Martinsen - A Year of Inspired Living: Essays and Guided Journaling for Self-Reflection

A Year of

Inspired
Living

Essays a n d E xercises
for Self-Re f le c t ion

Kelly McGrath Martinsen

Health Communications, Inc.

Deerfield Beach, Florida

Contents

And suddenly you just know
its time to start something new and
trust the magic of beginnings.

Meister Eckhart

I need your help. I cant seem to finish this book. You see, while I was writing A Year of Inspired Living it seemed that every time I would come to the end of a chapter I would think, No, something is missing, but I just didnt know what it was. Suddenly it hit me. Perhaps I am not meant to finish this book. Maybestay with me a minuteI cant finish this book. This is not because I am lazy, have writers block, or because I am amazing at the art of procrastination. Nope (although all of that is true) that is not it. I think I am not able to finish this book because I am not meant to. YOU are! This is not just a book, it is a very specific personal, yearlong exercise created to help you live your most inspired year. Truth is, I cant write a book that tells you how to publish your life.

First, let me explain. I publish a health magazine. The mission of the magazine is to encourage people to feel good, live simply, laugh more. Thats it. Each month my job consists of picking the right articles, the right pictures, and the cover so that the entire magazine reflects that mission. I am the publisher. I love words, so I am often going to a dictionary to determine the meanings behind them. The definition of publisher was sort of vague, until that is, I found this one:

142575; late Middle English: one who proclaims publicly.

It is that simple. I put the magazine together and allow it to proclaim publicly, through articles, images, and a great cover, the idea of feeling good, living simply, and laughing more. When I publish a magazine I put it all together and I write notes all over the draft. When the magazine is near completion for the month, I look at it and I contemplate it. Is it ready to publish in accordance with the mission? If so, I do the final act of writing a letter to the readers. It is called the Letter from the Publisher (and it is always on the first page). The letter is based on inspiration I have gleaned from the monthly articles and images and is designed to offer the readers a way to read the magazine. It tells them what articles inspire me, what images challenge me, and it hopes that the readers are inspired to maybe alter just one area of their life in that month.

Arent you the publisher of your life? Our clothes, hair color and style; the words we choose; sports we play; diets we try; the Botox that we get or dont get (admit or dont admit)it is all part of our personal publishing. These choices are our way of proclaiming publicly who we are. You are the publisher of your life! So wouldnt it be nice this year to solidify, via a guided writing format, your own Letter from the Publisher?

At the end of each week there is an area for journaling and self-reflection, but I wanted even more participation from you. I wanted this book to be self-inspiring, so I left the last week open for you, the reader, to write your own Letter from the Publisher. As the publisher it is you who ultimately decides what anger you hold, what relationships you nurture, what risks you take, what wine you drink, what food you eat, what friends you keep, what God you worship, and how your life should look and feel. Share these letters, or keep them private, but engage and map out your life month by month with amazing intentions the same way a publisher maps out her magazine.

Simply put, this is a letter written to yourself that helps you to locate the things you may be searching for. It can bring to you a hearty sense of self-realization, and reveal the attributes within you that you didnt even know you possessed. This letter outlines and reminds you how you want to represent yourself, both internally and externally.

Ive learned this is a powerful process. Ive discovered so much about myself writing my monthly publisher letters. I discovered things I love (my wrinkles... could you imagine?); things I hated (muffin top... seriously, find me the person who is evolved enough to embrace that ); things I was fearful about doing (surfing, parenting); and things I wanted more of (love, God, purpose).

I hope that writing these letters and journaling your reflections brings you the same joy and profound self-discovery that it brought me. If not, well then I hope you laugh at some of my silliness, cry at some of my sadness, and ultimately feel that you had a nice time sharing a confidence with a good friend.

At the end of each monthly letter that I write for the magazine, I always sign off with Malama Pono , which means take care of you in Hawaiian. That is the goal of every letter I write. That we all always take care of ourselves: mind, body, and spirit. That we feel good, live simply, and laugh more. So embark on this journey and this year, more than ever before...

Malama Pono,

Publishing is the dissemination
of literature, music, or information
the activity of making information available
to the general public.

A little more about the publisher letter, and a little bit about the layout process of the magazine, and the layout process of your life. I published my first letter in October 2012. This was months after I had been laid off from my job of thirteen years as a manager for a pharmaceutical company and just four weeks after I took my savings and purchased a declining health magazine and began a new career as a business owner and publisher. This career change was certainly not something advised by my accountant, my parents, or my friends, who lovingly offered these cautionary words: The financials dont look good; What do you know about publishing a magazine?; and The timing really isnt right. They werent entirely wrong. To compound the risk, this transition was also around the time my husband was recovering from bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), which had meant months of chemo plus radiation, followed by a liver transplant, and then many years of multiple surgeries to correct initial surgical errors. It was also just six years after my son had recovered from Landau-Kleffner syndrome, a rare epileptic disorder. To say the years prior to my involuntary career change (a polite way of saying I was canned) had been busy would be an understatement. To say those years reshaped my entire view on life, well that would be dead on!

The very first letter I wrote that bright September day was one that talked about risk-taking. I could speak about this from experience. I was walking away from a career that Id started in my early twenties, one that I had been good at and had quickly become tied to my identity. I climbed that corporate ladder with a promotion every three years and was on a fast track to becoming an executive. Yet once I was let go, I made the decision that I could live without the big salary, without the company car (that kinda hurt), without the sales trips, and even without the accolades and promotions that pharmaceutical companies are famous for handing out. What I could not live withoutor so I thoughtwas being busy. I dont think Id even considered slowing down because I couldnt . I couldnt breathe and be present because I was working on my laptop while drinking old coffee in hospital waiting rooms. If I wasnt there, I was making quick calls home from airports to see how everyone was doing. I didnt know it yet, but when I was downsizedeven after all the years of blood, sweat, and sacrificethe jackass who lowered the boom was really providing me a get out of jail free pass.