The Hygge Manifesto meets Working Out Loud Circles: 7 - Comfort: Get comfy. Take a break. It’s all about relaxation.

This is the eighth post in a series of posts looking at hygge and working out loud circles using Meik Wiking’s The Hygge Manifesto from his book “The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well” as a framework for discussion.

This is a favourite part of hygge for me. I love blankets and me and my duvet even make an appearance on my “Fifty Facts About Me” circle guide exercise response – at #50 “Hammy Hamster”.

This is about stepping out of every day life and taking a break and pampering yourself a bit – whatever that means for you.

Also this has a feel for not accumulating possessions so that they own you. That is a direct challenge to me as a black belt physical and now digital hoarder.

So again, this speaks more physically to real life groups. However on a wider front, circle calls/meetings can definitely be a break from normal everyday life and a chance to take stock of where you are up to in your life that week on the back of the circle guide exercises. The calls do not feel like work! May be that is because in my circles I am with people I do not work with.

Circle calls give me energy – I can get hyper! - and that is relaxing for me.

As a facilitator there are some pressures in terms of will the tech work, will everybody show up, will they have done the exercises (have I?) and have I remembered to record the call – I am devastated when I forget especially when there are people missing from the call. You have been warned! – if you are ever in a call with me and I should be recording the call, ASK ME IF I HAVE STARTED RECORDING THE CALL!

Aside from the comments I have already made above re hoarding, the circle goal process also exposes my insatiable curiosity about lots of things and I usually have lots of goals to choose from. Wondering if I am a goal hoarder!! I am now also doing the #MyOneWord #OneWord2018 one year project with Fiona Michaux whose word is “focus” and may help me focus! My One Word for next year is “professionalism”.

What would you add to the hygge part and/or the working out loud circle part of this post?

Resources

For a full list of posts in this series see the index post

My Top Ten Resources for Encouraging People To Actually Work Out Loud (as at 6 November 2017) (this post includes links to Working Out Loud resources)

Author Info

Simon Fogg is an IT professional who has worked in IT for all bar 8 months of his 34 year career to date. He delivers business consultancy, project management and service management services as part of the Claritas Solutions team in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK. Claritas deliver solutions to clients in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors across the UK. He was first introduced to Working Out Loud Circles in 2016 and has since led 2 x 12-week global/virtual circles (using Slack and Zoom) and is currently recruiting and setting up for launching an “out-of-the-ordinary” (more than 5 people) 3rd circle on a trial Workplace by Facebook community in January 2018 with members already using the platform.