The Happy News: a paper with a helping of happiness
Things that have made me happy in the past 24 hours:
A walk on glorious Hampstead Heath in the divinely warm early autumn sunshine
The final stage of a long bit of dental work - I have a marvellous new tooth that you'd never be able to tell isn't my own (and a bloody big dent in my bank balance, but let's not mention that)
Binge watching Vanity Fair which I'd missed every week so far. Perfect Sunday evening fare (even when you watch it on a mid-week night). Can't wait for the next one this weekend.
Being handed a copy of this in a card/stationary shop
I don’t know about you, but I find it increasingly depressing reading (and listening to) the news at the moment. I’ll take it as a given that I don’t need to rehearse the, many, reasons why. Nor, then, I hope, do I need to explain why the idea, and indeed, the very existence, of a newspaper that only reports positive, uplifting news, is quite literally the most joyfully brilliant notion.
Meet the creator
Designer and illustrator Emily Coxhead is the creator of this simply delightful helping of happiness. A Kickstarter campaign raised enough to create the first issue, which launched in December 2015 and thanks to a small editorial team and a growing number of subscribers, she has been producing it quarterly ever since.
The paper offers a cheerfully eclectic selection of good-news stories from around the world, features, interviews, recipes and recommendations. But I dare you to read the Everyday Heroes section, where readers nominate somebody who makes their and the wider world a little bit (or a lot) better, without shedding a tear (of happiness, obviously), and revelling in the reassurance that such heart-warmingly wonderful people exist all around us.
To see the paper for yourself - and if you couldn’t tell by now, I couldn’t recommend you do more enthusiastically - and all the other wonderfully uplifting, positive stuff Emily is doing, you can order a copy on her website, and follow her on Instagram @thehappynewspaper or Facebook
The positivity and inspiration that lies at the heart of The Happy Newspaper is also key to my aims for These Are The Heydays, and reading the paper set me thinking about what I could do to play my part in bringing a little extra cheer to all of you who read and follow me.
A cheery idea
A few years ago I was going through a particularly difficult time and I started a private blog where I vowed to write about one thing each day that had made me smile. Sometimes it was something I’d seen or read, other times it was something someone had said or done. But what I quickly found was that a) it made me actively look for something good and happy in every day, even the bad and sad ones; and b) made me realise that no day was ever entirely bad or sad. Even the worst ones.
So I’ve come up with the idea of sharing a daily helping of good cheer on Instagram (either as a post or in my stories) and Facebook. I’ll be starting from Monday next week (Sept 17th) and very much hope the daily Heyday highlight will make you smile, even on your bad days.
What’s made you happy in the last 24 hours?
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