What happens when the kids move out? What do you do with all that time and space?In Living Life for You, Lila shows how to handle the kids’ inevitable move out and find your own purpose and goals—while giving you all the practical tools you’ll need to build a healthy relationship with your adult child. Learn how to:— Encourage your child’s independence and let go.— Rediscover your own identity when you hang up your Wonder Mom cape.— Create a “recipe for self-belief” that values yourself.— Reconnect with your partner.— Figure out if your life calls for a change, and what that change might be.It’s time to embrace the idea that you deserve your own happiness. It’s time to invest in you. You get one life—it’s time to make the most of it! "It's not just a book, it's a movement! Get ready to be inspired, uplifted, and change your life for the better." -- Amberly Lago, Motivational speaker and author of True Grit and Grace "The title of 'mom' defines us. But when the kids move on, can we? Lila helps put this major life transition into perspective and makes empty nest difficulties easier to adapt to and accept." -- Megan Dickson, M.A., Administrator/Educator and Mom "Life is a crooked path, filled with joy, laughter, bumps and bruises! In her marvelous, inspiring new book, Lila Reyna shares her road map to finding a way through good times and challenging ones." --Dorothy M. Leveque, Ed.D, author of Journey of Hope I don't know about you, but when I cradled my newborn in my arms, I must have missed the "What to expect when they up and leave the nest" handout. There's no step-by-step guide to follow when your adult child moves out and stops talking to you. Or when they know more than you do and suddenly your opinion carries little or no weight. Or when you need to prepare them for a successful move-out. Or when the house is empty and you realize your entire reality, your entire life, has been rudely disrupted. Much emphasis in our society is placed on raising the young child, and for good reason, too. But in reality, motherhood doesn't stop when the kids move out, it just changes. And sometimes itcan be even more challenging, because it's about finding the crazybalance between loving, trusting, and letting go. Living Life for You is about accepting change and being aware of and accountable for your own happiness, because ready or not, it will happen--your children will grow up and leave, and you will be left staring into a mirror. That's when the gentle calling of your soul may beg the question, Who am I, now? It's a natural time inyour life to reflect on what was, what is, and what is to be. This book doesn't come from lofty heights. This book comes from experiences; from the tears, the joy, the challenges, the laughing, the trying, the failures and the successes from my own life and from the moms I've interviewed. I am not a doctor. I am not a therapist. But I have handled pain and hardship and I survived; I work with women on a daily basis, teaching self-de- fense and awareness, and I had the honor of interviewing overfifty moms for this book. And my own three children--although there were definitely rocky times--have grown into well-adjusted, happy adults. At times we all face different struggles, and I wrote thisbook to offer some ideas, thoughts, stories, and inspiration from one mom to another. May it help you, in whatever way you need most, to let go of the past, accept the future, and embrace this inevitable change with open arms. So, let's raise a glass, together, to all moms--may we shareour tears, laughter, trials, and tribulations with each other. May we share our own experiences, reach out to each other, communicate, and learn from each other. And may you create the customized manual you need in order to live your own life with purpose and with passion--to live life for you. Lila Reyna is the creator of Action Awareness Training, a personal self-defense and empowerment program, and the author of several books, one of which, Street Sense: Smart Self- Defense for Children, landed on the USA Best Books list and won a 2016 Parent's Choice Award from Parents' Resource Guide. Lila first started training in the martial art of Kuk Sool WonTM over 20 years ago, and today holds the rank of 4th Degree Black Belt. She is currently in the testing process for her Master's degree. Lila is also a practitioner of Frequency Energy MedicineTM, a unique healing technique that uses specialized skills of intuition and empathy and is comprised of three major aspects: the mind, the body, and the spirit. Based on the foundational wisdoms and practices of both traditions, Lila created Action Awareness Training to help others enhance their quality of life, personal safety and greater selves. Action Awareness Training workshops and seminars help develop powerful life skills, like the ability to confront limiting habits of behavior and thought in order to attain greater awareness. As an abuse survivor, Lila