August 26, 2009
Color Your Life Happy:
Create the Success, Abundance and Inner Joy You Deserve
Flora Morris Brown, Ph.D.
Aviva Publishing 2009
ISBN 978098449704
5 stars – Book Packed with Colorful Stories and Good Advice Offers Guide to Happiness
Flora Morris Brown wants to share with you the secrets to happiness. Better yet, they are not so much secrets as manageable common sense changes you can make in your life to help you feel happier, more successful, and more fulfilled. While many of Brown’s messages resonate with what other self-help gurus have said about positive thinking, Brown provides an upbeat reinforcement with some great practical activities and colorful personal examples that bring to the forefront the wonderful achievements that can be made when people improve their attitudes and prioritize what is really important to them.
Color Your Life Happy is the kind of book you can open anywhere to receive great advice and an instant boost in your positive attitude. Brown gives us numerous clues of ways to improve our attitudes from focusing on a positive moment in the past, to reprioritizing our goals, and avoiding the toxic people who pull us into negativity. Brown reminds us that while the world may have much turmoil and misery in it, worrying over the world’s problems will not stop wars or feed the hungry so there is no reason why we should focus on what makes us unhappy. Just because it is a human tendency to prefer to complain—it’s easier than making the effort to seek happiness—we do not need to succumb to what is socially acceptable negativity or believe in superstitious ideas that happy thoughts will only jinx us in the long run. Yes, Brown is realistic that bad things happen, but she’s also aware that the positive outweighs the negative.
Amid inspirational quotes and effective activities to help the reader along the path to happiness, at the heart of the book is Flora Brown and her personal stories of how she persevered to happiness; some are tales of difficulties that worked out well, but most of the stories are simple examples of how her “can do” attitude brought her abundance. One of my favorite stories was her refusal to sit in a steep distant balcony seat when she went to the see the play The Color Purple. Determined she would either get a good seat so she could see the actors, or just go home, she went down to the lobby to ask whether any better seats were available. Before she knew it, she was sitting in the Orchestra section and had three tickets to the show. While some may say what happened to her was a coincidence, if she had not been determined to leave the balcony and look for something better, she would not have ended up enjoying the play so much from such a great location.
Great advice fills this book—advice Brown has taken from herself and applied successfully—advice that will equally benefit the reader. Brown reminds us not to get upset over little things but to laugh about them—“If it’ll be funny later, it’s funny now.” She asks us to be good landlords to ourselves—make a contract promising you will treat yourself well. Become an optimist by telling yourself positive stories about the future rather than focusing on “if only’s” from the past. Learn to manage your time because “If you don’t manage your time, then other people will. And guess whose priorities they will put first?” Her tough advice on how to deal with toxic people is alone worth the price of the book; for example, it may sound a bit harsh not to return phone calls, but Brown reminds us it is our life, and there’s no sense wasting it listening to people who complain and want to pull you down to their negative levels.
Brown does not simply give us advice. She also provides several activities, some thoughtful and others fun yet insightful to help us achieve the outlook on life that leads to happiness. I loved her idea of designing your own family crest along with your motto that serves as a visual reminder of your positive mission. She provides us with guidelines to help us find a job we will love that will both pay the bills and sustain our souls. And my favorite comment, not even advice, but something Brown simply mentions, is that she gave a name to her inner voice that uses fear and negativity to pull her down. She named her inner critic voice “Susie.” I imagine it’s much more effective and affirming to tell Susie to shut up than to use your real name.
Color Your Life Happy: Create the Success, Abundance and Inner Joy You Deserve is full of colorful stories, and even uses colors for metaphors—such as “color yourself powerful” by wearing black, or “color your life flamboyant” with orange because it’s the color of fun and energy. After a forty year career of inspiring people through teaching and inspirational speaking, Flora Brown now gives away her secrets to finding happiness in one book. Read “Color Your Life Happy” and achieve the happiness you’ve always deserved.
For more information about Flora Morris Brown, Ph.D. and Color Your Life Happy: Create the Success, Abundance and Inner Joy You Deserve, visit her colorful, inspirational website at www.coloryourlifehappy.com
— Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., author of the award-winning novel Narrow Lives
