Life is a Perception, What's Yours?: How Your Thoughts and Beliefs Determine Your Life

Kimberley A. Colvard, PhD
iUniverse (2006)
ISBN 0595376223
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (11/06)


"Life's a Perception, What's Yours?" is a keeper.   Considering I have read thousands and thousands of books and only have about twenty keepers, I do not say that lightly.  It is one of those books that came along at the perfect time in my life.   I have already made some major changes and Colvard provides the steps to continue with the plan that I have of empowering myself so that my life will be in alignment with my true self.

Her intention of writing this book is to help the reader develop a new self-perspective.  It taught me to look at patterns of learned conditioning that I created in my life, but which no longer serve me.  Identifying this learned conditioning has allowed me to become aware of why I created these patterns of thinking and behavior in the first place and why they are no longer contributing to my happiness or my self-esteem.  She wants us to become co-creators in our lives.  She says "Our perceptions rule our reality...Your external world is a mirror of what is going on inside your head."  By working with our thoughts we can change our reality.  She calls it "living life from the inside out."

Colvard is extremely compassionate and positive in her writing.  She does not make you feel badly about having gotten caught up in unhealthy behaviors.  She encourages you to forgive yourself, learn from the experience and move on to a more positive way of living. 

The book is less than 90 pages, but because my mind was processing and discovering so much, it was not a fast read.  She offers workshop lessons that will guide you through a great deal of self-reflection.  I found these to be very helpful.  She also discusses the five stages that occur in the process of change so that you can recognize them and understand them as you experience them. 

I really loved “Life is a Perception, What’s Yours?.”  I would recommend it as a gift to others, but first I think that you need to make it a gift to yourself. 

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