WALKING ON SUNSHINE: 52 SMALL STEPS TO HAPPINESS
RACHEL KELLY (SHORT BOOKS)
Ten years of writing an advice column leave me acutely aware of the complications of the human heart.
And when that heart becomes entangled with others... what map can navigate the maze? Yet I’m convinced simple truths can work.
Sadly, they become lost in modern psychobabble. Modish language about ‘issues’ and ‘the journey’ can make people forget they usually have it in their own power to make life better.
Rachel Kelly knows this. That’s why she has written a deceptively simple guide to a less complicated life - made even more delightful with illustrations by cartoonist Jonathan Pugh, who makes me smile every day. And that’s the first useful therapy.
I should explain that Kelly has spent serious time within the prison of clinical depression; she knows perfectly well the difference between that debilitating condition and ‘what Freud called ordinary human unhappiness’.
In her powerful memoir, Black Rainbow (2014), Kelly told the story of her transformation from busy mother and high-flying professional to desperately sick patient, unable to function.
Through those dark times she found solace in the healing power of poetry, as well as the love of her family. Her memoir ended with practical strategies used along her path to recovery.
Now she distils this experience into her 52 steps, explaining: ‘In general, I’ve found that while these steps may not directly lead to happiness, it often follows as a by-product.’
Kelly believes that most of us (unless suffering from mental illness) can improve life, one small step at a time. If you go for big changes, you’re more likely to fail - and not try again. She calls this ‘the 5 percent shift’ - the small thing you can build into your routine to create a subtle change in how you feel, who you are.
So, for example, if you like going out for a cup of coffee, then embed a new habit within that one - like cycling to the coffee shop. This will make you feel fitter, and therefore better.
Something uncomplicated like changing your body language can work, too - sit upright instead of slumping. She’s also a fan of de-cluttering and tidying cupboards, following designer William Morris’s maxim that one should keep only what is useful or beautiful.
Some of Kelly’s 52 steps could even be described as simplistic - but that is exactly the point. Do we need to be told to try smiling and see how that lifts the mood? Well, actually - yes we do!
Change old habits, buy flowers, indulge the box-set habit, hug people for longer and yes, have a good cry. Rachel Kelly has proved by her own example that a calmer, happier life is possible.
Daily Mail