My hands are shaking as I write this. My armpits are sweating and I can feel my heart beating a little bit harder than it was before my fingers hit the keyboard.

I’m writing you to tell you, that after 1 year of my life dedicated to feeling, writing, designing, creating, talking, and sharing about one of the most profound things in my life, my book entitled, In Body I Trust, is now available to have in the hands, homes, and hearts of each and every one of you.

And I’m shaking down to my core.

I’m shaking not with fear, but with reality. It’s one thing to say that you’re writing a book. To have the words coming out onto the screen or being painted along the lines of your notebook. It’s one thing to talk about the eventual release of the book. To share the idea openly with the public.

But it’s another thing to actually have it come to fruition.

I’ve overcome the odds. I beat the statistics. And not only am I alive, but I created something out of nothing through all of the hurt.

I learned a lesson through the pain.

I’m going to keep this short and sweet, because today I want to spend some time with these feelings and digest them with people I love.

But I’ll leave you with a quote, yes, from my book. Because guess what? I’m an author.

“There would have to be a change. She said this to herself every day, but after last night—when she’d seen the absolute deepest part of the world’s oceans and managed to swim back to the top—she had to be able to do something about it today. There had to be a lesson behind this pain.”

– In Body I Trust by Lauren Dow

Order In Body I Trust Today
(because that’s a thing now).