[ "I stared into my face, I stared into the eyes looking back at me and said I see you. I see all of you." ]
Hello Love is the raw, honest story of one woman's journey from living a life of "shoulds" to discovering the radical act of self-love.
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Through two cancer diagnoses, mental health struggles, and the complete breaking down of who she thought she was supposed to be, Ila Edgar shares what it really means to come home to yourself.
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This isn't a polished self-help guide. It's a real conversation with a friend who's been to hell and back - and found love waiting there.
Comments from Pre-Readers
​"This is the permission I've been waiting for my whole life - to see myself, feel everything, and choose love over perfection."
​"Ila's voice feels like sitting with your wisest, most honest friend. This book will change how you see yourself."
​"Raw, real, and beautifully human. Finally, a book that doesn't try to fix you - just invites you home."
What if the bravest thing you could do is put yourself first?
"I fell to my knees, sobbed and screamed. In that nanosecond, our lives had changed.
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But what I discovered through cancer, breaking, and surrendering is that loving me - ALL OF ME - has saved me."
I didn't write this book because I figured it all out. I wrote it because I'm still figuring it out, every single day.
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After two major health diagnoses brought me to my knees and forced me to face the woman I'd become - a shell of who I was meant to be - I realized I had spent decades living everyone else's "shoulds" instead of my own truth. The bravest thing I've ever done wasn't fighting for my life; it was putting myself first and learning to love every messy, complicated, beautiful part of who I am.
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This book exists because I believe healing is not ours to own. We must shape it and share it with the world. That's my why for Hello Love.
Sometimes we need to hear from someone who's been there that the path home to yourself is worth it, no matter how messy or really f*cking difficult it gets. There's no finish line here, no moment when you're "done" with self-love. It's a daily practice of choosing kindness over criticism, presence over perfection, and love over fear.
If my words can give you permission to see yourself, feel everything, and choose love anyway, then sharing my story - raw and unfinished as it is - becomes the most important work I've ever done.
In This Book, You'll Discover:
PERMISSION TO FEEL IT ALL​
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"We have to feel them. To the depths of our toes. To the pit of our stomachs. To the point where our hearts are bursting and aching and falling apart. We have to feel it."
THE COURAGE TO SEE YOURSELF​
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"I stared into the eyes looking back at me and said, 'I see you. I see all of you, especially the parts that you try to hide because they're not as sparkly and fun.'"
WHAT REAL LOVE LOOKS LIKE​
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"Every single ounce of me is lovable. Every single ounce of me matters. My worth and the love doesn't diminish because I fuck up, or I make a mistake."
THE END OF WAITING​
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What am I waiting for? The only thing that needs to happen is me choosing to truly live, today and every day.
A Note from Ila:
"This book isn't coming from the energy of 'should.' This book comes from the time I took to pause, create spaciousness, to do deep work, to be curious, to be still for moments of time. One day I felt something so weird - like an energy that was moving up my core and into my throat. I grabbed my phone and my voice recorder and started speaking.
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Perhaps these words are part of my healing - and may be part of yours. The most important thing I know: we all have a voice and stories to be shared, and this voice is definitely NOT coming from 'should.'"
Your life is waiting for you to step into it, to accept the invitation of fully living. Your life was designed to experience so much more than you are, from your comfy, cozy and familiar.
Come and live, she whispers. Through the fear, the joy, the pain and the uncertainty, through the sadness and the beauty. Come and live.