The 10 Life Challenges of Women: The Secret to Surviving and Thriving

In our highly competitive, youth-oriented, lookist, consumerist, success-obsessed society, women of all ages and backgrounds are struggling to form and maintain authentic, accurate self identities. The sense of disrupted identity that a job loss brings, for example, can be disorienting, destabilizing and overwhelming, but therein lies the problem. Basing one’s identity on what job one performs or what role one plays in society is what philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre referred to as “bad faith.” Your social role is not equivalent to your human existence, and by defining yourself by your social role, you are deceiving yourself and not living up to your full potential.

Sartre believed that when you pretend to be someone you’re not or live according to values that aren’t true to your own, it has the same effect as putting a kink in an electrical line – it cuts off your flow of energy. When you are true to yourself and live authentically, you unkink the line and connect with others and the world with 100% energy. That quality is what gives truly authentic people their magnetic appeal and draws us to them.

If you have ever felt that you are on the wrong path, that you are living according to the values of others rather than your own, or that your life has no purpose or meaning, you have likely been playing roles rather than living your true identity. The consequences of perpetuating a false identity include depression, anxiety, unsatisfying relationships, career indecision, and lack of direction or purpose.

This book examines the ten most challenging sources of identity disruption and destruction for women, and provides insight into errors in thinking that lead women to pursue false, unfulfilling identities. The book also provides recommendations for forming a strong, authentic self-identity that will be resistant to influence by external forces.

Living your life the way you were meant to rather than compromising yourself to meet the expectations of others is the path to joy, connection, meaning, purpose and fulfillment; and it is all within your power.

Topics Include:

1 Job Loss
2 Past Abuse
3 Divorce or Break-Up
4 The Shame-Shaped
5 Parenthood
6 Empty Nest Syndrome
7 Care of Aging Parents
8 Illness and Injury
9 Aging
10 Death of Loved One


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Chapman has a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology and has been a therapist and life coach for over 20 years. He specializes in abuse recovery, life transitions and personal growth.