Gettin’ hygge with it ;)
Being wrong rarely feels awesome. We all enjoy being right. Add people to mirror the situation and it's easy to forget compassion in pursuit of our rightness.
Hygge Hooga is inspired by the magic found in keeping compassion within to transform discomfort into opportunities to connect with kindness.
When I first learned about the danish word hygge, my pronunciation rhymed more with jigge than chooga. And both words made me feel good when saying them.
"Jigge" reminded me of Will Smith and his disarming joy for life (plus accenting the ee sound creates a natural smile) and hooga would remind me to exhale (the other half of breathing which is often taken for granted).
Turning a point of frustration (mispronunciation) into a source of strength and kindness (awareness with acceptance) is what hygge hooga is all about.
Now let's get to the work of being kind ;)
Meet Rajiah :)
Rajiah Williams Leong is currently serving her 9th consecutive semester as an invited faculty appointee in Columbia University’s School for Professional Studies where she created Exploring the Power of Mindfulness with Rajiah Williams Leong in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. After seeing the immediate benefits of incorporating mindfulness practices into her graduate level communications courses, she launched Hygge Hooga mindfulness and yoga therapy to help individuals and communities learn and share compassion through mindfulness.
Rajiah has completed numerous mindfulness trainings including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Search Inside Yourself (SIY), where she is a Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI) referral partner. Rajiah is also a Y4C certified oncology yoga instructor, trained to work with patients going through cancer treatment and recovery.
As the recipient of the 2021 LYT BIOPIC Scholarship, Rajiah trained with LYT founder Lara Heimann to learn the only yoga practice created by a physical therapist and is certified to teach the LYT method.
Rajiah is also a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University and received her MS in Strategic Communications from SPS’s Strategic Communications program.