Lost You, Found Me is a book filled with reflections from beauty queen turned author Zara Carbonell as she recalls the love, loss, and hardships she had to go through in order to find herself. It will push you to seek out self-truths that you never expect to find. The book is filled with fond memories of childhood, struggles in choosing career over love, different views on fulfillment, and adventures that put life in perspective. Lost You, Found Me also includes interactive reflection pages where you can jot down thoughts like a journal, as well as an exclusive song from Kiana V. It’s the kind of book that once you pick up and finish, it’ll leave you reflecting and manifesting for a better version of you.
Here are some lines from her book to manifest, reflect, and apply to your own journey of healing and finding yourself.
“If you want to be a superhero, be a superhero”
As wisely said by Zara’s lolo who had a huge impact on her and inspired her to live a life of service to others, being a superhero isn’t jumping from the slide in hopes of learning to fly. In fact, it’s doing good things for others that makes you a hero. There are three things she wanted to point out: what matters to you, what motivates you, and what you prioritize. These are what you should focus on in becoming your version of a superhero.
“I vowed to protect my life at all costs by making sure I lived it out as best as I could.”
Everyone has one life and it is their duty to live it as fully as possible. It’s saying yes to opportunities of a lifetime but also knowing when to say ‘no, thank you’ to create boundaries for yourself. There was a point in her life when saying yes to everything got her going on adventures like surfing, climbing mountains, and swimming with whale sharks for the first time. It brought her a sense of acceptance when previously she had to lose parts of herself to really know what she needed. So you must remember to seize the day since it’s your life that you’re living for and no one else’s.
“Lost is a state we will perpetually be in and that life is best approached by embracing it as it is.”
Everyone comes to a point where we feel lost in life whether it’s in love, career, friendships, or even family. We have no idea what is our next step, who do we trust, who do we love, and everything in that realm. We question our capabilities and if there is more to this life than what we are doing now. The best approach to it is to accept it as it is. Zara emphasizes in the book that we work so hard for a comfortable life that we lose track and get stuck but the best way in getting out of it is to understand and accept it. Everything smoothes out if we don’t try so hard because when we do everything we lose focus on what truly matters to us.
“While these years have truly painted the best years of my life, I did not come out unscathed”
Getting hurt or feeling pain, in general, is something no one could ever avoid. It’s what makes us human and helps us understand that there are things to look forward to even after disappointment. In the book, Zara goes through so many things like breakups and its aftermath, getting followed by a strange man in Malaysia, and a whirlwind of trouble that most people never get to experience. Despite all these hurdles, she knew she had to go through it because the world needed her to learn and learn it the hard way in order to strengthen her trust and confidence in herself.
“Places change you and people move you- sometimes for a moment and other times forever.”
Every experience always has its unforgettable moments. There are people who will come to your life for a reason and teach you lessons even though you think you already know everything there is to know. As you read Lost You, Found Me, you get to see glimpses of what Zara’s friendships and relationships were like. Beautifully, she comes to the conclusion that relationships with people were mere reflections of the relationship one had with themselves. Despite the hardships she encountered, she still learned to trust and learn from the people who made an impact on her life.
“What’s mine will find me.”
This manifestation is a classic and for good reason. From dedicating 11 years of her life training to becoming a beauty queen and almost getting it to working in areas of her life and accepting whatever the outcome may be, Zara told this to herself once she was back on the grand stage competing to be crowned the first-ever Miss Tourism Worldwide 2018. Spoiler Alert! She won! She manifested this but also remembered that expectation is the root cause for disappointment so by accepting whatever the situation may be then it was easier to avoid the hurt that usually followed.
These 6 lines are all from the book and there are so many more life lessons you can indulge in and apply to your life. A moving and heartfelt book that will empower you to find what it is you truly want. The book is available to purchase on the Bookshelf PH website so grab your copy now and start your journey in reinventing a better version of you!
Lost You, Found Me was launched in May 2022 at Ascott Bonifacio Global City. Grab a copy of the book here.