It’s hard to hygge when your brain is screaming go!!! I wrote those words to a fellow hygge-blogger (how awesome is it that I actually have a category; I am a hygge-blogger) on her post yesterday. Hygge House, on her post Living Hygge,  was explaining why she hadn’t felt up to hygge posts recently; too much to do, too rushed, too cross at seeing the hygge word being used as an advertising gimmick. Hygge House has been going since 2006, so she is A Master of hygge, before whom I bow in respect. And she has always presented hygge as just something you do as natural as breathing, as moving, as being.

But if even she finds it hard to get her hygge on… and gets irritated that it’s being presented as a luxury lifestyle choice (as am I) she is determined to get it back.

I think hygge is there if you can find the time to slow down. It takes space to relax, not physical but mental space. It’s far too easy to be forever doing and racing and being somewhere or living the dream, which takes a lot of energy. I ask; whose definition of the dream are you living?

I suppose by many accounts, my life so far is one of non-achievement; I’m not high up in a corporation with a good job, good pension, good car or even a good view from my office corner window. I’ve never worked at one place longer than 5 years, due to babies or being ready to move on. And my job now is a peculiar one; I work with my husband. He’s a solicitor, I answer the phone, one call at a time, and do letters and work when he needs me to and I have plenty of time at a desk to write my blog, think my thoughts, just to be. I’m slower now than when I was working on supply, or as a Teaching Assistant.

I have never been happier. I have never been more grounded, felt more peaceful, known more that I was in the right niche. Being an Office Ninja suits me. And I keep it hyggelig.

I love my morning rituals. These little rituals ground me and give me pause. I open the office, so every day I get to walk all the way around, opening the shutters, turning on computers, filling the kettle and making that first cup of tea. Chai, sometimes, but today Spiced Orange tea from Hoogly tea. It’s light, delicate, spiced and full of fruity scent that has perfumed my desk. I really must try all my samples and do a review. Sometime.

And when the computer is on, then I check emails, Twitter and Facebook. I run the social media accounts for the firm, so I have to do them, and then move on to the blogs. The Hygge Nook goes from strength to strength, with requests to join daily. I’m finding that the quicker the daily work is done, the more time I have to think.

I’m planning posts, planning a book, planning an e-course, wondering where to start, how to go about any of that. I’ll find the right way. The one thing life has taught me is that the right time jumps up and you just answer the call. You answer the call or the chance passes on.

And tea, coffee, drinks punctuate the day. Either one of us will jump up, ask if the other’s ready and make a cup of chai or coffee. It’s been good for me; I never knew how dehydrated I was until I finally made it to my eight drinks a day. How much better I feel, how much happier I am. And how often I post my cups or pots on the internet!

I’m finding the space to hygge more now I’m older. Perhaps I just recognise that time, for me, is beginning to be finite; I have lived longer by now than I shall live to be in the future. I can’t afford to fritter it away anymore, so every day needs to be savoured. Breathe. Slow down, enjoy your tea.

I wish you were closer, I could ask you for a cup of tea. I’d love to share a spiced orange with you and just chat. Since we can’t meet in person, virtually is the next best thing.

If you’d like to follow me on social media find me on How to Hygge the British Way on Facebook, as @AngelKneale on Twitter and as British Hygge Jem on Instagram. To explore what hygge means to you, join The Hygge Nook on Facebook and excitingly if you’d like to hear my voice I was on West Midlands BBC Radio as a Hygge Ambassador. You can hear me for a few more weeks if you click through the link. I’m about 20 minutes in.