Self-Love Workbook for Women — Book Summary

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Introduction

The book, Self-Love Workbook for Women by Megan Logan (who is an expert in women's issues and therapy), is a self-help book that seeks to empower women and teach them in a practical manner to focus on gaining healthy emotions and making positive changes through being kind to yourself (or self-compassion), removing self-doubt, and embracing who you are. In a nutshell, Megan, through the book, wants to help women build better relationships with themselves and be their own friends. When this happens, women develop the confidence they need to live life to the utmost fullest and take on the world.

Interesting quotes from the book

Summary of the book Self-Love Workbook for Women

The book is broken into two parts. Part 1 focuses on making women gain an understanding of self-love while recognizing why it's so important to make it a priority. Part 2 is more practical in nature as it breaks down the concept of self-love into separate components, such as releasing self-doubt, practicing self-compassion, building self-worth, and creating healthier relationships.

The first chapter begins with self-love and all that it entails. Self-love means prioritizing yourself and giving yourself permission to find and believe in your strengths and gifts. It means being kind to yourself and putting yourself first sometimes. Self-love is not perfect. It is not always being happy. You can't measure self-love based on external achievements or success. Self-love is also not self-criticism or shaming oneself, all because one wants to be 'better.' Self-love is more than that.

Because many people, especially women, find it hard to understand exactly what self-love is, they find it hard to practice self-love. Women find it hard to put themselves first sometimes due to the nurturing role society thrusts on them, so they may feel that putting themselves first is selfish. It may be due to shame or a dysfunctional childhood.

It is easy to notice sometimes when a woman does not practice self-love. Eating disorders and destructive self-comparison to people on social media. may result from hating one's body (a symptom of lack of self-love). It may also be manifested through perfectionism.

The book then teaches women how to begin the self-love journey, with many exercises designed to make the reader participate. It also lets readers know that self-love doesn't just happen overnight. There may be challenges that may come up along the way.

The next chapter goes into the intricacies of self-love. It is best as a daily practice, and it is not just indulgent pampering, but being vulnerable, honest, putting yourself first, and making time for yourself. Meditation, visualization, yoga, breathing, and so on are great ways to practice daily self-love.

Part 2 begins immediately after, and it dices straight into the practicals. It first requires readers to set goals concerning what they want out of the book. It then gives a quiz that readers must complete in order to evaluate what areas of their life they feel good about and what areas they need more self-love in. The quiz contains targeted questions and a rating system from 0-5, having such posers like "I believe my feelings are valid" and "my needs are just as important as those of others".

The author then provides songs for a 'Power to Women' playlist, to inspire readers in their self-love journey.

The books then lay out affirmations for self-love. Affirmations, especially when they are simple, believable, and relatable, are usually an excellent tool for women to begin training their minds to think positive thoughts about themselves. Hence, the affirmations in this book are a great way to begin thinking good things about yourself, which is an important aspect of self-love.

The exercises for not slow down, as the book then requires and guides readers through actions such as thinking about when they feel unworthy, writing a message for the younger self, writing down their own internalized criticisms against themselves, a space to write down positive messages that others have given you at any point and so on.

The chapter does a great job of getting readers to participate in the process, so instead of just telling them "do this or do that to practice self-love", it makes them put it into practice.

The next chapter is still very practical in nature, but it focuses on teaching women self-compassion and getting them to forgive and be kind to themselves. It begins with an exercise that tells readers to write what they would say to a friend who has some personal problems. Then it goes into many other exercises, some of which include compassion comebacks (positive messages to counter negative internalizations), a meditation exercise, having readers circle the universal human struggles they constantly deal with, mantras for self-compassion, and so on.

It also crucially differentiates between self-esteem and self-compassion.

The next chapter goes on to exercise about self-doubt. Its practicals range from exercises such as "What If" busters, which make readers write down positive counters to negative thoughts about their abilities. It teaches the readers about the correlation between self-doubt and body language, as well as walking readers through breathing exercises that improve confidence. It teaches that the basic step to defeating self-doubt is mindfulness. Paying attention when negative thoughts come in lets you be better prepared to handle them.

The next chapter then deals with self-worth and building it up. It has exercises designed to test and help the reader build up her self-worth. One way to promote self-worth thinking is to limit overthinking and worrying, and the book advises that a way to do this is to simply be one with nature. Observe the beauty of nature and its intricacies, and relaxing into it helps get rid of overthinking.

A way to love yourself is to teach others to love you, and healing your relationships with others promotes self-love and others.

Key Lessons from the Book

Lesson 1: Don't wait for others to love you, love yourself.

Loving yourself is one of the biggest gifts you can give to yourself. Before finding love with other people, it's important to discover new parts of yourself and love them!

Lesson 2: A way of promoting self-love is when others respect you.

When others respect you, it is also an ideal way of promoting self-love. Respecting yourself is a fruit from loving yourself!

Lesson 3: Be kind to yourself as a woman. You deserve it.

One of the best weapons you can strap yourself up with is being kind to yourself as often as possible. This acts as a guard against external negative influences and words!

Review of the book Self-Love Workbook for Women

I have always loved practice tests and finding those little assessments in the chapters were always a pleasant conclusion to learning more about the book. I find that many people dunk on self-love, thinking it's a selfish way to think, but I disagree. This workbook just majorly takes you through actually liking and loving yourself!

Conclusion

I believe women would benefit greatly from this book. It is a simple and practical study of an issue most women deal with, because of how society sees us, and trains us. Love yourself, be good to yourself!

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