How it Feels to Find Yourself: Navigating Life's Changes with Purpose, Clarity, and Heart - Hardcover

Meera Lee Patel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593418735 ISBN 13: 9780593418734

Publisher: TarcherPerigee, 2023

Synopsis

From the author of Start Where You Are comes an illustrated guide for moving through life's biggest transitions with purpose and clarity. <p/> How It Feels to Find Yourself pairs vibrant color palettes with thoughtful observations and guidance for navigating the most important relationship in our lives: the one we have with ourselves.
Through illustrated charts, honest essays, and insightful questions for deeper reflection, Meera Lee Patel encourages us to sharpen our internal compasses--so we can discover our purpose, let go of what we've outgrown, and navigate challenging relationships with confidence.
How It Feels to Find Yourself provides comfort for the difficult moments in life while serving as a source for deeper learning. It is a valuable gift for anyone who is facing uncertainty or entering a new chapter in life. Each page creates nostalgia for the places and experiences we've already encountered, while shining a hopeful light toward where we are headed next.

About this title

About the Author

Meera Lee Patel is a self-taught artist and the author of several best-selling journals, including Start Where You Are. She is also the author of My Friend Fear: Finding Magic in the Unknown, a book of essays on befriending fear. She creates work that encourages others to connect with themselves, one another, and the world around them. She lives with her husband and daughter in Saint Louis, Missouri.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

When You Become Whole on Your Own

I spent most of my twenties waiting for someone else to put me together: to tell me I was good enough, to make me less afraid, to teach me what I should value most. I weighed other people’s opinions more than my own due to insecurity and a lack of self-trust, which meant the decisions I made were based on someone else’s ideas of who I should be. What I most longed for was a sense of wholeness, but I looked for it in the wrong place: somewhere outside myself. My life began coming together when I realized that the only person responsible for my happiness . . . is me. I stopped waiting for someone else to give me permission and began living the life I wanted. I traveled alone because I wanted to see the world. I painted because I felt there was an artist inside me. I reached out to strangers and asked if they wanted to spend time together. I nurtured these new connections and received the gift of incredible friendship in return. I said yes to opportunities that scared me and became more confident each time I accomplished something I never thought I would. Becoming whole is an ongoing process—something you will achieve only to find that once again, it’s all come undone. Life stretches to accommodate your vision of it, and what I dreamt of was a life bursting with a variety of experiences and environments. My life now reflects the one I dreamt of: not one without failure or sadness, but one that has a sense of fullness— because there is meaning stitched through every experience.

Edition details

• Publisher: TarcherPerigee
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593418735
• ISBN 13: 9780593418734
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176