One day, my seven-year-old-self walked into my life and inspired me to write a book called How to Fall in Love with Yourself. Actually, she popped up inside an old art portfolio full of colorful drawings that my late mother had saved and carefully labeled “Priscilla, 7 yrs. old.”

When I found them, I was shocked because I had absolutely no memory of ever creating this buried treasure!

Pretty girls smiled out at me, blue birds chirped under bright yellow suns, my family stood perfectly aligned in a formal portrait and friendly animals and flowers jumped off the pages.

The discovery of this wonderful art changed my life forever.

I scanned the drawings and dropped them into my favorite iPhone photos, many of the Vineyard. When I added vintage photographs of myself as a child, my past and my present collided and coexisted in a magical way. As I created collages, the book began to take shape in my mind.

As a published author of two New York Times bestsellers about serious topics, I was used to angst and challenging emotions being part of my writing process. But my childhood drawings introduced me to the feeling of pure joy, and it was thrilling to discover happy parts of myself that I’d forgotten existed.

So, I let my younger self reveal her secrets to me, share her perspectives on life and teach me lessons that became the basis of this book.

And I fell in love with myself for the very first time.

 

 

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People talk about healing their inner child, but my inner child knew just how to heal me. Her sweet, clever nature was a balm. She had a sense of humor and wonder that I wanted to adopt as my own.

And as readers get to know her, I hope that they will fall in love with her — and eventually themselves — as I pose questions throughout the book that will inspire them to live with childlike wonder and joy.

 

 

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Twenty of what I call my time-traveling collages hang on the walls of the [Mass General Brigham] Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, and people often tell me how much they enjoy seeing them in places such as the emergency department, the oncology department or while taking their children to appointments in pediatrics.

I continue to write about both pain and joy on this gorgeous Island as I have for decades, because the land and water and sky and people who appreciate this special place never fail to ground me, comfort me, inspire me and teach me the kinds of lessons that are featured in my book — about love, loss, gratitude, hope, beauty, community and healing.

 

Priscilla Warner is the author of Learning to Breathe: My Yearlong Quest to Bring Calm to My Life and co-author of The Faith Club, both New York Times bestsellers. Her new book, How to Fall in Love with Yourself: Lessons Learned from My Younger Self, is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and in independent bookstores. For more information on Priscilla’s summer book events and workshops, visit priscillawarnerbooks.com.