During a morning naked guided meditation, I discovered the concept of hygge. Hygge, a Danish word describes “a mood of coziness and comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment”, as Wikipedia describes it. As I heard about hygge, I thought it described my mood when I’m comfortably naked alone or with friends. After my meditation, I looked a little bit further and found a Wikihow article that describes how to practice hygge in three major steps:
- Designing a Comforting Space: Remove clutter from your home, create a cozy nook to relax if you have extra space, light candles around the room to use as natural lighting, keep fluffy blankets in the room, decorate your home with plants and natural decor.
- Doing Hygge Activities: drink warm drinks from your favorite mug, read a book in a cozy chair, take up a new hobby or resume an old one, eat hearty meals of comfort food, perform household tasks with joy
- Taking Care of Yourself: build a self-care “emergency” kit, take a relaxing bath, wear comfortable clothes like sweatpants and loose shirts, slow down and avoid rushing
At the exception of sweatpants and loose shirts, I could relate my nudist lifestyle to hygge when I needed to center myself, slow the fast pace of modern life or just spend quality time with family and friends. Hygge was meaning something to me, so I looked a little bit further and found an interesting article in the site Country Living: What Is Hygge? Everything You Need To Know About The Danish Lifestyle Trend.
What made me laugh in this article was the part about those famous sweatpants: “do sweatpants count as hygge? Yes. There’s even a word in Danish for them! Hyggebukser are that pair of pants you’d never be caught dead wearing in public, but practically live in when you’re at home on the weekends binging on Netflix.” Ah, ah, so those sweatpants are in fact my birthday suit, although I can wear it in public, as long as the public is comfortable with nudity.
The new aspect I discovered about hygge described in this article was what hygge was not:
- Staring at your phone all day
- Hibernating indoors alone all winter
- Strict rules
- Purchasing products just to be on-trend
Once again, I could relate to some much needed relaxed hygge time, spend naked. Can we merge Hygge and Naturism? I’m not sure what Danish people would think about it, but for nudists and naturists, I think they are a wonderful great fit wether in the middle of winter or during warmer seasons. Here are my four hygge practices the naturist way.
Make your naturist space
Home is where naturism starts. Make your lounge, your bedroom or a corner of your kitchen a cozy and comfortable place where you can safely lounge naked. Add a few candles, some lighting, comfortable cushions and blanket, ensure a warm temperature so you’re comfortable naked. If for various reasons, your place is a little bit cold, just wrap your naked body in a blanket or put a pashmina around your shoulders. The important point is to be really comfortable in that space, feeling coziness and being relaxed.
When you read this, it looks like hygge is a winter activity. But no, you can arrange that space to be cozy and comfortable in summer. You can also, if you have a garden, set a hygge space in your garden where you’ll feel comfortable and relaxed, while enjoying nude time, like the tent picture above. The key here is that unique feeling of coziness.
Slow down and invest time for you
Hygge is about enjoying life at a slower pace. Allow you to cool down, take a long bath, take care of your body with lotion, pamper, feel good. For a few hours, put clock, phone, computer and even TV away. The only electroniic you may allow is some music in the background. The whole purpose is to unplug and set some time for you.
Read that book you never had time to read, read that naturist magazine you wanted to read, listen to that opera or concerto you never found the time to appreciate fully, play that board game with your friends or significant other, do some crosswords, just lounge and dream, chat about your next naturist trip or activity with your spouse. In a nutshell, do something that soothes you, that brings you back to what really matters to you, to your life, to your beloved ones.
Cook a healthy meal
If you’re a foodie, and we all are in a way, pick your preferred healthy comfort food, and cook it, naked. Yes, enjoy naked cooking (with an apron if you have to fry). If it requires long hours of preparation, the better. Light some candles, have all ingredients prepared, put some nice music and enjoy the moment, the smell and the taste (yes, you can taste with your fingers).
What is really cool is cooking for friends. Know that you are going to enjoy the meal with somebody else is even better. This is why my fourth hygge practice is to invite friends to indulge some hygge time together. A sort of cooking I enjoy is baking, because it cannot happen fast. You need give time to yeast to do its work. This means you can indulge more time relaxing and enjoying life as it slows down a bit. Baking provides wonderful smells as well, spreading that feeling of coziness.
Invite friends
Hygge is to be shared. Invite friends to a hygge time, the nudist way, by replacing those sweatpants and loose shirts by the comfort of simple and plain nudity. Some may prefer their sweatpants and loose shirts, however, encourage plain and simple nudity. Particularly for textiles who are not used to nudity. It’s always very strange to be the only person naked in the room, but it’s a great demonstration that nudity is natural and can be enjoyed surrounded by textile. Generally, one guy will join you, and it can become the signals for others to undress too.
But respect is key in that friendliness aspect and nudity can stay optional, as long as you feel great naked with clothed friends. If you invited textile friends to a naturist hygge moment, seize the opportunity to explain what naturism really is. Prepare some books and magazines that your friends can read quietly, so they understand better naturism, then invite them to undress if they want to try naturism. Lead the way!
I really felf and still feel naturism and hygge were made to complement each other. A happiness philosophy and life practice, hygge, and a comfortable, full of respect and simple lifestyle, naturism. Next time you want to unwind and need to cool down, think naturist hygge and let me know how it went!
Strip Nude, Stay Nude, Live Nude and Share the Nude Love!
NB. If you want to know more about hygge (the non naturist way), I encourage you to read the following book. You can always add nudism to it by enjoying the coziness and comfort of plain and simple nudity.
