From #1 New York Times bestselling author and children’s yoga and mindfulness expert Susan Verde, an original essay collection that emphasizes the power of positive self-talk and the lessons we learn from motherhood and gaining self-acceptance

Number one New York Times bestselling author and children’s yoga and mindfulness expert Susan Verde knows the power of positive self-talk. For decades, Verde has struggled with her inner critic, a voice inside telling her that she was not enough. Yoga, meditation, and mindfulness practices became her way of challenging and quieting this voice. However, the moment she became a parent, the voice became louder than ever. How would she manage to parent three little ones when she could not speak to herself with compassion, kindness, and love? Motherhood would prove to be the ultimate test of her practice.

With humor, heart, and disarming vulnerability, Verde shares stories from her life as a parent, a person, and a coffee addict on a journey toward self-acceptance. She reveals her missteps and her greatest moments of joy—from supporting one of her children through a mental health struggle, and another through gender affirmation; to losing her father and reconnecting with her mother; to the immense pain and pride of preparing to send her three teenagers off to college and facing an empty nest.

Woven throughout the book are mantras reminding listeners to speak to themselves with compassion, with the ultimate goal of living, loving, and parenting from a place of freedom and authenticity. Verde’s message is that we must all be the authors of our own inner dictionaries, filling them with words of self-love. We must listen to the voice that is telling us that we are worthy. And we must let these words become our story.