The New Happiness Trend You Need Now!
Women's Health Australia|April 2018

It’s the new happiness trend that could transform your life. Leading experts explain why this simple practice is having a major moment

Amy Abrahams
The New Happiness Trend You Need Now!

Eschewing everything your parents drilled into you as a kid is what adulting is all about, right? Eating boiled cauliflower (smother it in cheese sauce and then we’ll talk); learning to play the recorder (because Hot Cross Buns has proven so useful); being kind – oh, that one’s slipped off the radar, too? Now, experts are urging us to reclaim the practice of kindness – for our own wellbeing as well as the good of others.

Kindest regards

We’re heading into a kindness revival – which is no bad thing. It’s down to the ever-growing trend of mindfulness, but perhaps not in the way you’d think. The rise of being mindful (y’know, cultivating an awareness of your present surroundings, inner thoughts and emotions) has been proven time and time again to have a very real positive effect on your mental and physical health. And yet there’s a growing concern that practising the Buddhist tradition as a standalone concept, without the warmth, goodwill and generosity (read: kindness) that Buddhists practise alongside it, means that we’re not only missing the point, but also doing our mental health a disservice.

“Mindfulness without kindness becomes dry, boring and cold,” says expert Shamash Alidina. “But when you switch the focus to ‘kindfulness’, it reminds you to be forgiving and friendly as you carry out mindfulness, so you’re able to get the very best out of it.” Think of kindfulness as a sprinkling of superfood powder in an already nourishing smoothie – taking all the benefits of mindfulness, then turbocharging it for extra impact.

This story is from the April 2018 edition of Women's Health Australia.

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This story is from the April 2018 edition of Women's Health Australia.

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