Living Danishly: inspiring ideas from the world's happiest country

I lived in Denmark, Copenhagen in particular, for nearly seven years and I loved it, and I learned a lot from this country like hygge, and loving the change of seasons and hygge, and minimalism and hygge, the gardens and hygge, and rugbrød and hygge. i miss this life. and yes there is no place like home, which is the Philippines. But so was Denmark...for a time. det er et yndigt land. indeed.

Dane at a job interview abroad. -“As a Dane, what would you consider as being your greatest weakness?” -“Honesty”. -“Really, I don’t consider honesty being a weakness” -“Well, I really don’t give a fuck what you consider” -“Welcome to the company MrJensen, you’re hired”. 🤝

Being focused on the negativity in my life, I utterly forgot the qualities of my country - thank you so much, Helen, for reminding me. I shall be more active in appreciating the things that do work, rather than obsess about the things than doesn't.

Having a rough day, then try and make a cup of coffee/hot choco/tea, possibly some pastry, find a good book and wrap yourself in a blanket and enjoy = Hygge Love from Denmark <3

I live the danish dream and im a fucking busdriver 🥳🚌 love my country ☀️

Hygge is a state of mind.. Do something you like doing. Does´nt matter if you do it alone or with someone.. As long as you enjoy doing it and it gives you what you need to feel good in the moment you do it.

Helen Russell's ten tips for living more happily no matter where you are (discussed around 00:48:50): 1) Be more trusting. 2) Get more 'hygge' in your life. 3) Move and exercise more. 4) Address the aesthetics - make your home a pleasant place to be, and appreciate your surroundings. 5) Streamline your options - less is more when it comes to choices. 6) Be proud - find something about yourself or your community that you can be proud of. 7) Value family. 8) Equal respect for equal work - no 'men's work/women's work'. 9) Play. 10) Share.

"Eating a home-cooked meal"-every day! I think that this is a huge part of their happiness. In the US, most people eat unhealthy deli, restaurant, processed or frozen food for dinner every day, which are poor sources of essential good mood nutrients: B vitamins, essential brain fats, lysine, and zinc. In addition, these foods contain unhealthy substances, like preservatives, dyes, sugar, and omega 6 fat linoleic acid. Also, the Dane's favorite meat is pork, especially pork liver, and pork and ham are excellent sources of the energy vitamin B1 (pork has more B1 than any other food), essential brain fats, lysine, and zinc. And they eat it with their very traditional bread-sourdough rye-which is very effective at keeping your blood sugar at an even level, which then avoids the sugar lows that are so depressing (as the Danish commenter mentioned after the talk). They top their pork liver sandwiches with fermented beets, another super-healthy food, which actually tastes very good with the liver and rye. I've been eating this way myself for about 6 months now, and I have found that my mood has become pretty consistently happy and buoyant, without the need for caffeine, sugar, chocolate or wine. It's amazing what eating traditional, nourishing foods can do!

I loved the whole ‘please’ topic here, because living in Denmark all of my life, I can so clearly see this one from another perspective. I LOVE England and I go there frequently. Something I notice immediately in England and what I love dearly, is how friendly and polite you are to each other. Danes can be very closed off on the surface almost as if living in their own bubble. Thus many come off as being kinda rude or ignorant towards strangers. I have social anxiety, and going to England is like therapy to me. It’s overwhelming how friendly everyone are towards me. I can go out with a smile and without the constant panic attacks sneaking up on me. Where in Denmark I can’t even do my grocery shopping without facing social anxiety and discomfort. Yes Danes have other words and phrases similar to ‘please’ but most don’t practice it when facing a stranger. It’s true Denmark does a lot of things very well, and it’s by no means or measure a bad place to live, but while you could learn a thing or two from us, Danes could also learn a lot from you.

Its Funny as a Dane to listen to this, because many of the things she says is something we do, but we just find it normal to do. xD

I'm half danish and have half serbian roots, but nothing give me the feeling of pride and a smile on my face than saying I'm danish!

I lived in Denmark for many years, and here's the big secret to happiness that I discovered: HAPPINESS IS A STATE OF MIND. If you are not happy where you are, you will not be happy anywhere.

I'm speechless - this was so hopeful as I yearn to meet my personal maslow's heirarchy of needs while being born in America it is IMPOSSIBLE, depsite being a healthcare professional single woman middle aged and worn out, there are no safety nets and depression and anxiety is unavoidable when you don't know how you will pay rent in three months. WOW. I'm sorry I cannot be PROUD of nor dare fly the American flag.

Stop making your life about reaching goals then you will be on the road to happiness.

This was so good..thanks for posting..love from Washington DC

On the other hand, being Danish, "What a lovely note to end on" is just so unmistakably British. I love it :)

@ 31:50... Danish word; "HYGGE"... A complete absence of anything annoying or overwhelming; taking pleasure from the presence of gentle,soothing things. ...Great!

I dunno if anyone's gonna see this but i'm danish and i just though i would add a bit about how the government here supports innovation from an early start :) Here when you are done with 9th or 10th grade you can choose to go to a gymnasium and the structure in the danish gymnasiums might be a bit special, because you are already starting to specialize in what you want to do with your life. so we have these different directions you can choose from, if you want to study economics, Technic or science, but almost every gymnasium has a direction dedicated to innovation. there are different competitions and fares and things to do while you are studying to get yourself started and people who choose this direction mostly have an idea of what they want to make or what they want to accomplish so that is just an other way to get people to be innovative and there are of course also different evening classes you can take to inspire or just help you a bit on the way :)

No word for "please". But lots of saying thankyou for everything.

Hi Helen, As a dane living abroad for the past 14 years I must say you summed it up pretty good. There hasn't been a 52 weeks paternative leave for decades for both parents. It's only within the last couple of years it has become socially accepted in most workplaces that dad's take time of.