Cozy Habits for Winter

In this episode, I’m reflecting on the Danish concept of Hygge- a powerful approach to embracing coziness, comfort, and well-being through the dark cold winter.  By being intentional about creating habits that work for you, you can transform your experience of the deep winter months.

3 Key Takeaways:

Intentional Self-Awareness that aligns with the current season: Notice where you are- mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually—and ask yourself what you need more of THIS season. Small shifts can spark big changes.

Simple Comforts Matter: From soft blankets and lighting to favorite hobbies and engaging your senses, find rituals that make daily life genuinely cozy and joyful.

Community & Connection: Hygge isn’t just about your environment—it’s about people. Reach out to those who energize and inspire you, and intentionally create moments to connect.

What is your next step?  A new cozy light, heartfelt message to a friend, or dedicating time to a favorite hobby. Your well-being is worth it!

Links 

• Join Kelly's Group Coaching Program
• Join Kelly’s Free community on Skool

Let's connect.

I am cheering for you!

Transcript

0:09

Welcome to the Live A Vibrant Life podcast. I'm life coach Kelly Tibbitts and each week I'll be here to encourage and equip you with the tools you need to grow in self-awareness and invest your best energy in your dreams and your purpose. I believe self-awareness changes everything. Let's get started. Our time together today was to talk about Hygge. I discovered Hygge. Then my daughter and her boyfriend went to Norway and experienced the energy of Hygge,"sauna Life and there's no bad weather, only bad clothing". And came back and they were so energized by it that my husband and I bought a sauna. It is the best thing we've ever purchased. Better than any vacation, makes us so, so happy. Hygge is the idea that in the middle of winter you can enjoy cozy fireplaces and blankets and books and so many different things. I love that this has become more of like a talking point in America, this idea that is over in Northern Europe, that you can be cozy in the winter. It's whole seasonal approach to a part of life. Before I discovered this and before I discovered any of the thought work and all of that, I hated winter. That was my thought. And so then I just saw evidence of that on repeat. I wanted to tell a quick story about how powerful our thoughts are. Yesterday I had the chance to teach an Enneagram class live at the university my daughter went to. That was so fun. I ordered myself a coffee and I drive up and I'd send it to the wrong place. And I decided that it was meant to be. I'm really into Eckhart Toll right now in the power presence and what is is, and it was amazing to watch, as an observer for a moment, to watch my energy. It was meant to be. I just felt very calm and I like sent out an intention, like, I hope somebody gets the coffee. But I'll tell you, that would've derailed me back in the day before I knew the power of my thoughts. I wouldn't have paid attention to it, and it would've been like all angsty energy. That's the power of this thought, Hygge. For today's conversation, what if we could make these next six, eight weeks cozy? That's the first thought. I thought we could talk through some of the thoughts. The first thing, of course, with all the self-development work we do is begin noticing where you are. We're deciding today, this is gonna be a Hygge moment. If you close your eyes and you take a breath. How are you mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually? Does that idea of being cozy and held and connected, feel supportive right now? And then from that place of you are supported, you are loved, you are safe, what do you need more of this season? So not forever. Maybe the next few weeks, maybe the next month. I've seen that throughout my whole life most people are good. Most people want to be supportive and helpful. So if you're listening to this you might be noticing, I want connection Maybe just put it out there. What about hobbies? I think a part of Hygge is the fact that maybe, people get into bread making or different things. I once was a pastor and we would do a trip all the way to the very top of Maine, which is right on the Canadian border to visit a pastor up there. And her winter was so long that she would jam everything from fruit to coffee, like just to keep herself busy. That hobby gave her a place for her energy to go and something to look forward to. So any hobbies that you're like, you know what, it is gonna be rainy or cold or dark for the next few months. This would give me time to play more, to organize a closet. I want to declare that I want to watercolor. More so I have the supplies. I have a space and a place. I enjoy doing it, and I want to use it specifically to make bookmarks for people for their birthday. The whole thing is clear. It's just the action steps aren't lining up yet. So I thought today would be a good day to make space for me to remember this is important and I'd like to do it in this Hygge cozy winter season. Anyone else thinking, here's a hobby. I love doing it. I'm not making the time for it. I want to declare that over the next two months, I want to give it some time, energy, space. Atomic Habits would say when you want to become somebody who reads during the day. So it's all about identity. You match a preexisting habit. So do you have any habits that you already do during the day? We think our energy should be going to make this world a better place. That's why we are all connected. Hours a day of fun and joy puts you in the energy to do that. And I have an aversion I can't give up that much of my life from serious things to enjoy my own life. Well, that's why I'm stuck where I'm stuck. Like the path forward is the bath and reading during the day. I love that, you're like, I want this and this is why I'm gonna do it. That's amazing. When I did my first inner child work, I knew one of the things she'd be so happy about is how many books I own. I always loved reading, but we didn't own any books and it was like so healing to be able to be like, look what we have all these books. Notice how you're doing. Is there anything you want to do more of? Maybe it's a hobby. Maybe it's more baths, maybe it's more connection. Maybe it's more purpose-filled work. I think that's the other fun part about connecting with people is everyone has this dream and no one quite knows how to do it, but we're excited about it. And so you're saying, okay, I want to do more podcast time. That's important. And what moves us forward in life? Cognitive behavior therapy says your thoughts, create your feelings. And your feelings drive your actions. So if your thought is, oh my gosh, I can't believe the coffee wasn't there and now I'm frustrated, I'm gonna show up and my actions are gonna be made from frustration. And that's very different than, well it was meant to be and I have some peace and I show up differently. My power thought for the wintertime is I can choose peaceful productivity. I think a lot of my life, I have an undefined root in human design. I feel the pressure of everybody else and you should be doing more and faster and deciding in advance. My thought is I can choose to be peacefully productive. I can go slower. My business partner came up with like, go a little lower, go a little slower as a phrase of when you're walking down the stairs, when you're driving your car, when you're at the grocery store, go a little lower with your voice, a little slower with your steps, and I can choose fewer things to do. It was helpful for me because I often, before I began being a coach and getting coaching myself, always felt like January meant add 50 things to your life. You're not thin enough, your house isn't clean enough, you don't make enough money, your friends are not connecting enough. And it was like change everything all at once. Versus I could just choose to be peaceful right now and cozy and do a few less things and go a little slower and that would all be good My daughters, always find me like really nice skincare. Something I would never buy myself, but it's one of these small habits I'm trying to create instead of just rushing through life, can we take these small moments? And so Hygge is basically a mentality of this. Just how can we slow down, how can we be cozy? And there's lots of thoughts. There's thankfulness and beauty and nature and comfort, and warmth and generosity. There's so many different areas to it. But rather than going through each one, I thought it'd be interesting to say. Where are you noticing you would like to put some energy just for like this next week? Is it more in thankfulness? Is it more in getting into nature's beauty? Do you need more comfort? Do you want to focus on being generous? Do any of those primary ways of getting into Hygge energy connect with you? And then the last one is, how can you incorporate soft light into your space? And I think that is so key for winter energy. In the spring and summer, natural sunlight is what's driving your day, but in the winter, you need the kind of light that connects with you. Some people like candles, other people's have, you know, the special kinda lamps, but I don't think I knew that most of my life. And just changing my morning light to something that is pleasant on my eyes makes my morning easier. I have a warm robe and I have the right light and it makes getting out of bed really easy compared to the old way of doing it without any intention. Do any of those five ideas feel like something you'd like I think I want to just focus on this a little more thankfulness, getting into nature and noticing the beauty. Um, having more comfort, more blankets, socks. I was doing a podcast with somebody today and she was reminding me. You're gonna go for a walk and if you start to put on your scarf and your hat and your gloves and you hate them'cause they're itchy or they don't fit right, why would you keep wearing them?'cause it's another step from keeping you from enjoying it. So get the scarf you like or get some soft socks that are warm enough. Do any of those ideas sound like something you'd like to say- I think I want to make sure that I have a little bit more of this. I think it's just interesting that we just missed out on this because we don't come from this, you know, Norwegian area where they focus on candles and blankets and robes and all of those things. And so maybe if you're listening for the first time to some of these thoughts, there are so many books and podcasts on Hygge these days. You can find one small thing. Light a candle. Get a blanket you like. Choosing to wear a nice soft robe can be something that makes you happier. Why wouldn't we do more things that make us happier? And maybe you've never heard what our mentor, Cathy Heller said-that you should be trying to spend two hours a day doing things that bring you joy. That was a really interesting thought for me. Like that felt so indulgent, and yet I really, really want this. I want to live like this. Hygge really focuses on engaging your five senses. And I love the overlap here with human design. So in human design it says that you have a primary sense that really impacts all of how you do life. It's usually in that report that they give you. Mine is smell. I didn't know that my whole life, and then I found human design about a year ago, and now I'm very aware of it. Like I've always liked, essential oils and I've always liked smelling flowers and all these things. I'm like, of course this is true. But when I got sick a couple weeks ago, I lost my sense of smell. And as soon as it came back, I just sat there with my orange and I was like, so, so, so thankful. Without knowing your human design, do you notice that one of these senses. Is the one that's important to you. If you're like, I don't like bright light, and you can make the light dimmer and you make your life better, why not do that? For somebody else, it might not be sight, it might be the sound, and they want classical music in the background. Which of these five senses was important to you and there was a way that you're prioritizing it this season. Wouldn't it be so sad if we lived the next 30 years and we didn't know that something as small as herbal essence shampoo or bath and Body Works, rose spray could make us enjoy our life more. I missed that. Yeah. Obviously for more than four decades, I was so oblivious to myself. I had no self-awareness and it, it would never occur to me to spend$5 on something that would make me happy. And now of course, it's like, of course you're worth it. If you do know your human design, it's usually in your chart. You can look and see which of these senses is kind of prioritized for you, and maybe you can come up with like a small action step that serves you. If it's sound and you really like jazz and you can play it more and then just enjoy your day more. Why wouldn't you do that? Or if it's sight you don't really like a cluttered place, could you make one corner of your house where it always looks the way you want to, so that it's inviting? And then the very last part of this big idea of Hygge is the fact that we were meant to live an intentional community. Life's meant to be done together. Even saunas are often, you know, multiple people are in there. They're doing, meals together. One of the people that I follow on TikTok does this most beautiful dinner that I've ever seen. She has a monthly dinner, and this last month she did the Black Swan. You can probably Google"TikTok dinner Black Swan" and see it. But she was so inspiring to me. She's this young woman, probably doesn't have a ton of money and she's just intentionally creating community. And that was one of the goals here was, hey, if you also want to have a life where your dreams matter and you hold space for it, even in the middle of a busy life, come and remember these things. Who gives you energy, encouragement. You don't have to tell us the five people, but maybe after this call you text them and say, I'm just so thankful for you. Or you send a card, how are you noticing community in your lives? Have that intentional time together. And then maybe this week you'll just notice, Hey, I'm so thankful for these five people. I haven't seen them in a while. I'll send them a card, or I'm gonna ask them to go for a coffee or a walk. And again, it's just another idea of Hygge, of how we can stay in this really beautiful, cozy energy. So our time together, we notice some things. We make a decision. Our human brains love the idea that all decisions are equal. It keeps us from having to decide things and without intention, we, um, don't move forward because everything's equal, so you never know where to start. So of all the things you could do to bring more Hygge in for the rest of this winter, you could change some lighting, you could buy a blanket, you could invite a friend over on Wednesdays. What would you like to choose as your one? How are you gonna remember it? Sometimes people write it down and it's on their phone. I've seen people say, when something's important to you, like your word of the year, use it in your password. So you're constantly remembering it. If there's 1, 2, 3 small changes, atomic Habits is so good at telling us that you never change by doing things. You change by identity. By becoming somebody who connects once a month. I'm a person who connects once a month. That's who I am. Maybe you're gonna decide to, go out today and change that one lamp that drives you crazy and have a cozy lamp in your living room. If you notice something you wanted to say, I think my one decision is I want to find a way to make a cozy 20, 30 minutes in the middle of the day to get to closer to that two and a half hours a day of my life that I enjoy. I want to watercolor. So that's my decision. Which is why we wanted to do this on repeat, to find a community of people that are interested in the same things that we're interested in. Growing in our self-awareness, finding a way to use our gifts, remembering that our dreams are important. That's what these small Tea Tidbits conversations are for. We'd love to have you join us at the next one. Thank you for joining the Live A Vibrant Life podcast. I hope our time together encourage you and will equip you with the tools you need to move into the vibrant life you desire. I'm here to help you live a brave, creative, purpose-filled life. And if you'd like to learn more. You can follow me on Instagram or Facebook, Kelly tibbits life coach, or visit my website kelly tibbits.com. I look forward to connecting again soon.