How to Love Yourself

by Teal Swan

The journey to self-love can seem treacherous, especially in times of struggle. In this book, spiritual leader and bestselling author Teal Swan reveals that self-love is always achievable, whatever the circumstances. Through a comprehensive self-love toolkit, she shows you how to love yourself and heal your life.

In this revised and updated edition of the popular Shadows Before Dawn, Teal bares her own experiences as an alienated extrasensory child and victim of abuse, revealing how she turned her life around, overcame self-hate and transformed her suffering into self-love and joy. To guide you on your own journey of healing and transformation, Teal shares the 30 extraordinary methods and techniques that she used to find self-love. These life-changing tools will help you to develop self-worth, practice self-love, learn to "fill your own cup", love your body and step into your purpose.

Fans of The Anatomy of Loneliness will appreciate this no-nonsense guide from Teal on how to love yourself, even when life gets tough.

Genres: Self Help, Psychology, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Mental Health

400 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2022

About the author

Teal Swan is a personal transformation revolutionary. She was born with a range of extrasensory abilities and is a survivor of severe childhood abuse. Today she uses her gifts as well as her own harrowing life experience to inspire millions of people towards authenticity, freedom, and joy and teaching people how to transform their emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual pain.

The result when people are restored to wholeness is that the world will be restored to wholeness. Teal Swan's teachings invite people to step fully into their authenticity, knowing that this will bring about the positive change that we want to see in the world.

Reviews

[Notael Elrein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started watching a lot of videos on Teal’s channel and started to read some of her books. These concepts are so different from anything else I consumed - atheism, determinism. It’s so good and makes so much sense, I keep having epiphanies and feeling better, becoming more productive. It is taking a bit more time than usual to read these books, but I feel like I am actually living a life in between doing so. It is a good book to ponder upon and not to take in all at once.

The core of this one is picking oneself together again which picks up all the other relationships in life as well. I agree with so many stances with Teal, though not sure why she is not against horse riding as a vegan. I feel like most of the other content creators I watched on the spirituality side of things must watch her and read her books because now I am hearing her everywhere. She covers such in depth topics using the simplest language.

This in particular encourages me to accept my emotions, low states and also accept the high states and create them. To reevaluate the language I am choosing and concepts that were drilled into me by society. Once you improve there is no going back, just expansion and the possibility of getting stuck on the same points, but from a higher perspective, different situation - this helps me a lot to understand people and to not get too attached to reactions towards them.

The start of this book is about Teal’s ritual abuse about which I haven’t read that much despite reading books on satanism. It is wild how Teal came to these realisations around my age and then started this whole thing after intense trauma, came back with insights most people don’t have and aren’t brave enough to look into. I love the focus on reality and the combination of it with the spiritual concepts, it feels so grounded and clear.

I love how ambitious Teal is and I want to check out a lot more books and from other people like that. This seems very worthwhile to read through and I feel like I want to write way more after pondering upon all these ideas and concepts. I will continue to expand and apply exercises every single day till my life becomes a reflection of my best thoughts. There is no need not to be healthy, not to let go and not to accept oneself with all the darkness, separate parts that need to be integrated into the whole concept that is me.

This encouraged me to open up and to speak about my life and what has happened. I want people to like me for who I am and I want to know myself deeply and continue to learn about myself, challenge myself till the greatest change of all happens. It is hard to comprehend that my soul ventured into all this pain and improvement willingly, but on the other hand there is no other way. We are free to choose what we make of it and the making of it while it happens can change the course of what will happen a lot. The present is so important and I have learned to neglect it which I choose to change even now by gathering all my thoughts and giving them back into the world.

Nota is someone who reads books which improve them and make them feel better.

[Benjamin Lupton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Teal, moreso than any other modern spiritual or self-help guru, as there is tremendous value in her experiences, honesty, insights, and rituals... however this book goes off the deep end in purporting its suggestions of beliefs, actions, habits, and rituals with unfounded claims and woo, so much so it becomes a chore to digest and there is no need!

• The placebo of the ritual of imbuing love into the consumed water to baptise oneself does not need to be justified by claims of psychic living water rejected by newtonian scientists.

• The benefit of changing one's map of meaning by acting and thinking as if you love yourself does not need to be justified by claims of vibrational alignment towards the true intention of the universe.

• The benefits of incorporating playfulness in your outlook does not need to be justified by the claims that a lack of self-love is the cause of all wars.

However such is where Teal plays tautological tricks on us, seemingly accidentally. It all depends on how she defines a word at a given time, "objective" is equivocated into merely a subjective claim about the world, "reality" becomes our perceptions, "self" becomes everything, "vibration" becomes compatibility, "truth" becomes belief. Deploying this interface one discovers far less validity in her words than supposed, even if found meaningful.

The shallowness of the deep is throughout, perhaps because if reckless hedonistic happiness is the true path to self-love and doing anything that makes us unhappy is self-hatred, then what is the imperative for ever going beyond tautology when we can limit ourselves to surface level sophistry to make our shallow conceptualisations conform to validate our own experiences towards happiness, retaining blissful ignorance to any agreement or disagreement bubbling up from the sophistication of what's bellow the deep, notably in this book's case we float only atop of the humanities, the scientific method, and economics, but never within.

However of course, in true tautological fashion, reading between the lines one will find Teal's guidance is not necessarily opposed to revision, because the true nature of love of the universe will prompt it within our souls... how so? By slapping us until we enjoy revision, becoming our vibrational alignment with the aether. Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Allen's Poverty to Power, heck even Odin's Havamal and Hesoid's Works and Days are all being channeled here.

There is value in this book, it is diamonds in the coal... you go mining for the treasure, while getting covered in soot, that only diligence (and a fallacy cheat sheet) will clean, leaving each reader with their own meaning behind the words; but no one will be left unscathed, even if all get wise.

Interfacing with skeptics during editing would solve this critique, making a quality book that every reader understands equitably. Find skeptics that have studied the humanities.

[Lisa van Nuland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dit boek heeft me echt geïnspireerd. Allereerst is Teal Swan heel bijzonder en haar levensverhaal raakte me erg. De 30 tips om liefde voor jezelf in je leven te creëren zijn erg praktisch en ik merk dat ze toepassen me echt al dichter bij mezelf heeft gebracht. Super mooi boek om te leren hoe je jezelf de liefde kan geven die je verdient <3

[ThatBeMeDiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big on strategies of how to develop self-worth in pressing times. I wish it branched a bit deeper but overall a very rewarding read.

[Peg · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this book were a bit more condensed I would have given it 5 stars. It holds insight and wisdom that can shift perspective and heal. There are some profound moments contained in these written words. The length; however, takes away from the impact of this book in many ways. A shorter pocketbook with highlighted gems would be a better resource to refer back to (perhaps as a companion booklet?). It was a bit daunting to slog through all of it just to get to the hidden ah-ha spots. Still, this book has a unique, somewhat refreshing viewpoint. The tone has personality; the voice is empathetic and caring, albeit a bit limited by the author's own opinions and experiences (example...some of the meditations may not work for everyone..it's almost as if the author forgets that she has unusual visualization/psychic gifts that not all have access to).
Warning: Teal's background story in the first two chapters is full of severe trauma that can be triggering.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love it.

How to Love Yourself was okay, but do you know when less is more? The book had a lot of decent tools but also a lot of useless ones. There was a tone in her writing that wasn't my vibe and was a bit dark and dry. "Know that you can always kill yourself tomorrow."

The author has admitted wanting to commit suicide and some horrific situations she experienced, and although it is a sensitive subject and my heart goes out to her, her trauma and suffering came through in her writing. It made it a bit tough and took away from the "helpfulness" of her guidance. I felt the energy.

[Regan F · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has opened my eyes so much. I bought this a week after a devastating break up and I feel like a new person now months later, partly due to this book. I truly feel so powerful and like I have the tools to transform my life. This was a motivation read and I can’t wait to come back to my millions of sticky notes. There were some small changes that I started to do from the book and I can already see a different in my life. This has taught me more than therapy ever has!! If you feel stuck or sad this is the book for you. The author was at her very worst and turned her life around for the better. I’m so happy to have these tools I got from the author!!

[Amethyst Garza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took my time reading this book & I am glad that I did. Anytime I felt down with myself, I would pick it up that night or the next morning & read a chapter. It was ironic how spot on these chapters were with my life every single time. I feel a spiritual connection in some way to the author. I know whenever I am feeling down again, I will pick up this book and turn to the chapter that I need to read to help myself. There are so many examples and exercises in most of the chapters that I can use for journal prompts. Very very happy with this book.

[David Chiao · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not connect well with anecdotes that Teal provides from her own life story in the first half of the book, which is presumably there to set up the lessons in the second half; however, this is only a small part of the story. The majority is the book is well organized, provides not just learnings but also examples and applications, and keeps the takeaways easy to digest while leaving more of the extrasensory content optional for interpretation. Overall, it is still a great and helpful book that I've learned from.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was excellent and unbelievably uncomfortable to read. I set it down several times because of the pain of teals childhood ( trigger alert! Pretty much ALL & ANY possible triggering things are there, and heaven bless her for still being sane) and because her advice on dealing with life is spot on correct, sounds super easy to say, and will be some of the very hardest things you will ever do. Good luck. Take a friend.

[Rebekah Pagnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good, informative book. I found it so helpful in my own journey and this is the kind of book people need on their shelves to always come back to when they are in need of direction or support.
Loved hearing about Teal’s own journey and how she overcame so much and is helping people with their own self love and self worth.
Honestly worth a read

[Tava Matesi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first self-betterment/help book I’ve read. There were some activities encouraged that I personally did not believe would be as life changing as the author claims, so I chose to go past those parts. However, I think she covers a wide range of topics that are vital to finding happiness in your life! It is uplifting and inspiring!

[Stephanie Thoma · Rating 5 out of 5]

a breath of fresh air

Teal writes in a way that’s real and raw, offering tangible, tactical advice you can implement right away. If you are wanting to ramp up your self love and learn of exercises you can even share with others, this is worth a read.

[Laura B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not perfect, but it raises so many right questions and it really taught me to be gentle to myself, to all parts of me. Though sometimes there seemed to be such a multitude of conditions to self-love according to this book. But I loved it anyway.

[Juan Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice read with great tips. Sometimes the author’s own resentments come through the pages in her writing, and it’s hard to separate that from her reputation these days, but there *are* valuable insights in here. For me, this was a practice in separating artist from the art.

[Susie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book which I found so helpful, I liked the personal story too.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

[Aksel · Rating 4 out of 5]

İlk etapta başlığıyla bile onyargilarimdan dolayi beni zorlamış olan, insanın kendisi ile olan ilişkisini yeniden tanımlama açısından faydalı tavsiyelerde bulunan bir kitap.

[Julianna Walsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a mix of practical advice, dubious claims, and straight-up nonsense. It helped me, but be ready to wade through a lot of useless BS in order to get through it.

[Adina Munteanu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very uselful information, techniques and stories

[Ben Suiter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed to learn this a long time ago

[Shams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is going to be in my heart forever.

[silv · Rating 4 out of 5]

a lot of things to think about

[Ness Korsak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful reminders and practices for self love and reflection.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

awful absolutely awful

[Yeltsin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feel human reading for the first time again. And growing invisible me of love instead of just saying it and scratching surface of healing

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book I have ever read by Teal Swan. She has a lot of wisdom to teach and it shows in the book. Some was not new info for me but other info was helpful. Get ready to do some exercises in a journal and learn to love yourself better.

[Corinne Smilovici · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complete book to guide you on your own journey to love and accept yourself.