I Got Caught In A Horrible Trap Of Feeling Unfulfilled Until I Gave Them Up!

I received an email last week from a listener who had listened to a show of ours where I mentioned that I had given up my magazine subscriptions, as I was finding them a waste of both time and money. She wrote in to tell me that she was inspired to give up hers up as well, so much so that she had recently donated a stack to a local retirement home. She in return inspired me to write this article.

Let me share with you the situation exactly, so you may further appreciate what giving up this seemingly simple pleasure meant at the time.

To say I was a magazine JUNKIE would be putting it lightly.

I was not only subscribed to a slew of house and home magazines that showed up in my mailbox monthly (fashion and gossip mags never have interested me which is funny), but I would buy up any and every publication that I saw on the shelves at grocery and book stores that looked intriguing to me as well.

This added up to stacks every at the end of every month, some of which I had never even made it around to flipping through. Living in a rather tiny apartment with a husband and dog, there is very little extra space and things started to look cluttered.

Looking back now, I can say that consuming magazines became an obsession.

Not so much an obsession with buying all of the items that I fell in love with that jumped off the slick pages at me, because I was and still am on a very limited budget.

It was more about dreaming of a life I wanted to have. These glorious pages were representations of a life that I was striving for, in all of it’s perfect linen napkin folded and completely beautifully organized sock drawer glory.

I can’t tell you how much of my time I focused on throwing the next ‘perfect’ July 4th patio BBQ, girls’ night out dinner garden party, or Harvest Thanksgiving extravaganza. You’d have thought I would have a giant home for the way I entertained, not a cozy but beautiful two bedroom place.

One crazy Thanksgiving in particular I managed to smash 26 friends AND rental furniture into our small living room by moving our regular furniture around and out of sight. Once guests were seated, there was literally no standing room, so much so that getting out of the table mazes to use the restroom became a big ordeal.

All of this craziness because I saw it in magazines. The bigger the better! The prettier and more extravagant parties you can throw the more it will make you feel like you live in a Sunset magazine feature! In reality, I was actually trying to soothe the ache in myself for something more.

As long as I had the next party, fete or soiree to plan, it kept my mind busy on simple things. Believing I would become more fulfilled with each event, I ate up all new ideas and inspirations both in magazines and online, determined to make each gathering better than the one before…so I felt like I was living a full and glamorous life of no worries and simple pleasures.

When I began co-hosting EHR alongside my husband Justin, things slowly began to shift. Adding to this change was also my change in health, which was and had been on a slow decline for almost a decade.

The ideas and things I valued began to shift as I delved into a much more fulfilling world of self improvement and a journey to recover my health.

Listening to actual LIFE changing information from the experts and teachers we had on our show made me stop in my tracks, realizing for what seemed like the first time in my life, that I needed to start focusing more on REAL life that was before me and stop the fairy tale that I had been going along with in my mind for so long.

The more my desire grew to feel good again and learn how to connect with my spirituality even more, the older pleasures began to fall away.

I realized how much time and money I was spending on what now looking back, seems to be very fluffy distractions. The more I reconnected with my true soul and my deeper purpose in this life, the more these things didn’t matter to me.

I became okay with letting them go and replaced them with a few, more meaningful magazines that actually encourage and promote change and inspiration to me personally on much deeper levels. Don’t get me wrong, I still love to pick up the occasional home mag to take on vacation but in general, I put my money in places that I get more out of, and I desire to see these publications make it!

These are the few I have found that are my new replacement favorites in case you are wondering:

• Health and Spirituality
• Mindful
• Well Being Journal
• Nourish
• Thoughtfully
• Bella Grace
  (my latest fix- with me being a gal who desires INSPIRATION! This beauty inspires the pants off of me with the gorgeously crafted writings and photos of fellow life travelers living true life!)

I am finding such great value in the above and I hope you might be inspired to possibly make some changes as well!!!!

I am very content with my 2-3 mags a month now, as they pack such a punch, and leave me pondering for days and months over many of the articles, as well as inform me further about many health and wellness protocols! Hooray for world changers!!!!

It’s safe and honest to say I feel like I no longer feel unfulfilled or like I don’t live up to glossy, staged photos of people’s somewhat ‘fake’ lives, and am finding true change continually happening from within. One of the best choices I have ever made.

Feel Good Moment of The Day:

Having a good belly laugh with a stranger on the phone. When I called up a craft store to see if they had an item for a project I am working on, the sales lady thought I asked if they carried “wet feathers” when I had asked about “white feathers”. She said she thought that request was crazy and bizarre until I clarified…gotta love cell phones!