[Review] Gala Darling’s Love & Sequins

Image of Gala Darling from http://galadarling.com

REVIEW: Gala Darling’s Love & Sequins Book/Podcast

LINK: http://galadarling.com/static/love-sequins-podcast

PRICE: $84.00 (Currently $42.00 through 2/28/12) or $12 per chapter ($6.00 right now!)

DESCRIPTION (from the author)

Love & Sequinsis my handbook on being a love letter to the universe. It’s about living magically & celebrating ourselves & it is delivered right to your inbox!

Each chapter is a whopping 10,000 words (or more!) long, & you also get an MP3 of me reading it aloud to you, which is brilliant for boring subway rides or as a kind ofmodern bedtime story!

So I had an admission to make…I’m kind of addicted to self-help, business and motivational books. This spawned early in life but really spread in the last couple of years. Is it possible to have a mid-20s crisis? If so, I’ve had it. Blame radical life changes in a short span of time for my excessive soul-searching, but I figure if I put all this work into my children, my career, my relationship, my apartment and my beloved Pinterest boards and nothing into myself…well that seems pretty stupid.

Anyway, I am only a recent convert to the church of Gala but I just adore her now. When I saw that her book and bootcamp were half off in February, I couldn’t resist the bargain and snapped up the entire book with it’s companion audio files! I am so glad I gave in to my early morning impulse buy because I spent the last week with Gala’s dainty little Kiwi accent in my ears telling me to BE HAPPY, DAMMIT! Of course, that isn’t all the book is about! Here’s a breakdown of the chapters by topic. For descriptions and excerpts, click the link above.

1. Learning to Love Yourself: Self-adoration, manifesting your ideal persona, channelling your inner Marie Antoinette & everything in between!
2. The Smart Girl’s Guide to Business:  Taking control of your life, finding your passion, loving what you do & making mad bling!
3. Love, Sex, The Galaxy and Everything:  From falling in love to co-habitation, & all the beauty & madness contained within!
4. A Guide To Manners for the Modern Minx: Etiquette, social graces & charming the pants off total strangers for the uninitiated!
5. Finding Happiness & Making it Stay: Choosing joy, making magic & devoting your life to love, adventure & deliciousness!
6. Daintier, Smarter, Better Dressed:  A deluxe guide to looking truly fabulous, defining your personal style & being the best-dressed girl at any party!
7. Blogging 101 : Living & loving online, monetisation in the new world & thinking beyond the 9-5!
8. Best Friends Forever:  Keeping your friendships fresh, finding platonic soul mates & clearing out the fakes, phonies & meanies!
9. Manifesting & Magic-Making: Using imagination & reverie to create a perfect universe!
10. International Playgirls Unlimited: Taking to the skies, travelling in style, romance on foreign shores & more!
11. It’s Up to You, New York, New York! :  Decadence & debauchery, enchantment & madness, love & cockroaches!
12. What I Know For Sure

My favorite chapters were 2, 5 and 7 but I really loved all of them. As I was typing out this list of chapters, I realized I had somehow missed chapter 6…it’s like getting a new chapter! I have listened to all of the chapters twice and will probably listen to them all again sometime. They’re great to listen to while cleaning, and I do that a lot. A LOT.

Love & Sequins has inspired me to do many things. Some of these things include

• Rushed out to Barnes and Noble to buy a new journal and consequently proved what a shitty vegetarian I am by purchasing a leather one.  I have this problem with shoes and bags, too. Send your letters to “DEAL WITH IT DEPT”.
• Bought a sequined bunny ear headband and several masks. They’re “for the photobooth”…sure.
• Started blogging here again, and I have many changes scribbled down in the dead cow journal.
• Re-organized my entire office area with every good intention to be fabulous and self-employed within my designated, equally fabulous workspace. I have yet to move my laptop there, but I have admired it several times.
• Start a new Monday ritual in which I contact three friends and either just say hello or make a date with them. So far this is my favorite.
• Corrected a shitty attitude with pure MIND MAGIC several times.

I’d be writing all night if I went through Love & Sequins chapter by chapter, but here are a few of the things I took away from these podcasts.

We cannot always control what happens to us, we CAN control how we react to it. Yes, some dick can swerve in front of you and cause you to spill your delicious and piping hot mocha latte you just purchased on the jeans you just laundered…but you are the one who chooses to either wallow in it or laugh it off.  You can assume your day has been ruined and bitch to everyone who will listen (spoiling their day as well) or you can say “oh well” and get the fuck over it. Simple concept, but one few people adhere to. I’d like to give it a go.

We are the master of our own day. Through several chapters in Love & Sequins, Gala reminds us that we need to live in the now. We need to be happy now. Whether it’s quitting our shitty day job to do what we really love, traveling as much as possible, doing yoga in the morning or wearing a tiara to the laundromat…we need to design our lives with happiness in mind.

I do not travel enough. This one doesn’t need much explanation, but just listening to Gala’s tour de New York City in chapter 11 and the preceding on traveling in style, my wanderlust is on FIRE. I love visiting New York City and I think this year’s PDN Expo will also feature several of her “must-sees”.

I recommend this series to any woman (and maybe even some men) who feels uninspired by life right now. If you feel like the universe beats up on you and you have shitty luck, read this book…or at the very least my favorite chapter, #5. You will not regret it!