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[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Acquiesce to love peace gratitude" by Fabiola Piedad Maria Alicia Reynales de Berry.]

Acquiesce to Love Peace Gratitude is a memoir by Fabiola Piedad María Alicia Reynales de Berry. The aim of the book is to help those who are overwhelmed by anxiety. It emphasizes the importance of gratitude. The author omits names and locations in an effort to make the story universal.

The memoir tells the story of a woman who loses her optimism and joy. She feels like she is trapped in a loveless marriage. Her husband refuses to acknowledge that he has a serious problem. Instead, he places all the blame on her, painting her badly in the eyes of outsiders. Despite all this, she fights to salvage what remains of their tattered marriage. You don't just throw away 32 years of marriage, right? Eventually, she becomes drained. She is choked by feelings of anxiety, resentment, and anger. She must find a way out of her situation. That is when she discovers self-help webinars and books.

I like how realistic the book is about her healing process. It wasn't sudden, it occurred gradually. A bulleted list of all the workshops and books that helped her on her journey to emotional well-being is included in the acknowledgements. Throughout the rest of the book, she  discusses how she applied and benefitted from the techniques found in these books. They enable her to understand her negative feelings, trace their source, and replace them with positive feelings. Some of her feelings trace back to her childhood.  Her flashbacks were quite interesting. They made me realise how small moments can have a huge impact on a person and define them.

The technique I found most useful, was that of being aware of your thoughts. She learned to take notice of her thoughts; and she came to the realisation that the bulk of her thoughts were negative and uncontrolled. Slowly, she learned to focus on positive thoughts and felt happy as a result.

I am not sure how I feel about the harsh contrast drawn between the woman and her husband. The book is written from her perspective; and she speaks very highly of herself throughout the book, while pointing out all the negatives about her husband. She exposes degrading incidences despite knowing that he has real mental problems. Her perfectionism blinded her to the fact that he could not be expected to act normally. On the other hand, I appreciate her honesty and her willingness to share her true feelings with her readers. I also admire her dedication to him. She continued to do her best to care for him even though she was repulsed by him. I feel though, that this care was given to gratify her own conscience; it was not given out of love.

Initially, I could not connect with the main character. She had a lot to complain about. She also placed a lot of value on materialistic things. It was hard for me to sympathize with her situation as she walked into her marriage despite noticing a number of red flags. Gradually though, she became more positive, choosing to be grateful for the little things. That is when she became appealing to me. The title of the book is fitting as she eventually acquiesced to love, gratitude, and peace.

I rate Acquiesce to Love Peace Gratitude 2 out of 4 stars. It was easy to get through as it is only 107 pages. Admittedly, it was not engrossing, but it also was not an absolute bore to read. It can also help those who are consumed by anxiety to realise that they are not alone, help is available.

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Acquiesce to love peace gratitude
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Wow! This book certainly seem to have lot to offer. I honestly believe that it will help so many people to heal in life. Anxiety, depression, etc they all fuel anger. Anger is a eating demon, it eats you slowly. I am very happy with this book and definitely worth recommending it!

Sometimes it's awfully easy to say things like be aware of your thoughts or give thanks in every situation. For someone suffering from anxiety that canbe very difficult to do. I hope that someone benefits from this, though.

This quite impressive. Truly anxiety can eat your future if not correctly managed and taught effectively.

On the life's lessons side, it looks like a good read. The journey of the growth of the woman would be interesting to follow.

Thank you so much for the review. Definately going to get this book to read. I admired her strong will's courage. Hope to learn her lives' lessons. Living in a painted life one must take its own path journey.

Thanks for the review. One thing I have come to realize and accept ,. Is the fact that, each person's life experience can relate to others who are undergoing the same. I hope the book gets to help someone out there.

Wow, this sounds like a difficult book to read but also very worthwhile and enlightening. There are many women, and men, who try to salvage a relationship where the other person will not admit that they have a problem. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to solving it.

kandscreeley wrote: ↑21 Jan 2018, 08:26 Sometimes it's awfully easy to say things like be aware of your thoughts or give thanks in every situation. For someone suffering from anxiety that canbe very difficult to do. I hope that someone benefits from this, though.

I concur with you, Kandscreely. I think that these kinds of books can help some, but it is awfully easy to say what you should change about the way you think, less easy to do it. I worry that these books pose a danger to others, as mental health issues, including anxiety, can be very serious, even to the point of being life-threatening. Positive thoughts alone are not enough to help someone who has a chemical imbalance in their brain and is in need of medicines to help that balance. I wish more of this genre would include mental health resources as a part of them, but perhaps this one does. Hard to tell without actually reading the book.

Kat Berg wrote: ↑07 Feb 2018, 21:26

kandscreeley wrote: ↑21 Jan 2018, 08:26 Sometimes it's awfully easy to say things like be aware of your thoughts or give thanks in every situation. For someone suffering from anxiety that canbe very difficult to do. I hope that someone benefits from this, though.

I concur with you, Kandscreely. I think that these kinds of books can help some, but it is awfully easy to say what you should change about the way you think, less easy to do it. I worry that these books pose a danger to others, as mental health issues, including anxiety, can be very serious, even to the point of being life-threatening. Positive thoughts alone are not enough to help someone who has a chemical imbalance in their brain and is in need of medicines to help that balance. I wish more of this genre would include mental health resources as a part of them, but perhaps this one does. Hard to tell without actually reading the book.

I'm right there with you! For someone who is really suffering from some type of chemical imbalance and has severe anxiety, a book like this could make them go over the edge. That's definitely not what the author intended I'm sure, but I do agree that there should be a balance of resources for those that really need severe help and techniques to help those that just suffer from occasional anxiety.

These days anxiety and depression has become something that needs to be taken seriously. These books can help people through tough times. Thank you for the review.

This book has a really great concept. I also like that Susana gives the names of the books containing methods she used. Nice review