by Meik Wiking
Bring pillows, a blanket, treats, music, a picnic basket—whatever tickles your fancy. This is the perfect way to spend a summer afternoon, but if you add an extra warm blanket and a good sweater, this can also work as a year-round activity. In fact one winter, I biked a beautiful Swedish woman around under the Copenhagen Christmas lights in an attempt to woo her. The attempt failed. “The timing wasn’t right” (which I believe translates into “I’m just not that into you” in every language), but I am sure it wasn’t because she thought our date lacked hygge.
BIKES AND HAPPINESS
In addition to hygge, Hans Christian Andersen, Lego, and Danish design, Denmark is known for its love of bikes.
Of course, it is easy to be a nation of cyclophiliacs when the country’s highest point is less than six hundred and fifty-six feet and when the city invests heavily in infrastructure for cyclists. (Car taxes of 150 to 180 percent probably also help.)
Nevertheless, Danes love their bikes and cycling. In Copenhagen, 45 percent of those who live, study, or work in the city cycle to their place of education or employment. Roughly a third of those working in the city but living outside it choose to commute by bicycle. I think most of us appreciate that cycling is an easy way to weave a bit of exercise into our daily routine and is environmentally (and wallet) friendly. However, that is not why Copenhageners bike. We do it because it is easy and convenient. It is simply the fastest way to get from A to B. But there is an additional advantage that may be overlooked and underappreciated: biking makes people happier.
A comprehensive study carried out in 2014 by researchers at the University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School and the Center for Health Economics at the University of York, and based on nearly 18,000 adult commuters over eighteen years, found that people who bike to work are happier than those who drive or use public transport.
You might argue that we can’t be sure that it’s the cycling that causes the happiness. It could just as well be the other way round—that the happier people are, the more inclined they are to cycle. True, but this is where it gets interesting. When the researchers of the study analyzed the results, they discovered that the people who over the years had changed from commuting by car or bus to cycling or going on foot became happier after the switch. And to further bombard you with compelling arguments to give the bike a try, another study, from McGill University in Montreal, also found that those who cycled to work were most satisfied with their commute, even though it could make their commute longer.
And if happiness isn’t enough of a motivation, let me tell you that according to a Dutch (cyclophiliacs as well) study undertaken by the University of Utrecht, switching from driving to riding a bike in your daily commute adds three to fourteen months to your life expectancy, and a Danish study concluded—perhaps unsurprisingly—that children who cycled to school were significantly fitter than those who were driven.
“Okay,” you might say. “So cycling will make me healthier and happier. But what good are health and happiness? They can’t bring me money . . .” Well, you might not be the ideal target group for my next argument, but here goes: if you bike, we all win. It is good for the community.
Cycling is not only beneficial for the individual and his or her well-being and health, but it’s an indicator of the degree of neighbors’ and locals’ sense of community. A Swedish study of 2012 of more than 21,000 people found that people who traveled by car generally attended fewer social events and family gatherings. Furthermore, the drivers had comparatively less trust in other people. Those who chose to walk or cycle to their destinations attended more social events and had a comparatively greater trust in others.
This doesn’t mean that swapping your car for a bike will instantly improve how much you trust other people. The researchers behind the study point toward the increase in commuting distance as an explanation. Because of a more flexible and accessible labor market, people find jobs farther afield. In turn, this means that people’s social networks are spread farther geographically, which reduces their sense of belonging and engagement in their neighborhood. In other words, if a city is designed in a way that makes a long drive to work necessary, we harm the social health of that city. If a lot of people cycle, it’s probably an indication that you live in a healthy neighborhood. This is something that should be seriously considered in urban planning if we want to ensure neighborliness and trust among locals.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
FIVE DIMENSIONS OF HYGGE
THE TASTE OF HYGGE
Taste is an important element of hygge because it often involves eating something. And that something cannot be too fresh, alternative or challenging in any way.
The taste of hygge is almost always familiar, sweet, and comforting. If you want to make a cup of tea more hyggelig, you add honey. If you want to make a cake more hyggelig, you add icing. And if you want your stew to be more hyggelig, you add wine.
THE SOUND OF HYGGE
The small sparks and dynamic crackles of burning wood are probably the most hyggelige sounds there are. But don’t worry if you live in an apartment and cannot have an open fire without also facing great risk of death.
Many sounds can be hyggelige. Actually, hygge mainly has to do with the absence of sounds, which enables you to hear even very quiet noises such as raindrops on the roof, wind blowing outside the window, the sound of trees waving in the wind, or the creaks of wooden planks that yield when you walk on them. Also, the sounds of a person drawing, cooking, or knitting could be hyggelig. Any sound of a safe environment will be the soundtrack of hygge. For example, the sound of thunder can be very hyggeligt if you are inside and feel safe; if outside, not so much.
SMELLS LIKE HYYGE
Have you ever smelled something that takes you back to a time and place where you felt safe? Or smelled something that, more than a memory, gives you a flashback of how the world used to look when you were a child?
Or maybe the smell of something provokes strong feelings of security and comfort, such as the aroma coming from a bakery, or the smell of apple trees in your childhood garden or maybe the familiar scent of your parents’ house?
What makes a smell hyggelig differs very much from person to person, because smells relate a situation to ones experienced with that smell in the past. For some people, the smell of cigarettes in the morning is the most hyggelig thing there is; to others, the smell may provoke nausea and headaches. One common element of all the smells of hygge is that they remind us of safety and the sense of being cared for. We use smell to sense whether something is safe to eat, but we also use it to intuit whether a place is safe and how alert we should be. The smell of hygge is the smell that tells you to put your guard down completely. The smell of cooking, the smell of a blanket you use at home, or the smell of a place we perceive as safe can be very hyggeligt because it reminds us of a state of mind we experienced when we felt completely safe.
WHAT DOES HYGGE FEEL LIKE?
As I mentioned earlier, letting your fingers run across a wooden surface, around a warm ceramic cup, or through the hairs on the skin of a reindeer brings out the hygge.
Old, homemade stuff that has taken a lot of time to make is always more hyggeligt than manufactured new stuff. And small things are always more hyggeligt than big things. If the slogan for the USA is “The bigger, the better,” the slogan for Denmark is “The smaller, the more hyggeligt.”
In Copenhagen, almost all the buildings stand only three or four stories high. New houses made out of concrete, glass, and steel do not stand a chance against the hygge factor in these old buildings. Anything hand-crafted—objects created out of wood, ceramics, wool, leather, and so on—is hyggeligt. Shiny metal and glass are not hyggeligt—though they can be if they are old enough. The rustic, organic surface of something imperfect or something that has been or will be affected by age appeals to the touch of hygge. Also, the feeling of being inside something warm in a place where it is cold is very different from just being warm. It gives the f
eeling of being comfortable in a hostile environment.
SEEING HYGGE
Hygge is very much about light, as we have said. Too bright is not hyggeligt. But hygge is also very much about taking your time.
This can be accentuated by watching very slow movements of things, for example, gently falling snow—or aqilokoq, as the Inuits would say—or the lazy flames from an open fire. In short, slow, organic movements and dark, natural colors are hyggelige. The sight of a bright, sterile hospital or watching fast-moving vehicles on a highway is not. Hygge is dimmed, rustic, and slow.
THE SIXTH SENSE OF HYGGE
Hygge is about feeling safe. Hence, hygge is an indication that you trust the ones you are with and where you are.
And the feeling of hygge is an indication of your feeling of pleasure when someone tells you to go with your gut feeling, that you have expanded your comfort zone to include other people and feel you can be completely yourself around other people.
So hygge can be tasted, heard, smelled, touched and seen. But, most important, hygge is felt. In the beginning of the book, I mentioned Winnie-the-Pooh, and I think his wisdom still holds true. You don’t spell love. You feel it. This brings us to the final theme of the book: happiness.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HYGGE AND HAPPINESS
Today, political leaders from around the world are expressing an interest in why some societies are happier than others. At the same time, countries are taking steps to measure their success as a society—not only from how much the economy grows, but also from how much their lives are improved, not just by the standard of living but quality of life. This is one of the consequences of the paradigm shift away from gross domestic product (GDP) as the dominant indicator for progress in recent years. However, this idea is not new. As Robert Kennedy pointed out more than forty years ago:
The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials . . . it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.
Lately, this has increased the interest in and number of happiness surveys—and it seems that Denmark comes out on top almost every time. “About once a year, some new study confirms Denmark’s status as a happiness superpower,” wrote a journalist at The New York Times in 2009. Since then, the statement has become even truer.
The World Happiness Report, which is commissioned by the United Nations, has now been published four times. Denmark has been in first place every time except once, when the country was pushed to third place. And the World Happiness Report is just one out of many rankings that puts Denmark and Copenhagen at the top of the lists about happiness and the country’s livability.
The same pattern is evident when the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development looks at life satisfaction and when the European Social Survey looks at happiness. Monocle magazine has several times ranked Copenhagen as the world’s most livable city. Nowadays, well-being rankings are only news in Denmark when the country doesn’t make first place. In addition, most Danes can’t help but smile a little when they hear that Denmark is the happiest country in the world. They are well aware that Denmark was not first in line when weather was handed out and that when they are sitting in traffic on a wet February morning, they hardly look like the world’s happiest people.
So why are the people in Denmark so happy?
THE HAPPY DANES
As discussed, international surveys frequently name Denmark as the happiest country in the world, and this has naturally prompted an increasing interest on the part of happiness researchers. What are the reasons behind the high levels of happiness in Denmark?
At the Happiness Research Institute, we have tried to answer this question in the report “The Happy Danes—Exploring the Reasons for the High Level of Happiness in Denmark.” Briefly, there are many reasons. Several factors influence why some people and countries are happier than others:—genetics, our relationships, health, income, job, sense of purpose and freedom.
But one of the main reasons why Denmark does so well in international happiness surveys is the welfare state, as it reduces uncertainty, worries, and stress in the population. You can say that Denmark is the happiest country in the world or you can say that Denmark is the least unhappy country in the world. The welfare state is really good (not perfect, but good) at reducing extreme unhappiness. Universal and free health care, free university education, and relatively generous unemployment benefits go a long way toward reducing unhappiness. This has particular significance for those who are less well off, a segment of society who is happier in Denmark than in other wealthy countries.
Furthermore, there is a high level of trust in Denmark (notice all the strollers parked outside cafés when the parents are inside, drinking coffee). There is a high level of freedom (Danes report really high levels in terms of feeling in control over their lives), of wealth and good governance, and a well-functioning civil society.
These factors, however, don’t set Denmark apart from other Nordic countries. Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland also enjoy relatively high levels of welfare. This is why all the Nordic countries are usually found in the top ten of happiness rankings. However, maybe the instance of hygge is what sets Denmark apart from the rest of the Nordic countries. I think hygge and happiness might be linked, as hygge may be the pursuit of everyday happiness and some of the key components of hygge are drivers of happiness. Let’s look at some of them.
HYGGE AS SOCIAL SUPPORT
Given the above, we can now perhaps explain three-quarters of the reasons why some countries are happier than others—factors such as generosity, freedom, GDP, good governance, and healthy life expectancy. But the factor that has the biggest effect on our happiness is social support.
What is meant by this is simply: do people have someone in their network they can rely on in times of need? Yes or no. It might not be the best or most nuanced way of measuring our social support systems, but it is the data we have across as many countries as are covered by the World Happiness Report.
One of the reasons for the high level of happiness in Denmark is the good work–life balance, which allows people to make time for family and friends. According to the OECD Better Life Index, Danes have more free time than all the other OECD members, and according to the European Social Survey, 33 percent of Danes report feeling calm and peaceful all or most of the time, while the percentages are 23 for Germany, 15 in France, and 14 in the United Kingdom.
So policies matter, but maybe hygge also fosters a special way of being together with your loved ones. In the chapter on togetherness, we touched on the link between relationships, hygge, and happiness.
This link cannot be overstated. In 1943, the American psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a model called the pyramid of human needs and the theory that we must fill our needs from the bottom of the pyramid upward. The most elementary needs are physiological: food, water, and sleep—and security. But then come our social needs, our need for love and belonging. Without having these needs covered, we will not be able to move on to fulfilling our needs for self-esteem and self-actualization.
Today, when happiness researchers analyze the common denominators among those who consider themselves happy, a pattern emerges without exception: happy people have meaningful and positive social relationships. Studies also show that when individuals experience social isolation, many of the same brain regions become active that are active in the experience of physical pain.
The four editions of the World Happiness Report published thus far are packed with evidence of the link between relationships and happiness. Family and friends and close personal relationships with loved adults explain the greatest variation in happiness. Except in the very poorest countries, happiness varies more with the quality of our relationships than with wealth.
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According to the reports, the most important relationships are with loved ones—across all societies—but our relationships at work, with friends, and in the community are also important. So quality relationships impact our happiness, but the causality goes both ways. Studies suggest that having high levels of happiness leads to better social relationships. The reason may be that happiness increases our level of sociability and improves the quality of the relationships we have. Experiments also show that people in a positive mood express greater interest in social and pro-social activities. Similarly, according to the World Happiness Report, a world survey of 123 nations found that the experience of positive feelings was strongly related to good social relationships across different sociocultural regions.
In sum, research from several decades provides evidence that supports the bond between our relationships and well-being. Happier people have a larger quantity and better quality of friendships and family relationships. Thus good relationships both cause happiness and are caused by it. The studies suggest that, of all the factors that influence happiness, a sense of feeling related to those around you is very near the top of the list.
