Today, me and rikin had the honour of interviewing one of our mentors, Vicky.

Vicky graciously accepted the offer of taking part in an interview where we could all create a safe space to ask her anything and for her to share honestly and authentically.

Vicky spent almost a decade working for the UK's leading youth and community charity, building relationships to increase trust and develop tolerance across diverse social groups across the country. Overwhelmed by the high level of emotional distress among young people, in the capital, she is committed to helping communities to value and explore their own happiness. Vicky created an organisation called the Museum of Happiness. This is a not for profit social enterprise that shares the science and art of sustainable happiness. Through training people to be happiness teachers and also working in schools and empowering the young people to create mini Museum of Happiness onsite at their school. The intention is to co-create a happier kinder and more peaceful world from inside out by equipping people with practical tools and techniques to live happier more fulfilling lives. Through creating the museum of happiness, Vicky has explored the science and art of happiness with thousands of people in London and across the country. Vicky encountered volenteering accidently, which later changed the course of her life.

During the call, we asked Vicky questions lovely based on her talk from the Happier World Conference in 2016, where she explains her journey through volunteering and happiness. In this talk, Vicky began by talking about her childhood. We asked Vicky to expand on this and on the emotions she felt at the time. She told us that a prominent emotion in her childhood was sadness, but also how she used this to her advantage to enable it to shape the person she is today.

Vicky used the analogy of a lotus and mud. The mud is the difficult things that you have experienced and the lotus being you that grows and blossoms overtime. Vicky encouraged us to me "make meaning from the mud". 

Vicky volunteerd in an orphanage in Cambodia and noticed that those less rich financially were perhaps more rich in other things (i.e. love, happiness and contentment). She also noticed the biggest sense of kindness and generosity from those who have the least. This highlighted how money doesn't equal happines. The orphanage taught Vicky that she wanted to work with young people and help them learn and grow and that's you can't change the past and to focus on the here and now.

Vicky and those at the Museum of Happiness explore the idea of working from the inside out to make the greatest change.This entailes working on yourself before being able to make a change to others and what's around you.

Vicky told us that she strongly believes that success doesn't equal happiness and it's in fact the other way round in that happiness equals success. She also encouraged us to be present and trust the process and your resilience.

When asking Vicky how she copes in times of stress, anxiety and resilience, Vicky told us she likes to meditate, spend time in the company of nature, taking time out for herself, being kind to herself and resting. A key question Vicky asks herself often is "what is the kindest thing I can do for myself right now".

Key things we noticed that Vicky said in her interview was her advice to "tune into what feels right in our hearts" and the point that "our hearts are our greatest compass". These are very notable points that we can all consider in our daily lives.

We are so honoured to have been able to interview Vicky and are really inspired from her insightful thoughts and advice.