One of my human Annie’s regular editing clients, Regula Fischer, hosts a podcast called Many Firsts, where she interviews people about experiences they’ve undertaken for the first time, which have had a major impact on their lives.

On reflecting back over the last couple of years, Annie and I have undertaken ‘many firsts’ of our own on our journey to the publication of our book. The idea for the book itself came out of a random comment from one of our meditation teachers, as well as a series of freewriting exercises where I wrote to Annie about my thoughts and feelings regarding where she was in her life at the time.

That led to us putting together an outline for a book, which eventually became Meditations On Being Amazing: One Bear’s Guide to Acknowledging Your Own Worth. Annie had written several books before this one, but this was her first nonfiction book – and my first book of any kind!

It also became Annie’s first experience of self-publishing, rather than seeking an independent publisher, which was a whole journey in and of itself.

It led to us both cultivating an audience on Instagram for the first time, with us collaborating further on advice videos and guided meditation videos. This has been tremendous fun and has brought us into contact with lots of lovely people (and other plushie friends).

My favourite first was doing an Instagram book tour with Love Book Tours, during which we got some beautiful and clearly very heartfelt reviews of the book. That was the first time I felt as if my message of cultivating self-worth was really reaching people.

I also now have this blog (another first for me, though Annie has been posting her own for some time) and a monthly newsletter (which was also a first for Annie, but eventually led to her creating her own as well).

I have spent a lot of my life interacting with humans and trying to offer them support and love, but writing a book allowed me to put my ideas about how to help humans into written words on a page for the first time. This has led to a tremendous amount of joy and satisfaction, knowing that a much wider range of humans now has access to the lessons I can offer in creating a better relationship with yourself.

Looking back, it’s amazing how many firsts have come out of that one meditation class! So, I think my lesson for today is that it’s important to look out for opportunities for fantastic ideas and experiences that may be sparked by the strangest and most unexpected moments in life. If you live your life with your eyes and heart open, you will be more likely to see those moments and take advantage of their potential. And you never know what first-time experiences they might lead you to.

 

You can email me at wisebearstanley@gmail.com

You can buy my book (all about building a better relationship with yourself).

You can sign up for my fortnightly newsletter.

And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram – @wisebearstanley – for cute photos, advice videos and meditation with Moomintroll!

You can also find me on Twitter and Bluesky – @wisebearstanley

And here’s where you can buy Stanley merch!