I Read: Little Box of Happiness

Little Box of Happiness by Meik Wiking
contains: 

The Little Book of Hygge

The Little Book of Lykke

The Art of Making Memories

There truly is happiness to be had in this little box set. Written by researcher and founder of the Happiness Research Institute, Wiking manages to make the reader feel as if it's truly possible to find more happiness in simple, everyday things and actions, without spending money. 

The Little Book of Hygge talks about the Danish ability to find comfort and "hominess." Danes are actually so good at this that they have the word hygge, and it has become a very integral part of their culture and language having innumerable compound phrases.

Having read this book twice now, and recognizing how simple the concept of hygge really is it seems it should be easy to incorporate into anyone's life. I find myself relating to hygge, as I tend to choose reading by my fireplace with candles lit over more "exciting" opportunities if given a choice anyway. I feel as if I had adopted hygge even before I knew what it was. 

The Little Book of Lykke expands on hygge by sharing the traits and habits of the world's happiest people. If I'm being candid, the fact that there are several research groups out there researching world happiness makes me happier. It's important to place happiness as a priority in life, and knowing what does or doesn't bring it. 

The book explains the habits that certain cultures have that seem to make them happiest, including, of course, Danish hygge, but also other cultures that seem to have some of the happiest people. There are comparisons and examples, all of which make it easy to see how you might be able to incorporate pieces into your own life to increase your own happiness and maybe even within your community. 

And lastly, The Art of Making Memories is an interesting book to guide you in an effort to create memories that last. Suggestions for creating stories that you retell in order to make the events and feelings stick with you. Journaling the smells, sights and other senses of an event so that they are multi-sensory experiences rather than just words on a page. This book is full of ideas most of which make me wish that I had thought of them sooner. There are a lot of events in my past that I wish I had better captured for later in life. So that I could remember them more accurately, and maybe even feel what I felt during those moments. It really is a great book for a culture that relies on photos as documentation of every event in life. There's more to a memory than an image, and that's something that we need to remember sometimes. 

#66/63/62-2020