We absolutely loved Alison Canavan’s article in our Spring 2026 issue, which pinpointed the energetic difference between true kindness and people-pleasing. Read the full piece below!
Tantra writer and educator Dawn Cartwright is one of our much-loved regular collaborators, and we greatly enjoyed her piece in our Spring 2026 issue, on ‘the language of kindness’. Check it out below!
Spirituality & The City
An act of kindness that took your breath away…
Our Spirituality in the City series celebrates the moments of connection and transformation that can happen in the most unexpected places. This time, we explore how simple acts of kindness can be enough to restore faith in moments when it’s dwindling.
Farzana Maudarbaccus
Ireland has been my home for the last 15 years and I feel pretty settled here. However, on days that have big meaning for me, like Christmas or my birthday, I miss my family who still live in my home country, unless I am visiting, which means I am close to them. My own family here is my little cocoon but I still feel a pinch on those festive/special days and thank goodness for video calls.
This year, for my birthday, one of my friends decided to pay me a visit and brought me a card and flowers. And it brought me to tears. And here’s why: It was the thought behind it and her telling me she knew I did not have someone close who could drop by with a cake or something. It was the fact that I knew her days are full with work and looking after her two children. It was the fact that she carved out time to get me something and drive down to my place to give me a hug. It meant so much and I am so grateful to her for all her love and for being so thoughtful.
Gargi Pareek
‘I have a divine self’…hmm. Is ‘self’ the right noun, is ‘have’ the right verb? As I landed in Ireland alone. Standing in the biting Dublin wind with three heavy bags, I felt the crushing weight of homesickness. At the air coach ticket counter, I asked the man for a ticket to Sandyford. He peered at my luggage and said, “You can’t take three bags on the bus; you have to pay an extra 10 euros in that case.” I gulped. What should I do now? I had little cash, just enough for two months’ rent and groceries. After a few seconds, miraculously, the clerk whispered, “It’s alright, go.” Lost in a blur of tears, I asked an Asian girl standing in front of me in the queue for help. We sat next to each other on the bus, and for self-satisfaction, I asked her whether she was sure I had boarded the right bus. To this, she insisted on verifying with the driver who was then driving the bus. I asked the driver, to which he shouted, “Didn’t you hear me back at the airport! This bus is going to the city centre, not Sandyford…”. I got off at the next station, and surprisingly, she got off too. She did not abandon me. The right bus finally came, but the driver said, “I have no space in the luggage compartment. If you can make some, go ahead.” I struggled alone to shove my heavy bags into a cramped compartment. Bitterly, I thought, “Why am I here…If it were India, hundreds of people would have come to help me.” After squeezing the bags, I thanked the girl with tears in my eyes and stepped onto the bus, choosing a window seat. I saw her still standing there, watching me as if making sure I was settled. When the bus pulled away, I saw her vanish into the crowd. I felt a profound longing. I was certain she was someone “He” sent to help me.
Niall
I remember when I was living on London about 10 years ago. I was really struggling living in the city and struggling mentally in myself. My boss at the time said ‘We value you, we want you here. Take a month off, we’ll keep your job for you. Go and do what you need to do and come back when you’re ready.’
It was such a big thing at the time because I felt like someone really had my back and valued me and who I was and also recognised that I was struggling and didn’t just let me go.
His name was Peter and he completely changed how I thought about leadership and how we can impact people’s lives as leaders and managers.
Brona Malone
May 2020. Lockdown is well under way. A close friend is undergoing chemo for breast cancer. I discover a lump on my breast and my mind immediately jumps to fear and worry. I’m alone, it’s Sunday. I can look into getting it checked tomorrow, but I’m not going to sit in fear and worry in the interim, waiting for someone else and something outside of me to tell me everything is ok.
When life happens, we all lean on something. For me, I lean on a strength beyond my own, call it God, Higher Power, Source, Divine Intelligence. I close my eyes and sit into stillness, asking to know and feel the truth of this situation. Immediately, I feel relief. All is well and good.
Later, I’m sitting on a blanket in a crowded park. Out of nowhere, the cutest little 3-year-old girl walks up to me. Very matter of fact and with absolute clarity, she hands me a feather: ‘This is for you’.
Wide eyed and stunned, I watch this little Queen strut on.
Staring at the feather, once again I’m lifted. The innocence of this little being, a vehicle of the Divine. Love overcomes fear.
Joseph Beattie
What is kindness? I think kindness is giving without counting the cost. A few years ago, I was working in Dublin city centre and was walking down Wicklow street. I passed a young Dublin guy sitting on the ground begging with a coffee cup in his hand looking for change, he looked like an able bodied person so I stopped and asked him why he didn’t have a job instead of begging. He told me he was homeless and couldn’t get a job because he didn’t have an address. I felt sad that this young Irish lad was in the situation his was in. I impulsively went back down Wicklow street and went into a music shop that sold instruments. I bought a tin whistle with an Irish song book on how to play the tin whistle. I walked back down to the guy and gave him the instrument, he looked at me confused and I told him that people would appreciate him busking more than begging and he would likely make more change in his cup while all he had to do was learn the first song in the attached music book which was The Fields of Athenry. He was still a bit confused looking as I went on my way. As I was going back up Wicklow Street after getting my coffee, I could see him trying to play the tin whistle. It made my day.. he was there again the next day playing and people were putting coins in his cup for being a troubadour (busker) and not begging. I met the guy a few years later and he told me he had a flat and now plays with a trad music band. There were tears in my eyes. KINDNESS can change a life.
The Power of Kindness
Each story reminds us that the effects of kindness travel far beyond what we can perceive, planting seeds of hope, joy, or inspiration that may sprout in ways we never expected.
Kindness IS the new currency. Pay it forward. And watch the people and places around you transform.
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The Spring 2026 Issue Has Arrived!
AVAILABLE NOW AT HEALTH SHOPS NATIONWIDE OR HEAD HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE MAGAZINE!!
Our newest issue of Positive Life Magazine is here!! and it’s filled with inspiring stories, uplifting wisdom, and powerful conversations around this season’s theme: Kindness <3
Inside this issue you’ll discover:
Krishna Das returning to Ireland @krishnadasmusic LAST TICKETS HERE
Hector Ramos on the power of Pranic Healing + Returning to Ireland @master_hector @discoverpranichealing
The beautiful healing space of Anam Kara Wellness @anamkarawellness
Perspectives and Experiences of Kindness from our writers and community
The Happy Pear spring inspiration @thehappypear
The science of the heart, empathy in action, positive parenting, astrology, yoga nidra & so much more.
This issue celebrates compassion, connection, and the quiet power of kindness in everyday life.
Pick up a copy at your nearest health store!
Scan the QR code to subscribe or head to positivelife.ie/subscribe and get every issue delivered to your door.
Building Biology
Bring divinity indoors and inside
by Laura Canavan-Hayes
Our Winter 2025 Issue has hit the shelves! With the theme of Divinity, each page is filled with love, positivity, and inspiration. Head to a health shop near you to pick up your copy, or have a copy delivered to your door each season at positivelife.ie/subscribe <3
My Nana used to have some great, wise phrases, as Grandparents and elders often do. One of my favourites was ‘It never ceases to amaze me…’. When it comes to nature, it never ceases to amaze me how incredible Mother Earth and Father Sun are. Divinity is in everything on this beautiful planet, the wider universe and in every atom of infinite existence.
It strikes me that as the world has gone down a capitalistic, patriarchal route, we have become disconnected from divinity, which lies in every cell of each of us, our true source.
As Building Biologists, holistic scientists of homes, our purpose is to bring nature indoors in order to create a sanctuary of health, rest, and true vitality. We have 25 beautiful principles and over the next 25 weeks, we’ll be digging into these in a bit more detail in our fortnightly newsletter (scan the QR code below to get a free 33-page e-book).
Let’s delve into some of these 25 principles and how we implement them.
Principle #3 for is about placing our dwellings in well-planned communities that provide ample access to fresh air, sunshine and nature. Staying connected to nature when we are indoors, and designing our homes and buildings with this in mind from the beginning, ensures that we are bringing the bountiful healing powers of nature into our living spaces.
Principle #5 is about providing an abundance of well-balanced natural light and illumination while using colour in accordance with nature. I always associate light with the divine. For colours that are found in nature, we love using a Auro natural paint, a clay and lime-based paint, so natural as to be compostable.
Auro only uses natural earth pigments. My favourites are:
• The deep blue ultramarine pigment
• The dark green forest one
• Sunshine yellows
• Any of the gorgeous earthy ones
Why would we use anything other than a natural paint, when your standard industrial one contains a host of VOC’s (Volatile Organic Compounds), acrylics and a host of chemicals to prevent stains and accelerate drying?
Minimising harmful chemicals means that we breathe in beautiful, clean air. Please feel free to use BioWeaver10 to get 10% off the Auro range at Ecological Building Systems.
When I look at the darker reds and pinks in nature, they remind me of the rootedness of my menstrual cycle, tracking our cycle and connecting deeply with the spiritual essence of our bodies.
The BioWeaver Method integrates Building Biology with root cause, or functional medicine, health. Menstrual Cycle Awareness has enriched my life with a new found divinity. I wish, as the middle of five daughters, that I had been introduced to this work before my menarche, my first bleed. My hope is that, as communities, we integrate and honour the menstrual cycle.
This month we did a Menstrual Cycle Series where we shared a story for every day of my menstrual cycle to empower, educate and share the power of this work. Join us there if you want to be part of the conversation!
Until the next time and with love always, Laura x
Laura is the creator of The BioWeaver Method at thebioweavermethod.com – a Building Biologist at Dormiente Ireland, Functional Medicine Health and Wellness coach and yoga teacher
Positively Newsworthy: The Little Things
Our Winter 2025 Issue has hit the shelves! With the theme of Divinity, each page is filled with love, positivity, and inspiration. Head to a health shop near you to pick up your copy, or have a copy delivered to your door each season at positivelife.ie/subscribe <3
Helping hands
The beauty of friendship
by Aisling Cronin
Friendship is a saviour. On so many occasions recently, a hug from a friend has warmed my spirits; a deep belly laugh has dispelled stress; a kind word has helped me to breathe through sorrow and arrive at a more grounded and peaceful place.
I consider myself grateful to count so many people as friends. In my mid-thirties, I have gotten to know all of the friends I currently have during various stages of my life; and the memories I associate with each of my friends are unique in their own way, but special to me beyond words.
The theme of this issue is ‘divinity’ and to me, that divinity is reflected in the faces of those who are dear to my heart. It is said that friends are the family we choose, and I am humbled that so many beautiful, compassionate, courageous souls have chosen me in that sense: sharing their hopes and sorrows, allowing me to see them both when they at their brightest and when they feel vulnerable – or perhaps even lost. We share our human journeys together, in all of its trials and tribulations, bound by a kinship of spirit and like minds.
I am thankful to be in a position whereby I can make time for the friends who have been there for me through good times and bad, and show them what they mean to me. These people make my celebrations all the sweeter and take the sting out of my challenges – long may it be so.
Celtic Wheel of the Year
Soul Guidance through the Seasons
By Alison McEvoy
At each change in season, we are faced with more possibility than we can imagine. The choice is ours, to resist or embrace – as with everything in life.
When I was younger, I lived for summer. My default was to embrace the ‘light’, to stay active, to be productive, to be able to keep going, energized and getting things done. I braced myself through winter, pushing through as if the sun and my own energy levels were still at their height.
Eventually, the imbalance caught up with me and I was gifted, at a time when I needed it most, the knowledge of the ‘Celtic Wheel of the Year’, via the wonderful Mari Kennedy.
The understanding that each season had its own intelligence and inner necessity, allowed me to embrace the natural, changing inclinations and needs of my own body, mind and spirit during the seasonal transitions.
These days, as the dark descends earlier, I dust off my winter rituals and set them in motion with gratitude and understanding of their power and necessity. It’s in rest that we restore our energy. It’s in going into the ‘dark’ side of our being that we spread more light within. It’s in slowing down that we gain clarity on where our “fiery arrows” of action will best serve us.
Winter rituals can be anything you wish or want them to be. Rest in any way that calls to you. ‘Go into the dark’ the way you enjoy it most. Slow down in any way the brings you joy. The choice is all yours and your body, your ideas, will light the way. Some of my favourite ways to rest are a foot bath with oils, dried flowers, Epsom salts of all kinds… Going into the dark for me is more enjoyable when guided by a soothing, compassionate voice – a guided meditation. Slowing down is making with a pestle a mortar my own chai, then drinking it in sips while gazing out the window or at a candle flame. The sky is the limit, and your wise Self knows best.
Connecting in our differences
We all know what love is… right?
by Sandy C. Newbigging
Relationships can be such a tricky terrain to navigate because there are not even two people on Earth who are exactly the same and would agree on absolutely everything.
With different upbringings, cultures, languages, beliefs, values, perceptions, opinions, preferences and even Gods – we may live in the same house, city, country or world, but we are experiencing as many worlds as there are people.
One reason we are all unique is because we all have a unique collection of subconscious internal filters that are ‘editing reality’ to create our own unique ‘internal version’ of life. As a result, ‘assuming sameness’ and being unaware of everyone’s uniqueness is a hidden cause of countless relationship conflicts.
Failing to recognise this reality – that we are all unique – usually leads to disappointment, disagreement and distance between us. We assume we are the same and run into issues when we are inevitably not. Or worse, we believe that others should think, feel, believe, behave and ultimately be the same as us. But what if we aren’t meant to all be the same?
When hosting workshops, I’ve asked rooms of a hundred people to write a list of the first ten things that come to mind when they consider ‘what love is for them’. I’ve then picked someone at random to share their list with the group. On average, only two or three people in the entire room ever end up with a maximum of two or three same things on their list.
But we all know what ‘love’ is, right? Not exactly! We all have a unique ‘love list’ – what love is to us. So, if you are in a relationship, it can be both enlightening and beneficial to learn their list, and then aim to show love to in the ways that each of you uniquely experience ‘being loved’.
To relate better and connect more, you want to: 1) always remember we are all unique, 2) remain eternally curious to ensure you are genuinely seeing, hearing and understanding the other person properly, and 3) not just accept our unavoidable differences but embrace and celebrate them.
Through my therapy work I regularly witness the transformative power of someone feeling truly seen, heard, understood and accepted. It is deeply healing and more impactful than any advice I could give them or technique we could use on their problem.
One of my favourite quotes about this is by S. Kelley Harrell, who said: ‘We don’t heal in isolation, but in community’. In other words, connection is key and it comes from feeling that our unique self is fully seen, heard, understood, valid, accepted and entirely loveable.
To practise this vital skill in your relationships, get curious, ask questions, and check that you’ve seen, heard and understood the other person’s unique perspective and experience. “What I’ve heard you say is X, is that right?” You’ll be amazed by the response you get when others recognise your sincere desire to see, hear, and understand them. They light up, open up, share their truth, and perhaps most beautifully, they let you into their world.
Instead of the usual misunderstandings, disagreements and disconnections brought about by mind-reading, making assumptions, viewing differences as a bad thing, and expecting everyone to be like you, we connect at a deeper, more intimate level. Trust is born out of feeling safe, seen and accepted.
Visit sandynewbigging.com for Sandy’s one-to-one sessions, online courses and community
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