In The SHOlight: Happiful Magazine

In the SHOlight: Happiful Magazine

By Hannah Biksadsky

When you think about a magazine, you wouldn’t be wrong to think about fashion, food or fitness. And that’s OK because they are the niches with the biggest names and brands out there. But you wouldn’t ever think there is a mental health magazine, would you?

There was always a stigma around mental health and that anyone seen to have a mental health issue was either crazy or insane. This was the reason why people never spoke about this subject 10 years ago and some of the older generations still refuse to acknowledge it.

But mental health is real, many people suffer from it and, thanks to the media, it has been brought to the forefront of people's attention in recent years. We are so weighed down with negativity in the news with politics and conflicting stories about what we should and shouldn’t be doing. Not to mention body shaming and name calling from the media about anyone who is in the public eye. All of this leads to a negative outlook so when I stumbled across this new magazine, I was blown away.

Happiful is a magazine devoted to mental health which aims to create a happier, healthier and more sustainable society. Their first issue came out in April 2017 with DJ Pandora as the cover star and has since gone on to have the likes of Giovanna Fletcher, Olivia Buckland and Anna Richardson gracing their front page to name but a few.

You probably have seen this on most shelves in Supermarkets but haven’t taken a second look - I only found it through an advert on my Instagram feed- but it is worth picking up! And if you can’t afford the £4 price tag, they offer the magazine for FREE in an E-book format through their website sign up list - no spam, just good content each and every month.

After reading the first copy on my phone, I couldn’t believe that there was a whole magazine filled with positive articles, interviews and helpful features addressing subjects that I haven’t seen anyone do before like “Realistic Career Goals After Time Off Work”. This article, in particular, helped me dramatically because it was my reality. I had just had time off to deal with a family tragedy and was off work for stress due to bereavement. In my first week back, I felt completely lost. Everything that I used to do seemed very distant and I felt that my heart and mind just wasn’t in it but I put pressure on myself to snap out of it and knuckle down and get back to “normal”.

It wasn’t until I read this article that it made me realise I was doing this all wrong. I shouldn’t have put pressure on myself and expected everything to just go back to how it was before, but after numerous web searches, I never found anything that told you how you should feel or act until I read this and gave myself a break.

This was just one article on one page out of the 90 pages in that particular issue. Did you know that dolphins make a signature call to their best friends? Neither did I but it made me happy to read about it!

The whole issue is filled with uplifting stories, articles that you can relate to and interviews with people you never expected to have suffered from mental health but are brave enough to stand up and say that they have and this is how they have dealt with it. They also have news articles about health and wellbeing that I hadn’t even heard about- even though I spend half my time on social media and have an unhealthy obsession with google searching and can spend hours reading pages of blog articles about anything and everything I have thought of that day.

It is so refreshing to see that the social impact mental health has made is being listened to and addressed and catered for in industries which are normally dominated by global publishing houses. Instead of only having magazines on offer filled with articles on how to lose weight, look better and telling you what you should wear- all things which plague people with insecurity and self-doubt- Happiful focuses on the good and making you feel better about yourself.

But I wouldn’t want to pigeonhole this magazine as being for people who have a mental illness as I think that everyone could benefit from a good read like this! Of course, it does address issues such as depression, self-doubt and anxiety but it is also filled with positivity which I think we could all do with a bit more of!

Check them out by clicking HERE. There is also a subscription offer which you can snap up now and get a year's worth of issues for £40 including free postage instead of £57!

If you are interested in mental health issues then take a look at https://www.time-to-change.org.uk which is a great resource filled with facts and personal stories. You can also get involved by donating some of your time online, in schools, with friends, or in the community to campaign.

PS- We are in no way affiliated with Happiful magazine. This is just a blog post about something which we found interesting and inspiring and wanted to share with others.