Voices of the Future
newways publishing
ON HAVING A BODY
AC Hafstad
'I AM NOT FIGHTING TO MAKE MYSELF SMALL AND INVISIBLE ANY LONGER. I AM FIGHTING TO MAKE MYSELF BRIGHT AND RADIANT.'
'On Having a Body' - ACÂ Hafstad
A story of...
Radical self love.
Body peace.
Mindful eating.
Deepest self care.
Food freedom.
Joyful movement.
Coming home.
Tasting life.
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
This e-book is our gift to women. Quite literally, because it's free. No strings attached.
It all started with my grandmother, whom I love beyond words.
In 2020 she looked at me and saw the fundamental change that had transformed my life in the months that I now personally call 'The Shift,' 2019.
I had gone from a mindset of diet culture, disordered eating and utter body hatred to one of radical self-love and food freedom. And I was showing it.
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Can't you tell me more about this mysterious Shift? she wondered, her eyes all sparkling and bright. Knowing I'm a writer, she added: Don't you have a written record of it, somewhere? Something I could read and understand.
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As a matter of fact, I did have a written record of that time. I am an avid practitioner of journaling, and have been for twenty-one years. Everything I live through I write through - including those intense few months in 2019, when (unexpectedly) I suddenly learnt to move deeply into my body. Fully. And finally, to call it my home.
A GIFT TO HER AND A GIFT YOU
It is because of my grandmother that IÂ decided to type up my diary.
I have never been able to give my grandmother anything in return for all the love she has poured into me. But now she had suddenly given me this opportunity to do something, however small, for her. I could give her my Shift, in writing.
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And then it occurred to me: how often on this journey towards body respect and self-care had I re-read my diary in times of doubt?
Had this really all happened? Had developing a deep and healthy relationship with my body really been this liberating, and this easy? Was I really never going to have to go on a self-imposed diet anymore? It couldn't be.
I'd go back to those three months, neatly compressed into the pages of precisely one notebook. I'd fly through the motions of my mind once again. It would only take two hours and I'd be back to where The Shift had taken me. I was again fully at home.
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It was almost as if the diary was a secret little weapon I hoarded, a private key to something beautiful. But if it had, time and again, rooted me - how could I keep it from other women who might want to experience the same love for their body and their life?
WHY IS THIS BOOK FREE?
You're skeptical.
The initial idea has always been to publish the e-book version of "On Having a Body" for free. It’s a diary, I wrote it to process life, and it didn’t feel like I owned its core message. It should be out there, for women who need it. Period.
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But Thea and I - the two women making up newways publishing - are both professional digital marketers. Naturally, we’ve considered selling the book. And by considered I mean planned. Seeing that we are both obsessive planners we diligently worked on: a business plan, a content marketing plan, a social media marketing plan, etc. etc.
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Yet none of that changed the fact that we simply… didn’t seem to want to actually do any of that. We tried hard.
But really, we just wanted "On Having a Body" to get out there. We were simply curious what would happen if we just set the e-book… free, expecting nothing in return.
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It’s an adventure, and so far we like it.
WILL IT ALWAYS BE FREE?
Once we have set up the function on this website, you may choose to donate any amount of money to newways publishing and thereby support new projects, but it’ll be voluntary.
If you do support us, we’ll be super excited for several weeks to come (seriously, you can’t begin to grasp the feeling of someone voluntarily giving you money for something you yourself made).
We’ll probably use your donation to buy a decent brunch or a bottle of red wine and pour it directly into future newways projects.
DOWNLOAD THE E-BOOK
'On Having a Body' by AC Hafstad
How does it work?
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Subscribe to the Free Download List below.
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Check your e-mail, including your spam folder.
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Enjoy.
Which devices can I use to read On Having a Body?
The e-book is formatted as an .epub file. The format can be read by:
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Most e-readers (except for Kindle)
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Most smartphones
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Most tablets
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Most computers
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Will there be a Kindle version?
We are continuously working on releasing new formats for you to enjoy. A Kindle version as well as a PDF version are in the pipeline.