Hi, I'm Ila - founder of Hello Love and believer that love is our greatest power.

I used to think being a successful human meant hustling every moment of every day. My calendar was a Tetris game of commitments, each block stacked tightly against the next. I said yes to everything, wore my exhaustion like a badge of honour, and repeatedly drained myself until I had nothing left to give. I thought this was what good human-ing was - extending myself generously and being everything to everyone, all the time.

But something had to give. Or more accurately, someone had to die. That version of me - the one running on fumes, spreading herself too thin, measuring her worth by her busy-ness? I needed to let her go.

Like so many of us, I spent years waiting for permission to love myself. I thought I needed to achieve more, be more, or overcome more before I could truly embrace who I was. I was living in a constant state of "not enough." And I was exhausted.

The Turning Point

My breakthrough came when I stopped clutching at what was, all the "shoulds," and who I thought I needed to be. In that release, I discovered something profound: when I created space, something magical happened. I found me.

In the blocks of time I'd previously filled with noise and busy-ness, I now had breathing room for new ideas to emerge. I started noticing things I'd been too busy to see before. Feeling things I'd been too scared to feel before. It was like finally being able to hear the whispers of my own heart after years of being dominated by a hectic external world.

I realized I didn't need to wait for some magical moment of worthiness to arrive. I could choose love right now, in this moment, exactly as I was. That choice changed everything.

Hello Love Is Born

It started with a tattoo on the back of my hand. Two simple words in my own handwriting: "Hello Love."

What seemed like a small, spontaneous decision became the catalyst for everything that followed.

Hearts had always been part of my life - in my text messages, my work, the way I saw the world - but I'd never connected the dots until that permanent reminder was literally at my fingertips.

Less than a week after getting the tattoo, I was describing to my therapist how I knew my childhood neighbourhood "like the back of my hand." As I turned my hand to gesture, I saw those words staring back at me and everything clicked. I realized I actually knew myself like the back of my hand too. I'd just forgotten how to come home to who I really was.

That tattoo is my daily invitation: "Hello, Love. Welcome home. Be here with me. I've been waiting so long for you to come home."

It was the beginning of the most important relationship I'd ever have - the one with myself.