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Find Your Awesome: A 30-Day Challenge to Fall in Love with Your Playful, Imaginative & Colorful Self, to give the book its full title, is a guide to self love. No, not that kind, dirty girl. The author offers us a 30 day course of different activities to encourage us to be kinder to ourselves and to give ourselves the same slack we often give others without thinking about it.
What I loved about this book: Judy uses fun and creative activities which I adored. Drawing mandelas to encourage mindfulness, designing T-shirts – I had such fun with these activities. The book is populated with the author’s own quirky and fun artwork. I loved the day for spreading the love and I’ll certainly take that activity further.
What I liked about this book: We ALL need to be reminded to be less self-critical and judgemental and Judy offers a fun and lighthearted way of doing just that.
What I didn’t like about this book: if you are already suffering from mental illness or distress, I think this could exacerbate things. This isn’t a book for those who are suffering and looking for a way to feel less self-hate. If you are a happy introvert, going around hugging strangers will make you feel dreadful. I personally found the bucket list exercise depressing as it reminded me of all the things I can’t do now because of my illness. I decided to focus on the positives but days later I’m still flashing back to the list the old me might have made. There is also a cultural thing for me. All this self love and bigging oneself up isn’t terribly British. Perhaps there is a case for us emulating our American cousins more when it comes to self esteem, but I find it personally uncomfortable.
In conclusion, if you’re already in a reasonably ‘good place’ and want to make things even better, this little book could be just what you need. However, if you are looking for a quick fix to real depression and self-esteem issues, I’d steer clear.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.
