Lifestyle Bookazine – May 2023
English | 198 pages | pdf | 13.62 MB
Welcome at Lifestyle Bookazine May 2023 issue
Modern culture celebrates the bold, the brave and the beautiful. Our televisions show only the extraordinary, and our social media feeds are filled with people ‘living their best life’. With such a one-sided view of the world, it’s easy to feel a little bit lost. And more importantly, it’s perfectly normal. Sometimes we need to take a step back, and reassess our priorities, in order to reconnect with what we truly want in our lives.
If you’ve picked up this journal because you fear you’ve lost your direction in life, you’re not alone. Feeling as if you are standing at a crossroads, not knowing which way to turn, can be overwhelming. It causes us to lose sight of what really matters and distracts us from going after our goals. When I started on my journey towards a more focused existence, I certainly felt that way. I’m at a point in my life where I feel like
I need to be doing everything at once – advancing my career, building new relationships, getting fit, eating healthily, trying new things, going out, doing life admin… the list goes on. And somehow, amongst all of that, we’re supposed to find time for ourselves. Even for the most energetic person, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. Sometimes, these thoughts and external pressures could get the better of me, and I struggled to gain a handle on my life. If you’ve also found yourself in this position, the chances are we’ve dealt with it in similar
ways – either overcommitting to everything and spreading yourself far too thinly, or shutting down and losing motivation. In my case, there was rarely an in-between. But perhaps this ‘weakness’ has actually been a strength – it has given me the ability to understand how you might be feeling, and what could help you escape a rut. And the best way to restart your journey? Keeping a journal. Journalling allows us to reflect on what we’ve done, and recognise our achievements, while providing us with a space to work through our worries logically and without judgement. A couple of years ago, I started to take it seriously as a method of working through my worries and concerns about life.
It’s not a miracle worker, but it definitely helps. I’ve since found it easier to manage anxious thoughts, pull myself out of negative spirals, and make decisions that are truly in my best interests. After all, physically writing out your thoughts and feelings on paper makes it much easier to get to know yourself. We are sometimes our own harshest critics and reading over our own thoughts can help us to see that. On the flip side, journalling helps us to become our own therapists, supplying unwavering encouragement and kindness when we need it most – and it forces us to see sense, even when it seems there is none.
The process of making this journal has been therapeutic for me, in some ways. It’s challenged me to question what I really want out of life, and helped me form new goals to work towards. I’ve chosen a path on my crossroads, and I’m going to stick to it. My hope is that you will, too.
Editor – Alice Barnes-Brown
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