Why you don’t need to know what lagom is

Lagom Swedish Lifestyle Trend Hygge Denmark pronounce Scandinavia Media Instagram Cosy Cosiness Simple Moderation Balance

We’ve only just learned to pronounce Hygge (it’s hue-gah), but it seems that the world has already moved on to a new lifestyle trend: Lagom.

Lagom, (yet another Scandinavian term that has invaded our lives), means “not too little, not too much”. It is a concept that promotes the ethics of moderation. We are no longer seeking to find pleasure in simple moments, we now seek a balance. All we want this year is for things to be “just right”. So, does that mean we have to throw away our snuggly pyjamas to make way for new, moderately comfortable pyjamas?

 

The truth is that not many of us invested in snuggly pyjamas, to begin with. Hygge was trending on the media, on blogs, on Instagram, but was it really trending in our lives?

While many of us tried to “embrace” hygge, and by embrace, I mean take dimly lit photos by the fireplace with the #hygge, where our lives fundamentally altered by this trend? Of course, to the Danish, hygge is more than a lifestyle trend. It is an enduring and intrinsic way of life that arose out of a set of particular circumstances and conditions. But, for the rest of us, it seems to have been nothing more than a passing trend. People made money out of the books they wrote on hygge and out of the merchandise they sold, but, beyond that, life more or less remained the same. Which leads me to the question: do these “lifestyle trends” really matter?

 

It seems like every day the media is trying to convince us that the next “big thing” is here and that we must all get on board, or else.

But, at the end of the day, people don’t change the way they live simply because they read an article online. It doesn’t matter if it’s hygge, lagom or whatever is coming next. People live their life according to their own priorities and their own underlying philosophy. But, we don’t give that philosophy a name and splash it on the media, telling people “you absolutely must get in on this.” You don’t.  Do you really need to learn how to pronounce lagom? I don’t think so.

 

 

 

 

 

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