Welcome to Mary's Cup of Tea, the self-love podcast for women, though all self-lovers are welcome here.

I'm your host, Mary Jolkovsky. I'm an author, speaker, retreat leader, and all-around

self-love advocate. And this is the podcast that will inspire you to love yourself.

Can you believe that it's been four whole years since the gift of

self-love came out? Or maybe you're newer here, so you're like, I don't know, has it been four

years? But yes, we are celebrating four years of the gift of self-love. So this is like my book

baby's birthday. And in celebration, I wanted to share a piece of the gift of self-love. So this is like my book baby's birthday. And in celebration, I wanted to share

a piece of the audiobook. So this is the first introduction section that my publisher gave me

permission to give away to podcast listeners. Whether you have the book, I hope you enjoy my

voice reading you that first part of it. Maybe there are some self-love

reminders in there for you that will resonate deeper when hearing them directly from me. Or maybe

you don't have the book, in which case it'll give you a little sneak preview, see if you like

it, and perhaps you would highly consider getting

yourself a copy. But regardless, before I share with you a piece of the audiobook, can I tell

you a really sweet story of how this all came to be? Okay, this is my podcast. So the answer is yes.

I'm going to tell you anyway. So just about six years ago, it's 2019. And that was like a really

big year for me. I was in my early 20s, had so much energy. I went to Bali. I hosted a retreat there.

And then I come home, of course, feeling so inspired from the retreat vibes and being on the island

for a month. And I went traveling with my mom. And I had just met this new guy on Hinge, who I would

later marry that year. I actually ended up hosting two more retreats. And it's just, oh, I did a TED talk.

Like, there was just so much going on. And in the midst of all of that chaos, oh, I did a TED talk. Like, there was just so much going on.

And in the midst of all of that chaos, I wrote a little ebook.

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