I Didn’t Know I Could Create a Magazine Until I Actually Did It!
By Vanessa Finnigan
As I reflect on the last fourteen years in what is often called a ‘cut-throat industry’, I know I have done things a little different. This is mostly due to choosing sustainability over martyrdom! When you are committed to growth, you don’t tend to gain superficial self-worth from over-giving, or see it as a ‘Mother Theresa Badge of Honour’. In the spiritual arenas, I used to hear the leaders say, “give until it hurts. It’s about being selfless.” And yet over-giving is not sustainable physically or psychologically and can even hamper yours and others’ conscious evolution.
When you actually come from an authentic place of giving and receiving, you are being more of service, as well as kind to yourself and others. Sustainability to me means being available to support others joyfully and stopping when your body starts to ache. It’s about learning to recognise those early signs of feeling resentful or obligated, and then ‘recharging your battery’.
Actually creating a business in the way I do, has felt like a balance of the masculine and feminine energies (yin and yang energies we all have within). To get things off the ground in those early years, I had to engage my inner yang energy while also being in a gentle, creative cocoon at times. And to keep things flowing with more and more ease and creativity also involves yin and yang energy. My desire to create Holistic Bliss, was not about wanting to make a quick buck (even though it has been financially and holistically successful). But the success hasn’t come from working 15-hour days and being everywhere and everything to everyone 24/7. It’s been more about creating in a way that is sustainable and from a place of curiosity!
The sense of wonder, led to joyful investigations and ways of expressing myself, which generated the energy to bring it all to fruition. And that joyful investigation and connecting with new people, new places, new modalities, kept things fresh so I actually desired to keep running a magazine long-term too!
Before Holistic Bliss was born, I was a pretty quiet person who tended to avoid being in the spotlight. I had been in the healing field my whole adult life and desired to be part of the collective change. I was not expecting the magazine to facilitate me in the ways it has, allowing me to step into more of who I really am and be ‘seen’ more than ever before. And without directly setting out to achieve it, I also became a facilitator of others in this area too.
Being seen doesn’t mean you have to do a selfie every day or dance and sing on Tik Tok to share your messages on social media! What if it was about showing up in ways that feel authentic to you?
It’s also not a competition in terms of, ‘let’s see who can stay in business the longest’. You can create and close down as many business projects as you like and still be living the dream (your dream). You’ve also got to be able to dream the dream, live the dream and be prepared to let it all go too if required. To me, that’s true freedom!
And in the process of becoming a pioneer of newness, the gifts of growth along the way make it a rich and deep experience. And that energetic translation of your unique frequency into the creation of a business comes about mostly from staying in your own lane, while feeling connected to others and tuning into the bigger picture unfolding in the world.
Through floods, bushfires, major grief and loss in my family, the GFC, global unrest, awakening and more….Holistic Bliss has kept serving the community in Australia and overseas and created itself as a healing modality in and of itself!
Thank-you to all who have and continue to contribute to it!!
Empowered Brave Women Building Futures 