10 Hygge habits for fall & winter – Embrace the dark season like a Finn
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If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you're probably starting to feel the darkness of the
fall. For some of us it feels like a cozy blanket to wrap around yourself, but for others it's more
challenging. Here are my best tips on how to embrace the darkness, how to make the most of
the dark season. Hi, my name is Jaana. Welcome or welcome back to my channel where I talk about
slow living and my life in the Finnish countryside. By the way, if you're wondering what hykke means,
it's a Danish word that describes coziness, being comfortable, especially this time of year.
Here in the Nordics, November is infamous for being the darkest month of the year. There's
usually no snow yet, at least here in Southern Finland. Instead it rains a lot, there's not
too much daylight. It can feel pretty daunting. You wake up, there's no daylight, you come back from
work, it's dark already. And I would say that the most important thing for going through November
and the dark fall is your attitude. There's this startup event in Helsinki called Slush and a few
years ago their slogan or the welcoming slogan for people who arrived to Slush from other countries
was nobody in their right mind would come to Helsinki in November except you. You badass,
welcome. And I think that's ingenious. That captures the attitude that you need to go
through the Finnish November. I often feel like I'm a true badass when I'm walking in the rain,
going for a walk on a day when there's not even a ray of sunlight, barely any leaves on trees
anymore, the whole landscape gray and brown. You have a really hard time finding anything beautiful
in your surroundings. And I've tried to find ways to enjoy that. Just the other day I went for a
walk, I felt the drizzle on my face, I felt the cool air, I heard my footsteps on the gravel of
the road. As I walked there enjoying the sensations, I truly started to feel that the moment was
beautiful even though it wasn't really that kind of traditional beauty when we talk about the beauty
of fall. So I think your attitude is so important. If you find ways to embrace the darkest season,
it really truly makes a difference. I think it's important to have things to anticipate. In the
it's easy because there are many events going on. You maybe meet more people, things are busy. But
this time of year the things to anticipate can be a bit different. Maybe it's a movie night with
your family or friends. Maybe you plan a hiking trip in the nearby forest. Or maybe the thing
that you plan for yourself is just something simple that you do at home for yourself, like
taking a bath or having a nice meal. Preparing for holidays. Right now is the best time to start
preparing for Christmas. Christmas being the biggest holiday we celebrate in Finland. At least
most of us do celebrate Christmas. If you're planning to make Christmas gifts, if you start now
you still have plenty of time. But even if you don't make any presents by yourself, it would be
a good idea to go Christmas shopping already. Because if you start early you can make mindful
decisions. You don't have to rush the last week when every shop is packed and everybody's stressed
out. You have time to order things online. You can simply set yourself up for a stress-free Christmas
if you start well ahead. Enjoying real fire. If you live in a house with fireplaces like I do,
it's simple. You just make a fire and enjoy it. If you live in the country you can make a fire
outside. Sit by the fire. But even if you live in the city you can burn candles. I always feel they
bring such cozy atmosphere. These kinds of small delights really make a difference. Reflecting the
past year and making plans for the new one. My 2025 was a year of success. I finally got my
first book published and that was a huge win for me. But at the same time it has been an emotional
year. Having the success you dreamt of is not always just rosy or easy. There are many kinds
of emotions involved and I confess I've had my share of stress and anxiety. It's just because
things are changing. It's a process that you need to go through. So my plan for next year would maybe
be to trust myself, to trust life. Even when I'm scared of something just go bravely towards
that fear. If the goal is something that I truly want to achieve. So now would be a perfect time to
maybe sit down and write in your journal. Reflect a little bit what you went through this year.
What is something that you want to continue with? What are the new goals that you are setting
for next year? Learn something new. In my case it's often knitting related. Right now I'm practicing
more intricate color work. I'm excited but at the same time it's something time consuming. So
right now if your evenings are quiet you're not as busy as you would usually be. It's the perfect
time to start learning something like that. Maybe it's learning a new language. Maybe you want to
learn to play an instrument. Maybe it's something art related. Maybe you want to learn new
techniques on watercolor or drawing. Whatever tickles your fancy. Feel free to share what you
are making at this moment and if there are any new skills that you are learning. Learning new things
is very good for the brain. I enjoy so much the feeling of accomplishment when I'm trying to
learn something complicated. And first it's a bit frustrating. It feels like I'm never going to
nail this and then something just clicks and then I know suddenly what I'm doing. That's the reason
why I want to learn new things. Bring nature inside. This time of year nature is kind of
going asleep and there's it feels like there's not so much to see in nature. Not like in summer
when everything is green and lush and flowers are blooming and it feels like there's everything new
every week or almost every day. But I think that nature is beautiful any time of year.
And one thing to remind ourselves of that would be to bring parts of nature inside.
Even when it's dark outside you can still enjoy those nature elements in your house. For example
I love to collect pebbles. Well I wouldn't say I collect them. I just have this urge to carry them
home whenever I see a beautiful pebble outside. Especially from holidays. I have a jar full of
pebbles that I collected on various beaches that I visited. And it could also be like
three branches. Something like that. You could make beautiful decorations. Even make Christmas
decorations with those materials from nature. They will remind you that nature is beautiful
any time of year. You could also document nature by taking pictures, finding different shapes and
colors in nature. Even though it's not the most colorful time of the year. Or you could write.
You could try to capture the beautiful moments you see in nature by writing. Visualize. I often
put on nature sounds in the background and I visualize myself in a place in nature
that feels comforting to me at the time. For example now that it's gray outside I might
want to visualize myself on a beach in the summer. Listening to the waves of the sea.
Observing the ripples of water. Feeling the sand under my feet. Feeling the breeze
on my bare skin. Feeling the sun on my face. Imagining myself on the beach on a hot summer's
day. I often feel like when you can't go to those places just imagining them helps a lot. And if you
want to you can also go through your memories. Maybe from the past summer or even further away.
Remembering your best moments. Maybe with friends and family. What were your happiest moments
this year? Going them through in detail. Maybe looking at pictures. Now is the perfect time to
do that. And if you want to you can also make a picture book of all your memories. I often do that
like once a year of the best moments that we had as a family. Pictures of my family members and the
moments we shared. That's something nice to do this time of year. And then you have the year kind
of wrapped up and you have all the memories available whenever you want to visit them.
Instead of just having some random big pictures here and there. Maybe on your phone or on your
computer. Unorganized. The last and maybe the most important point on this list is not to fight it.
It's important that you accept that you might be feeling more tired when it's dark outside.
Maybe you're feeling unmotivated. Maybe you're resisting the whole dark season. If you don't like
darkness then this might be a difficult time of year for you. There are so many things that you
can do to see this in a more positive way. But you don't and you shouldn't hide from your feelings
or suffocate them. It's okay to feel whatever you are feeling. But I believe that if you just
keep the door open for enjoying this instead of using all your energy to resisting it.
It will make a huge difference. How do you feel about the darkness? About the fall? Is it something
that you enjoy? Something cozy and comfortable? Or does it feel more challenging? And if so,
what do you do to make it more tolerable? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
And please subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Thank you for watching.
Remember to take care of yourself. See you in the next video. Bye bye!