Ten Commitments for Women

Susanne Blake
Robert D. Reed Publishers (2006)
ISBN 1931741603
Reviewed by Beverly Pechin for Reader Views (11/06)

This book will open new doors to your life.  Simply reading it won't be enough, you have to delve into it with your heart and soul, sort of like how Susanne Blake tells you to live your life... with heart and soul.

This "How To" book is very unique.  There is no preaching about how you messed up and how you should change.  Instead, Ms. Blake takes the approach of teaching you how to love yourself from deep within.  Finding the real you.  Finding your "Self".  Finding a new life, by making a conscious decision to live your life from deep within.

What I enjoyed most about the book was that at the end of each chapter, the author not only produces a simple, well explained plan of how to put her words into action so you can make life changing decisions but she also provides questions and a work area to bring your actions full circle.  You're not only becoming aware of more intense you, but you're seeing it in black and white.

In the beginning Blake comments on how, as a baby, we are given literally a brain with all this knowledge of what God wants us to know.  While we have no clue at that time that we have it, nor do we know how to use it, it's still there.  She suggests taking a picture of yourself as a baby and posting it up so you can see it daily.  Look into the eyes of that child and see the simplicity and depth it reflects.  That is the true you, your true Self.  That is what you want to go back and feel.  Before anyone told you how to feel or how to act.  Before anyone fed you their beliefs and ideas.  The core within that was untouched by anyone but the maker Himself.  That is where you want to be again, to achieve pure happiness and purpose to your life.

One of my favorite areas of the book had to do with women and relationships.  Not just "romantic" relationships, although they are a part of it, but the other relationships in your life.  The people you choose for friends.  The people you choose to be with.  The people you choose to love or hate.  Ms. Blake discusses our sometimes poor judgment in relationships that we tend to repeat over and over again.  She shows you how to approach these relationships, whether they're romantic or platonic, and view them from 4 very real areas - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.  The author discusses ridding yourself of these 'bad' relationships to help yourself become whole again and while she does tell you how to do it, she also supplies means of achieving this level of happiness by giving you exercises to do that will bring you one step closer to happiness.  I personally think that our relationships are a huge majority of who we are and what we become, and when surrounded by people who pull you down and bring you into an area of unhappiness, you will never become fully alive deep within.

The author gives a deep, rational and valid explanation of how to literally become the person you were born to be.  She shows you how to work at being content with life and with your life's decisions.  The end results can only be wonderful, giving you a sense of self-worth, power, success and inner peace.  By making the decisions that make you happy, you will make everyone around you happier also.  Putting yourself before others, those on your list of priorities that have always come first, will help make you a more complete and content person.  Not only will you benefit from the changes that will take place after putting her words into practice, but those around you will benefit from finding the REAL you.  Blake not only tells you how to find your own happiness but holds your hand along the way to make sure you achieve it.
Listen to interview with author on Inside Scoop Live
Listen to co-interview with Tom Massey on Inside Scoop Live
Read interview with author
Make comment on weblog