Can ‘happiness in a box’ help you through lockdown?

Almost a year since the first lockdown, and the pandemic continues to hold us in its stubborn grip. Schools remain closed until at least March; it’s half term but we can’t even take children to the playground; holidays – even in this country! – remain uncertain, and feeling uplifted is becoming a leaden struggle. 

On my personal rap sheet is the fact I can’t see our two older children – living, as they do, 200 miles away. That the calendar is blank. That leggings encrusted with this morning’s Weetabix are my default workwear. I’ve watched all the telly. I’ve eaten all the snacks. You hum it, I’ll play it.

Retail therapy remains a faithful friend to us all in this pandemic. What else do we have left to break up the monotony, other than “emotional spending” on frivolous purchases, and the dopamine hit of the doorbell? New data from Mintel shows 53 per cent of British adults are shopping online more than we were at the start of last year. And while lockdown one had us panic buying bikes, paint and desk chairs, these days – with consumers under no illusions about the long road ahead – subscription box services are soaring. 

Half of all UK online shoppers are now treating themselves to a monthly delivery service according to the Royal Mail – up from 34 per cent before the pandemic hit. Shoppers are subscribing to boxes ranging from brownies to books to beauty products, along with popular meal subscription services such as Hello Fresh. 

With things feeling especially bleak right now, “friendship packages” and “mindfulness hampers” are proving popular. Hundreds of people are subscribing to the monthly Positivity Package – a sugar pink box of goodies brimming with key rings, cookies and can-do slogans. 

So can you find happiness in a box? I sign up to try, and a few days later, my little package of sunshine arrives. On the day it’s delivered through my letterbox, I’m struggling to believe a carefully curated parcel of mood-lifting treats and inspirational quotes will be enough to keep lockdown despair at bay. Rather than summoning the Dunkirk spirit, a heart-shaped cookie with the words “consider this a hug in a biscuit” jauntily inscribed into lemon fondant is likely to put me in an even worse mood. The monthly subscription – £17.99, with a minimum sign-up of three months and the contents changing with each delivery – merrily taps into the overhyped cult of gratitude and trend for positive thinking.

Founder April Stevenson says the initiative is more than commercially opportunistic pandemic bandwagonism. “I actually came up with the idea back in December 2019,” explains April, who lives in Stockport and works in fashion as a product developer. “I’d been struggling with some personal issues which had left me feeling anxious and with a low mood. I had to take time off work because I felt so awful. I didn’t think tablets were the answer for me. But I needed something to make me feel upbeat and motivated. 

“At home I looked for things to distract me, such as reading, doing Sudoku, word searches and adult colouring books. Anything to help me through. It made me think ‘what if these things came with a positive message?’ ”

She came up with the idea of delivering a box of therapeutic treats, on a monthly basis, with different themed contents. 

Then the stars aligned. Just as April was about to launch The Positivity Package in late February last year, we teetered towards the first lockdown and the nation slumped into collective hopelessness. The response has, she says, been astonishing. 

As others watched in despair as businesses disappeared, April has watched hers go from strength to strength and she already has hundreds of subscribers as well as those who buy one-off packages for either themselves or friends who need a boost.

There is, admittedly, something positive about unwrapping the contents of the Positivity Package – who doesn’t like to get presents? In my box, I find a rather jolly desk calendar (sorry, “Note to Self Affirmation Desk stand” – with its monthly mood boosting message). The Little Book of Happiness, however, jammed with tea-towel slogans about how to savour the ordinary, is an acquired taste. 

Bleakness, you see, has calcified in my soul since the start of lockdown. But as I mooch further through the package I realise I need to chip the hard edges away if I’m going to benefit from this kind of service. I find a monthly affirmation sheet – on which I’m supposed to write down things that make me feel positive about myself – a practice which is, to be fair, proven to raise positive feelings and reduce stress. 

When I Blu Tack the sheet onto my study wall, it falls off. No – be positive. This is a question of more Blu Tack. Not less ambition.

And so my desk is now a happy hub of optimism. I’ve placed the yellow Aventurine crystal – claimed by some to ease anxiety and expand the flow of creativity – next to my computer. Over a coffee break I do the “positivity crossword”. Five across: begins with S, clue “turn that frown upside down”. Yep, we’re in a world where no one feels stupid or incompetent.

April is the first to admit her boxes aren’t a “magic wand” for negative feelings. “But on a day-to-day basis, there are things out there – small things – which can make us feel better,” she says. “And I want to bring that to people each month”.

She’s certainly hit on an in demand commodity. In fact, someone get a memo to the Downing Street doom-mongers. April could make a packet.