MOVE OVER, HYGGE
IT’S TIME TO REVEL IN THE DUTCH CONCEPT OF DOING NOTHING
When I am not worried about the world falling apart, innocent people dying in wars and famine, the planet burning and people unfit for public office getting elected to the ultimate seats of power, I allow myself a very decadent and developed world fantasy. I have confided this fantasy to my friends (to be honest it’s a welcome relief from me whingeing about the world) and it seems I am not alone.
The fantasy is of being “a little bit sick”. Not sick enough to be in any danger, not sick enough to be in hospital, not even sick enough to have to go to the doctor but sick enough to have to lie in bed and be excused from doing anything else. The fantasy involves freshly laundered linen, copious amounts of soft, cloud-like cushions and the perfect temperature – in my case slightly cold outside but warm under the covers.
In this fantasy I would not have to do any work but there would be no stress about it, I would not have to make sure my family were fed and I would not have to remind my son that he is doing the HSC. Even my dog would just be curled up next to me with no expectation of being taken for a walk.
Sounds idyllic. Even as I write it out I am
sort of wishing for a tickle in my throat, the start of the little bit of sickness that goes no further than a tickle but definitely necessitates guilt-free bedtime. This fantasy may explain why I was a huge fan of the Danish trend of hygge.
The word itself is difficult to translate directly but it alludes to a feeling of cosy contentment, maybe less bed time than being “a little bit sick” but a very laid-back and serene way of living. Pinterest and Instagram categorised it with a lot of throws and cushions, which is obviously the part that appealed to me the most.
But hygge is so 2016, 2019 is all about the Dutch concept of niksen.
If you haven’t heard the word yet you are about to as it gains traction around the internet (and in my house). Carolien Hamming, managing director of a coaching centre in the Netherlands that helps clients manage stress and recover from burnout, described niksen for Time magazine, saying it “literally means to do nothing, to be idle or doing something without any use”.
Practising niksen could be as simple as just hanging around, looking at your surroundings or listening to music – “as long as it’s without purpose,” she says, “and not done in order to achieve something or be productive”.
Historically niksen was seen as being lazy but in the very rushed and chaotic world we live in, it’s now okay to be lazy for a bit. In fact it’s not actually being lazy, it’s just switching off for a while. A fancy-sounding way of being mindful, of meditating on nothingness. Of just being. It’s a call back to daydreaming and even of being bored. Remember all those times our parents told us that boredom was good for us? They may have been ahead of their time in prescribing a hit of niksen.
A new trend sounds so much healthier (and more hip) than being “a little bit sick” and so I think I’m about to be the biggest proponent of niksen. I may cheat though, and incorporate a bit of Instagram scrolling, because truth be told doing nothing is really hard. I know, I’ve been trying to do it for years.