A guide to mental wellbeing for Generation Z from influencer Poppy Jamie
HAPPY NOT PERFECT:
Four Steps To Shifting Your Brain—And Your Life
by Poppy Jamie
Rodale, March 2021
© Poppy Jamie
Poppy is a burst of 29-year old energy guiding the 250,000 individuals who have downloaded her app, HAPPY NOT PERFECT, to care about their brain health in an entirely new way. A mindfulness expert with personal experience to support her, Poppy draws on leading psychology research to present breakthrough solutions for the burnout, anxiety and insecurity afflicting her peers in unprecedented ways, as well as many others. HAPPY NOT PERFECT addresses the most anxious and depressed generation in history. The news is full of headlines about mental health concerns for GEN Z, including early onset stress burnout and a greatly increased suicide rate. In fact, half of millennials and 75% of Gen Zers have quit jobs for mental health reasons, according to CNBC this October. HAPPY NOT PERFECT identifies a new set of ideas to advance mental wellbeing and features one of Gen Z’s own who knows how to captivate her audience. Poppy’s platform is increasing rapidly, and she is already taking this conversation around the world.
Influencer and businesswoman Poppy Jamie was named one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” at age 25. By 26, Poppy was hosting her Snapchat talk show “Pillow Talk with Poppy” and taking part in the uniquely Millennial experience of sharing glamorous and heavily curated pictures of her fabulous life with her 95,000 Instagram followers, while privately facing a breakdown. Inspired by messages from her constituents, in May 2018 she launched Happy Not Perfect, and its corresponding product line. Poppy was born in the UK and currently lives in NY, London, and Los Angeles.
In today’s fractured world we’re constantly flooded with breaking news that causes anger, grief, and pain. People are feeling more stressed out than ever and in the face of this fear and anxiety they can feel so burnt out and overwhelmed that they end up frozen in their tracks and can’t do anything. In REAL CHANGE Sharon Salzberg, a leading expert in Lovingkindness meditation, shares sage advice and indispensable techniques to help free ourselves from these negative feelings and actions. She teaches us that meditation is not a replacement for action, but rather a way to practice generosity with ourselves and summon the courage to break through boundaries, reconnect to a movement that’s bigger than ourselves, and have the energy to stay active.
Empathy is in short supply. Isolation and tribalism are rampant. We struggle to understand people who aren’t like us, but find it easy to hate them. Studies show that we are less caring than we were even thirty years ago. In 2006, Barack Obama said that the United States is suffering from an “empathy deficit.” Since then, things only seem to have gotten worse. It doesn’t have to be this way. In this groundbreaking book, Jamil Zaki argues that empathy is not a fixed trait—something we’re born with or not—but rather a skill that we can all strengthen through effort. Drawing on both classic and cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, Zaki shows how we can harness this new mindset to overcome toxic cultural divisions. He also tells the stories of people who are living these principles—fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. We meet a former neo-Nazi who is now helping extract people from hate groups, ex-prisoners discussing novels with the judge who sentenced them, Washington police officers changing their culture to decrease violence among their ranks, and NICU nurses fine-tuning their empathy so that they don’t succumb to burnout. Written with clarity and passion, The War for Kindness is an inspiring call to action. The future may depend on whether we accept the challenge.
Angela C. Santomero, the creator, executive producer, and head w