Favourite Things | Flow Magazine
Since the end of last year I've been really interested in mindfulness. Making my mental health a priority has been essential to my personal growth. I use an app called Smiling Mind to meditate before bed, I see a counsellor once a month, I've been able to make small changes to my patterns of thinking and I know small positive actions that can help when I am feeling anxious or depressed. I'm still working at it of course. Finding Flow Magazine has been lovely and fortuitous because of the focus that it places on mindfulness, interspersed with gorgeous illustrations and clever articles.
In the past I bought Frankie magazine as my go-to, but I'd tend to flick through it once or twice, nothing really standing out to me and then I'd shelve it with my other copies. I think that Frankie does still have a lot to offer but I think it's stopped feeling relevant to my life. Flow however gets me thinking and I often catch myself later in the day still pondering on something I read in it.
I've been buying English editions of Flow from my local bookstore (the original Flow magazine is Dutch) , but they take forever to come in and they're a little on the pricey side. My sweet NZ friend Pip sent me a copy out of the blue a few months ago which was a lovely surprise. I'd love to be able to afford a subscription.
Every issue has a sweet little papery inclusion (above) and lots of tear-out frameable images. Some of my favourite articles have been about making time for play, learning the right way to fight, accepting unhappiness, the glorification of 'busy', overriding negativity bias, enjoying the everyday, time prosperity, living in the now, making time to consciously and constructively evaluate your life and lots of great pieces about artists and makers.
I think it's really constructive, uplifting and inspiring little magazine, and for that reason I can justify spending a bit of money acquiring each issue. It's for my mental health!
