full of self-esteem but lacking unapologetic self-care, we drive ourselves harder than ever before, striving to live up to the manufactured images that create our unrealistic expectations, which in turn feed our feelings of never being, doing, or having enough. Lacking a strong sense of self-compassion, we never measure up and instead are extremely hard on ourselves, emotionally bludgeoning ourselves daily. Lacking unwavering self-respect, we ignore the state of our relationships and let our external self-confidence mask the deeper insecurities we can’t even admit to ourselves. Lacking self-worth, we never feel like we are enough no matter how much we do or achieve.
We are a generation of women and girls starving for self-love, without the tools to find it and without the permission to keep it … until now.
What Is Madly in Love with ME?
Madly in Love with ME is more than just a book; it is an international social-change movement, a call and an invitation to every woman alive today — including you — to take a stand for every child and woman in this world, including ourselves, and to say, “Enough with the selfcriticism, self-hate, self-abuse, and self-neglect. Enough with the unrealistic measures of what a happy and successful woman looks like. Enough with being treated by anyone with anything less than respect and unconditional love.” It is a giant permission slip for every single one of us to fall madly in love with ourselves. And yes, I mean madly, as in expressing the love you have for yourself without shame, apology, or holding back.
And while this particular book is written by a woman to women and girls, addressing much of the social conditioning that has taken us away from our natural tendency to love ourselves well, men and boys are also invited to participate. As it turns out, every person on this planet can use what self-love has to offer. Love is a human need.
Madly in Love with ME is a challenge to take a stand in your own life to be and act as your own best friend, no matter what. To show up for yourself, to put your self-care first, to remind yourself how fabulous you are, often, and to always be on your own side.
Madly in Love with ME is a huge promise to yourself to always remember what the little girl inside you needs — laughter, joy, play, hugs, unconditional acceptance, and compassion — and to give it to her. At the same time, it’s a promise to go for her big-girl dreams and desires, even when they don’t make sense to anyone else.
When you say yes to Madly in Love with ME, you say yes! to freely and fully expressing yourself. You also say yes! to treating yourself with love and respect and requiring that you get this same respect and unconditional love from every relationship in your life, without exception. You say yes! to being, loving, and living you!
Consider this book your own personal, fantastical, magical handbook of self-love, just like one of those storybooks you’d open with giddy delight when you were a little girl. Remember how you would open the cover, and, in an instant, it was as if you had been transported into a different world, where outside time just seemed to stop? Where you became friends with the characters, and together you traipsed through magnificent new lands, expanded possibilities, and previously unimaginable creations of happiness and splendor? Oh, my! The only difference between this book and those magical storybooks is that this story is all about you. You are the main character. You are the storyline for Madly in Love with ME.
When you open this book and enter these pages, together we will imagine and create new magical, fantastical realities for you, guaranteed to fill your life with extraordinary amounts of happiness, love, and freedom. This is your life — you get to decide what it is filled with. It all starts with you. Choose to fill yourself up with love, and you’ll create more love in your life. Choose to fill yourself up with care, and you’ll be better taken care of. Choose to fill yourself up with compassion, and you’ll receive more understanding and kindness from others. See, it’s magic! You choose self-love, and more of what you want and need comes to you.
Let the magic of love — directed toward you! — begin.…
The Madly in Love with ME Manifesta
We believe that every woman has the right to fall madly in love with herself. To be so in love with who she is, to so deeply honor her body, mind, and spirit, that every choice she makes reflects that same deep honoring. We believe not only that she is entitled to love herself but also that she is empowered to love herself simply because she is.
In this world, where a woman knows how to fall madly in love with herself, there is no need for her to fit into someone else’s image of what a beautiful, intelligent, and successful woman is. She need only be the woman she truly is inside her soul. She is free to be, fully.
In this new world, where a woman is encouraged to fall madly in love with herself, there are no apologies for who she is (or is not). There is full acceptance and celebration of who she is, right now, in this moment. She is free to love, fully.
In this world, where a woman lives a life where she falls more madly in love with herself every day, there is no living for tomorrow or sacrificing and settling for less today. There is only the creation of the world that her heart and spirit desire at the very core of her essence. She is free to live, fully.
As “Madly in Love with ME” women, we believe
1. every woman desires and deserves to be loved, deeply, for exactly who she is today;
2. every woman desires and deserves to be free to fully express herself, without apology;
3. self-esteem is not enough on its own — lasting happiness requires self-love; )
4. the love, freedom, peace, and happiness every woman seeks always starts inside herself; )
5. finding that love, freedom, peace, and happiness within ourselves is a journey that deepens over a lifetime; falling in love with ourselves is something we do forever, and we feel it more and more strongly as time goes on; and
6. all women deserve to love themselves, to have fun doing it, and to have the company of other women along the way.
For a guided trip through this fantastical world of love and self-love, go to www.MadlyinLovewithME.com and view the three-minute video Imagine a World of Love. This video will guide you on an adventure in imagining a world in which you love yourself unconditionally. After you finish watching the movie, close your eyes, wrap your arms around yourself in a loving embrace, and feel that you are already a beautiful, powerful, and free woman, just because you are you. And get ready, because there is a whole lot more of this magical feeling of love directed at you in the chapters ahead!
Recently, I was asked to speak at a college conference of sorority girls — the leaders of our future world and the mothers of our future children. From my place up on stage, I could see all of their young, hopeful faces waiting for me to share my secrets on how to be a successful woman in today’s world. There was no doubt that these girls were excited to be at this conference, to learn, to continue to excel and work toward their goals. So when I asked for each to turn to her neighbor and say, “I would really like to have tremendous self-esteem!” it was no surprise that every young woman in that room excitedly turned and pronounced her commitment to believing in herself. When I asked these young women to raise their hands to indicate if their proclamations of self-esteem felt good, every hand in the audience went up as if to say, “Of course, I want self-esteem; self-esteem is good.” This was a great sign! The message that holding yourself in high regard is something to cultivate had seeped into their consciousness