Queen of Your Own Life

Queen 1. a female ruler 2. an admired woman 3. the most powerful chess piece 4. a woman eminent in rank, power or attractions 5. a goddess or a female having supremacy in a specified realm.

Cindy Ratzlaff and Kathy Kinney

Are you looking for something inspiring and entertaining to read? Then look no further than the book Queen of Your Own Life: The Grown-Up Woman's Guide to Claiming Happiness and Getting the Life You Deserve by authors Cindy Ratzlaff and Kathy Kinney. You might recognize Kathy Kinney from her role on the Drew Carey show as she played Mimi.

In the book they share techniques that they call "The seven best gifts a woman can give herself." These seven gifts elaborate on the following:

• Claiming your beauty and feeling your power.
• Cleaning your mental closet and finding your queen voice.
• Admiring yourself for who you've become.
• Building deep, fulfilling friendships with other women.
• Establishing firm boundaries that will strengthen all your relationships.
• Learning the simple trick to finally being happy.
• Placing the crown firmly on your head.

Cindy and Kathy manage to keep the reading rather light, even as they tackle topics like Kathy's below-sea-level self-esteem. They takes turns sharing stories from their personal lives to help elaborate and get their point across and that includes some real nuggets of wisdom along the way.

Here are a couple of excerpts to give you a taste of the book~ "I've had my share of grief and sadness in my life but the truth is that a lot of my unhappiness has been created by me. I was so busy borrowing worry from the future, about things that were probably never going to happen, that I was destroying any chance of happiness in my present. I had no gratitude for all the abundance I did have and no faith that I would be able to hang on to any of it. I didn't understand that being happy and worry free is a choice, and making that choice on a daily basis takes practice."

"I believed that I had to suffer in order to be worthy of anything I received. I thought if something came too easily to me, I hadn't earned it and therefore didn't deserve to enjoy it. I now believe that life i supposed to be easy and joyful. When it is difficult and painful, it's a sign that I need to change something."

"We have a secret to tell you. You already were the Queen of Your Own Life. You just needed a couple of good friends like us to hold up the mirror to help you see what we see -- your best self, a woman who has been made wiser and stronger by the journey, who is beautiful just the way she is and who she is more than capable of creating a life for herself that is filled with joy."