Gaby Roslin: ‘Even in the worst of times, there is joy to be had’

There’s not enough joy in this world. And Gaby Roslin is on a mission to change that.

The chirpy TV and radio presenter is “very passionate” about spreading joy, using the word to describe behaviours and feelings like kindness, hope and happiness which make life worth living.

Feeling joyful comes naturally to Roslin, 61, who pretended to be the unfailingly optimistic children’s book character Pollyanna as a cheery child, and eventually went on to desperately seek joy in the darkest of times when both her parents were seriously ill with cancer.

“For me, trying to be joyful is pretty natural, even when I went through the crappiest time of my life with both parents with different forms of cancer in different hospitals,” she says.

Roslin’s mum, Jackie, died from lung cancer in 1997 aged 62, around the same time her dad, Clive, was battling bowel cancer.

“It was horrific, and you don’t wish it on anybody, but even then I’d be looking for the joy and tried to make my mum, who was dying, laugh and then coming to get my dad out of hospital,” she recalls, pointing out that her dad survived the cancer and is now 91.

“I do believe very strongly that even in the worst of times, there is joy to be had,” she declares. “You can lift your own heart. You can lift your spirit. There are little things you can do to help and that’s what it’s all about, the little tiny tasks.”

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Roslin, who rose to fame as a presenter on The Big Breakfast on Channel 4, and currently appears on BBC One’s Morning Live and on BBC Radio 2 and Magic Radio, is so keen to help make more people feel joyful that she wrote Spread The Joy, a colourful guide on how to live a happier life. The book is full of ways to find joy in everyday life, helped by tiny tasks like smiling at yourself in the mirror, wearing colourful items, jumping as high as you can, or dancing at home – or even at work with colleagues.

“The more we can do to spread kindness and hope and joy, the better, because goodness knows, we need it,” she says.

But Roslin, who also hosts That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful, is well aware people may plaster a smile on their face when they’re actually not feeling that way inside, and she stresses: “You have to be able to feel it to then pass it on to others, and I don’t mean fake joy. I don’t mean lying about it.

“This is for real. You’ve got to feel it, but it’s not a 24-hours-a-day thing – you can have moments of joy, and this teaches you ways to feel more joy, and then you can spread it.”

The mother-of-two says there are “big ways and smaller ways” to experience joy and spread it. “What people need is a tiny little moment of escape,” she explains.

“So what about taking a moment first thing in the morning to pop a smile on your face before you look at your phone or whatever. And if you put a smile on your face – there’s science behind this – your brain says ‘Ah, obviously good things are happening’. Smile back at yourself in the bathroom mirror, you’ll feel better.

“It’s all of these little things – like jumping.”

And at this point, Roslin asks me to stand up and jump, which I do, then do it again with my arms in the air, and then with a smile on my face (which is already there anyway).

“There we go!” she says happily. “It just lifts the spirit. It’s such a simple thing to do, and when I was going to a really important meeting this morning about a new show, I just did it outside the building – I jumped in the air. I do it all over the place.”

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There’s something endearingly childlike about Roslin and her boundless enthusiasm for everything – she loves work, she loves working out, she loves walking, she loves talking to people – and she agrees that at least part of the key to feeling joyful is letting go of your inhibitions and behaving like a child sometimes.

“We have to get hold of our inner child again,” she says. “I don’t know when it is, but we suddenly lose our imagination, and we don’t want to make a fool of ourselves. But stop worrying about what everybody else thinks, because they’re far more worried about themselves.”

And not worrying about what everyone else thinks means not worrying about what you look like when you work out – Roslin doesn’t, of course.

“I love working out – I just get on with it. I might not be the greatest – I know a bit of what I’m doing, I’ve been doing it for a long time – but I don’t really care.

“And this is a funny thing, I’ve never worn fancy-schmancy, posh workout gear – unsurprisingly, I wear very bright-coloured leggings with patterns all over them in neon colours, and old t-shirts. There’s nothing smart about me in the gym. I don’t care. it really doesn’t matter.”

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And that disdain for ‘fancy-schmancy’ clothing is what led Roslin to start her Shopping in Your Wardrobe movement on Instagram a few years ago. It began as an idea she shared on the social media platform when she became sick of the pressure to spend a fortune on clothing and realised that on closer inspection of her own wardrobe, she already owned perfectly wearable items that she’d forgotten about.

“I still get people stopping me in the street, and they go ‘Shopping in your wardrobe!’” she says with a chuckle.

“The only thing I say to people is, please try colour, because it lifts your spirits and lifts everybody’s around you. Go back into your wardrobe, see what you’ve got. Pattern clash, colour clash, do all those things, because none of us can afford to go and buy a new wardrobe every year. Wear what makes you feel good!”

And that’s the key – wearing and doing what makes you feel good, even if it only creates a fleeting feeling of joy.

“Just take five minutes to do something for yourself to feel joyful, whether it’s reading a book, or going for a walk, you have got time,” stresses Roslin. “Even when you’re lying in bed, think of something wonderful. Try and make a dream happen.

“I’m not saying if you smile first thing in the morning your day will be better and you’ll never feel bad again, and all the awful things you have to deal with will go away. That’s not the case at all.

“But right now, with the news being so bleak, if we can laugh, and spread a smile through simple things like saying hello and good morning, do that.”

She says one of the things she and her daughters Libbi-Jack and Amelie find joy in is singing musical theatre songs around the house. “I absolutely practice what I preach,” she says.

“Joy can be found in the simplest of things. I don’t know when the last time you jumped in a puddle was, but go outside and do it.”

Spread The Joy: Make Every Day Brighter by Gaby Roslin is published in paperback by HQ, HarperCollins, priced £9.99. Available now.