Music That Tells the Story is the companion to spiritual guru Iyanla Vanzant's self-help bestseller of the same name and incorporates the principles laid out in the book. Blending spiritual wisdom with common sense, the au... more »thor tells us how to come out of the "basement" and live vibrantly even while we're waiting to manifest our wildest dreams of love and connectedness. Vanzant calls this "the meantime"--a place one will revisit periodically through life's unfolding. Interspersing smooth inspirational R&B tunes with bits of juicy text read by the author, the disc espouses nuggets such as "Love doesn't hurt; falling into the traps we set for love makes us hurt ourselves." The songs, some cowritten and performed by Vanzant, are both old and new, and are sung by a group of artists including Kelly Price, Yolanda Adams, and Faith Evans. Successful in its mission, the recording is affirmation for a life fully lived in the absence of perfection. --Paige La Grone« less
Music That Tells the Story is the companion to spiritual guru Iyanla Vanzant's self-help bestseller of the same name and incorporates the principles laid out in the book. Blending spiritual wisdom with common sense, the author tells us how to come out of the "basement" and live vibrantly even while we're waiting to manifest our wildest dreams of love and connectedness. Vanzant calls this "the meantime"--a place one will revisit periodically through life's unfolding. Interspersing smooth inspirational R&B tunes with bits of juicy text read by the author, the disc espouses nuggets such as "Love doesn't hurt; falling into the traps we set for love makes us hurt ourselves." The songs, some cowritten and performed by Vanzant, are both old and new, and are sung by a group of artists including Kelly Price, Yolanda Adams, and Faith Evans. Successful in its mission, the recording is affirmation for a life fully lived in the absence of perfection. --Paige La Grone
"Reading this book was the best thing I've done for myself in years. As a man reeling from ANOTHER extremely painful breakup, I was desperate for anything to sooth the pain. Having read LOTS of self-help books, I can say with some justification that this is the most spiritual, calming, healing guide to relationships that I've ever encountered. Like a cold compress on a fevered brow, I could always find relief and peace by reading this book, even at 3:00 in the morning.
Recommended to me by a spiritually advanced friend, I found it to be the only thing that calmed me down, stopped my heart from racing, eliminated the panic attacks, and made me feel whole again. It provides a loving, gentle nudge in the direction of individual wholeness, completeness, and understanding of what we've all done wrong in relationships. More importantly, it shows us what we can do to PREVENT these disasters in the future. The key, of course, is self-love. Like a gentle mother guiding her unruly offspring, Ayanla lovingly puts us back on the right path without making us feel stupid, unworthy, or hopelessly inept at love. Her most powerful contribution is the concept that no matter how bad our partner and the relationship, it is ALWAYS ONLY ABOUT US!
This book provides a roadmap to relationship success, if only we make the time for ourselves to uncover our own issues and work to correct them. I've read the book three times in a row, including highlighting, underlining, and dog-earring the pages. This is like a User's Guide to love. Don't get caught without it. Please savor this book. Race through it the first time, if you must, but read it slowly again to really understand what she is trying to teach us. Vanzant should get the Nobel Prize for this one."
Pretending that everything is just fine!
kourtharris@hotmail.com | United States | 02/07/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Iyanla's book was painfully true and exact! It wasn't until I stopped denying that I had accepted things in my life - unsatisfying career, dead end relationships, negative relationships - that were taking me away from the "true self", that I came to appreciate that I needed to hear the truth from someone who didn't care if my feelings were hurt. From someone who was not judgemental and insensitive. I beleive as people, we are in denial about alot of things in our lives. And maybe we are too proud to admit this to others, but always be true to yourself. That is the only way a change can come about for the better. At the end of the day, when there are no more eyes to look into and fake smile, when you are weary of saying "I'm doing great!", when actually, you are so unsure about yourself and how you feel, you really have no clue about how you really feel! This book isn't scholarly! You don't need your doctorate degree to relate. It's conversational! It's down to earth! It's like listening on the other end of the phone, while your Aunt's talk! It's a must read."
Perfect for understanding life
jessica_maia | 12/27/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Excellent book for anyone who has not become their "ideal self" yet. This book reads like an old friend and earnestly works toward achieving what you truly want in life.... a better sense of self worth. It teaches that loving yourself comes first. Although this premise is not new, the book shows common occurances that we do not recognize immediately as disrespectful ourselves. This book does not talk down to the reader nor is it flooded with psychobabble."
Very insightful
John Tweed | Denver, CO | 10/26/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This was one of the best spiritual books that I have read in a long time. There are a lot of books out there about personal relationships, but this one really hit home and was easy to understand. Sometimes it's all in how the message comes across and the author does a great job in doing just that.
Some good messages that I learned from this book were:
1.) Learn to love yourself before you can love another. Often times we go looking for love to cure our life - thinking that a person that fits our needs will help that. Maybe briefly, but you need to be content with yourself first.
2.)Everyone will find out what love is not on their way to finding out what love is.
3.) You must listen to what people do, not to what they say. Simply put...actions are louder than words.
4.) Avoid the trap of thinking that every relationship has to be the relationship that last forever. Sometimes a relationship, even if it ends in hurt, is necessary to get you to the next level.
5.) Unconditional love makes you vulnerable. Unless you are vulnerable, you cannot be open and experience true love. Most of us are too busy building our "walls" up to see this.
These are just a few of the great points that I extracted from this book. Highly recommend it!"