The reasons we changed our name from Hyggebox to SlowBox

Running a business can be all consuming. When you start something and work hard at it, a strong emotional attachment grows. Running our subscription business has been stressful, demanding and tough at times but it is also a lot of fun, we get to spend time looking into things which interest us and we have developed some fabulous relationships with our subscribers. They feel like friends now.

That makes it hard to make big changes. When people like what you do there is a momentum which can be difficult to break. You don’t want to disappoint anyone. Actually with a subscription box we have this dilemma every month. We have to choose a theme, find products which fit that story, the products must be ethical, small enough to fit in our boxes and our subscribers have to enjoy them. We feel nervous as we send them out each month and hugely relieved when we know they have been appreciated and enjoyed.

Hygge is not just white interiors and candles

Over the last year we have started to feel like the name Hyggebox weighs us down. Hygge is a wonderful concept and we still live a hyggelig life. The concept comes from Denmark and is broadly about living a rich and happy life. Hygge acknowledges that people need to feel secure, comfortable, connected to their friends, family and community in a meaningful way, in touch with the natural world and not always staring at screens.

Unfortunately Hygge became a media “fad” and along with that came the perception that it is just about candles and woollen throws. We have had lots of people subscribe and be very disappointed that they didn’t get a box with candles and a throw. Some of them have been rather angry about it and it has caused us lots of stress and also a loss of time on customer service. Even when we changed our website and branding to say that our boxes did not just contain throws and candles we still had the problem.

Also, we have evolved as people and we feel that slow living is a better description for our philosophy of life than Hygge. Slow Living is very similar to Hygge but the emphasis is about living a considered life. It allows us to explore themes around conscientious consumerism, slowfood, mindfulness, interiors, finding time, self awareness, personal style, creativity and finding meaning. All these things fit into hygge but a change in name allows us to shift the focus from cosiness to personal growth and inspiration.

After a tortuous few months discussing possible names we decided to go with the obvious — Slow Box. Clever names can be great but we wanted to be clear and hopefully it will convey what we are about.

Slow Box is not just about moving slowly it is about being a fully conscious human, aware of the moment but also aware of others, aware of nature, aware of our feelings and those of other people. It is about encouraging people to see the value in taking your time and seeing more. When we live in a rush, the good things in life can pass us by. There are so many of us with busy jobs, hectic family lives, full social lives and this inevitably means we live a fast life. Unfortunately, this often leads to burn out, anxiety, depression and ill health. It doesn’t have to be like that. Fear of missing out leads us to try to do too much and them we miss out what is truly important. We want to inspire people to slow it down and fully enjoy life.

We would love it if you would check out our new website

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We are a SlowLiving subscription box encouraging people to slow down and live well with inspiring products and gifts every month

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