A cozy atmosphere is essential to your emotional health. Like comfort from someone you love, cozy helps you feel safe, sheltered, and content.
The Danish call this cozy atmosphere of well-being “hygge.”
A few years ago, we took an autumn retirement trip to Finland and Spain to visit kids and grandchildren.
I woke up almost every day to a curly-haired, blond and blue-eyed, little two-year-old grandson staring me in the face and clutching his stuffed pupu (bunny).
No words, just staring at my face … waiting to give me a sloppy wet kiss and snuggle under my blanket.
A cozy, daily, heart melt.
Fall and winter highlight a cozy atmosphere
It could be darling little grandchildren, hot tea, warm fires, or sweaters and slippers fresh out of the closet… all provide a warm, fuzzy feeling of love and comfort.
Fall and winter also mean coming home, in memory and in the now.
The smell of baking, the sound of laughter, and the deep conversations with family and friends around a table set with hot stew and warm bread all convey coziness.
Of course, life usually isn’t like a picture-perfect, winter home #hygge photo or television commercial.
Sometimes life looks and feels anything but picture-perfect. But it is still YOUR life, and you want to enjoy it.
If you’re missing a cozy atmosphere, regardless of your circumstances, your emotions instinctively feel “off” and unsettled.
How much more will your emotional health suffer when your sense of warmth and safety is unhinged by a pandemic, loneliness, illness, or any other life interruption?
When your life is void of cozy, you instinctively miss it.
So, you look at beautiful Instagram or Pinterest images. Women love to gaze at these photos because inside, we long for what they represent.
You may not even realize that your emotions need to settle, feel safe, and find comfort to reframe your little world.
The practice of cozy gives your emotions permission to pause and rest.
It’s like wrapping your heart in a bit of home when your soul is homesick.
Your emotions were created to find their home in God
As a Christ-follower, when you long for cozy, you’re actually longing for your real home.
You want to feel safe and warm without the burden of negging thoughts or heavy emotions.
It’s not that you can’t open the door of your heart to the Spirit when the winds lash hard against the windows of your soul.
Or the tiredness after a difficult day leaves you feeling chilled inside.
It’s that you seldom do anything about it.
For whatever reason, we neglect to create a sense of coziness in our lives and homes.
Let's change that!
God wants to calm our emotions as we relax in His presence.
Throughout these fall and winter days, give your emotions permission to pause and rest.
Invite the Lord to cozy up and sit a spell with you.
Enjoy His presence as you engage with family and friends or sit by a window to watch the rain and read a new book.
Let your emotional health snuggle in God’s lap. Feel the warmth of the Lord’s fire and the calm of His thoughts as He holds you close.
Then rest… just rest in His embrace until you feel the comfort your soul needs.
And maybe He’ll bring a pupu to cuddle with you.
If you need ideas for a cozy atmosphere...
…linger over these posts:
And when you long to hear the Lord’s voice in the midst of your cozy, check out How to Master the Art of Hearing God’s Voice.
Hugs,
Susan
This Post Has 3 Comments
Needed this today, thank you Susan. Warm cozy hug to you
Susan,
I am in my new cottage home. It is definitely cozy with many boxes all around! ha ha!
I’ll have to send a picture sometime.
I am so grateful for you and your voice in my life at this time!
Thank you so much for all you do! I can sense Abba’s heart in and thru you!
Much Love, Kathie
I’d love to see a photo of your cozy, cottage home, Kathie! After you’ve unpacked, of course. 🙂