Why Hygge Isn’t Just About Candles (and How to Really Live It)

Feeling overwhelmed by the dark, cold UK months? In this episode, I share my approach to living Hygge —a cozy, mindful lifestyle that goes beyond interiors. 

What We'll Cover

• Changing your mindset about autumn & winter:
  • Why the colder, darker months don’t have to be dreaded.
  • Shifting from a “season to survive” to a season to rest, restore, and reflect.
  • Embracing Hygge as an attitude, not just a home aesthetic.
• Evening & bedtime rituals:
  • Setting a gentle 9:30 PM alarm to signal winding down.
  • Enjoying warming drinks like frothy almond milk with ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon.
  • Yin yoga routines and mindful stretching for relaxation and better sleep.
  • Simple skincare routines with affordable, effective products for winter self-care.
  • Optional extras: pillow sprays, sleep masks, and cozy bedtime rituals.
• Morning rituals to start your day grounded:
  • Early wake-ups to enjoy quiet time before anyone else is awake.
  • Candle-lit mornings, meditation, journaling, and affirmation cards.
  • Observing nature: stepping outside to connect with the day’s weather and light.
  • Mindful activities like feeding a sourdough starter or baking for calm and satisfaction.
• Creative and home-based winter activities:
  • Sourdough baking, wreath-making, and seasonal crafts.
  • Jigsaws, board games, and tapestry as mindful hobbies.
  • Writing handwritten letters to friends and family.
  • Reading seasonal books like How to Winter and The Power of Hot and Cold.
• Living Hygge through clothing and comfort:
  • Snuggly cashmere jumpers, fleece-lined clogs, and soft joggers.
  • Layering for warmth and comfort while feeling stylish at home.
  • Using tactile items like soft throws, cozy bedding, and blankets to create hygge corners.
• Optimizing your surroundings for seasonal wellbeing:
  • Using lighting, candles, and fairy lights to create warmth and coziness.
  • Incorporating tactile and sensory comforts to make home feel restorative.
  • Music, aromas, and small adjustments to transform spaces into winter sanctuaries.
• Nourishing foods and winter cooking rituals:
  • Seasonal soups, stews, root vegetables, and spiced dishes.
  • Comfort foods with warming spices like cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, and garam masala.
  • Weekend batch cooking to simplify weeknights and create joyful meals.
  • Treats like spiced apple cake, frothy spiced milk, or dark chocolate with nuts.
• Winter biohacks & restorative practices:
  • Cold plunges and starry dips for invigorating energy.
  • Sauna sessions and contrast therapy for warmth and endorphins.
  • PEMF mats for grounding, relaxation, and recovery after cold dips.
  • Yin yoga, restorative stretches, and mindful evening rituals to close the day.
• Mindset tips for enjoying UK winters:
  • Focusing on slowing down and aligning with nature’s rhythms.
  • Making the most of the season without wishing it away.
  • Finding joy in small, restorative activities rather than the idealized “Scandi hygge.”
• Links & Resources Mentioned in the Episode:
  • Yin Yoga with Kassandra on YouTube
  • Skincare: The Ordinary product range
  • Books: How to Winter, The Power of Hot and Cold
  • Sauna & cold plunge guides, PEMF mat (Higher Dose)
  • To read the blog post associated with this podcast episode (Hygge at Home: Autumn & Winter Rituals for Wellness) just click HERE

Transcript

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Episode of the podcast. In this podcast episode, I wanted to talk to you about that funny time of year that we're at, where the mornings are darker and the evenings are longer and the temperature is dropping, and there's a real danger that we start to see the coming months as something to be feared and dreaded. I know that was me for years and years and years, but I'm really wanting to change things up this year, and I hope that I'm going to be able to help you do the same. Sometimes the only good we see. In the ottman winter months are the short few days until Christmas, and the fact that we can at last hide our unshaven legs and un pedicured toenails away until spring. Not only that, but OES Yipe, we can consign our swimsuits and bikinis to the back of a drawer where frankly, we prefer that they belong. Add to that the thought of SAD coughs, colds, and flu, and frankly, no wonder everyone feels miserable when we reach this time of year. If we then search for a better way to approach the winter, we're transported into a world which doesn't really represent the one in which we live. A beautiful world of hogar, sparkling snow, log fire, sheep, skin blankets, steaming mugs of coffee, twinkling fairy lights, cinnamon buns, and rosy cheek children, all of which are lovely, but which don't quite translate to a drizzly miserable day in Birmingham. So this autumn and winter, I'm taking a new approach. I started it last year after reading the book, how to Winter. Now I've done a blog post that goes with this podcast episode and I've linked to it in there and for once I'm really excited about the coming months. I really enjoyed last winter. The easiest way to put this is that I'm embracing hogar, not by changing my decor, although there'll be a little bit of that, but through simple rituals, mindful movement, nourishing foods, and restorative practices that support both the body and soul. So in essence, I'm adopting Hogar as a way of living, because let's face it, the colder months are coming whether we like it or not, so we may as well embrace them. Living Hogar, I think is an attitude and it's a state of mind. It's seeing the positive and making the most of things when really we'd perhaps be somewhere a lot warmer and a lot brighter. Now, the first thing that I thought about when Living Hogar was the idea of celebrating and honoring how nature slows down in the winter and how we can too. We're not meant to bloom all year round, and honestly, by the time the autumn arrives, I'm ready for a little inner reflection a. Some hibernation time. I dunno if I'm alone in thinking that, but the more women that I speak to, the more I seem to find that we are an interesting combination of being out there and extroverted in the summer. And then when it comes to the winter, we are ready to hunker down a little bit. Alongside that, I decided to focus on how I could live hogar from the comfort of my own home rather than having to go and find it. So I thought what I'd do in this podcast episode is take a look at what Living HOA might involve and give you some ideas and some suggestions and some things to ponder and think about so that the next few months are really positive and enjoyable. I've come up with some general headings and I'll list little points underneath each of them to keep things easy to read, and my hope is that you can do some of these from your home, if not. Most of them and that your home becomes your winter sanctuary and not your winter prison. So let's start with bizarrely living hogar through a gentle bedtime routine. Now, something that I do all year round, but which I really love in the winter is setting an alarm on my phone for 9:30 PM even if I don't go to bed. At that stage, it kind of signals to me in my brain that it is time to start winding things down and. By doing that, I get ahead of the night before it gets ahead of me. IE before I go to bed too late, watch rubbish tv and then wake up the next day feeling absolutely awful. Sometimes I will have a warming frothy almond milk with ginger and turmeric and cinnamon before I go to bed. And one of my favorite things to do, and let's not pretend I do these every night. We are keeping it real here. We are in drizzly, rainy Birmingham. We are not in some beautiful Scandinavian Nordic country surrounded by gorgeous interiors and twinkly lights and things. But something I do like to do is light a candle and do some yin yoga before I go to bed. So I love yoga with Cassandra. I've linked that in the blog post as well. Uh, you can find her on YouTube. She does an evening routine, a 30 day evening routine, and some of those episodes are yin yoga. They're not long, I think they're 19 minutes in total, but some of it is a bit of chatting at the start and the end, so probably about 15 minutes in total. But what they do do, A, they stretch you out and B, they make you super sleepy. I've also got a great skincare routine that I do through the winter. I've started using the ordinary products and I love them largely because one of the reasons is because they're not super expensive, so I'm consistent with them, and I do think skincare comes down to consistency. So again, I've linked in the blog post to the ordinary range. I tend to use the, I think if I'm pronouncing this properly, actually the Squalene Cleanser, and then I have a couple of different serums. Now one of them is a vitamin C one or ascorbic acid, or it's called something else, can't quite remember. And then there's an anti-aging one, and then I've got two different types of moisturizers. So I do that every night. And I've also started using the Elizabeth Den capsules. I bought some of those duty free when we went on holiday, on summer, and I love those. Just think the winter when you're going to bed, you've got a few more minutes and you can give your skin a little bit of extra time. And then if you wanted to add on some other kind of lovely rituals around bedtime, and of course you can do these in the summer, but I want to make you feel nice and warm and cozy and relaxed. In the winter, you could use a pillow spray, a sleep mask, and earplugs if you need them, depending on who's sleeping next to. To help you to sleep well. So that's living Hogar with a nice gentle wind down bedtime routine. Then we've got Living Hogar. This is my next heading through a gentle morning routine. So in the same way that I like to get ahead of the evening before it gets ahead of me. The same is true of the morning. I love to set an early alarm early by my standards probably. Anywhere between 20 past six, half past six, 20 to seven, depending on how I feel. And come downstairs before anyone else. And this is a really, really magical part of the winter. And something that I missed so much in the summer is lighting a candle, wrapping myself in a blanket, making myself a cup of min tea, doing a little morning meditation, maybe pull some affirmation cards and journal before anyone else is awake. It is. Absolutely amazing, and it might take you a week or so to get into it, but I guarantee that once you've started, you'll love it. Now again, I can't pretend to do this every day. I used to, but you've gotta ebb and flow with how you feel and let's keep it real. Then whatever the weather, I'll open the back doors and step outside and say, good morning. Morning. I check out the sky and the weather, and I'm always amazed at the beauty of the day, whatever it is doing. Sometimes we have a phenomenal pink sunrise. Sometimes it will be throwing it down with rain. Sometimes it'll be snowing. Sometimes it'll be windy. Sometimes it'll be really still, but there's always something about going outside and just checking what's going on with the world and checking in with the world. That just makes me feel grounded and like I've sort of got my ducks in a row for the day and then having done my journaling, if I've fed my sourdough starter the night before, I'll start making some sourdough bread. I usually, like I say, feed my starter the night before, so it's all ready to go first thing in the morning. And the process of weighing out the starter and flour, adding the water and putting the salt in is just really calming and pure mindfulness. And then it won't be ready to cook until the following lunchtime, but it means at that lunchtime you've got the house just filled with beautiful bread, smells. And then I normally. Try and figure out which neighbor might like the loaf or the couple of loaves that I've made and drop that round. So that's a lovely thing to do as well. That makes me really happy. Now, I know you might be listening at this to this and thinking, but my life just isn't like that, Beth. I'm up and out the house by seven o'clock on the train to go to work. So these are just ideas and things that you could either maybe weave into the evening or weave into the weekend, or really. As I mentioned at the start, living HOA is more about an attitude and a positivity to see the best in the winter as opposed to the worst in the winter, which is what I think in this country we grow up doing because frankly we spend so much time focusing on the weather and we can have quite a lot of bad weather that that becomes our go-to. And because we don't live in a country that is. Sort of proper seasons where we've got lovely twinkly snow and we've got ice and we live on the edge of a lake and we've got hot steaming coffee and cinon bands and all that kind of thing. I think we fall in this gray, murky phase, which is easy to write off'cause we go, well, we are not properly cold and we can't have all of that romantic feel that goes with being properly cold. And we are obviously not warm. We are just this a bit desperate, depressing gray. I seek to differ on that. I think there's lots we can do to keep our spirits high and to keep positive during the winter months. Okay, so let's move on to the next one, which is Living Hogar through activities at home. Now, again, depending on your work commitments, it may be that you only get time to do these activities in the weekends or weekends, but there are so many fun things we can do at home, even if that we don't think we are creative, artistic, or skilled in any way, and dare I say it. Don't tell anyone I said this, but with love. Meghan on Netflix has some great ideas for things to do at home. She did all sorts of things that she made with her friends from, I forget them now, of course, but from cooking to making scarves. Don't put any mini me near die that will end up all over myself. Um, she did jewelry making. I think she made some journals. She's done old flowers, dried flowers that you do in the microwave, so they're ready really quickly. All sorts of cool stuff, but here are some of my favorites. Either things that I'm already doing or things that I'm thinking about doing. So I make wreaths at Christmas time for the front door and for neighbors, and I love making wreaths. I know you have to go outside and get all the bits and bobs, but a lovely walk, mindfulness. Gentle exercise in the winter month is great. So, and you can do that front of the TV or just with your own thoughts or with a friend. It's so great. Saturday afternoon with a friend glass of his, let's make a wreath if they're rubbish. Doesn't matter. Let's just have a giggle sourdough making. I've already mentioned that. That is such a big pillar of my life and part of my life and I love it. But you might find a different equivalent. It's not so much for me about whether you like the sourdough, it's just the fun in making it.'cause you never know how they're going to turn out. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're a bit pants, but it's just a nice process to go through. Jigsaws. I was talking to a friend the other day and she loves doing jigsaws. I know lots of people took them up in lockdown. And she said she was going away for the weekend. She said to her son, who's probably in his early twenties, she said, don't you dare touch my jigsaw last time away. And he looked horrified'cause he really wanted to do some. But my mum has always got a jigsaw on the go. My aunt always has my great aunt. We are a family of. Jigsaws. I'm sure there's a better verb for that, and I wouldn't say I'm quite there yet, but if the jigsaw is out when I go round to my mom's on its own special board, then I'll have a bit of a go at that. So jigsaws are another one. My stepmom is amazing at Tapestry, so I'm definitely interested in having a little go at tapestry. The only thing with tapestry, although this is probably a good thing, is that you can't multitask. Probably, in fact, that's a very good thing, but I can imagine it would take me about 15 years to do something small, nonetheless, writing letters. How about writing letters in the winter? How about writing one letter a week to a university friend or a school friend, or a relative or family member that you normally email or to speak to on the phone, or a friend's child at university, or your own children at university? Just a handwritten letter. It's so lovely, isn't it? So I think that's gonna be one of my things this winter board games. I'm not very patient with board games, I have to say. But they are very good for the old brain and they're very good for bringing people together. Even if the board ends up flipped upside down. That's not me, by the way. And the pieces go everywhere. It's still an event, isn't it? And it's something a bit different and something we are not likely to do in the summer reading. So getting into novels or. The book I mentioned earlier, how to Winter, I read another great one. I loved this last winter. It's called The Power of Hot and Cold. That was all about saunas and cold water dipping or taking a long candlelit bath. So these are all things that you can do at home and will make you feel warm and snugly and relaxed on a cold winter's evening. Moving on to our next section. So I thought I ought to include a little bit about living HOA through your clothes. When I think of living HOA through my clothes, I always have visions of Cameron Diaz in the holiday pastoral cashmere outfits cohort, soft blonde tones, and a healthy glowing skin. Okay, not so much, but here are some more accessible ideas. So living hogar through your clothes might mean wearing, I mean, we used to call them, you know, like Birkenstock styles, but they, they're called clogs now. So sheep, skin lined clogs. I had some lovely ones. Last Christmas from my daughter from the white company. I don't think they're doing their own version anymore. I think they've just got the Birkenstock ones that are 180 pounds. But top tip here, you can get them on vented for not as much as that. And I love mine. I treated them. Top tip. Make sure you treat them'cause as soon as you spill anything on them,'cause they're quite a light brown suede, they're going to mark. But I treated mine and they look great still. Wear your favorite snuggly. Fleeces. Paired with cozy, soft joggers. Sweaty Betty have got some lovely tracksuits, shall we say, for want of a better phrase. Everyone will know what I mean at the moment, that I'm very tempted by in lovely colors. So sort of. Dark green, olive, green, broy green, that kind of thing. It might mean wearing cashmere socks. I bought quite a few pairs the other year, have to say, with an m and s discount, and they weren't crazy expensive, but cashmere socks into sheepskins. Blind slippers with the nice comfy fleece lined tra on. Can't say fairer than that. Or soft jeans. You can get soft jeans. They can be quite good around the house or find a knits layer together. If you're anything like me, you've got some cashmere jumpers with some holes in from the moths. Thank you very much. But strategic placement of t-shirts underneath and when you're at home, that's fine. Don't tell anyone I said that, but that's fine. Um, it might look like a fofa scarf over your jumpers or something with a velvet trim for a bit of a luxe but cozy feel whilst at home. And it could look like, I mean, this is verging on interiors, but not really. Swapping your summer bedding for something heavier, or you're dressing gown for something fluffier or the throw on the end of your bed for something a little bit more cozy. So that's how we can live hogar through our clothes. And then moving on to living hogar through your surroundings.'cause obviously your surroundings are so important in the winter. And whilst interiors aren't the main theme of this podcast episode, Hoover will definitely involve making your surroundings warm, cozy, and comfortable. Use your senses to figure out what matters to you the most. Use it as a way to feel grounded, connected, and content so you can, even if it's just a little space, a little corner, whether it's entire rooms, whether it's your whole bedroom, your whole house, whatever. The sky is the limit. But I think it's just about having somewhere that makes you feel grounded and happy when the wind is blowing outside and you're not just sitting there wishing the. The, the months away. I think that's the saddest thing we can do. So many people aren't lucky enough to have another winter to live through or to live through the cold months, and we don't want to be wishing the time away. We want to be making the most of it. I know it's lovely when the sun's here. I'm someone that feels the cold quite a lot, so I do like the warmer months, but at the same time, after I read my book last year, how to Winter and also the power of hot and cold. And some other things that I'll come to in a while. I've really started to embrace this time to hunker down, to rest, to restore, to do calming practices. I think it's a real gift and it's so easy in the UK to write it off as just being an inconvenience and a pain and annoying because. It takes a little bit more effort. It involves putting a few more layers on, and it involves defrosting the car and it involves a little bit of discomfort, but actually there's so much joy to be had throughout the autumn and winter months. So some easy ways to live Hoover through your surroundings might be particular kind of music, you know, sort of calming and relaxed or upbeat and poppy, if that's what gets your endorphins going. There's no right or wrong here. It's just things to think about that. Might make a difference. Lighting the fire. If you've got a log burner lighting, the fire is lovely, sitting by that or having a faux electric one. So you've got that lovely glow of a fire for any of us who grow up. Grew up with grandparents with coal fires, which I did. I don't think you ever get over. The feeling of fire or the look of fire, whether it's real or not. I mean, you can just play it on the TV, can't you? And there's a big fire flickering. There's something really magical and cozy about a fire, soft blankets and cozy cushion. So anything tactile that you've got next to you that makes you just feel really relaxed and warm and cozy. The smell of warming spices and baking bread, and the flicker of candles and fairy light. So any of those that you can. Easily do from home, just to make it feel a little bit more manageable, a little bit more tolerable, and also really enjoyable. And then of course, you can live hogar through your food. So one of the best ways to live Hogar is through your food. And again, it might be at the weekends that you embrace this more fully. Batch cooking on a Sunday afternoon, even though it can be a pain in the butt, is the best way to make weeknights easier. I am always so pleased when I've put the effort in and I might stand there for three hours on a Sunday afternoon, but it just means that you've lined so many things up to eat during the week and that you can have tasty things that you really enjoy. So some ways to live hogar through your food include using seasonal foods that bring you comfort, such as soups, stews, and root. Veg. And plus, they're so easy to make is throw them in a pan, get the heat under it, leave it for a few hours. Bobs your uncle. Adding spices for warmth and wellbeing, like I mentioned earlier. So there's ginger, there's turmeric, there's cinnamon. And then also mixed spices, but warming curries, that kind of thing. Use all those lovely warming cumin and garam masala and, and chili can't get much warmer than chili can you, um, having healthy treats like frothy milk that I mentioned earlier. Whether you make it froth because you've got sort of an espresso coffee maker or a little handheld frother, they can be amazing, I think, better than the fancy ones, spiced apple cake. So if there's apples and pears in the garden and plums, you can pick all of those and then either use them now or save them for later in the winter and make lovely spiced apple cakes. More sort of Germanic with a stru or topping. They're very warming. Dark chocolate with nuts. And of course, feel free to do a squirrel impression when you are eating your nuts, if you like, because that's always what happens in our house. And then just on the end, I've got living HOA through biohacking. So the longer, colder months present the perfect opportunity to try out new things that we might not have tried before. And some things that I particularly love doing in the winter are taking a morning or evening dip in my plunge pool. Dipping under the stars or on a frosty morning is incredibly beautiful and gets the endorphins rushing like nothing else. I mean, if all that it does, at the very least is distract you from your own head, that's a winner in my book, if you're curious, I have got a download of freebie, um, which talks about plunging, how to go about it because I didn't understand what I was meant to be doing when I first did it. So. Now I've figured it out. I thought I'd share it with you all. Uh, going for a sauna that warms you to the bones, and of course contrast therapy, hot and cold therapy. If you can go somewhere that does both, that offers both a sauna and plunge, you are onto a winner. It is so invigorating. You'll feel a million dollars. I mean, some people might not, but. I think if you have a go and have the right kit, which is not expensive, but the neoprene uh, gloves and the boots, and you, you know, you get dressed, you do all the right things, basically, you're gonna feel great afterwards. That is a brilliant thing to do during the winter. I mean, it's just. So lovely, particularly going from the cold back into the sauna and it just cleanses you and makes you feel great again. I've got a sauna download if anyone wants to read about that and not quite sure how long to be in there for. I've got lots of blog posts on it as well because it's very different for different people. You have to listen to your own body and not, not do what the sauna bros tell you. Um, in fact, even just thinking about it makes me want to go for a sauna right now. Then something that I invested in last year, and this was a big investment, but I felt it was worth it, and it has proved to be, and I'm looking forward to getting it out again because I haven't used it over the summer, and I probably will try to do so more next year is lying on A-P-E-M-F mat after a cold dip. So I'll, I'll have my cold dip under the stars. Sometimes I'll have a warm shower afterwards if I'm really cold, but it's better if you can let your body warm out naturally and then go and lie on a heated PEMF mat and read a book about how to winter or hot and the power of hot and cold and. Then go to bed or do some yin yoga before bed. And honestly, it's the best way to spend an evening. I know I sound exceptionally boring. You might all be listening to this and going, you need to get a life. And I wouldn't disagree with you, but anyway, it works for me. But A-P-E-M-F mat has got electromagnetic waves in it. They're super grounding and astronauts are put on them after arriving back from outer space. In the blog post, I've linked to the one that I use. It's from a brand called Higher Dose, and actually you can get higher dose PEMF mats in the uk, but I ordered mine from America and I think it was cheaper. In fact, I'm sure it must have been or else I wouldn't have done it. So go and have a look at those or ask me any questions. If you want to, you can come and find me on Instagram. At Beth Goodham. Had to think about that. But yes, that is my name. Or you can message me on the, um, blog post. You can, I'll open them the comment section so that you can leave a comment there. But bringing it all together. So, to me, living Hogar isn't about. An unattainable aesthetic or living an overly curated life. There's still the mundane chores to do the washing, the cooking, shopping, and we're doing it in the dark and cold. But there's also a beauty to be found in slowing down, in resting and in being present. There's funny trying new things and creating rituals. I think the colder mans almost give us a get out of jail free card to go to bed early, to snuggle up with a book to lie on a heated PEMF mat to make frothy milk co spiced apple cake, and just for once to be. Now, if you like the idea of this, any of these things in the podcast or if it gave you a little bit of inspiration, feel free to share it with a friend who could use some cozy, autumn and winter ideas. If in conversation, you're noticing that people are starting to talk about seasonal affective disorder and they're starting to talk about the cold and how it impacts their mood and their joints. Maybe this is an episode that you could share with them just to. Gently, maybe nudge them into thinking that perhaps there is a different way that we can look at the next few months because they do go on for a while and. It's nice to embrace what nature is offering us right now. And as I say, if you've got any questions, just feel free to pop me a message, confirm me on Instagram or leave a message on the blog post, which you can find at www dot beth goodger for slash blog. Will you have super day? Thanks for letting me share this time with you today and I hope that you've enjoyed the episode. I will be back with you really soon, and in the meantime, sending lots of love and bye for now.