So You Can Truly Embrace Your Life - Embracing What Is Truest About You

I love this book! One of my favorite passages is "To have courage is simply to be who you are at your core and to follow your passion." This book helps you build the confidence to discover your best self.

Loveable by Kelly Flanagan is an intriguing book about accepting our worthiness and truly loving ourselves. Kelly explains that there are three acts that we go through - often multiple times - in life on our journey to accepting our true worth and believing that we are loveable.

I really enjoyed the concepts that Kelly presented. At times, the insights he shared seemed too simple to be "it". But I realized that there are some things that I've complicated during my life that I need to approach more simply. By doing so, there will be things I discover about myself that may have eluded me otherwise.

My biggest gripe with the book is the way that Kelly presents God throughout it. He does acknowledge that God plays a role in our lives and the journey we go on to accept our worthiness, but I felt that God's true identity and role in our lives was presented in a very watered down way. For example, the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God was referenced throughout the book as "the spark of God". I was able to discern Who Kelly was referring to, but it didn't sit right with me.

I understand that some readers will not be bothered by how God is referenced or what words are used to describe Him, His Spirit or His Son. For those readers, reading this book will likely be a breeze. For those like me, they are sure to find value in the book, but reading through it and adjusting to the different references of God may take some time.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It's helped me to begin viewing myself in a more positive light and has set me on a conscious journey to rediscover and accept my worthiness in tandem with God.

I believe that this book will be a help to anyone who struggles with loving and accepting themselves. It likely won't "cure" them, but it will provide direction on how to reach a place where they can truly begin accepting and loving themselves for who they are and who God created them to be.

I received this book free from the publisher through their book review bloggers program and I was not required to write a positive review.

While this book wasn't quite what I was expecting, it still have a meaningful message: You are enough. You are worthy. You are loveable. (And this is a message for everyone, as we are all broken but loveable.)

The book is divided into three parts: Worthiness, Belonging, and Purpose. Each section includes an inspiring quote and personal stories, as well as (at least one) letters to his young daughter. The author points out that there's a little child in all of us looking for approval and acceptance, which is what he hopes to provide with this book.

As this book is published by Zondervan, a Christian publishing house, I thought there would be more of a Biblical tie-in, which isn't really the case. However, this is still a book which could be beneficial in reminding the reader that they are valuable.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher. I wasn't required to leave a positive review.

I bought this because of the title and description was enticing, and also the book had the high ratings. Unfortunately, the writer couldn't hold my attention. Same words are repeating through the entire book. It didn't speak to me at all, it wasn't an eye-opening nor was written with fluidity. I didn't feel pulled in.

As a psychologist, I loved this book for my clients. The message is full of truth and hope for every person who has ever questioned their worth and wondered about their purpose. As a woman, wife, mother, and daughter, I absolutely NEEDED this book to remind me of my ultimate value and identity. There were many passages that caused me to tear up, say aloud an emphatic YES, and kept me interrupting my husband's Netflix time with "You need to read this." :) Dr. Kelly has shared from his heart and you can tell he is not just dispensing academic researched information, but truly well lived wisdom including his own personal stories. I plan to order extra copies for my office and those in my life!

(Full Disclosure: I received a free digital copy of this book for review as part of the launch team.)

Parents and teachers, please read this book! If you feel ashamed, unlovable, like an outcast, please read this book! There is remarkable clarity in Dr. Flanagan’s words, revealing the unseen ways we have been shaped by events and people from our earlier years, and helping us to heal and discover our inherent worth so we can live more fully. There is wisdom here that leads to a richer understanding of how our actions or inactions can mold the lives of the children we love. This message can be life-changing if we allow ourselves the time to read it and to digest its meaning. I imagine everyone who has read the book has thought, at least a few times along the way, “He’s writing about me! How does he know my story?”

Parents and teachers, please read this book! If you feel ashamed, unlovable, like an outcast, please read this book! There is remarkable clarity in Dr. Flanagan’s words, revealing the unseen ways we have been shaped by events and people from our earlier years, and helping us to heal and discover our inherent worth so we can live more fully. There is wisdom here that leads to a richer understanding of how our actions or inactions can mold the lives of the children we love. This message can be life-changing if we allow ourselves the time to read it and to digest its meaning. I imagine everyone who has read the book has thought, at least a few times along the way, “He’s writing about me! How does he know my story?”

"Loveable - Embracing what is truest about you, so you can truly embrace your life"

When I got this book, I was expecting a bunch of the same ole same ole cliche's that everyone throws around. I wasn't expecting deep. But, I was wrong - very wrong. Deep is just what I got. I need to go back and read the book a bit more slowly so I can really think and process what the author is trying to hone in on.

He takes the reader back to being a child. Talks about how there is an inciting incident in each of us that begins the hole we spend the rest of our lives trying to fill with the wrong things. Going back and figuring out that inciting incident with truth and grace will help us in turn live the rest of our lives knowing truth about who we are. It's really easy to say who we are in truth but it is something entirely different to feel it. This book, I believe will help us all go back - find those wounds and start to heal them.

Totally recommend this book. to anyone who wants to embrace what is true about you so that you can embrace your life.

Book Description

Kelly Flanagan is a psychologist, father, and blogger who is best known for the letters he has written to his children on his blog, one of which landed him on the Today Show with his four-year-old daughter.

In Loveable, Flanagan answers three fundamental human questions: Am I enough? How do I become unlonely? Do I matter? He shows us how to rediscover our worthiness and remember that we are good enough. He encourages us to shed the false self that keeps us lonely and to find people who accept us as we are. And he inspires us to fully embrace our passions, regardless of how ordinary those passions may be.

Reading like an extended love letter to readers, Loveable uncovers three essential truths: you are enough, you are not alone, and you matter. Flanagan invites us to disconnect from the distractions and demands of daily life and to listen more intently for the voice of grace within each of us, so we might fully awaken to the redemptive story we are here to live.

Sometimes I underline key sentences in the books I read. Not always (and never fiction), but when a book really grabs me — when page after page I’m gathering fresh ideas and aha moments — I underline. Kelly Flanagan’s Loveable is now the most underlined book in my personal library. Of all the books I’ve read recently on Christian living and spiritual growth, this is the one that hits me closest to where I am, right now, today, at my age, in this stage of life.

In other words, it’s a book for folks who have lived a little. Who have grown up and are fully engaged in lives they’ve more or less created for themselves. Good lives that may now be viewed with some perspective, through the lens of experience, in order to make a few judgments that lead to adjustments.

Loveable helped me to identify my unique, God-gifted place in this world in a way I found both refreshing and surprising. For me, this book was one big, sustained YES.

It is not, however, a book I will be loaning out . Sorry, but go get your own — which is what I recommend anyway, because you certainly don’t need to read your way through my underlined copy. Loveable finds its place on my forever shelf so that I may return to it again and again for its grace-filled wisdom and life-giving truth.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers and Zondervan for providing me this book free of charge. All opinions are mine.

Loveable Offers the Gifts of Guidance and Gorgeousness

I don’t remember how I first found my way to Dr. Kelly Flanagan’s blog, UnTangled, three years ago, but once I did, I became a regular reader and loyal fan. Kelly’s honest. He cares. Each week, he openly and courageously shares his ongoing journey and commitment to become a better husband, father, therapist. Unlike some mommy bloggers who pull the curtains back on their kids’ lives and foibles, exposing them for fun and chuckles, Kelly lays bare the ways his kids have made him grow, the way his wife loves him because of and despite of who he is, the way he learns as much from his clients as they do from him.

In addition to keeping up with a weekly blog, which is no small feat, Dr. Flanagan has written his first book — Loveable: embracing what is truest about you so you can truly embrace your life. Structured into four parts — The Backstory, Act One, Act Two and Act Three — the author takes readers through familiar psychological terrain: the wound, search and healing he calls our “backstory” and then shines a light upon a path of growth
whose stepping stones he calls Worthiness, Belonging and Purpose.

It is the human condition to wrestle with a debilitating gremlin from our childhood. Whether the gremlin’s voice is that of a parent shaming us, a teacher belittling us or a friend abandoning us, it becomes our life’s work to heal. Shame is Flanagan’s gremlin and Loveable is his quest to face this gremlin once and for all and transform it from a restrictive prison into a realm of healing and wholeness. Whatever your gremlin, Loveable is a worthy and instructive companion on your own quest to face and silence it.

Flanagan’s journey to his faith was marked with painful detours, about-faces and ultimately a homecoming. And while I could not relate to his comfort and communion with Jesus, I was constantly awed at his familiarity with Jewish texts and the subtleties of the Hebrew language. The word shalom is often, and correctly, translated as peace. But there is a deeper meaning that references a sense of completeness or wholeness. I marveled reading how easily the author moves back and forth between the tenets of his faith and mine. Recounting a time when his two sons drew on their individual strengths to help the other, Flanagan writes, “It was peace, in the best sense of the word, because it was shalom—people coming together, mingling their passions, functioning as one, as a whole . It’s the final wholeness—the big wholiness . We’re all in this together, or as the apostle Paul might say, we’re all invaluable parts of a single body . It is a shalom that surpasses all understanding.”

It’s one thing to write a good self-help book, one that resonates with a reader’s experiences, one that ignites the desire to make real and lasting changes. It’s another to write well and beautifully. Kelly notices the small things and in describing them, they expand in beauty and importance. Walking in the woods one winter afternoon he meets an old man and his dog. He writes of the “spark of God” embedded in each of them, and then he describes the scene as the man and his dog pass by: “I smell the sweet-rot of a world winding down for another winter. It mingles with the ashy scent of smoke coming on the wind from some unknown place, and the sharp scent of brittle air coming down from the north . The cloud-covered sky is platinum, like precious metal . The voice of grace is in all of it …” Loveable offers the gifts of guidance and gorgeousness.

Kelly indulges in a kind of word play in which he’ll take a phrase and break it open to find new meanings such as the word “wholiness” above. Loveable is the less common spelling of the word but it is equally correct. As I arrived at the close of the book, I was inspired to do a bit of word play of my own. Read this book. Delve in and out. Underline the passages that hold the most meaning. Mine the nuggets that shine for you and use them to illuminate the path of your own journey toward healing. The author’s goal was to guide and inspire his readers to realize that they are not only lovable in its most common understanding, but to develop the ability to love and to be loved. The title says it all — Loveable.

Loveable: Embracing What Is Truest About You, So You Can Truley Embrace Your Live is written by Kelly Flanagan. This book goes into the reasons why people feel unloved, alone and unimportant. Like many a psychologist, he believes that most of these feelings grow out of adverse childhood experiences.

This book has a Christian premise, but it did not seem preachy. I really enjoyed the personal examples throughout this book, especially about his child's lunchtime experience at the "grounded table." More accurately, this was a Table of Shame for kids who are too loud at lunchtime. I've visited my kids' school at lunch, and it's really loud. Mealtimes at my house get loud with three kids. The advice to 'shut your lid' when someone tries to fill your bucket with shame was a good tidbit. If you fill up your thoughts with negativity introduced by someone else, you'll come to believe it. Putting a stop to that by speaking up and not allowing it is an empowering tool.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

With grace, humility and vulnerability, Kelly exposes the wounds we suffer just for being human and how we can embrace those deepest pains and find the person we were meant to be. The book is so inviting that I almost didn't realize how deeply it was affecting me, but it has taken me weeks to read it because I need to pause and savor the words. (Disclaimer: I received a free digital copy of the book in advance but review reflects my own opinion.) I have laughed, cried and felt freedom as I've read, and I want to put this book in as many hands as possible. Who doesn't need to know they are loveable? This is a book I will return to again and again as I wrestle with and accept my ego and work to let it go.

'Loveable' being launched today has special meaning to me. It would have been my mother's 81st birthday, the person who loved and was loved in return mostly for her humility & her utter absence of the need for validation from others.

I discovered Kelly's writing at a critical point of time in my life, when my father was in intensive care. His empathetic responses to my emails drove me to secretly adopt him as a mentor. Would you imagine that I felt more support coming my way all the way from Illinois in the US to Goa, in India than from the friends and family that physically surrounded me when my father passed away?

I made the mistake of blocking just a day to read this book as part of the launch team as it was all the time I could afford given the many other balls that I was struggling to keep mid-air. This book, like a really good meat stew, needs to simmer for a long time for the flavour of the messages put across to really sink into your psyche.

Society & misinterpretations of religion hardwire us to do cartwheels to please others, mostly at the expense of ignoring our own needs to be nurtured and more importantly, to distance ourselves from energy suckers.

Today is also Spring equinox. What better time for a new season and reason to live more authentically. Savour this read, one bite at a time.

Easy to read, realistic, inspiring. I wish it was available (and I knew about it!) when I was raising my boys. But, it's never too late to shift, heal, better understand, better love. I plan to share this with my children when they become parents. There are too many healing insights and perspectives to try to describe in a review. And maybe they aren't meant to be. This is not a checklist recipe self-help book. It is an integrate, feel and know type of reading. But, I will say, that the 4 pages (178-181) on finding your passion were especially enlightening for me and anyone who gets caught up and confused by this over-used and ab-used concept.
Thank you Kelly for being an "unproven" writer who doesn't fit easily into any particular box". THAT is why you are so refreshing and so helpful to read and follow. YES! I want to come out and play :-)

I should have read this book with a highlighter in hand. Next time I will. Which will be shortly, because I want to really, really get this engrafted down at soul level. A half-dozen books have affected me this deeply and they are highlighted in many colors, pencil notes in the margin. This will soon be one of those.
One of the things I love the most is Dr. Flanagan’s use of illustrations, especially from the lives of his own children, to address the “little one” we all are. This is a book about healing the insidious stain of shame in our lives that began when we were very young and left us feeling unworthy and unlovable. Dr.Flanagan gently, with humor and with a touching level of vulnerability, leads us from our woundedness, through our worthiness, to belonging, and to our purpose.
I started reading one night after a long and ugly day, and within the first couple of chapters, I was watering my pillow with grateful tears.
Now excuse me while I go find one of those highlighter pens with a big barrel of 10 colors. I’m going to need it. And while I’m at it, I’ll order a couple more copies of “Loveable” … I have friends who need to read it but I don’t want to let it out of my sight.

This book was wonderful! Dr. Flanagan writes so well about relationships of all kinds and how important they are and how they affect our lives. I find truth in the fact that our relationship with ourselves is also very important. His work is very compassionate while being vulnerable, too.
He speaks with grace and hope. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in bettering the relationships in their life.

* Thank you to Kelly Flanagan, Zondervan and Netgalley for providing a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have loved receiving Kelly Flanagan's newsletter in my email for quite a while now so I was especially interested in reading his book. I wasn't disappointed. I've always struggled with this issue throughout my own life and recently it's really come to a head. He is a fairly young man with a fairly young family but this book still spoke so wonderfully to me, a middle aged woman whose children are all grown and out of the house with a husband soon to retire. I am loveable; you are loveable. Often we don't see it and waste time in self recrimination and self hatred. He writes so beautifully and it speaks right to you. This book contained many Aha moments for me and I found it incredibly helpful. I recommend highly.

Like Kelly's faithful blog posts, his voice on these pages is clear, compassionate, vulnerable and authentic. We are all broken, in some way, and Kelly speaks to that most human of conditions with grace and hope. He says we often don't get around to 'digging into our underneath' (fear, uncertainty, sadness, jealousy, confusion, anger, arrogance, and hopelessness) because it's uncomfortable or disturbing. But when we do, and when we keep on digging, we find light and healing and hope. He facilitates our journey, using insights and observations accumulated over decades of work in counseling others and from digging deep into his own life. It's as if he's a good friend, walking this journey out with his reader. You'll laugh and you'll blot a tear and you'll find yourself thinking about and applying what you've read long after you've laid the book down. You'll want to give this book to friends and even acquaintances, because the more people who can learn how to dig deep and begin to live authentically and vulnerably and healed, the greater the likelihood that this world could become a kinder, gentler place.(I received an advance copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.)

The mystery of life continues to unfold for me when I had the privilege of previewing Loveable by Dr. Kelly Flanagan.

The chapter titles captured my attention in ways that a book of substance demanded you to savor it page by page.

Throughout the reading, I felt I was befriending this family of five because Dr. Kelly's prose is personable, approachable, and connecting me to the life experiences that shape the book and all the people involved, and not just the main characters, but all of us humanity as one.

What I especially found resonating in this preview of Loveable was the universal truths (Worthiness, Belonging, Purpose) being put in the order that helped me to deepen my understanding of different practices so that the puzzle of life, as a whole, is settling into place. In turn, I am becoming appreciative of all the ups and the downs as lessons to be learned, once again, until the circle of life spins me into the next cycle.

Loveable book is the kind of gift that I already envision to be a Pay-it-Forward present for many heart-friends in my life. To that end, I can't wait to share Loveable and form book clubs with my people as a way to keep in touch, and a way to let go of that which no longer serves us for the quality life that touches all of us.

Loveable book is my kind of planting seeds.

I can't thank Dr. Kelly Flanagan enough for following his heart to write this book so that along with many others already singing his praise, I too can affirm the work I love to do and the way I get to do it bring me more joy to share with everyone.

You readers have everything to gain!

Loan Nguyen
Teacher

One of my favorite descriptions of Loveable was written by a reviewer on Goodreads: this book is like a "sneak ninja attack on your psyche." Like so many of my favorite thought-provoking, life-changing books (e.g., Henri Nouwen, Brennan Manning, Brene Brown, Joan Chittister, Richard Rohr), this book makes you feel emotions you were unaware of through the author's stories, reflections, and letters to his children (and ultimately to the reader). Reading this book gave me the same experience as leaving the movie theater seeing the world in a new way. You cannot remain the same person after experiencing this book. And your life and your connection with others will be enriched. Kelly offers wisdom and grace to his readers with gentleness and warmth. As the reader, you feel encouraged, validated, and challenged all at once, which is no small feat. Note: As you can see, I have the same name as the author of this book - I am his wife, and no, he is not forcing me to write this review. : )

This is truly a brave and beautiful book that calls each of us to continue to discover our "truest and most authentic" selves. Kelly offers his deep wisdom as a seasoned clinician with great vulnerability, insight, and tenderness. With the power of "story", we are invited intimately into Kelly's own life experiences and his own journey as a father, husband, therapist and artist, learning to listen to the wisdom of his own "little one" and living from the call of his heart. This is a book that is so applicable for anyone who is searching for a deeper sense of belonging, purpose, connection with others and discovering our own "wildest possibilities within ourselves". Kelly calls us to a place of "redeeming our pain with our passions" to become who we were meant to be, and to know in our deepest heart that we are indeed "loveable".

There are many self-help books out there, yet Kelly managed to be unique! One of the most important criterion for me when I assess a book is how the author's voice is felt deep within me. Well, Kelly's way of writing feels like divine balm on a bleeding wound. Not only that one doesn't feel bad anymore for having built a false self and having lived for ages from that place, but Kelly also makes it look easy and inviting to drop the accommodating behaviour and be true to yourself first, and then to the others. Understanding how we got there (the false self) in the first place is explained very nicely, yet the focus is on how to get out of there. The book made me feel someone lovingly holds my hand in the transition from the false self to the true self. Kelly gave me the validation and encouragement that I needed, in order to feel that it is ok to be me. Not only because "me" is loveable, but because there is no way to live a happy life unless you "ask for a hug, instead of an orange".
Another thing that I liked is the fluid transition from the universal concepts and advice to anecdotes, be them from anywhere in the world, or from Kelly's own personal life. This makes the reading experience very approachable, because one sees s/he is not alone in this mess.
Advice: get some napkins close by, because looking at shame in the eyes, and breaking the walls towards your true self goes through the flood of the tears. But the release is amazingly nourishing.

I came across Kelly Flanagan's writings about two years ago. A friend posted on Facebook something he wrote, and Since then I couldn't stop reading what his brilliant mind has to say.
I felt very privileged when I was invited to be a member of the launch team for Lovable, and received a free digital copy, which I'm still reading.
I wish I had the right words to describe the beauty of this book. It is simple, it is complex, it is fascinating, and it is delightful.
This book will bring the best of the reader even if s/he doesn't realized all the beauty there's inside them.
Flanagan's sensibility and soul searching are intertwined in his writings. He seems completely unashamed of sharing with others how to abandon shame, exchanging it for the adventure of recognizing the lovable inside each person.
Lovable touched my heart profoundly, and I am certain it will touch yours.

Loveable is a delightful collection of "love stories" to Kelly's own dear children. All of us enter our world, created worthy, to belong, for a purpose. Our spirit is untouched by wounds that require us to search for healing. Then life happens to all of us. These love letters help you and the ones you love, navigate through a 'life well read.' The author's transparency through his journey is almost as though he is on the psychologist's couch, and we sit in his chair. Delightful, and often heart wrenching examples, pull your emotions out where the light shines.

Dr. Kelly Flanagan's blog is read & sparking lively discussion, over lunch, with my home educated teenagers.

❤️Loveable, the book, may well save you time and money, spent in the therapist's office.

My honest review given in exchange for a digital pre-release copy.❤️

Discovering that you are worthy of love, despite the little voice in your head that constantly reminds you of your imperfections is what this book dives into. Kelly's definition of shame is spot on. Along with Brenee Brown, this book will have a central spot on my desk for a long time to come. I keep quoting passages to my wife and we have started to see how we need to embrace our true divine spark and ignore the voices telling us we are not good enough.

I was given an advance copy and am still working my way through it, but I keep having to go back and reread to let it sink in - it is so full of powerful wisdom.

I will update my review as I finish.

There are too many quotable sentences vs paragraphs vs the whole book - I've tweeted and IG'd a couple quotes before posting this review and must say the tid bits and bites all applicable to everyones life are exceptionally well written and will give you so much more to think about than you ever thought possible - especially with yourself let alone your partner and children - read, be well and happy! Thank You Kelly for Loveable - now we can all be - alone or together - truly - Loveable!

First and foremost, Kelly is a wonderful storyteller, and it is his personal stories that not only touch the hearts of readers, they also bring meaning to the book. It is reassuring to know that the feelings of shame and doubt in our lives are not unique. Loveable begins by building our knowledge of the way these emotions settle into our lives as we grow up, and how they shape our relationships as we age. Way beyond that, however, is the understanding that we can overcome these feelings and live happy, fulfilled lives.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and thoughtfully pondering, this book. I look forward to sharing it with those I love!

(I received an advance copy of the book in order to write an honest review for the book's launch)

Having read Kelly Flanagan's blog, UnTangled for a couple years, I couldn't wait to read "Loveable: Embracing What is Truest About You, So You Can Truly Embrace Your Life. I wasn't disappointed.

All of us have times when we feel bad about ourselves. We beat ourselves up for things we did or didn't do. Are we worthy? Do we belong? What's our purpose? In short letters to the "little ones" in all of us, Kelly paints stories of forgiveness, redemption and love.

If you're looking for a book to share with a graduate this spring, this is the one. Here's the message, "Listen to the voice of grace, know you are loveable and be whole."

Being an adopted kid, I've always told myself that the name I was born with was 'mistake'.... and spent a lifetime trying to be good enough to validate my existence, to eradicate my shame. Reading Kelly Flanagan's book 'Loveable' gently and tearfully brought me to a place of seeing and acknowledging my worthiness and belief that I am enough - I belong - and I have a purpose. I can't say enough about the transformational power of this book. So thankful. Yes - order, and read immediately!!

I received a free, digital copy of this new book. It is WONDERFUL!
Kelly has an engaging writing style, that feels like he is addressing each reader directly. I am repeatedly amazed and impressed with how close Kelly's writings come to some of my own experiences.

This book is more of the same, and helps to explain why I sometimes feel as I do. It has given me a lot to think about in my own life and self, in a pleasant and entertaining manner.
This is very easy to read and understand. All around a great book.

I loved this book. The book was about loving and embracing yourself and the things around you. It was about taking the every day things you go through and learning from them whether they be good or bad things that happened to you. It's about teaching the things you learn to your kids and making the most of situations you weren't ready to face but had to anyway. I highly recommend this book!

This book is a masterpiece written by a master clinical psychologist with a great deal of insight and wisdom on the human condition. What struck me most about this book was Kelly Flanagan's willingness to be vulnerable and share so many stories from his own life to illustrate his points. Just as he does on his Untangled blog, Flanagan uses genuine, relatable, real-world examples to seamlessly connect his experiences to the reader's in many ways. This makes the book that much more powerful. I can't recommend Loveable enough. It is likely going to be the next book my small group will be studying!

(I am thankful to have been given an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)

Happiness. Everyone yearns for it, but what is it really? Different things to different people probably, but if you really could wake up tomorrow and not be afraid to fail, what is the one thing you really want to do? I have asked myself that many times, but my Ego always jumps in to protect me and tries to keep me from getting hurt. Thanks to Kelly Flanagan, I think I finally understand where to start, and maybe where to help my children start. In our society we seem to think that happiness comes from how much we can accumulate in material things. Clearly it's not, because we keep buying and we never find, and no, it's not in that very next thing you think you have to have! It's in our true relationship with ourselves and loving ourselves, and then being able to truly love and respect the other very important people in our daily lives. Read it, you won't be sorry!

Thank you, Kelly, for writing this book! Every time I read it another thing hits my heart. It has been very healing to me. If I could I would buy a hundred copies and pass them out. I appreciate the time you took to write this, as well as, the authenticity you share with your readers.

I have been following Dr. Kelly Flanagan’s blog UnTangled for a number of years now and eagerly look forward to his weekly blog post emails because they are always gentle reminders to love, care for and nurture the inner child that exists in all of us. Not only do his posts resonate on a soul level but they are from the heart and insightful – every. single. time. When I found out he was writing a book, I knew immediately that I wanted to read it and I was fortunate to receive a copy of the book prior to its release day. It did not disappoint. Almost every page I was “aha-ing” over the wise words, so simple and so eloquently expressed. Being a quote-lover, this book is filled to the brim with quotes from wise teachers past and present as well as many quotable sentences that I can easily see myself using in my yoga classes and attributing to Dr. Flanagan. This book is full of golden nuggets of wisdom that will speak to your heart. Even if it cracks your armour a bit, at times hits a nerve and makes you cry, the resulting openness allows the light to shine and we remember that we are loveable, just the way we are.

Super readable, down-to-earth, encouraging book. I was not familiar with the author before reading this book, and I was very impressed with his conversational style, easy-to-connect-with illustrations, and of course, the bottom line messages of worthiness, love, and meaning. I found the book's message very encouraging. I would definitely recommend it to others.

In a very readable, appealing style, Kelly Flanagan draws from personal experiences and wisdom he has gained from his faith and from others to convey profound issues of the heart. His book is written in short chapters suitable for picking up and contemplating in snippets. I have read it through once and am now re-reading portions more slowly. Not only do I recommend "Loveable", I have already purchased and given away several copies as gifts. Among many insightful quotes, Kelly says, "Perhaps it's time we dare to believe that the people who have loved us well - even if briefly and fleetingly - have seen us more accurately than we've seen ourselves."

I read Loveable after reading Kelly Flanagan's blog for more than a year. I'm a speed reader so often I can't even remember if I read a book or not unless it deeply impacted me. Loveable did that and more it 'Undid me.' I had to stop reading several times because of my tears. It reached into wounded places within me that longed to hear I'm enough, to silence the voices of shame that have told me I was not wanted, not loved and didn't deserve to live. My mother was raped and I'm the product of that rape, I survived many abortion attempts, sexual abuse, suicidal and fearful thoughts all my 54 years of life and I heard it shouted out repeatedly I'm Loveable, I don't have to be ashamed of where I began. Thank you for having the boldness and courage to write Loveable. Sue Pietersen

I downloaded this book because Dr. Kelly Flanagan's short weekly blog posts mean so much to my life, and I wanted to further capture his wisdom and its practical application to how I think through relationships, priorities and parenting. I was expecting alot, and my expectations were actually exceeded. This book has just enough detail/ explanation to help you understand a concept, with not a word too many. The stories Dr. Kelly weaves into the "help" are so well placed that I read this book more like a novel, wanting to know what would happen next. I am purchasing several copies for family and friends. This is a big deal, because I almost never purchase books, opting to recommend checking them out from a library. This book is an exception. Take it on your journey.

I have been following Kelly's work for years now. His writing is wise, insightful and plain honest, which I appreciate and often inspires me to live authentically. I was very excited to read Loveable and I ended up taking ages to read it because there were some many gems that stopped me in my tracks and pushed me to my journal. Kelly puts a mirror to himself but sharing personal stories and encourages you to embrace and love yourself to experience life fully. By choosing Grace and Hope, we can develop deeper connections with others, but most important learn to love and care for ourselves, even when guilt and shame tell us otherwise. Great read and a beautiful gift for a loved one. This is a book I will revisit, bookmark, highlight, and turn to often. Thank you, Kelly!

I received an advance copy of the book in order to write an honest review for the book's launch.

So often we search for the answers and affirmations outside of ourselves when our real truth is buried deep inside of us. But how do we dig down and find it? Kelly Flanagan's book gives us the tools to get there, to find the real us, the person we were designed to be. This is a great book, beautifully written and filled with insights and take aways that aren't to be missed. I received an electronic copy, but I'll be buying a paper copy so I can go back through and highlight the passages I will refer to again and again. This book is a great gift for anyone you love and you hope will feel lovable. I've loved the author's blog for a long time and I love his book, too. Great read!

This was an excellent book. Kelly Flanagan has shared his heart via his vulnerability and it has inspired my thinking. He touches on subjects that I am normally too proud to think about and then provides comforting guidance to deal with the uncovered feelings. I was privileged to receive and advance copy and I've read it twice, uncovering new concepts (and feelings) along the way. I often repress my own feelings (stubbornly) and he's provided a path that allows me to acknowledge and process them. I heartily recommend this to anyone, but the quiet, underserved auditence of men (who are or will be husbands and fathers) will definitely benefit.

I wish Kelly had been able to write Loveable about the time I was 20 though I know the physical impossibility. The question is whether I would have read it had it been possible with that age bracketing of 'knowing all'. I know that having the privilege to read the pre-release version certainly helped me 'read myself' through a brand new set of life challenges even though I've entered my sixty first year, confirming a lot of the lessons I had learned previously while adding a much deeper perspective to so many of those simple things that we so often fly right on past in our hectic pace of keeping up in today's world.

Sometimes, the smallest things anchor the web of life. Having sometimes feeling like I was drowning trying to be everyone elses anchor, Loveable has provided an anchorage where I can keep my head above water. Read it. For your own breathing.

I have followed Dr. Flanagan's blog since its early days, and was delighted to read an early copy of Loveable. It is a simple but powerful book that resonates with the universal human experience of shame, which we all feel but rarely understand. Dr. Flanagan's stories rang true to my own experience and the book has helped me to name and better comprehend the inner workings of my heart and mind. In particular, I was moved by the necessary progression of 1) worthiness first, 2) THEN belonging, and only then can we achieve a 3) true sense of purpose. His experience as a therapist, father, and fellow human traveler make this book accessible and applicable to almost everyone I know. I have long been a fan of Brene Brown's work on vulnerability and shame, and Loveable ranks right up there with her canon and has earned a privileged place on my bookshelf.

A remarkably insightful book about how one can view their own life's struggles, questions and future. Dr. Flanagan has used his experiences both personal and professional to help guide the reader through such fundamental questions as "why am I here?", but goes way beyond a superficial look at the self and really digs deep to help us all understand ourselves and others with clarity and love. As I read Loveable for the first time, I thought, I can't wait to read this again, and I want to share this book with every person I know and love! What I really want to say is, "Thank you Dr. Flanagan for sharing your talent, insight and purpose with all of us. Your light shines bright!"

This book calls forth the most inner sanctum of our being--our real identity--which we unwittingly repress, hide, abuse and misunderstand from toddler days and sheds healing light that enables us to be reintroduced to the beauty and significance of our real selves! The paradigm shift in our self-image from the usual negative to something "loveable" is powerfully transformative and can reverberate through our lives and beyond as new revelations wend into our hearts and minds! I had many "aha" moments in this very readable book and am ready to read it again for reinforcement because monumental changes don't happen overnight in patterns that have existed an entire lifetime!

I started reading with the intention of just reading one chapter that night but I was so drawn in that before I knew it, I had read five chapters. Dr. Flanagan uses humor, personal stories and anecdotes to convey struggles he has faced in his life, which are struggles many of us have also faced. I’m going through some relationship issues that made reading this book an adventure. It was difficult at times but also extremely helpful.

As a pastor, I have already encouraged some individuals to buy this book to help with situations in their own lives. Additionally, I have others in mind who I feel will greatly benefit from the words that Dr. Flanagan offers to us all – YOU are worthy and YOU are loveable!

As a Presbyterian pastor I have recommended to couples in premarital counseling that they read Kelly Flanagan's excellent book, The Marriage Manifesto, because it gives the most realistic and helpful view of marriage that I have read to date. Now I am also pleased to be able to recommend this much more comprehensive explanation of what it means to experience love as an ordinary human being. This one takes a bit longer to get through because the content is so rich, but it's worth it! Read it and weep.

I love this author. Very relatable to our ordinary everyday family selves. Yet gives us cause for pause to reflect how shame and self defeating behaviours can be subconsciously unintentionally undermining those very intentional goals that we set out on life's path to correct. Our selves as adults, parents and families we thought we could mold better than the generation before we might have gotten so diverted by busy-ness that we lose track of the intentional self reflection and continual self work required to actually change the legacy of shame.
I read it as part of the pre-launch team but I'll have to read it a second time to get the nuances.