Issue 26 of Peppermint Magazine is all about kindness and they are are inviting you to get involved in the kindness movement.

Within the pages of the mag the team talk kindness with covergirl Maryann Talia Pau (founder of the One Million Stars to End Violence project), Jono Fisher of WakeUp Project and Emiliana Simon-Thomas of The Berkeley Greater Good Science Center – to find out why we should all be kinder to one another, and to gain some fascinating insights into this often underrated virtue. As part of their mission to spread the joy of kindness Peppermint are running a 10-Week Peppermint Kindness Challenge on social media to ‘enrich the lives of those we touch, but it brings health and happiness to our own lives too’. For ten weeks the crew will be sharing a prompts on how you can infect the world with kindness vibes. This weeks #kindnessassignment is to smile at strangers.

Why? Glad you asked. Here’s what Peppermint have to say about smiling at strangers. 

Too often we walk around with our heads down, avoiding eye contact, lost in our own thoughts or too busy to notice others. A simple smile brings a boost of happiness to yourself and those you smile at and increases the feeling of social connectedness and community. Make an effort this week to genuinely smile at others! 

Lucky for me Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is a smiley kind of place! A smile from a stranger is pretty well received here and something that is practiced pretty often. In fact most folk will even say hello! A school boy wished me ‘a very happy day’ yesterday morning as I passed him on the way to the gym. As a smiley person I used to surprise some city folk when I lived in Melbourne and practiced smiling at strangers. I kept it up though because smiling at strangers makes them wonder what you have been up to 🙂 Hope you get on board the Peppermint 10-Week kindness challenge as I would love to see your smiley faces all over social media. There are not enough smiles in fashion circles (possibly because smiles make your face wrinkle).

Today I am sharing a happy walk in the sunshine that I took with my Mr./resident photographer a couple of days ago. I liked the above shots he captured of me… smiling at trees is the same as smiling at strangers when you have only met the tree for the first time right? The reason I have shared these (aside from the fact they make me smile) is that the kindness challenge has prompted a new theme for me next month based around being kind to myself. It is Uni holidays here in Australia and to celebrate this I have decided to focus on being kind to myself next month and sharing the journey with you. July will be ‘Nourish’ month and it will focus on being a tourist in your own neighbourhood and a focus on delicious nutritious food.

With beautiful images of faraway lands plastered all over social media sites it can be hard to control the itchy travel feet. Air travel, while being the gateway to endless adventures, impacts on your personal environmental footprint. Over the month of July I am planning to do my very best to bring you some adventures on the Sunshine Coast and look at the environmental impact of differing modes of transport along with some of the economic benefits to ‘holidaying’ in your local area. It can be surprising how much beauty you can find in your local neighbourhood if you happen to take the time to look with fresh eyes. I also hope to share some winter recipes with you looking at the implications of ‘food miles’ and packaging on your environmental footprint (have a play around at the WWF link above to see how changing your diet and travel affects your personal impact). There is a possibility I will be embarking on my own plane journey to visit my mum as she unfortunately lives 2,500+ km away so public transport isn’t an option,   for a milestone birthday so if/when this happens I will maximise my visit by cramming in as many visits to different folks as possible and will bring you back the very best of Hobart Tasmania to devour with your eyes.

Let me know if you have any requests of Sunshine Coast sights you would like to ‘see’. My favourite shopping destination (of possibly EVER) Nambour is definitely already on the list as it is home to some of the best thrifting I’ve ever seen and is where I found the fab jacket featured here.

Ok. Enough rambling for today.

Sending smiles to you all!