Book Review: I Love Myself - Discover a Life Through Self-Love

 

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Book Review: I Love Myself-Discover Self-Love

Book: I LOVE MYSELF - Discover a Life Through Self-Love

Publisher: Notion press

Author: Vandana Sehgal

Genre: Non Fiction (Self-Help)

Pages: 149

Rating: 4.5*

Reading Time for the blog: 3 minutes

Why did I choose this book?

Being a new and first-time mother, I felt I am not giving proper attention to myself. I don't get enough time for myself. So, I chose this book to fall in love with myself again and to make the process smooth.

Suddenly, I started searching for books to know myself a little better. And guess what?  The book title “I love myself” caught my attention. When I went through its sample on Amazon kindle, I realized, yes! This is the book I have been looking for for a long time.

About the book:

The book is divided into three sections:

• Life-Realities
• Relationships
• Spirituality

Few exercises are also given for mental workout at the end of the book. Each section has few chapters which are supposed to be completed with a practical exercise.

The first section depicts all about how you can accept and know yourself better.

The second section depicts the relationship between a child and a parent. How relationships can be nurtured well whether it's between the life partners or the child-parent relationship.

Thirdly, one of my favorite sections is about how to connect with your inner self i.e. Via spirituality.  It works wonders if we practice it.

About the author: Vandana Sehgal

The author is a Life Skills Coach, Mentor, and Writer. This is her first book. She has expressed clearly how she overcame her negative mindset and was able to connect with herself.

It can easily be noticed in the book what all she did to fall in love with herself again.  Thus, she chose compliment over the complaint, connection over comparison, and confidence over criticism.

How is this book helpful?

• To self-realization
• To fall in love with yourself again
• To accept your mistakes
• To nurture our relationships
• To accept our emotions
• Writing is a therapy
• Listen to your inner voice

Loving yourself is the most beautiful feeling ever. One should always prioritize themselves in terms of their health, to pursue their dreams, and to pamper oneself. We often forget to take care of ourselves and get stuck in our day-to-day responsibilities of life.

Why do I recommend this book?

If you’re stuck in your day-to-day tight compartments. If you’ve forgotten how to prioritize yourself.  If you want to get out of your monotonous routine. If you want to see yourself a new one then this should be the right pick for you.

Who is the book for?

This book is for those who want to discover their journey through SELF-LOVE.

If I am expecting a little more from the book, then it would be. The author would have thrown some light on "how to practice Mindfulness". Otherwise, This book will definitely make you fall in love with yourself.

You will not be the same once you read the book thoroughly. You should definitely not miss the best part of the book is “doing practical exercise”.

What emotion was I going through while reading this book?

Happy? Sad? Angry? Stress? Frustration?

No!

I was just falling into the process of accepting myself completely. And, that too without seeking permission of anyone.

Learnings from the book:

• Practice mindfulness
• Spend some time in silence.
• Prioritize yourself
• Discover self-love
• We should give love and respect to our closest circle and etc.

This is one of the best self-love books which I’ve read as of now.

I finished reading one chapter just after waking up in the morning and one before sleeping. This way I was able to focus on exercises as well. It's not about what you read but by following it practically.

So, what’re you waiting for?

Click on the link to order the book now. Don’t forget to grab a diary and a pen while sipping a cup of coffee to enjoy the reading.

Happy reading!

Let's discuss what "self-love" is to you?

You can share your views in the comment section below. Don't forget to subscribe to the blog too.

 5 Things You’ll Need When Your Little One Turns 6 months – Must Read if You Are a New Parent

Every new parent wants the best for their little one whether it comes to clothes, bathing products, and accessories, etc. being a first-time parent, I was also going through the same. I understand the struggling phase of new parents who give all the priority to kids above them. Here, I’m with a few product suggestions. I myself have used it for my little one and it will be helpful for you also to choose the best.

These products have made my motherhood journey much easier. As you know, now my little one is 20 months old. The main idea is to help the new parents who're struggling with what to shop for their kids. Making the investment in your child's growth would be the best investment ever.

It'll have them strengthen their sensory skills, fine-motor skills, and cognitive skills, etc.

1. Chair Booster

First, please understand, the chair is important for our kids. Once they start sitting, they learn many things along. Eating is always an adventure for little ones especially when they’re learning to self-feed.

Mostly, the baby starts sitting when they turn six months old. it is every parent's concern that how to build a sitting habit in their kids? It's always advisable to make them sit for sometimes in a day. A new mother allows her child to self-feeding and to create a mess. So, I did the same.

I introduced this booster chair when she turned six months and guess what? she loved reading, eating, and playing on it. slowly, she cultivated a routine of sitting for at least a minimum of half an hour in a day.

Note: You can start using it when your little one starts sitting on his/her own and supports their spine. This product has reduced my tension as I don’t have to sit with her all the time. But I keep the food on the tray and rest I leave it to her to make all the efforts.

Age: 6 months to 3 years

Why and how is it beneficial for your little ones:

• To introduce self-feed to the little one
• To support their spine and body language
• Allows your child to sit directly at the table with the rest of the family.
• They feel comfortable
• They strict with their meal schedule
• They learn etiquette and social skills
• They can do activities like reading, painting, and coloring, etc.
• It fits most of the chairs
• It can be taken quickly to any restaurant, park, traveling, etc.
• dishwasher-safe feeding tray
• An adjustable strap is there to make the child safe and secure
• It’s easy to carry as it is Light-weighted
• Cheaper than high chairs
• They take up less space than high chairs.

kindly note that high chairs are different from chair booster. High chairs come along with tables in many varieties whereas chair booster comes with the tray which can only be tightened with the chairs.



2.Laugh and Learn Tablet

Age: 6 months to 3 years

Color: Multicolor

Brand name: fisher-price

When the baby turns six months old, it’s the right time to introduce them to the music world. I loved this electronic learning tablet with music because it has the perfect sound volume for the little one. Thus, it is neither loud nor quiet. It introduces first letters like “A” “B". when the baby will press button A it creates the sound of words like “a for Apple,” “b for Boy,” etc. And third, it introduces their sounds. For example, if someone is eating an apple, so ‘the sound of bite’ turns on.

When the child presses the button, it helps him/her to improve their fine-motor skills. It’s easy to use and handy. It can be carried in a women’s handbag easily. It's best to engage the little one in some useful learning. It has also got a lot of music,  phrases, and fun sounds. To add a little fun to it, the tablet screen will light up along the songs and phrases.

I love the reaction on my little one's face when she wonders how the light is up. Oops! just by pressing the button. Haha!

3. Baby Touch Flip-Flap Book

This is one of my favorite books from all the baby’s book collections. What I appreciate about the book is it has a lot of textures to be touched and felt by the babies who are 3 months plus.

This improves their sensory skills. They experience different textures which are soft, fluffy, glitter, stripes, and different shapes like square, round, triangle, etc.

The book depicts a story that makes it easy for the parents to teach their kids. The baby touch book is highly recommendable, especially for infants.

It'will help them to improve their wrist movement as well while flipping the book pages. The book is available in board book format.

 

4. First Block

Image Source: Amazon.in

The box has different colors and shapes of blocks like square, round, and triangle. It’ll help them to improve their fine motor skills where eye-hand coordination is used. 

An infant picks up one block and tries to fix it by putting it into the desired shape. A parent can engage his infant well in this type of activity while they’re working. What you just need to do is- just make your kid sit on the chair and give the box.

He/she will definitely fall in love with the process of playing with the blocks. This will enhance their problem-solving and thinking skills too. This is a must-buy for infants who want to be engaged in an activity.

The box activity has really made my princess smarter and now she recognizes it's shapes and colors well. 

5. Rock-a-Stack

 

Age: 6 months to 2 years

Who doesn't love to get attracted by colorful? 

This is another common and mostly used stacking toy by the infants once they’re 6 months plus. Different colors of rings make it attractive for them to place the rings. It enhances their fine motor skills and will learn different sizes of the rings.

The funny part is when kids wear these rings in their hands and roam around everywhere. HAHA! They enjoy it to the fullest. However, this is highly recommended for improving the infant's visual development. It can be carried easily anywhere.

Happy Parenting!!!

To see the little one growing, that feels like a treat to the eyes.

Do share what all toys you have found the best for your

little one? which one is their favorite?

Kindly share it in the comment box below. Don't forget

to subscribe as well . :)

 

5 Things You Need to Stop Right Now to Improve Mental Health

Image Credits: Pexels.com

Reading Time: 4 minutes

We all realize how much COVID-19 has affected us mentally.

No doubt, a lot of people have become consciously focussed on their physical health but being stuck at home, has affected their mental health too. Mental health is the key to achieve anything that we want to. It refers to the cognitive behavior and emotional well-being. Our thoughts are expressed and define the outcome of how our mental state of mind is.

Everything is recorded in our brain signifies what we represent to the outer world. With a little effort that we put in physical efforts, with the same, mental health is also taken care of. One should not ignore how mental health affects us. During Lockdown, both men and women have been loaded with a lot of work but women are the ones who were affected more and seem to be more responsible when it comes to household responsibilities whereas they were taking care of everything from cleaning, cooking, entertaining kids, and what not during lockdown days.

Relax ladies!

 Below are 5 mentioned things that need to quit immediately.

IMAGE SOURCE: PEXELS.COM

1. Stop Judgment 

One needs to understand that judging someone or oneself defines how we think about them and ourselves. If we judge someone, we don’t accept them as they’re. Even if we’re judged by other’s points of view, we wouldn’t like it ourselves. First of all, we need to stop this on a serious note and start accepting things as they are.  It becomes a lot easier for us to connect with the things, the people. We can relate to the person’s feelings with ease.

 2. Stop Comparing

When a child is born, he/she is born with his/her own set of skills and inherent talent. one loses his/her self-identity when he/she compares himself/herself with others. As they grow up, their confidence is boosted up by the experiences. Therefore, one should be aware of his/her specific skills and should not to compare with anyone.

If you have the confidence then it becomes a lot easier to focus on oneself instead of making the comparison with others. As we know, most of the homemaker, their work is not appreciated when compared to the women who’re working from 9 am to 6 pm. For a homemaker, her family and kids’ are her priorities. For working women, completing her regular office tasks on given deadlines would be her priority.

Image Credits: Pexels.com

3. Stop Taking Things Personally

One needs to understand that everything is not about “you” all the time. People can talk behind your back and in front but it’s your responsibility not to take the things personally but just to ignore them. You don’t need to feel insecure all the time when people are talking about you whether it's positive or negative.

It’s their problem that they’re struggling with when they talk behind your back, they may not be able to reach where you’re, they may not compete with you, they might feel jealous of you but you should train your mind to see positivity in everything and make the mind more stable.

4. Stop Overreacting

Once you’ve decided “not to take the things personally” that means you’ve decided to value yourself more in terms of self-care. You need to stop overreacting to things that are not meant for you.

It’ll help you to stay calm and more focussed on the things which you want to accomplish. Overreacting to certain things makes everything worse. Therefore, one needs to be calm and observing things silently and adapting it quietly in their life.

5. Stop Feeding Your Mind The Garbage

If one wants to feel the mental calmness, then one needs to stop feeding the mind with the garbage but feeding it with good positive thoughts. It’ll help you to be more positive and relaxed. For allowing positivity to enter, one should do positive self-talk, reading something inspiring, doing what you enjoy the most, trying something new, etc.

For example, most of the women talk about their daughter-in-law and vice-versa, talking about their kids, their husband, their families, their schedule, their life problems, etc. what are they doing? This is the way they’re feeding their mind with the garbage and stopping themselves to feel gratitude for the things they’re already blessed with.

Mental Health can be improved by focusing on things like “letting it go” which no more suits you, give your mental health a break by doing a few breathing exercises, etc.

Allow your mental health to experience something new by

reading, journaling, meditating, helping someone, and being

grateful for everything in life.

Feel free to share your views in the comment box and also

share what do you do to improve your mental health?

How to Embrace Your Emotions to Save Marriage

 

A human being is full of emotions from the day they are born. They have emotions like happiness, anger, sadness, fear, guilt, shyness, and so on. Human emotions are versatile and unpredictable, and they change every moment depending on how each person handles their emotions when they’re looking to gear up with themselves. 
Let us think about a situation, where a person is happy about getting news of a job promotion but at the same point, when he gets to know about his close relative’s demise, he becomes sad. We start memorizing the best time spent with that person.

Everyone has their own set of emotions and a different style of expressing them. Many express their emotions by speaking, whereas a few express them by being silent, and some by way of massive reactions. Even animals have their own set of emotions, although they have their own way of communicating them. Emotions play a crucial role in one’s life. 

Our emotions assist us in many things, such as conveying our message or meaning, providing us with clarity, calming us during difficult times, and making life decisions. Our subconscious mind behaves the same way we would like it to be treated. Therefore, if we give it positive thoughts, it’ll have a positive impact on our health and future thoughts.

To apply this idea, let’s look at the example of a slim girl named Amira. During her college days, she was quite an introvert: she never expressed her feelings, but instead kept them to herself for fear of hurting anyone. How does she feel? What if she’s looking for someone to talk to? She did not think it would be a good idea to express her feelings. She felt that either people would blame her or that she would end up hurting them. She was not confident about what to express, how much she should express, and to whom it should be shared. 

Being a shy girl, Amira never made friends with those whom her shared emotions would be safe. She never spent enough time with her family for them to know her likes and dislikes; she never made herself understood. Instead, she kept herself busy in activities like reading books, painting, journaling, and meditation, etc.. 

Because she always tried to hide her emotions, this caused anger to build up inside her. She used to become furious at the smallest things, like when her parents asked her plan for her marriage. Despite usually being very polite to her parents, she rudely walked away.

One day, she was sitting on the balcony with her parents drinking a cup of coffee. Her parents brought up the discussion of her marriage plans and, surprisingly, this time she was already prepared for it. Yes! After a long discussion with her parents, she made up her mind. But her anger kept bothering her. “How could she manage her marriage if she couldn’t express her feelings?”

Amira thought that maybe discussing things with her partner would help her to get herself out of a place of anger. Perhaps she might find comfort in expressing her feelings. But things were the same even after marriage. Being a new daughter-in-law, her responsibilities increased: her in-laws had expectations for her, and she wasn’t able to manage her anger with her husband; she would get furious every time. She asked herself, why was she unable to share her feelings? What made her so self-conscious? Why did she feel so blank? 

One day, sitting quietly in her room, she wrote down all the questions she had in a diary. What should she do to make it right? She cried for it weighed down her heart. Crying is always the best release for emotion when one’s heart tank is full. When we cry, we make space for new, positive feelings.

Luckily, Amira found a calm and supporting life-partner with whom she was able to express her feelings. He made her feel calm and comfortable. She discussed everything about her anger with her husband. An intelligent man, he asked her to find a state of calm first and then speak out to express whatever was running in her thoughts. He helped her to solve her queries.

In doing so, Amira’s husband gave her a few suggestions:

• Write down all running thoughts
• Don’t take everything  personally
• Learn to adjust and build up interpersonal skills
• Do something productive 
• Start expressing yourself  

Amira followed all five pieces of this advice for a continuous 21 days, and guess what? She found herself transformed. Everything takes time to adapt, some more than others. For instance, internalized emotions like anger can take a while, whereas a few emotional releases like crying come naturally. 

Amira’s anger hadn't gone away, but she had learned how to manage it well. This helped her to improve her relationship with her in-laws, her parents, her friends, her husband, and, most importantly, with herself. She started loving herself more. 

In the years that followed, she learned other ways to manage her anger:

• She started focusing on what made her happy
• She started respecting everyone’s point of view
• She started being grateful  
• She started enjoying her life 
• Most importantly, she accepted herself

Now, Amira is a more mature and determined person, who takes life’s worries as challenges that she can face gracefully. She thanks God for blessing her with great in-laws, a husband, and both the parents who stood up for her every time. She was no longer overwhelmed by negative emotions; most especially, she had overcome her anger. She was able to manage it now because she wanted to. Like Amira, we can also take control of our emotions.

Emotions have a powerful impact on our minds, health, and system. So, allow your mind and heart to decide which emotions of yours you want to pamper, and which ones to put in the garbage. Let us strengthen ourselves. Most especially, we want to control our emotions in the right manner and not allow anyone to control us.

The Blog is sponsored by CAMERIIFASHION

Book Review - Just Let Them Be - Parenting

Image Souce: Amazon.in

Book: JUST LET THEM BE

Publisher: Self-published on Kindle

Author: Bala D Moorthy

Genre: Non Fiction (Self-Help)-Parenting

Pages: 153

Rating: 5*

Reading Time for the blog: 3 minutes, 6 seconds

Buy Kindle ebook: https://amzn.to/2QG1zE0

• Why are kids stubborn? 

• Why do they lack self-confidence?

• Why do you think few kids are happier and responsible than others?

• Looking for parenting advice? Are you a new parent or already in the parenting journey?

• Does it sound familiar to you?

If yes, then this is the right book for parents like me who’re looking for suggestions in the process of bringing up their children in every aspect of life like physical, mental, intellectual, and emotional. Parenthood is a big responsibility and how both parents treat their children plays a significant role in the upbringing of their kids. All the things matter when the kid is happy, if she/he is not happy then something has to be done and certain actions need to be taken.

The author Bala d Moorthy of the book “ Just let them be- an unconventional way of bringing up self-disciplined, responsible, and happy children”  has explained clearly how parents can put in their best efforts in upbringing their kids. The author is the father of two lovely daughters, lives with them and his wife in the beautiful island nation, Republic of Fiji. Being a father of two daughters, he can understand from a parent’s point of view that how they feel and what all they should be aware of in the process of parenting.

He has expressed his views on various chapters like allowing the kids the way they’re, respecting them, preaching love, traveling and being creative with life, etc. 

Sibling senses chapter explains how planning another sibling for the kid is important too and how one child helps the other child in building up togetherness, in sharing visible resources, and supporting each other in hard times.

Every new parent wants to develop a “happier kid”, they don’t want to say “no” to their kids. As explained in the book, parenting is a journey, it's not a destination. The book meets the expectations of every parent who is concerned with their kids like:

• how to teach them discipline 

• how it is essential for them

• how they can inculcate good eating habits

• how they can be strict to their school work and play schedules

• how proper sleep is important for their health.

I am inspired by the author’s words from the book, “In parenting life, one is a breadwinner and the other one is the one who cooks the bread”. Not comparing, both men and women have equal roles and responsibilities towards the upbringing of their little ones. But a woman plays a crucial role in the nourishment of their little ones in terms of the mind, body, and soul. 

One of my favorite chapters from the book is chapter no. 5  where the author depicts “recognizing individual strengths”.  

The author is asking to focus on 3 things:

1. Attitude

2. Skills

3. Knowledge

Every human is different in terms of these above mentioned 3 things. So, it applies to the kids too. They also learn and grow up in life based on their experiences and how much they explore.

As a parent of 1.5-year-old, the book has motivated me a lot and did show me a clear picture of parenting and in helping me to raise a happy kid. The author has narrated each chapter beautifully which is easy to understand. 

This is my first parenting book read whose title caught my attention equally and convinced me to start reading the book. This book is highly recommendable for the parents who are seeking suggestions on their parenting. 

Feel free to share your reviews about the book and share what best efforts you're putting in to raise a happier kid in the comment box?

Enjoy your Parenthood Journey!

Read Another book review : The Mind game