The Happier Life Project

Happiness Through Service: Gabby’s Month with 400 Girls in India — with Mala Rastogi, Mimi Sinfield & the Dau Dayal Students

Welcome to this extremely special episode of The Happier Life Project, to kick off the new series. Host Gabby Sanderson takes listeners inside Dau Dayal School for Girls in Firozabad, India, just 50 minutes from the Taj Mahal, where she spent a month living on campus and teaching yoga and mindfulness six days a week to more than 400 students.
What began as a volunteer placement soon became something much deeper: a powerful reminder of the connection between giving back, perspective, and wellbeing. Through moments of joy, challenge, and unexpected connection, the experience revealed how acts of service can profoundly impact both those who give and those who receive.
Listeners are brought into the classrooms and playgrounds of the school, meeting the girls whose laughter and resilience shine through even the toughest realities. Alongside fellow kids’ yoga teacher Mimi Sinfield and school president Mala Rastogi, Gabby shares moving conversations about hope, community, and the impact of simple wellbeing practices.
This episode explores the power of yoga, breathwork, and mindfulness as tools for emotional support and resilience, and the extraordinary spirit of the young people who embraced them.
If you’d like to support the Dau Dayal English Medium School, you can donate through the GoFundMe page https://www.gofundme.com/f/educate-her-today-transform-her-future
Contributions go directly towards building and equipping a new school campus providing classrooms, resources, and opportunities that will transform not only the lives of the girls, but also their families and communities. 
This episode is dedicated to Chanchal and Chaya, and to all the incredible girls at Dau Dayal School, whose courage, warmth, and spirit made Gabby’s experience unforgettable.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/
Dau Dayal School website: https://ddgic.org/
Dau Dayal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dau_dayal_school/
Donate and support: https://www.gofundme.com/f/educate-her-today-transform-her-future
Rainbow Kids on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rainbowkidsyoga/
Rainbow Kids website: https://www.rainbowyogatraining.com/
Yoga Gives Back Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yogagivesback/
Yoga Gives Back website: https://yogagivesback.org/
EDU Girls Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edugirls/
EDU Girls website: https://edugirls.org/
 

Self-Love Practice: Day 14 - Be Your Own Valentine

The Happier Life Project's Self-Love Sessions
Valentine’s Day often tells us love comes from someone else. But over these 14 days, you’ve been practising a love that starts with you.
In the final day of 14 Days of Self-Love, we celebrate becoming a safe place for yourself, not perfect, but present.
You’ll explore:• What it means to choose yourself• Turning care into love• Becoming your own home• Carrying this practice forward
You don’t have to wait for love.You are already here.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/
 

Self-Love Practice: Day 13 - Give Yourself Permission to Change & Evolve

The Happier Life Project's Self-Love Sessions
You are allowed to grow.You are allowed to change your mind.You are allowed to become someone new.
In Day 13 of our 14 Days of Self-Love series, we practise releasing old versions of ourselves and making space for who we are becoming.
You’ll explore:• Outgrowing roles and identities• Letting go of who you used to be• Trusting your becoming• Choosing truth over familiarity
Change is not betrayal.It’s honesty.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/
 

Self-Love Practice: Day 12 - End Self-Abandonment

The Happier Life Project's Self-Love Sessions
Self-abandonment happens when you silence your needs, feelings, or truth just to be accepted. It’s quiet, learned, and deeply human — but it doesn’t have to be your future.
In Day 12 of 14 Days of Self-Love, we explore what it means to stop leaving yourself behind and begin staying loyal to your needs, your feelings, and your truth.
You’ll explore:• What self-abandonment looks like• Why you learned it• How to start choosing yourself• Staying with yourself in small moments
Self-love is not loud.It is loyal.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/
 

Self-Love Practice: Day 11 - Do What Lights You Up

The Happier Life Project's Self-Love Sessions
Self-love isn’t only about healing what hurts, it’s also about remembering what brings you back to yourself.
In Day 11 of 14 Days of Self-Love, this episode invites you to pause and ask one simple question:What lights me up?
You’ll explore:• Letting joy guide you, not pressure• Choosing what feels true, not impressive• Making space for what brings you back to yourself
Today’s practice is simple: choose one thing that lights you up and give it your attention.
You’re allowed to live for more than survival.You’re allowed to live for feeling too.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/
 
 

Self-Love Practice: Day 10 - Stop Proving You’re Worthy

The Happier Life Project's Self-Love Sessions
How often do you explain yourself, overwork, overgive, or apologise just to feel allowed to exist?In Day 10 of our 14 Days of Self-Love, short daily audio clips to improve your worth, esteem and appreciation for yourself, we practise something practical: noticing where you try to earn your worth -  and choosing to stop.
You’ll explore:• Where you try to prove you’re enough• What it looks like to choose ease instead• Resting without justification• Taking up space without apology
You don’t need proof to matter.You already do.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/
 

Self-Love Practice: Day 9 - Release the “I Should Be” Story

The Happier Life Project's Self-Love Sessions
So many of us live under quiet pressure, the voice that says I should be further, better, happier, different by now. But those “shoulds” aren’t truth - they’re stories we inherited from comparison and expectation.
In Day 9 of 14 Days of Self-Love, we gently question the “I should be” story and practise letting it go.
You’ll explore:• Where your “shoulds” come from• How comparison shapes self-worth• Naming stories instead of believing them• Trusting your own timing
Your life is not late.Your becoming is not wrong.Your timing is yours.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/

Self-Love Practice: Day 8 – Love Yourself When You Feel Unchosen

The Happier Life Project's Self-Love Sessions
Few things hurt as quietly as feeling unchosen; not picked, not invited, not replied to, not prioritised. And when it happens, it’s easy to turn that pain into proof that something is wrong with you.
In Day 8 of 14 Days of Self-Love, we practise loving ourselves through those moments - not by pretending they don’t hurt, but by staying with ourselves when they do.
You’ll explore:• What it means to feel unchosen• How to stop turning pain into identity• Becoming the one who chooses you• Offering yourself what you hoped to receive from others
Being unchosen does not make you unlovable.You are already enough, even when it hurts.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/
 

Self-Love Practice: Day 7 – What Makes You, You

The Happier Life Project's Self-Love Sessions
So many of us learn to measure our worth by what we do, how productive we are, how useful we are, how much we achieve. But who are you when you’re not performing?
In Day 7 of The Happier Life Project's 14 Days of Self-Love mini-series, this episode invites you to reconnect with who you are beyond your output. Not what you do, but who you are.
You’ll explore:• Letting go of achievement as your only measure of worth• Noticing the qualities that make you you• Seeing yourself as a person, not a project• Remembering that your value lives in your being
You don’t have to earn your place in the world.You already belong, as you are.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/
 

Self-Love Practice: Day 6 - When You Mess Up

The Happier Life Project's Self-Love Sessions
Making mistakes is part of being human, but the way we talk to ourselves afterward can be far more painful than the mistake itself.In Day 6 of 14 Days of Self-Love, we focus on what happens after you mess up: the shame, the self-blame, and the stories you tell yourself about who you are.
You’ll explore:• Why mistakes don’t define your worth• How to stop turning moments into identity• Offering yourself forgiveness instead of punishment• Learning to stay with yourself when things go wrong
You don’t have to be perfect to be loved.You’re allowed to be human.
To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast
To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mypossibleself/