Holly Willoughby - Reflections: The Sunday Times bestselling book of life lessons from superstar presenter Holly Willoughby

REFLECTIONS by Holly Willoughby For Dan,Harry, Belle & Chester Contents about the author Holly Willoughby is the UKs most popular female TV presenter and is best known for her work on This Morning, Dancing on Ice and, formerly, Celebrity Juice. She has a combined 20m social media following. I want to share with you a personal ritual I like to light a candle to set anintention to connect with myself, pause for a moment and create a space that helpsme to achieve my goals. There is endless possibility in the flicker of a flame andsomehow the warm glow feels like home, even when youre away. So before webegin, light a candle and take a deep breath Now youre ready to turn the page Hello! Firstly, I just want to say thank you for picking up this book. I wonder if the reason you were drawn to it was the same reason I started writing it Have you ever found yourself in that moment where you just wonder whats next? Where you think, well, I could carry on as I am, but somehow theres a yearning for something else? Maybe that moment, for you, is right now.

Thats where this book started for me. I think the timing of this moment is unique for us all. For me, when my children got a bit older, I could suddenly think about myself a bit more, and there were so many questions, so many answers I was looking for. The need for growth, knowledge. Some internal pull towards growing roots and settling down that wasnt satisfied just by having a physical home. I wonder if that yearning is a pull from within, a rare moment of intuition bubbling to the surface.

I think change and growth find you, no matter how much we run from them, hide from them, mask them with whatever resourceful method that has worked up until now. But change finds you in the end; you cant hold it back. I think the moment we open our eyes and ears to change, it comes more rapidly, and what at first is frightening becomes a part of you and feels safe and better. Its like being in the sea, out of your depth. Not being able to touch the bottom can be scary but as you swim, you realise you can do it, and if you want to go to shallow water and touch the ground, the foundations are there. Then, once you experience change, you realise you want more.

This book represents the culmination of many years of change and work for me. I wanted to understand what it means to be beautiful, in every sense of the word. I wanted to explore what it means to be a woman in this modern world and how I fit into the story. Just to be clear, whenever I reference men and women in this book, I mean anyone who has come to identify as a man or woman. I write from the point of view of someone who has always identified as a woman, but I hope this book will feel relatable to all genders. This book is all about being free to live as your truest self.

I believe that when you are free to be the person you truly are meant to be, and can go about life without fighting to be heard or feeling suppressed by something or someone, then magic can happen. Socially accepted behaviours can channel us through very narrow corridors in life, and I want to expand them, stretch them to the limit, and see what my likes and dislikes are without the distraction of others expectations. I want to share with you my toolbox, whether its little things that have helped, or things that have changed my life completely. Its important to say that I really hope this book will nudge you to find your own tools. What works for me may not be right for you, but if Ive learned anything its to try everything, and if it feels right, then keep it. If it doesnt, then let it go.

The greatest skill in life is to be able to tune in and listen to what it is you need and want. No book can tell you how to do that, but I hope this one will help you to explore yourself, to trust in yourself a bit more and not rely too heavily on external influences as your guide. It made sense for me to not only explore my inner self but my outer self too. Inner and outer beauty are two sides of the same coin, and I dont believe outer beauty can truly exist unless it is underpinned by whats going on inside. I want to ask questions about what beauty really means, to refocus that lens, change how we view ourselves, so that we are back in control of our own narrative. Ive sat in the make-up chair for twenty-five years and learned a lot.

Make-up and getting dressed up are about creativity and having fun, and in this book I will share some of the knowledge that I have gained from the brilliant experts I have worked with Youll discover the secrets behind the reflection. Im going to be honest. I needed to write this book and, selfishly, its been helpful for me, a release. But I hope that some of my words will resonate with you, too. Enjoy! I started working as a model when I was fifteen years old and, as I write this, I have just turned forty. Thats twenty-five years of sitting in the make-up chair.

But Im not bored of it. I still love getting glammed up, I still enjoy the fun, the play of it all and I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing make-up artists who have taught me so much. What I have started to think a lot more about as Ive got older is what beauty actually means to me. When I was in my early teens, copying the makeovers from Just Seventeen with my friends, I probably would have said that beauty means glamour and red lipstick and maybe Marilyn Monroe. Which it does, in a way, but that is only a tiny part of the story. We all want to feel beautiful.

We all want to feel like we shine in our own skin. Thats completely natural and nothing to be ashamed of. The problem comes when we let other people dictate to us what beautiful is and we focus on how we appear on the outside, the image we present to the world at large, and we stop listening to our inner voice and what makes us feel good on the inside. I dont think you can have outer beauty without inner beauty too. If you can reach the point where you can understand and accept your inner self then everything you do and all the choices you make will come from a place of honesty and authenticity. Youll be able to let go of all the judgement that is placed on us as women every day and all the judgement and pressure that we pile on ourselves.

Most of us spend so much time worrying about what other people think of us and comparatively little asking ourselves how we are, what we need today. We are bombarded by images of perfect lives and perfect bodies in magazines, on TV and particularly on social media. We see photos that have been airbrushed, photoshopped and had filters applied and so we end up aspiring to some unreal ideal that has nothing to do with who we are as individuals. While we are scrutinising our wrinkles, wishing our nose was smaller or that we could afford those high heels, we are ignoring our own inner truth and inner beauty. Who we are and what we love is being drowned out by all this noise. There is so much to be said for the ritual of beauty.