Who wouldn't like to be happy? If we ask ten people what happiness means to them, apart from obvious things like a healthy family and world peace, everybody will say something different. For one person it could be a family dinner in the country, for another a fishing trip, or sunbathing on a white beach under a palm tree with a cocktail, or skiing on a glacier. There are as many people as there are ideas for what to do to feel happy. Just feel... Could happiness be a permanent status? Would we then appreciate the little moments which make us want to shout and sometimes affect us in such a way that we don't know whether we are closer to laughter or tears?

That's why I think there isn't one recipe for happiness. Reaching for the book "Hygge the Danish art of happiness" by Marie Tourell Soderberg, I wasn't under the delusion that I would find there a recipe, like in a cookery book, for what to do to be happy. I got it out of curiosity and I paged through it with pleasure. I say "page through" because there isn't a lot of text, so this small book with beautiful pictures is just nice to look at.

Hygge doesn't have one definition, but generally speaking it refers to the moments which affect us positively, filling us with calm, pleasure, maybe joy – when we are in consonance with ourselves and the surrounding world. Sometimes we know that we feel hygge during a meeting with friends at home where everybody feels comfortable, where every guest has their own favourite place on the sofa and a cup of tea always awaits us. Hygge can be an interesting book, a warm blanket and a glass of wine after a long, busy day. We try to perform our small rituals to feel good. But hygge may happen by chance, here and now, when we feel that this moment could go on and on... Maybe during a hot summer afternoon with a cup of coffee and a close friend; maybe in the calm evening when we read book to our children; maybe on an empty beach watching the sunset arm in arm with a sweetheart; or maybe alone in the garden in a hammock with a glass of stewed rhubarb?

In this book you can find a guide as to what hygge could be: furniture, cloth, interior design, food. The only thing I didn't like was the list of pieces of music. While soft clothes, nature, a cosy home and good homemade food nearly always bring pleasure, music is a very individual thing. Everybody has their own favourite music – not necessarily bossa nova.

So is this book worth a look? I think so! Maybe just to form your own impression of hygge. It's the holiday season and many of us have free time to do the things we didn't have enough time for the rest of the year. Maybe one of the pictures will inspire somebody and the prospect of a rainy autumn and long winter (always too long) will cheer them up a bit? Close your eyes for a moment and reflect on what makes us happy. Try to see the world more positively, find and appreciate the small joys and live more hygge. I would like to wish this for all of us.

I recommend it!

Read also:
"Wild"
"The first coffee in the morning"
"Begin Again", a film in which music is the hero