Hygge is a quality of presence and an experience of togetherness. It is a feeling of being warm, safe, comforted and sheltered. Hygge is an experience of selfhood and communion with people and places that anchors and affirms us, gives us courage and consolation. To hygge is to invite intimacy and connection. It's a feeling of engagement and relatedness, of belonging to the moment and to each other. Hygge is a sense of abundance and contentment. Hygge is about being not having.

Hygge is about having less, enjoying more; the pleasure of simply being. It is generous and celebratory, a way to remember the importance of the simple act of living itself.

Material goods rarely alter our levels of happiness, unlike emotional experience. Having can never replace being. -Ilsa Crawford

The most common form of despair is not being who you are. -Soren Kierkegaard

At a time of global instability we have become distanced from each other and the environment. We have lost the immediacy, comfort and truthfulness of the literal and actual, and need to find alternative ways to consume and connect. Hygge describes a way of being that introduces humanity and warmth in our homes, schools, workplaces, cities and nations.

True kinship takes a warm heart. In essence, it is about being together, deeply honestly. We talk about love so much but we forget that it is something we give rather than get: a way of being. -Ilse Crawford

When we are content, our daily actions are infused with a quiet satisfaction that we share with those around us. We become aware of and responsible for other people's well being and they, in turn, for ours. Hygge captures a way of being with other people, caring for them and ourselves.