Live a Life You Love

My all-time favorite self-help books are How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne W. Dyer, and The Magic of Believing by Claude M. Bristol. I read them years ago, but refer back to them at times, and really feel that these books have helped me immeasurably with my relationships with others as well as with myself. That being said, though, I don't read a lot of self-help books, and I review even less. However, I was open to reading and reviewing Live a Life You Love: 7 Steps to a Healthier, Happier, More Passionate You because I felt it might offer some degree of empowerment, especially to women, which is one of the purposes of this site.

"For the first time in twenty-eight years, my perfect mask fell off and shattered into a thousand pieces around me. I confessed everything: that I'd made a mistake choosing Emergency Medicine as a specialty, that I had had enough of the huge workload, and how the antidepressants had helped at first, but didn't seem to be working anymore."
~Live a Life You Love, Dr. Susan Biali, M.D.

Live a Life You Love is a very personal book by Dr. Susan Biali. In it she talks about how she changed her own life. While working as a doctor, she liked helping people, but felt harried and oddly dissatisfied. Surprising those who knew her, she decided to leave the medical profession and pursue her passion to become a writer--and a flamenco dancer!

In the book she encourages us to think about changing our lives as well. She asks us if we are truly happy in our jobs, in our relationships, with our lives. She talks about the importance of nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. In a clear and simple way, she outlines seven steps to follow in sections titled:

• Allow Yourself to be You
• Learn to Love Yourself
• Honor Your Body
• Rescue and Revitalize Your Relationships
• Get a Life!
• Make Room for the Divine
• Make "Someday" Today

The author presents many ideas in this book, in an easy-to-read format. Even if you're not contemplating changing careers or making other major changes, Live a Life You Love has valuable ideas for making smaller but important changes. I found it interesting and inspiring.

Special thanks to Lisa from Online Publicist for sending me this book. Live a Life You Love counts toward the Women Unbound Reading Challenge hosted by Aarti, Care, and Eva.

Mailbox Monday

Last week, four books arrived in the mail. On Tuesday, I received The Last Songby Nicholas Sparks, which I won on Darlene's book blog, Peeking Between the Pages. As a fan of Sparks' romances, I was very happy to win this book. On Friday, I found two books in my mailbox, The Art of Racing in the Rainby Garth Stein from Terra Communications, a book I've been interested in since reading about it on Stephanie's Written Word, and Live a Life You Love, an inspirational book by Dr. Susan Biali from Online Publicist. Last but not least, on Saturday I received The Life O'Reilly from and by Brian Cohen, which has gotten many excellent reviews on Amazon. I'm looking forward to reading all of these books.

Mailbox Monday is one of my favorite memes, where readers share the books they've recently acquired, hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page. Feel free to join in the fun, but be forewarned: "Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists". What books arrived in your home recently, by mail or from elsewhere?