrust upon them. In this case, they may ignore the warnings about COVID-19 and continue to live their lives as if those dangers do not exist.

Then, there are the fighters. Those people acknowledge the dangers and arm themselves with knowledge and the means to manage their lives, even if there are many things out of their control. They embrace frequent hand washing, social distancing, and wearing masks in social situations as their best chances to survive and thrive in the current situation.

Which one are you – are you flowing, fleeing, or fighting? Which do you want to do?

Whatever your response to these questions, it’s more important to know how to do it. Most people will eventually come to grips with why they should do it. They get stuck on actually taking steps to make it happen.

Give yourself permission to let go of the past. That is an important step. And it’s probably a step you may have to repeat many times. Just telling yourself to let go may not be enough. Reflect on the parts of your past that will give you strength and recognize how negative past experiences can also contribute to your inner strength. Learn from your past experiences.

Take time to reflect upon how you want to live your life going forward. This involves coming to conclusions about what is working for you now and what is not and making decisions about how you want your life to be in the future.

Don’t hide from your past. People try to pretend certain aspects of their past did not happen, especially the more embarrassing moments. However, this may cause them to come back to you with a vengeance since they are bottling up within you. Acknowledge everything about your past but commit to pushing forward. Continuing to flee from your past is not the answer. Author James Baldwin wrote that “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Keep a journal of your experiences. Simply recording your thoughts may help you see new and better ways of responding to life challenges.

Finally, where do you want to go from here? If your answer is to go back to the way things were, you may find yourself stuck and unable to do anything but flow with what happens to you. The pandemic changes everything. But how you change is up to you.

If you’re still unsure of what you can do to move your life forward, perhaps you would benefit from my mini-course Designing Your New Normal Mindset.  Click here to see if this may be a good starting point for you. There has never been a better time to reflect on your current situation by letting go of the past and taking charge of your future.

One good thing about today is that Hurricane Isaias has past and we are safe. There is more debris in the yard than in recent hurricanes. And we lost electrical power briefly, but lights are back on. Things could have been much worse.

I saw a Facebook meme recently that said “a hurricane heading to North Carolina is the most normal thing to happen in 2020”, which is so true! It’s hard to keep to a routine when you are always at home and every day is just like the previous day.

Although I’ve been keeping a gratitude journal for a couple of years now, sometimes I find it difficult to write down 5 things for which I’m grateful. I have a multitude of blessings for which I am grateful but living daily under the cloak of COVID-19, I find myself recording many of the same blessings each day. It’s hard to take a fresh look at things for which I’m grateful.

I found myself wondering if anyone else was experiencing the same thing. What if we started with recognizing “one good thing” that happened each day? That is a simple way to be more positive during trying times.

So, I created a One Good Thing a Day Journal for you. Actually, I created 4 journals! You can pick from two sizes, letter size (8 ½ “ x 11”) and 6” x 9” and two designs, one with flowers and a more gender-neutral one with clouds and sky.

I also made them interactive, so you can keep your journal on your computer or mobile device or print them out to complete.

The letter-sized journals have only one line to key in your daily One Good Thing. In the 6×9 journals, you are able to key in multiple lines, but the content scrolls up so you may not be able to see all the content if you add too many lines.

Feel free to share the journals with anyone you think might like to develop habits of gratitude. You could encourage children or grandchildren to start their own journal. All they have to do is to write down one good thing that happened to them daily.

You could also create a family tradition of not only writing daily in your journal but have a family sharing time to discuss what each of you wrote for the day. What a calming way to end the day as a family!

When you choose which journal you want to use, I recommend immediately making a copy of it so you can keep the original. Each journal file is for one month, so after making a copy, rename it for the month, such as AugustJournal2020. Then for each succeeding month, make a copy and rename it for that month.

Or if you prefer, just print out a copy for each month and start filling it out.

Here are links to your free One Good Thing a Day Journals. I’d love to hear how you used them in your family. Enjoy!