Here’s a little extract from the beginning of my book Living a Life Less Toxic about belief and how my book came about…
During my recovery from ME/CFS I was feeling a little lost and not knowing what to do or where to go. I knew going back to my old toxic life was not an option, but where now? I loved helping people and loved doing anything I could for the planet. And then, without any (conscious) involvement on my part, lots of things started happening to guide me along the path to writing Living a Life Less Toxic. A book seemed like a good idea; however I wasn’t a writer, had dyslexia and I generally wasn’t very good at verbalising my jumbled thoughts let alone putting them down onto paper. But the main obstacle was, I simply just didn’t believe in myself. Even after all the work I had done on myself, I still didn’t seem to believe. I had client after client recommend me, write wonderful thank-you notes and e-mails and give amazing feedback, but still I didn’t believe in myself and I also thought I wasn’t a writer!
I realised I’d made the authors of all the many books that had guided me through my recovery into ‘God’ personas in my mind. And so I could never be one of them, I could never help others on the scale they did, and this was way out of my league.
Then one day, I was exhibiting at an event and one of those same ‘God-like’ Authors was running a workshop there. I got to speak to this Author, and it was then I realised (sorry about this, Dr David Hamilton), that he wasn’t a god, he was in fact just one of us! Wow! On leaving this event, I realised I could do what he was doing. But how?
I needn’t have worried, because from the moment I decided I was doing it, the Universe seemed to want to make my book happen. Within days of deciding I could do it, a client came to see me who used to be a proof-reader and she subsequently helped me with my book proposal for Living a Life Less Toxic. Not only this, but I found out about a Hay House Writer’s Workshop that was to be held a short while afterwards (I never even knew they ran such events until that day). I went, and learnt so much at this workshop. Some stuff felt scary (like marketing, promoting, speaking, etc.), but most of it was inspiring and encouraging information and guidance. I came away feeling certain in my ability to write my book and in my dedication to it. It’s funny because, never once after making the decision to write, did I doubt that the book would make it into print: I just simply knew it would. So much so that when attending the ‘Hay House I Can Do It’ event later that year, I wrote, ‘Hay House will be publishing my book within the next year, they just don’t know it yet.’ on their affirmation station board. I made a book cover for my future book and popped it on my bookshelf and got used to seeing my book there every day, along with all the authors who had helped me recover.
I entered the ‘Hay House Writers Workshop 2013’ competition to win a publishing contract. On 26th June 2014, I got an e-mail from the beautiful Hay House telling me I’d won a self-publishing contract with their sister company Balboa Press. At that moment, I knew that by letting go of my toxic thoughts about myself and my abilities I had allowed myself to make space and time for my book, proving once again I was on the right track with this living-less-toxic lark! Nothing is impossible, but whilst we doubt our own abilities we are priming the weapons against our own growth. Or in the words of Henry Ford:
‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.’
You can check out my book, Living a Life Less Toxic (how to live in a less toxic mind, body, home and environment) here.
