Turn Your Mate into Your Soulmate: A Practical Guide to Happily Ever After

Ford, author of The Soulmate Secret and director of its spin-off workshops, has a helpful if familiar insight to share: meaningful adult relationships, without exception, take work and commitment, no matter how emotionally, physically, and spiritually compatible the people involved may be. She applies a New Age–flavored approach to the observation that “it’s one thing to fall in love and get married,” but “quite another thing to have a marriage you love.” She shares what she has learned from her own experiences and from thousands of workshop participants, as well as from noted personal growth experts such as John Gray, Marianne Williamson, and Laura Schlessinger. In nine relatively short chapters, Ford leads her readers to the understanding that a soulmate is someone who, in self-help author Debbie Ford’s words, “offers you the greatest possibility for growth for both human beings to evolve into their greatest expression” and that a powerful relationship stems from a “triad of love: you, your mate, and God/Spirit/Universe.” Suggestion include past life regression, the self-soothing technique of tapping, prayer, intimacy exercises, and relationship vows. The book also features a 16-step process for carrying out the title premise. Ford covers well-trod territory, but her advice is sound. (Dec.)