Book Review: 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace by Dr. Dyer

The 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace by Dr. Wayne Dyer, is a small, beautifully laid out volume of spiritual wisdom designed to resonate with anyone who wants to consciously choose a life path that leads to success and inner peace. I have owned it since Hay House published it in 2001 and periodically re-read the 10 secrets which are core principles for achieving inner peace.

At first glance, the book looks very simplistic and indeed it is easy to flip through the 10 chapters and quickly scan the lovely quotes and short sentence that describe the essence of each secret. In fact, I would encourage readers to do just that and then go back and read one chapter at a sitting. If the chapter resonates, allow a few days to digest the wisdom and apply it to your own life. If it doesn't resonate move on to the next chapter and don't get bogged down with trying to make sense of something that you don't agree with or are highly resistant to accepting. Honor your current feelings and don't beat yourself for not "getting it" or not wanting to practice a particular principle.

If you're used to thinking of success in traditional terms of hard work, material success and relationship success you may be disappointed that this book has no direct advice about those things but if you're able to keep your heart and mind open to the value of becoming in tune with your spiritual essence you may experience a shift in thinking and beliefs that will help you redefine what true success means.

The rest of this review will focus on the 10 secrets and briefly summarize them. Dr. Dyer goes into much more depth about each principle and readers are encouraged to read the whole book in order to attain a comprehensive understanding of each one.

1. "Have a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing. " Sounds easy, but is it? From early childhood we have been conditioned to accept the world the way our parents, teachers, friends and culture tell us it is and this conditioning may make it hard for us to keep an open mind that's not attached to the achievement of culturally accepted outcomes.
2. "Don't die with your music still in you." Find your passion and follow it even if it means marching to your own drumbeat when it's different from what everyone else or society says you should be doing.
3. "You can't give away what you don't have." This is about loving and respecting yourself so that you will have love and respect to give to others.
4. "Embrace silence." It is in silence that we find communion with God. Silence helps us cultivate inner peace and becoming more peaceful helps us deflect the negative energy of those around us.
5. "Give up your personal history." Many people hang onto past pains and use their personal history to justify their current self-defeating behaviors which only leads to more pain in the present. Dr. Dyer suggests that we view our past history with compassion for all that we've been through and then practice living in the moment.
6. "You can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it." Dr. Dyer believes that any problem can be resolved with a spiritual solution. He suggests that we need to change our mind, thoughts and beliefs in order to find a spiritual solution to a problem.
7. "There are no justified resentments." Resentment is like venom that continues to pour through your system doing poisonous damage long after you've been bitten. You can remove the venom by making a decision to let go of resentments.
8. "Treat yourself as if you already are what you'd like to be." As you place more and more of your energy on what you intend to manifest, you start seeing those intentions materializing.
9. "Treasure your divinity." Dr. Dyer recommends that we think of God as a presence that is everywhere, including ourselves.
10. "Wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you." What you choose to think about is the source of your experience of reality. Choose to replace dis-empowering, weakening thoughts with empowering thoughts of peace, joy, love and acceptance.

I have been reading books by Dr. Wayne Dyer for 3 decades. He is an internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development and has appeared on thousands of television and radio programs, including The Today Show, The Tonight Show, PBS specials and Oprah. He has created numerous best-selling books, audios, videos and CD's. He also starred in a recent movie called, The Shift.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Dyer you can visit his website at the following link:

This hub was written in response to a suggestion that fellow hubber, Melovy, made to me in a comment on her thought-provoking hub, "How to Use the Best Self Help Techniques in the World to Beat Yourself," which can be viewed at: http://melovy.hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Use-The-Best-Self-Help-Techniques-In-The-World-To-Beat-Yourself .

Thank you, Melovy, for suggesting that I create a hub about my favorite self help author, Dr. Wayne Dyer. I always appreciate your thought provoking comments, your ongoing support of my writing and encouragement to write on different topics.