Welcome to episode 334 of Live Happy Now.

We all know that love is important, but why is it sometimes so hard to love ourselves?

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and this week we're talking to Dr. Shana Ali, a mental health

clinician and author who promotes a strengths-based approach to the journey of self-love.

After writing a workbook for adults and a guide on self-love for teens, she's now written the children's book,

Luna finds love everywhere, a self-love book for kids. It's designed to help children explore the

principles of self-love in their own lives,

and it has a great message for parents, too. So let's find out more.

Dr. Shane, a welcome to Live Happy Now. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat with

you today. Well, I'm excited to chat with you as well, and we have a lot of ground to cover

because we're here to talk about your book,

but this is a bigger topic of self-love.

So I want to, before we get to your adorable book,

I want to talk about how you've really embraced this message of self-love.

And I wanted to find out where that comes from.

What made you so interested in studying that?

Great question. And first of all, thank you for your kind comments about the book.

Stepping back, you're right. I really have embraced this notion of self-love because it has been

such a prominent theme. First of all, in my personal life throughout the years, I didn't even know it was a theme back then.

But in my world as a mental health counselor, educator, and advocate, while I have the luxury of working with so many courageous individuals from unique paths and unique issues, something I noticed that was a common thread was that everyone could use a

little bit more self-love. So regardless of diagnosis, regardless of background, this was a key

thread. And that's what brought me to the self-love workbook and hoping that I can help with more

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