Madison Prewett Recalls Overcoming Being 'Miserable' in Singleness as She Started Writing New Self-Love Book

The 'Bachelor' alum — who is releasing a new self-love book, titled 'The Love Everybody Wants' — tells PEOPLE that she wants readers to see that "our relationship status is not our identity"

Madison Prewett Troutt eventually found her happily ever after with her husband Grant Troutt. But before that, she wasn't quite sure if she ever actually would.

The former Bachelor contestant, 26, had long wondered when it would be her time for love. It was hard for her to navigate her season of singleness, especially as many of her friends around her were finding their partners and her loved ones began asking questions about her love life.

However, instead of simply wallowing about her single status, Madison embarked on a journey of self-love as she deepened her spiritual connection with God. Eventually, she chose to write about her experiences in navigating and enjoying that stage of life.

Related: Madison Prewett on Why She Was 'on the Same Page' with Grant Troutt About Premarital Couples Counseling

In her new book, The Love Everybody Wants: What You’re Looking For Is Already Yours, Madison isn't aiming to create a manual for how to get a boyfriend or a manifesto for getting married. Instead, she says, she's trying to help her readers understand the foundations of love and establish self-worth.

"I found myself in this place when I first started this book being so discontent with where I was at, being so miserable in my season of singleness," she exclusively tells PEOPLE. "And then, as I started reading some of the DMs that other people were sending me, I was seeing how so many people had the same doubts and securities, wrestles and questions that I was having. It made me realize I'm not alone in this. That really was what kind of started this book for me."

The former reality star says she was "just writing it as therapy" for myself. "I was, like, I'm preaching to myself right now," she explains.

In the process of writing her book, Madison ended up meeting and falling in love with Grant. The two got engaged in July 2022 after eight months of dating. They tied the knot that October in Dallas, Texas.

Related: 'Bachelor' Alum Madison Prewett Marries Grant Troutt in Romantic Texas Ceremony

Before Grant came into the picture, Madison admits, "I have been the person who's tried to find my identity, my purpose, my peace in the things of this world. I've tried to find it in a relationship with someone else. I've tried to find it in status. I've tried to find it in position and job and in all of these things, and I've just continued to be unsatisfied and left empty and disappointed."

"I started writing this book single, and so I wrote my singleness. I have a whole chapter on singleness, and I didn't write that chapter as a married woman who's been married and gotten everything that she had been praying for," she explains. "I was writing that chapter still from a place of struggling in singleness, trying to fight to believe that I'm still worthy of being loved and of still trying to be confident and content in my season. I was still fighting to believe those truths as I was writing that chapter, encouraging other people to believe it."

"I think that what makes this message so authentic is that it really was from just my heart: this is where I'm at, this is what I'm struggling with, and I write about the three things that singleness did teach me that I was able to really reflect on when I did start dating Grant and got engaged. The three things that I was so grateful for [with] singleness," she adds. "I talk about in my book how singleness really is the greatest season that we have, the biggest opportunity that we have because that's really where we're learning who we are and what we value and how to stand up for our values and beliefs, really develop a sense of standards and boundaries to know what we deserve and refusing to settle."

Related: Madison Prewett Troutt Says 'Marriage Is the Best' as She Continues Honeymoon with Husband Grant

In accomplishing this, Madison notes the importance of "learning to love ourselves and create a healthy relationship with ourself, valuing ourself, knowing what we deserve [and] knowing our worth." This, she says, will allow for one to be able to "give and receive love in a healthy way."

Putting healthy love at the forefront, which she believes stems from a foundation centered in her Christian faith, Madison adds, "I really hope that when people read this book, they see that our purpose is not a person, that our relationship status is not our identity and that we are a part of something so much bigger than ourselves."

Overall, the message presented within her book is something Madison says she's "really, really passionate about" because it's something that everyone can relate to.

"We all want love. We all want to love and to be loved. We're desperate for it because we were made out of love and we were made for love. And so, it's a hole in our heart that we're longing to be filled," she concludes. "My prayer is that when people read this book, they see that this love that they're longing for is already available to them."

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The Love Everybody Wants: What You’re Looking For is Already Yours is available to purchase Tuesday everywhere books are sold.

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