With the eyes of the nation focused this week on the outcome of Election Day 2024, what’s clear in her new book is how Melania Trump, former first lady, protects her own mental and psychological health no matter the events she’s navigating.
She’s the author of the current New York Times No. 1 bestseller, “Melania.”
The personal memoir gives readers a rare look inside her life, starting with the moment she set foot on American soil as a 26-year-old and on through the assassination attempt on her husband, former President Donald J. Trump, this past summer in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Whether she’s enjoying personal success or dealing with political chaos, whether she’s celebrating family triumphs or weathering times of national turbulence, she figured out long ago how to stay calm, even-keeled and focused on what matters most, she reveals.
“Life’s circumstances shape you in many ways, often entirely beyond your control — your birth, parental influences and the world in which you grow up,” she writes.
“As an adult, there comes a moment when you become solely responsible for the life you lead. You must take charge, embrace that responsibility, and become the architect of your own future.”
For her, she says, that moment was coming to America and New York City as an individual full of “youthful confidence.”
Self-care is ‘essential’
That confidence, she indicates, had roots in her upbringing.
Her mother, Amalija Knavs, born in 1945, taught her that “self-care was essential not only to a person’s well-being, but also to being able to effectively care for others,” she writes.
Her mother “instilled this conviction in me from an early age, teaching me the importance of attending to one’s appearance before venturing into the world.”
Trump says her mother often told her, “If I don’t take care of myself, how would I know how to care for others?”
“The value of self-care,” she says, “remains a guiding principle in my life.”
‘Own identity’
Melania Trump says that even as a child, she embraced a sense of “organization and orderliness” — taking a “methodical approach” to whatever projects she was working on or involved with.
Over time, she writes, “I learned that regardless of the circumstances or the company I found myself in, the most crucial relationship I could cultivate was the one I had with myself.”
It’s essential, she shares, “to be grounded in one’s own identity and values. I embrace my individuality and confidently walk my own path.”
This strength of character carried her through a time when she felt “targeted” for her appearance, she says, and was “perceived as being ‘too’ tall and ‘too’ skinny.”
She acknowledges that it felt like bullying — though it wasn’t described that way decades ago.
Today, Trump writes, “I have come to understand that genuine happiness is not found in material possessions, but rather in the depths of self-awareness and self-acceptance.”
Other lessons in mental strength
Melania Trump shares a number of other affirmations and beliefs in her book.
“Sometimes, in order to succeed,” she writes, “you must be willing to take risks and make tough decisions.”
She also says, “I value autonomy and believe in allowing people to live according to their wishes.”
She writes that “in any relationship, whether as a mother to my son, a wife to my husband or a stepmother, I firmly believe in the principle, ‘Don’t control, communicate!’”
She also writes, “We seem to be living in an age where much of our lives is presented for public consumption on social media.”
However, she adds, “some moments in life are meant to be private and do not need to be shared with the world.”
She also says, “I have always believed it is critical for people to take care of themselves first … We are all entitled to maintain a gratifying and dignified existence.”
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Having already served a term as first lady, she notes that she’s aware that the role “transcends formal duties. [The] mission [of first lady] turns to fostering human connections, showing empathy and offering support for those in need.”
Her time in the White House, she says, has shaped her perspective and reinforced her “dedication to serve others.”
“Writing my memoir has been an amazing journey filled with emotional highs and lows,” Trump previously told Fox News Digital about her book. “Each story shaped me into who I am today.”
She also told Fox News Digital that “although daunting at times, the process has been incredibly rewarding, reminding me of my strength and the beauty of sharing my truth.”
