September, and back to the grindstone. Children creep unwillingly to school, or race energetically in to see their friends and find out what everyone was up to over the holidays. Parents can breathe a sigh of relief that work… whatever form that takes, paid or unpaid, out of the home or in it… can now be organised free from too many panics over childcare.

Even the childless and those past the season of life strictly ruled by terms, holidays and teachers find themselves stepping into the workspace with the feeling that September is a time to knuckle down before the next Big season of celebration. La Rentree, as I said, affects us all.

And we pick up the timetables of our ordinary lives. We find groups restarting, classes reopening and courses being pushed. Time starts to feel constrained again, and to be spoken for without, it seems, us having spoken ourselves.

I’m not here to preach or to get didactic about what you do when, how many social groups you or your child can physically do. Different people have different energy levels and what seems like just a run in the park to one is a burden of unbearable energy-sapping entrapment to another. I was never a timetable girl: the boxes are there as a guideline, an ultimate aim not an actual routine. When my children were little I tried to encourage them to have one social group a week and one sporting class/lesson/team to belong to. We had three children, so that could potentially mean six classes a week to fit in around home life, meals, work and family commitments. It was enough, for us, but I know friends whose children did every class going, every after-school group, every uniformed and un-uniformed organisation. Their choice, but I never envied them the precision planning needed.

And I still resist the idea of fixed, absolute, formal timetables. I like running groups, but they still demonstrate a degree of flexibility so that, say, a Christmas Concert by a favourite artist can be accommodated, or a sudden loss of all the members for one night means no more than an agreement to meet another day.

I wrote in my book, Cosy Happy Hygge that life seems to fly past at the speed of a hamster wheel. That book was about using the rhythms, rituals and routines of every day life to harness “the power of slow when we can, about letting ourselves enjoy the small things, and about appreciating the many gifts of time, once we recognise them, in our lives”. We need to use rhythms, routines and rituals to craft a life that feeds the heart and soul as well as getting us from A to B.

Establishing rituals, daily, weekly, monthly, annually, gives us pauses to stop and appreciate the path we’re on. There are very few once-in-a-lifetime events: it’s a shame not to live through and appreciate the repetitive nature of life in a rush to be more, to earn more, to spend more (time, energy or money) and miss out on the view. We circle back to Mondays, to Septembers, to Paydays once a month or to our annual personal celebrations and never stop to appreciate the new views we are exposed to. And we miss out on acknowledging our own growth in doing so. Again, I wrote: “Life is beautifully circular; like a spiral we return again and again to the same points in the year and each time we are a little different: we know more, we appreciate more, we seek more” It’s a life lesson we learn and then, too easily, forget. This September we slow down long enough to smell the coffee, next September we’re racing to be somewhere and our coffee is barely warm, let alone rich in flavour and worth savouring. We need to pull ourselves back and set a smooth path to take us through the next few months.

The next few posts are going to be about setting up the rituals of a small, cosy life. This is the month of #septembersmallthings and about the benefits we receive from appreciating and experiencing even the small pleasures and moments of life. Even if the outside world is setting our teeth on edge, we (as long as we have a degree of financial stability, a place to live and people to share it with) have riches untold. Setting up our own personal rhythms and rituals will give us the space, the time and the perspicacity to recognise, report and benefit from small living, slow moving and simple pleasures. As always, writing my thoughts through gives me a boost in keeping it real. I hope you, too, will take the pause September offers and realign life and living well.

How to Hygge the British Way is my gift to the world. I don’t get paid for writing it, I’m not in it for the kudos, financial rewards, to become an influencer, work with brands or otherwise make any money from the blog. That’s why there are no ads, and any products I mention and recommend have either been gifted to me or bought by me with my everyday wages or donations from supporters. Every book I review has been bought and read by me, unless stated otherwise.

I do get a couple of pennies each time someone buys from the Amazon links on my page, as an Amazon Affiliate, but otherwise if you’d like to support me, I like to give something back in return. That’s why I write books. It always feels good if you get a book back in return for some money. You can find a full list of my books at my Author’s Page on Amazon, but especially recommended for this time of year are:

Cosy Happy Hygge: Setting up a rhythm to life and rituals to enjoy it to make for a more balanced life that handles waves and storms better. Lent is a season of rituals and resets. The book has small and easy ways to make your life flow with grace and happiness, which lead to more hygge.

Happier: Probably my most personal book, it’s the story of how I used hygge and the little things in life to help boost my happiness. I still go back and reread to remind myself what I need to do to be a happy human. And it’s always the little things.

Is it too early to think ahead? My Christmas books are always available: Have Yourself a Happy Hygge Christmas is a good place to start, on how to make the season cosier, happier. Celebrating a Contagious Christmas was written during covid year, but has useful advice on celebrating when times are hard anyway and Enjoying a Self-Care Christmas is a short e-book on keeping Christmas simpler, easier and better for you, your waistline and your budget. It even includes 25+ suggestions for self-care activities over Christmas, as simple as sipping tea, keeping a list journal or lighting a candle. Bigger is not always better for Christmas.

I’m currently working on two book projects: I have a hankering to rewrite 50 Ways to Hygge the British Way, so it’s not available at the moment, but even dearer to my heart and my next stated aim is to finish and publish my next book, Simple Plus Cosy = Hygge. It will be about homemaking and how the home we create shapes the hygge we have. Hopefully it will be finished by the end of summer 2025.

If you’d like to support me, but don’t want to buy a book, I have a Paypal.Me account as Hygge Jem. Every little helps, so even a few pence goes towards the books, goods and courses I use and recommend on the site. I’m grateful for every little bit that brings me closer to my dream of full-time writing, and I know I couldn’t still be writing if it weren’t for the support of many readers and friends out there. Thank you all for every little bit of support, emotional, physical and financial, you give me.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, don’t forget to share it or save it so others can enjoy reading, thinking about and living hygge as well.

The photo between post and promotions is by Alisa Anton on Unsplash. I like the pause it seems to hint at: the person, who has stepped out of the shot for a moment, has their book ready to read and hot chocolate on the point of perfection: they’ve lit their candle, and settled down to enjoy a fresh breeze before the autumn winds turn sharp and sarcastic. They just need… what? Their pen? A blank page to write a loved one a letter? Socks, or a throw? I love photos that drag you into making up a story.