The Conscious Bride

I am finishing the last few pages of a book that was recommended to me by a colleague: The Conscious Bride: Women Unveil Their True Feelings About Getting Hitched (Women Talk About).

The book is all about the process of going from girlfriend to fiancé to bride to wife - not planning-wise or functionally, but emotionally and psychologically.  

I resisted ordering this book initially because I know myself to be a do-er rather than a be-er and this book seemed to be about the being rather than doing.  That is, I schedule things, and make to-do lists, and organize.  I do not spend copious amounts of time in reflection, contemplation, or processing.  Certainly a weakness of mine  an area in which I could do with some growth overall.  

So, obviously, I put off ordering it.  

Then I put off reading it.  

And then I have been putting off finishing it.

Now, I am quite close to finishing it and I have to say that I love this book.  I highly, highly recommend that any woman who is engaged - or planning to be engaged soon, or recently married - read it.  Now.  Certainly, there are times that I disagreed with the author, but overwhelmingly, the book spoke to me and how I have been feeling.

I feel torn between explaining now the entirety of the book and the idea that I might make writing about the book a multi-part post, since there is so much to get into and one post might be overwhelming.  I think the latter is most appropriate, but I do want to provide more of a sense of the book's basic premise.

The author's bottom-line philosophy is this:

(1) Getting married is an inherently huge transitional experience.

(2) All transitional experiences are painful, stressful, and difficult.

(3) Our society tells us that getting married should be the happiest time of her life.

(4) The combination of these have led to getting married being a cycle of feeling badly and then feeling badly about feeling badly -- so on and so forth.

That's the best overall summary I can give of the author's estimation of the 'problem' at hand.

There are six different chapters, all of which address different topics and ideas.

I am enamored of this book right now, and I reaffirm my recommendation to read this book.  

Link below to purchase.