A book of poetry that can help
Learning how to love yourself can be in the core of healing. Here, we review a book of poetry that aims to help you learn and practice techniques for self-love. So, if you’re looking for a book that can help you get to a place of recovery from eating disorders…you’re in the right place!
More here on how to use the book “Falling in Love With Yourself: Aligning With Your Natural State Of Being” by Debra Mittler in eating disorder recovery. It is a book of warm and compassionate language that facilitates healing. We wish you happy reading…but invite your feedback in the comments section! Please send us a message! Let us know what you think, or if you have any questions. As always, we try to respond to all real-life comments with a personal response.
What is self-love?
Self-love refers to the act of valuing your own happiness and well-being. In a sense, it is a kind of acceptance that can be described as an unconditional core of compassion for the self. Self-love might also be considered a willingness to:
- meet your personal needs
- encourage non-judgmental thinking about yourself
- view yourself as essentially worthy, good, and valuable
- believe that you are deserving of love and happiness
Self-love is an important component of self-esteem and overall well-being. Without loving yourself first, it would be generally difficult – if not impossible – to feel content. Moreover, researchers have discovered that the practice of self-love is associated with a multitude of benefits, such as greater life satisfaction, increased happiness, and greater resilience.
Loving yourself is important
Here is a strange thought: Loving yourself comes from believing and knowing that you deserve to be loved and to love.
In “Falling in Love with Yourself”, the author draws inspiration from a long battle with an eating disorder and self-hatred as a result. About her struggle and failed attempts at getting better, Debra Mittler says:
“Every time I took a step towards healing, something inside me would sabotage it and bring me right back to the anorexia. It was a powerful force that seemed impossible to stop. By doing my rituals of eating at certain times, certain foods in a certain way and exercising I kept myself busy so I didn’t have to deal with anything else in life. I was so frightened of change that it seemed safer for me to stay the way I was, even if I was going to die. Starving and exercise became my friends, my comfort and my safety.”
These feelings seem to be true for many kinds of medical and mental issues, including drug or alcohol addiction. It is not unlikely for people dealing with addiction, as well as people dealing with eating disorders to have very low self-esteem and to believe they are unworthy and undeserving of anything, especially love.
The more you focus on having no love or connection, the more you are alone… and food or drugs can easily become replacements for relationships.
How can “Falling in Love with Yourself” help you?
“Falling in Love With Yourself: Aligning With Your Natural State Of Being” by Debra Mittler is a book of warm and compassionate poetry. It is simple to read and easy to understand. If you are familiar with mantras, devotionals, or self-reinforcement you already know the style in which it’s written.
Here is what the journey to self-love via Debra’s book of poetry looks like:
1. Making a commitment.
The book begins with a poem that encourages you to make a commitment to start loving yourself TODAY and it does so in an sneaky-yet-effective way: You write a letter to yourself and you sign it at the bottom. Reading it, I immediately felt like it was not just a prommise that you think of and maybe never stick to. This is a promise made by you and signed at the bottom. How can you not commit to it?
2. Getting connected.
Several poems guide you towards calm and inner peace, where you can connect with the feeling of love. This is done through practicing several important aspects of love:
3. Practicing gratitude.
You are instructed to make a list of at least five (5) things that you are grateful for every morning, and you are even given examples of things that may inspire your gratitude.
“Feeling grateful is one of the keys,
Of truly living happy and free.
When you’re appreciating what you already have,
You feel more fulfilled on your earthly path.”
4. Starting on the path to self-acceptance.
The author encourages you to become aware of and accept ALL and EVERYTHING about yourself, bad and good. After all, even your flaws are what make you “you”.
“Are you really accepting you?
Everything that you think, say and do?
Or are you rejecting the things you don’t like,
And experiencing an internal fight.”
5. Loving your body.
In today’s day and age, many of us rush to take care of everything and everyone else, without really taking enough time to take care of ourselves, to eat right, to rest, to listen to our body’s needs. Specific poems asks you to make a list of the things you do that are harming your body.
“Have you ever taken the time to thank it [your body] for keeping you alive,
And doing it’s job on this earthly ride?
Most of us find fault with our bodies,
And blame it if we’re not looking like model hotties.”
The poems that follow help you explore:
- The conditioned self.
- The unconditioned self.
- What you truly desire.
- Ways to let go of disappointments.
- Ways to express yourself.
- Ways to identify and reinforce your core beliefs.
- Ways to change a behavior.
- Practicing self-forgiveness and self-compassion.
- Ways to listen to your inner wisdom.
Who is this book for?
“Falling in Love With Yourself” can help those who have a deep passion for spiritual growth and are already on the continuous journey in expanding in wisdom, creativity, knowledge, and love. If you see yourself as a lost soul and are looking for motivation and encouragement to follow your heartfelt dreams and desires, then this book can help you, too. The author encourages cultivation of nurturing and loving ways that you can be with yourself and others…and that goes for anyone in need of healthy image.
What are the benefits of loving yourself?
Well, there may be too many to count…but we will list just a few:
The 1st benefit of loving yourself: People with high levels of self-compassion have been shown to often be able to overcome difficult life events, with more ease than those who are harder on themselves.
The 2nd benefit of loving yourself: The ability to affirm yourself has been linked to improved problem-solving abilities and decreased procrastination, because it can help you recognize the effects of negative habits and behaviors.
The 3rd benefit of loving yourself: The risk of developing mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and perfectionism can also be decreased through the practice of self-love.
The 4th benefit of loving yourself: It can increase your optimism and may be helpful for stress reduction, especially in the face of various life challenges.
The 5th benefit of loving yourself: Self-love can lead to improved relationships. In fact, research has shown that practicing self-love and self-compassion is likely to improve well-being in the context of interpersonal relationships. People who have self-compassion and practice self-love generally report feeling happier and more authentic in their relationships, and thus, they may be better able to assert their needs and opinions.
Got any questions?
Self-love is considered to be an ongoing act, rather than a constant state. For many people, it takes effort, attention, and mindful attempts to practice self-compassion and affirm and accept oneself. We hope that “Falling in Love With Yourself: Aligning With Your Natural State Of Being” by Debra Mittler can help you find the motivation to work on your relationship with yourself.
If you have any further questions, we invite you to post them in the comments section at the bottom of the page. We value your feedback and try to answer all legitimate inquiries in a personal and prompt manner.
—–
About the Author: Debra Mittler is a graduate of the Master’s Program in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica and was an A student of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute. Debra was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at age 13 and spent a quarter of a century going in-and-out of hospitals and treatment programs. She know first-hand what it’s like to live with the degradation of an eating disorder and self-hatred. Now, she draws from her own experience and aims to help clients overcome obstacles by offering encouragement, effective tools, and valuable insights in order to reach inner wisdom. Her goal is to help people reach a place of experiencing genuine love, value and self-appreciation.
Copyright © 2011
This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only.
The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital Fingerprint:
f7a6e0cc3471137b83805a08cd727b99)
from
http://addictionblog.org/treatment/book-reviews/eating-disorder-recovery-book-how-to-love-yourself-book-review/
No comments:
Post a Comment