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    Book Review 

                  THIRTEEN THING MENTALLY STRONG PEOPLE DON'T DO ( Amy Morin)

 Review by Suhail Ahmed

INTRODUCTION OF BOOK AND AUTHOR.

13 things mentally strong people don’t do, is written by Amy Morin. This book was published in January 15, 2015. It has 247 pages and 13 chapters.

Amy Morin is a psychotherapist and the international bestselling author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t do and 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do.  Her books are translated into more than 30 languages.

REVIEW.

This book grew out of a series of tragic events in the author’s life. Three years after her mother died, Amy’s husband, still young, suddenly died of a heart attack. Now she not only had lost her mother, she had lost her husband as well. Morin shared a condensed list of the hard lessons she learned during those difficult years. After these tragic events, the author decided to write down what she had personally learned. So she wrote a book “13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do” Amy Morin wrote this book from her personal experiences of trauma and knowledge of psychotherapy.

One of the eye opener book that provides us a framework to identify our mental strengths and weaknesses in its 13 chapters which let us know the thirteen elements of mental strength. In the first chapter it tells about what does mental strength actually mean and also differentiates it from mental health. While reading this book one can analyze his own behavior by himself, in each of it’s chapter it   talks about a standard of mental strength. This book consists of series of real events in almost each chapter which through light on tragic situations of life which happen with everyone in this earth but different people with different mentality look at the same event in different ways. She gives the example of two drives who had got their cars struck with each other, soon the driver of one car comes out and becomes anxious and laments about why do such kind of accidents always happen with him?  At the same time the other driver comes out of his car with words of gratefulness for both of them were safe and sound in such a dangerous accident where there were chances for both of them to die. The book gives motivation to focus on the focus on positive aspects of any situation.  The writer emphasizes to avoid self-pity even when we are facing the worse challenges in our life.” she writes. “If you choose to view circumstances in a way that says, I deserve better, you will feel self pity often. If you choose to look for silver lining, even in a bad situation, you will experience joy and happiness much more often”. The book is honest and one of the most realistic self-help books I have ever read unlike most of the motivational speakers, the writer has given this framework on experimental basis that is applicable to practical life. In general, the book teaches us to behave in a logical manner and to be responsive rather than being reactive.

  Besides the great lessons of the book, I liked the directness and simple language of the book. Writer has avoided the use of complex and more scientific terms that could be difficult for her readers. anyone who just knows simple English vocabulary and grammar can learn the book.  she has never exaggerated the importance of positive thinking more than it is, rather she has provided guidance to her reader by covering all aspects step by step that are based on reality. another thing that was appealing to me was that the writer has not given any religious touch neither has talked about something mysterious and superstitious.

My favorite part of this book is in chapter no 1 that Amy Morin provides with an example of an American long-distance runner, Marla Runyan. She ran the New York Marathon in a little over two hours. Plus, she also has a master’s degree in education and has written a book. Perhaps most impressively, though, she’s accomplished all this while being loyally blind. The key to her success lies in her refusal to indulge in self-pity. She’s always refused to identify her illness as a disability. Grateful people suffer less often from aches and pain. Mentally strong people don’t sit around feeling sorry about their circumstances or how others have treated them. Instead, they take responsibility for their role in life and understand that isn’t always easy or fair.

This book really motivated me as I read the book I realized that I was guilty of some of the self-defeating habits she discussed. We all are guilty of not being mentally strong in some areas: examples of this include people pleasing, giving up after the first failure, giving away power. The book is like therapy; you only get out of it what you give. As I got honest with myself while reading the book, I reflected on some of the weak spots in my life and also where I am strong. This book awoke me and gave me so much food for thoughts. Mentally strong people don’t try to avoid change. Instead, they welcome positive change and are willing to be flexible. They understand that change is inevitable and believe in their abilities to adapt. Mentally strong people recognize that they don’t need to please everyone all the time. They strive to be kind and fair, but can handle other people being upset if they didn’t make them happy.

This book was likely to be more wonderful and more enjoyable if the writer had written more precisely, despite the simple and direct language, the ideas are found more than one time in the book which make it somehow monotonous. In my opinion, the writer had to skip similar kind of stories from the book for the facility of the reader. In this way the reader could get more benefit in lesser time.

This book can be recommended to adults who have a negative image of their life and think that their life is full of bad happenings. this book provides most convenient ways to overcome negative thoughts and feelings from our mind and teaches us how to handle the situations in best ways and to move on with firm determination and hope. According to my opinion, this book may not seem appealing to teenagers because this book consists of stories regarding life of adults and the ideas she has discussed are more realistic, teenagers are often get motivated by listening or reading something that evoke their emotions and spirit for achieving some reward in their life. People who want to develop their reading habit may also read this book because this is an easy book to understand which can be read without using a dictionary.

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