Stay Beautiful: Ugly Truth In Beauty Magazines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=74&v=zIIKTNPP5Ts

One of the creative Art Therapy Processes that I use in my counselling practice is collage, and I find it more and more difficult to find worthwhile recycled magazines that are appropriate for the task. House and garden magazines no longer seem to teach home grown sustainability without promoting a fashionable line of products designed by a celebratory gardener; we are lead to believe that without purchasing a particular knife or pan, only available on-line, it will be impossible to create the latest and most fashionable steak a-la whatever with smashed potato; unless we change the colour scheme of our home on a yearly basis we are just not trying hard enough to create a "happy" home.

Does Gwenyth seems to have her leg on the wrong way???

Fashion and so called health magazines are often unhelpful, if not dangerous, for people who may already be searching for a positive way to fill a void that is causing angst in their lives. My clients may be struggling with the existential inevitability of their own mortality for example, so adds which promise anti-aging, living longer and eternal youth serums and plastic surgery may only superficially mask topics that need to be addressed and processed for the client to discover new, life affirming insights. It may be the case that, instead of finding answers to the questions that have been feeding their personal doubt and insecurities, the adds, headlines and comments may, in fact, add to and/or overwhelm an already vulnerable person. Am I a cynic in thinking that this phenomenon is intentional? I think not. First the magazine tells us what is missing, or where we are failing in our life, and then the magazine will offer us page after page of adds about where we might purchase the newer and better version of us according to popular culture. It is a sham. This is why I refuse to offer these magazine to my clients. They  promote and perpetuate a cycle of self criticism, and are designed to hold their audience in a suspended cycle of neediness, and they convince their audience that they have the answer. All we have to do is continue to hand over our money to them. I encourage you to break this cycle of self hatred.
Live your Bliss
Mairead