Ask the Author: Jenna Banks
Answered Questions (3)
Jenna Banks
Hi Lily! Thanks for your note and for letting me know about your services. I'll be sure to keep this in mind. And thanks for the question about wanting to know what made me decide to write and publish I Love Me More! I go into quite a bit more detail about this in one of the questions posed by Goodreads, which is available on my author profile page. To summarize though, I decided to explore the idea of writing my book after learning about the impact that one of my personal stories made on the life of a friend of mine. She went on to share this story with some of her best friends, who also said they felt empowered by this story. My friend then asked me how I got to forge this loving, committed relationship that I have with myself. This inspired me to experiment with the idea about writing a book to share my self-love journey. I really just wanted to be able to help as many women as I can!
Jenna Banks
I try to journal every morning. When I journal, I don't try to over-think anything and also don't edit myself. I just write anything that comes to mind. I've found this be a very helpful practice for freeing up my creative writing abilities.
Jenna Banks
I went to dinner with a friend of mine shortly after breaking up with an ex. I was quite heartbroken at the time, but had chosen to break my own heart and leave that relationship.
She couldn't understand why I didn't want to get back with together with him, especially since my heart was hurting so badly. The reason I gave her was because "I love me more".
She asked me to expand on what that meant.
So I explained to her that I had been giving so much of myself to him and our relationship. But I wasn't getting what I needed in return. I simply wasn't feeling valued enough by him. I explained further that I value myself more than anyone else. So if I'm not getting what I needed after clearly communicating my needs, then I needed to value myself enough to walk away, even if that meant breaking my own heart.
After leaving dinner that night, she still didn't have clear understanding as to what I meant by "I Love Me More". It just wasn't a familiar way of thinking for her.
But she pondered it over the next few weeks. One day, it finally clicked. She had been in a somewhat newer relationship with someone that wasn't making her feel valued or special.
She often found herself agonizing over his cryptic text messages, generally feeling unsettled about the relationship versus feeling great. She suddenly realized that by allowing this guy to treat her this way, that SHE wasn't valuing HERSELF enough to allow this person in her life.
Once this concept clicked for her, she didn't hesitate to cut ties with this man and never looked back. Not even a year later, she met and fell in love with an incredible partner who values her as much as she values herself.
She went on to tell her closest friends about how empowering this "I Love Me More" concept was for her. Her friends also found it quite inspiring and impactful.
After my friend shared how my story had impacted both her and her friends, she mentioned to me it would be helpful for her to know what had gotten me to the point in my life where I could put myself first in my life, without hesitation.
That got me thinking...what did get me to this place? This state of mind that seemed to come naturally for me wasn't something that I'd seen practiced by most other women in my life.
So I started journaling, digging deep into my rather traumatic childhood and young adulthood, the various toxic relationship that I eliminated, the jobs I up-leveled or walked away from, uncovering the various experiences that led me down the path of making my needs and my happiness my #1 priority.
This self-reflection helped me understand that not only had it NOT been an easy journey to loving myself more, but that it consisted of many hard fought, internal battles that often went against how society pressures women to behave.
But, loving myself more has always paid off for me! Doing that investigation into my background for my friend, made me realize that what I uncovered from my personal experience, from my trial and error, could also help other women as well.
And so here were are, with my new book "I Love Me More: How To Find Happiness And Success Through Self-Love" releasing on March 8, 2022!
No doubt about it, I'm not a PhD or spiritual guru. I'm just an expert in me and in what it took for me to be able to pivot from a place of self-loathing to a place where I can say that I'm truly in love with myself.
In order to make this book as helpful as possible, I also included insights from other experts in their respective fields of work.
She couldn't understand why I didn't want to get back with together with him, especially since my heart was hurting so badly. The reason I gave her was because "I love me more".
She asked me to expand on what that meant.
So I explained to her that I had been giving so much of myself to him and our relationship. But I wasn't getting what I needed in return. I simply wasn't feeling valued enough by him. I explained further that I value myself more than anyone else. So if I'm not getting what I needed after clearly communicating my needs, then I needed to value myself enough to walk away, even if that meant breaking my own heart.
After leaving dinner that night, she still didn't have clear understanding as to what I meant by "I Love Me More". It just wasn't a familiar way of thinking for her.
But she pondered it over the next few weeks. One day, it finally clicked. She had been in a somewhat newer relationship with someone that wasn't making her feel valued or special.
She often found herself agonizing over his cryptic text messages, generally feeling unsettled about the relationship versus feeling great. She suddenly realized that by allowing this guy to treat her this way, that SHE wasn't valuing HERSELF enough to allow this person in her life.
Once this concept clicked for her, she didn't hesitate to cut ties with this man and never looked back. Not even a year later, she met and fell in love with an incredible partner who values her as much as she values herself.
She went on to tell her closest friends about how empowering this "I Love Me More" concept was for her. Her friends also found it quite inspiring and impactful.
After my friend shared how my story had impacted both her and her friends, she mentioned to me it would be helpful for her to know what had gotten me to the point in my life where I could put myself first in my life, without hesitation.
That got me thinking...what did get me to this place? This state of mind that seemed to come naturally for me wasn't something that I'd seen practiced by most other women in my life.
So I started journaling, digging deep into my rather traumatic childhood and young adulthood, the various toxic relationship that I eliminated, the jobs I up-leveled or walked away from, uncovering the various experiences that led me down the path of making my needs and my happiness my #1 priority.
This self-reflection helped me understand that not only had it NOT been an easy journey to loving myself more, but that it consisted of many hard fought, internal battles that often went against how society pressures women to behave.
But, loving myself more has always paid off for me! Doing that investigation into my background for my friend, made me realize that what I uncovered from my personal experience, from my trial and error, could also help other women as well.
And so here were are, with my new book "I Love Me More: How To Find Happiness And Success Through Self-Love" releasing on March 8, 2022!
No doubt about it, I'm not a PhD or spiritual guru. I'm just an expert in me and in what it took for me to be able to pivot from a place of self-loathing to a place where I can say that I'm truly in love with myself.
In order to make this book as helpful as possible, I also included insights from other experts in their respective fields of work.
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