Meik Wiking knows what it means to be happy. Not only is he the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, he is also one of the world’s leading experts on hygge, the Danish recipe for happiness. He has been described as “the Indiana Jones of smiles” and dubbed “the world’s happiest man”.

So what would be his message to teachers? A staggering 97 per cent of teachers in our survey said that their job negatively impacted on their wellbeing. This reflects what you hear repeatedly in education: anxiety, stress and fear around teaching are adversely impacting on the profession’s mental health.

What they need, according to Wiking, is a little hygge in their lives. The CEO, author and much-sought-after speaker - had one of the surprise hits of last year with his book The Little Book of Hygge: the Danish way to live well.

He’s keen to stress that it is not a new concept. Hygge - pronounced “hoo-ga” (it is, in fact, a Norwegian word) - has been embedded in Danish culture since the 18th century and it has been credited as being a key reason why the country has been crowned the world’s happiest place to live multiple times.

But it’s only in the past few years that awareness of hygge has started to spread beyond the country’s shores.

Getting cosy

“[This sudden spread is because] there is a growing interest in Scandinavia, partly due to television dramas, so people are more aware of those countries,” he says. “Also more and more people are realising that Scandinavian countries are doing quite well in happiness studies and they’re trying to understand what those countries are doing right in terms of quality of life.”

Hygge, which is both a verb and an adjective, doesn’t have a literal translation into English, according to Wiking.

“That’s why a lot of people find it difficult and mysterious because there isn’t one word to define it,” he says. “Some people call it ‘cocoa by candlelight’ or ‘the absence of everything annoying’ or ‘the art of creating intimacy’.”

A lot of people find it difficult and mysterious because there isn’t one word to define it

It may be tricky to provide an English translation of the word, but the meaning remains the same whatever language it’s spoken in. “To me it means being consciously cosy and the more I talk to people, it’s the conscious part that seems to be the distinct Danish thing about it,” explains Wiking. “The concept of hygge already exists in the UK, but without the word. The difference between the British, the French and the Danes is we are more consciously aware of that activity.

“In Denmark people would use the word on a daily basis. So I might invite you over for dinner on Saturday night and today we would talk about how hyggeligt the evening is going to be and then during the dinner itself we would talk about how hygge this is and then next week we will say how hyggeligt Saturday was.”

For Wiking, the essence of hygge is togetherness and enjoying the simple things in life. In his book he sets out a hygge manifesto that covers a number of different factors and tips that anyone could apply in their day-to-day lives to improve their wellbeing. These range from being consciously “present” in the moment - and turning off your mobile phone - through to creating greater levels of “equality”, or “we over me”, as he puts it.

One recurring key area for Wiking is light. He says Danish people are obsessed with lighting, which is due to the limited number of daylight hours the country experiences.

Other things that Wiking rates as hyggeligt are hot drinks, cake and board games. He says the latter are important because they are about slowness and they bring family and friends together.

It may all sound a bit vague and woolly but if you look at the academic research around happiness, you can see why hygge works. Decades of happiness research has found that people are happier not when they have more money but when they have strong relationships with others and their community. Some researchers have suggested that this is down to the mind being hard-wired to seek out social connections, with hormonal rewards for success. Hygge is something that forces those connections to happen.

And you can see why teachers might benefit. Teaching can be a very isolating profession, with long hours spent toiling with marking or planning. Social connections are harder to create and maintain.

But embracing hygge will not be easy. Teachers are busy, so finding the time for the things Wiking suggests might be tough. He insists that it can be done, though, and has provided some basic steps that he believes are quick wins for teachers to create situations that are more hygge. He argues that the payback would be substantial.

Interestingly, Wiking says it is not enough to just concentrate on out-of-school time. He also believes teachers need to bring hygge into the workplace - be it in the techniques above played out in the staffroom or the concepts translated to the classroom.

Hygge in the classroom

For Danish children, hygge is “one of the first intangible words they understand” and it’s something that is discussed in school, he explains. “There aren’t hygge textbooks and they don’t sit a hygge exam,” jokes Wiking. “But before going on break, teachers would talk to the class and say, ‘In the last lesson let’s have a hyggeligt time. We will have some treats, light a candle and I will tell a story.’”

Wiking is aware that some teachers outside of Denmark have already tried to introduce hygge. “A teacher wrote me a letter and said she had lit a candle and had all the kids cuddle up together in blankets, then she read aloud to them. She said something really beautiful: ‘They might not know exactly what hygge is, but you could see they were feeling it from the smile on their faces,’” he says.

He applauds this approach and offers these words of advice for teachers looking to follow suit. “Make it all about creating an atmosphere and togetherness and perhaps give the kids a little bit of indulgence. Focus on the lighting. You could also tell a story.”

In making the workplace more hygge, he says teachers can improve both their own and their students’ wellbeing. Yes, there are barriers, but he believes if there is a will, there is a way.

We’ve already mapped three-quarters of the factors that explain the difference between the happiest and the unhappiest

As for his own personal sense of wellbeing, Wiking will feel much more hyggeligt when he’s addressed three key questions, he says.

“How do we measure happiness, why are some people happier than others and, most importantly, how can we improve quality of life?” he explains. “That’s my focus for the next 30 to 40 years and then I can retire.”

They are complex questions: is he any closer to answering any of them today? Wiking responds that he is quietly confident.

“When it comes to why some countries are happier than others, we’ve already mapped three-quarters of the factors that explain the difference between the happiest and the unhappiest so we know a lot, but there are still a lot of dark spots on the map.”

And Wiking won’t rest until he’s shed light on those dark spots.

Simon Creasey is a freelance journalist