Happiful – Issue 103 2025
Summary
Happiful Issue 103 (2025, £5.99) — See Things Differently — sets sights on the benefits of slow looking at art, with features on sedatephobia (fear of silence), pleasure activism as radical self-care, narrative therapy for rewriting your story, disenfranchised grief, gender euphoria, sisterhood circles reviving ancient traditions, and the RAIN technique for emotional regulation. The Lao Tzu quote "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished" opens this issue guest-edited by Fiona Fletcher Reid.
Content Guide
▸ Expand Your Mind
p.12: Sitting in silence — What is sedatephobia and how to build tolerance for quiet moments without reaching for a distraction.
p.17: Pleasure activism — A radical reimagining of self-care as collective joy rather than individual indulgence.
p.32: Slow looking — The surprising benefits of viewing art at a mindful pace, including a 10-minute gallery protocol.
p.61: The dance of recovery — How self-expression through movement is empowering survivors of domestic abuse.
p.68: Disenfranchised grief — Shining a light on losses that society does not recognise including pet loss, job loss and non-death bereavement.
▸ Relationships
p.16: Five elements of trust — Strengthen your bonds using this helpful framework based on reliability, vulnerability and honesty.
p.52: Love MOT — Take stock with a relationship audit using structured questions for couples.
p.71: Signs of codependency — Recognising unhealthy patterns in close relationships.
▸ Wellbeing
p.25: Dealing with dyscalculia — Signs that trouble with numbers could add up to something more than being bad at maths.
p.49: Sisterhood circles — Why women are reviving this ancient tradition of gathering to share and support.
p.55: Caring for carers — Supporting a friend who is looking after elderly parents.
▸ Try This at Home
p.15: RAIN technique — The four-step mindfulness practice (Recognise, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) for emotional regulation.
p.39: Spheres of influence — Identify what you can control versus what you cannot using the circle-of-control framework.
p.72: At-home narrative therapy — Rewrite your personal story using structured prompts.
▸ Positive Pointers
p.20: Menopause insomnia — Sleep strategies specifically for the hormonal sleep disruptions of perimenopause and menopause.
p.40: Stay safe at a protest — Practical safety guidance for peaceful demonstrators.
Editor's Take
Guest editor Fiona Fletcher Reid brings a distinctive voice to Issue 103 — the pleasure activism piece (p.17) and slow-looking feature (p.32) feel genuinely original, informed by academic concepts that Happiful usually avoids. The disenfranchised grief article (p.68) is the strongest execution: it names specific unrecognised losses and validates the reader's experience without adding therapeutic pressure. The weakness is the protesting safety guide (p.40), which is well-intentioned but feels incongruous in a magazine whose typical reader is unlikely to be on the front line of demonstrations. This issue suits readers interested in art therapy, feminist wellbeing concepts and alternative grief frameworks.
Strengths
• Pleasure activism feature introduces a genuinely novel self-care framework from academic discourse
• Slow-looking article includes a specific 10-minute gallery-visit protocol
• Disenfranchised grief article names specific unrecognised losses with validation language
Weaknesses
• Protest safety guide feels misaligned with the magazine's typical readership
• Sedatephobia coverage is thin for a cover-topic feature
Verdict: Recommended — Guest editor Reid brings fresh conceptual material to Happiful's formula, with the pleasure activism and slow-looking features standing out as genuinely original.
