The Happier Life Project

Self Love by name, Self Love by nature. Liv is a social media influencer and content creator with over 200,000 followers who educates her audience on all things mental health, self-care, body positivity and acceptance. So for episode 2 of our self love mini series, The Happier Life Project could think of no better guest! Why have we dedicated 3 episodes to studying self love? Because when the My P...

Self-love means to have a high regard for your own well-being and happiness. It means taking care of your own needs and not sacrificing your own mental, physical, or emotional health to please others. But why do so many of us not see ourselves as a priority? And feel guilty, ashamed, or undeserving to treat ourselves nicely? Why do we consider self-love to be a dirty word? To mark this year’s Vale...

Clinically speaking, emotional baggage is unprocessed trauma which often has a negative effect on a person’s behaviour and attitude. Emotional baggage can also be viewed as a metaphor; referring to negative, unprocessed emotions and unresolved issues from past experiences, that impact and influence how you show up and behave to others. Natalie Lue is a writer, speaker, podcaster, artist, and found...

When we are feeling confident, we have a more positive outlook on life, increasing our mental and emotional wellbeing. But when our confidence is low, it undermines our faith in our abilities to be successful and competent. When we are confident, we're more likely to move forward with people and opportunities. Whereas to experience a lack of confidence, holds us back from living our life to the fu...

Problems experienced in childhood can impact our quality of life as adults. Growing up in an unhealthy or toxic family can contribute to a number of emotional, interpersonal, and mental health challenges. A toxic childhood could include any of the following experiences; your emotional needs weren't met by caretakers, your parents were controlling, neglectful, or overprotective, you experienced abu...

When it comes to money and mental health, we might not immediately join the dots, but it’s an important aspect of our wellness. Financial health, the current state of our monetary situation, is something we may not need a doctor for, but it affects our everyday life and future in many ways. Laura Turner is the the founder of Thrifty Londoner, a personal finance website who helps people to feel fin...

"Wellness is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” – The World Health Organization. After indulging during the festive period, January can often be a month of restriction and grueling fitness plans... but can we tip the scale too far in the wrong direction and end up less healthy and more miserable? And are we paying enoug...

Many studies have found that having a clean and tidy house can help you feel relaxed, accomplished, and much less stressed. Whereas when everything is on top of each other, it’s like a metaphor for life. If your space is messy and cluttered, this could trigger feelings of anxiety, low mood, agitation, depression and tension. How we construct our environment is therefore, imperative to not only how...

The holiday season (the period between Thanksgiving until the New Year) is supposed to be a joyous time, full of celebrations with family and friends. But for many people, "the most wonderful time of year"... tis’ the season to feel stressed and anxious. It's normal to feel stressed or lower than usual at Christmas, especially if it's a time of year that brings back difficult memories or heightens...

Building and maintaining a happy, healthy, long lasting relationship takes work. And sometimes we can close ourselves off from something that could blossom into a beautiful, satisfying union, by giving up too early when faced with challenges with our partner. To conclude the Happier Life Project’s relationship episodes, now we have looked at the areas that we struggle with the most when it comes t...

When it comes to our mental health, the ending of a relationship and loss of a loved one can hugely impact our wellbeing. Going through a breakup and experiencing strong emotional pain, and sometimes physical pain too, can leave us feeling vulnerable, deflated, stressed and lacking in motivation and energy. Especially when we can't seem to control our thoughts and feelings about that person, and k...

When we start to explore the collaboration between sex and mental health, there are so many factors at play. An enjoyable, healthy sex life supports positive mental and emotional wellbeing. But on the flip side unenjoyable, or painful sex, can hinder our mental and emotional health increasing stress, depression and anxiety. There is still a lot of stigma surrounding sex, which is why so many of us...

Continuing with our ‘relationship month’, this week’s episode zooms in on narcissists, narcissistic abuse and toxic relationships with Dr. Jaime Zuckerman, a global narcissistic abuse expert, licensed clinical psychologist and mental health media contributor. Dr Z, as she is commonly known as, has helped hundreds of clients get out of seemingly impossible narcissistic or toxic relationships and ha...

Dating and communication with a partner, or potential partner, can be confusing and stressful... But if you’re armed with the right toolkit, then it can also be a lot of fun! To communicate, is to express yourself in a healthy way. If you can do this when looking for your next romantic relationship, you will save yourself a lot of confusion and heartbreak down the road. Healthy communication also...

To kick off our 'relationship month' special on The Happier Life Project host Gabby welcomes Therapy Jeff, a licensed professional counselor based in Portland. Jeff has over two million followers on tiktok and hundreds of thousands of followers on instagram, thanks to his bite size relatable relationship focussed content, that more often than not goes viral.   Jeff and Gabby explore the joys and p...

Ayurveda is one of the world's oldest holistic healing systems. Originating in India, Ayurveda focuses on whole-body healing and believes that a person’s dosha, made up from the natural elements of air, space, water, fire, and earth, are responsible for a person’s physiological, mental, and emotional health. The term Ayurveda is derived from the Sanskrit words ayur (life) and veda (science or know...

Yoga is widely known for helping us to stay fit and healthy, not just on the outside, but on the inside too. The mental, emotional and spiritual benefits, as well as the obvious physical rewards, are plentiful; if you make yoga a regular part of your life. For many, we know yoga is great for us, but we don't quite understand how and why these amazing, magical things happen. In this episode of The...

Somatic Therapist Alex Bottomley picks up where she left off in the previous week's episode by getting into the nitty gritty of how we can Learn to Love Ourselves & Build Self Compassion by becoming more connected to our body. In this episode Alex demonstrates with host Gabby, a simple practice anyone can do to connect to stored emotion in the body that may need some compassion or to be released....

Somatic therapy operates off the idea that what happens to you in your life is stored not only in your mind, but also in your body. Somatic therapy aims to help release how our body holds on to stress, tension, and trauma; treating the effects of PTSD, trauma and other mental and emotional health issues, through the connection between the mind and the body. Alex Bottomley is a highly experienced S...

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most common and best studied forms of psychotherapy. CBT is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think (cognitive) and do (behavioural) to improve how you feel. It’s NHS recommended and prescribed to treat a wide range of mental, emotional and physical health problems, but is most commonly used to treat an...

Imposter Syndrome is when you believe that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be, often doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It's an internal experience that can effect anyone, but is particularly present in high achievers, who do not believe they deserve their success, or are capable enough to be where they are. Sally Heady is a Mindset Coach and Cognitive Hypnotherap...

Breathwork is a term for various breathing practices in which the conscious control of breathing is said to positively influence a person's mental, emotional, or physical state. Some of the powerful benefits include reduced stress and anxiety, increased energy, pain management, lowering of blood pressure, management of ptsd, trauma and depression, and improvement of mood. Jamie Clements is a leadi...

Mindfulness meditation is a practice that teaches you to slow down your thoughts, let go of negativity, and calm both your mind and body. It combines meditation with the practice of mindfulness, which can be defined as a mental state that involves being fully focused on "the present" so you can acknowledge and accept your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgement.   In this episode of T...

Tarot decks, with their easy-to-understand symbolism, can be useful and cathartic when it comes to healing. As holistic therapies are increasing in popularity, a trend is arising with more people turning to tarot to help support their mental health. While therapeutic tarot is by no means a substitute for medication or working with a professional therapist or counselor, using tarot in an appropriat...

Self-esteem is how we value and perceive ourselves. It's based on our opinions and beliefs, which can sometimes feel really difficult to change. Having low self-esteem isn't a mental health problem in itself, but they are closely linked. If lots of factors affect your self-esteem for a period of time, this might lead to mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, social phobia, an eating d...