3 Unexpected Lessons of Self-Love When You Write a Book!
Today is the New Year New Moon and the official launch date of my first book Life in Full Colors: Uncover your Childlike Curiosity and Uncover and Activate the Creative Intelligence you are available on Amazon.
As I woke and reflected on my book writing journey over these past many, many moons I realized that while bringing the idea of a book into form is amazing,
it's the journey and all the lessons along the way that have brought me to a deeper love for who I am.
The first unexpected lesson of self-love centred around finding and trusting my own voice. This is a natural outcome of writing for anyone, of course. Yet, outside of the pages of my book I discovered myself on an unexpected journey towards finding my voice.
When the first team I hired to help me on my book journey made it clear through their mode of operating that I had ignored my intuition which - from the beginning - was waving myriad red-flags at me, I had to love and forgive myself and adjust.
Keeping myself away from the source of unhealthy energy and speaking up revealed that my intuition was indeed lovingly guiding me through deeper lessons in this challenging situation. Lessons around trusting myself and using my voice to speak my truth - regardless of the outbursts and reactivity that came in response. This mis-match lead me right out of an outmoded pattern of ignoring key signals of 'Not a match!' so that I could take responsibility, grow my grit and get crystal clear on the specific qualities I needed in my book publishing team.
The whole situation became another opportunity for a 'real life run through' of the 7 steps which I teach in the book to leverage heavy situations into light, wisdom and new potentials.
This is how it goes, we teach what we need to learn most. So, if you're somebody thinking of writing a book to teach, share or express yourself in any form of writing - fiction, non-fiction, children's book, short stories, poetry, even magazines - I can definitely recommend my skilled team at Presstinely! Women who handle everything exquisitely only after listening deeply to their author's vision and needs. Look them up, and you will see/feel/sense exactly what I mean - even from their website.
A second lesson of self love that surprised and changed me in my book writing journey was letting go of timelines and trusting that everything happens in the 'just right' timing. I lost track of how many deadlines came and went without the book going anywhere - or so it appeared on the surface. Things moved along in 'just right' timing. As each deadline rolled by, I had a strong inner knowing it was for the highest good of all, but I couldn't say why exactly. Looking back, I could see clearly from a wider perspective why things appeared to take more time.
During each of these missed timelines, there were some BIG events taking place in my personal life: an international move from Dubai to Brussels that took 4 months to complete due to COVID-19 regulations fluctuating, helping my parents sell their home of fifty years, decluttering half a century of 'stuff', and moving them into their new home of their dreams, plus all the daily life events in between.
To fall back into the arms of Life and let everything come and go while allowing for the timelines that Life designs is such a loving gift we can give ourselves each moment of each day.
Even today, the official day of my book launch, I had two Livestream events planned for Instagram and Facebook and 10 minutes before the first one began the wifi at the house completely stopped working. I watched it all shut down from a higher place, trusted the timing and took a quieter approach to the day in gratitude, enjoying a much needed nap and time with my family. Not unlike what happens when you 'birth' a child, a new book launching into the world takes a whole lot of energy. So, a nap and quiet day seemed just right to me on launch day. We can choose to respond rather than react to such 'interesting timings'.
Finally, the third and most surprising lesson is the HUGE wave of self-love that flowed in upon my dream of writing my first book being realized. See, big dreams can, at times, seem nearly impossible. Yet, when backed by the Creator, they are never realized alone. As Joseph Campbell said, there are helpers who appear along the way. These realized dreams of ours reflect back to us our amazing human capacity to co create and manifest with Universal Forces. Ultimately, such moments fill us with the knowing that anything is possible and we are never left stranded to birth our dreams on our own.
What a gift to know this, not only with the head, but with all my being. Each time Life opens me to experience this through another dream coming through into reality I receive waves of love which rise up to move in and through me.
This powerful love is to be shared. It's why we are here. We didn't come just for all the doing and the busy stuff. We all share in our deep knowing that the foundation of it all is love.
So, dear Creative One, if you tucked in because you think "I just might write a book one day" you now know, while your book will be a gift to us ALL to have your beautiful unique expression in print,
it is also a surprisingly beautiful act of self-love.
