From the book Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It. He is describing the effect of the practice on his depression and life.

And I got better. My body started healing faster. My state of mind grew lighter. But the thing I never expected or imagined, life got better. But not just better, things happened that were fantastically out of my reach, things I couldn’t have dreamt of. It was as if life said, “Finally, you idiot! And let me show you that you made the right decision.”

It did. People came into my life, opportunities arose, I found myself using the word “magic” to describe what was happening.

And through it all, I kept repeating to myself, “I love myself, I love myself, I love myself, I love myself.”

In less than a month, I was healthy, I was fit again, I was naturally happy, I was smiling. Amazing people were coming into my life, situations were naturally resolving themselves. And through it all, whether I was at my computer again, or kissing a pretty woman, in my head, I’d be telling myself, I love myself.

In all honesty, in the beginning, I didn’t believe that I loved myself. How many of us do? But it didn’t matter what I believed. All that mattered was doing it and I did it the simplest way I could think, by focusing on one thought again and again and again and again until it was more on my mind than not.

Imagine that. Imagine the feeling of catching yourself loving yourself without trying. It’s like catching a sunset out of the corner of your eye. It will stop you.