How to Be Single and Happy: Science-Based Strategies for Keeping Your Sanity While Looking for a Soul Mate Paperback – Illustrated, January 16, 2018

I am 3/4 through this book and absolutely loving it. The author - a therapist who takes a kind but honest approach, has helped me realize that (societally) we put WAY too much significance and focus on romantic relationships / finding "the one", but what really matters and fulfills us are our daily activities and mindset. A lot about mindfulness in this book. Well written, easy to read (quickly!) I'm recommending this one to everyone I know who is single or frustrated with love.

I ordered this book after being unceremoniously dumped on Valentine's Day and started reading it in a haze of tears, anger, and cynicism. By the end, I was thrilled and happy to be single, and I am not making that up! This is the first seriously honest dating book I've read that really dives deep into the enormous pressure that we women face to be partnered up (and especially to be married), the specific ways that pressure messes with our thoughts (e.g. "Men only want women who are half their age, and I'm 40 so I'll have to settle for an old man with dentures"), and concrete mental exercises to pull ourselves out of that depressing brain mess. It shows how to replace those unhelpful/inaccurate thoughts with steps to live a rich, meaningful life where romantic relationships are...kinda irrelevant. I just finished it and will probably reread to make sure the messages stick. The prose flows well, the ideas are very organized and based on research of human happiness, the stories are a good mix of the author's personal experience plus that of her clients, the advice is gentle, inspiring, and uplifting instead of chastising, and the examples given are just so real and relatable. Best book I've read in a really long time. I've already recommended it to several women I know. Thank you, Jennifer L. Taitz, for your words of wisdom. This is a beautiful book.

This book was a great read. It not only spoke on intimate relationships. It gave much wisdom on all relationships. I am renewed in my choices, my desires and my acceptance on being single. This is a must read.

In our time, when over half of adult American women are unmarried, the first good thing about this book is that it names the elephant in the room -- and its accompanying dilemma, which I hear constantly from single women in my office: Should I work on finding happiness being single, or go back to the misery of dating? A phrase from the book's subtitle, "Keeping Your Sanity While Looking for a Soul Mate," might serve as a hint that the author has a new perspective on the subject. Read the introduction, and you'll be convinced this is so.Dr Taitz wisely states early on, "The prettier the picture, the less truth it tells." This should obviously be placed as a permanent post-it on everyone in the world's Facebook page -- and it turns out to have been true in the author's own single life as well. Having learned from much hard experience to manage the "full catastrophe" of it, she's more than qualified to give advice on the subject. And the advice she gives, gathered from her work with hundreds of single people and a professional lifetime of learning and applying the latest science, is well worth heeding.Not only is this book an excellent primer on mindfulness practice -- an essential skill, it turns out, for anyone navigating single-hood. It also thoughtfully provides other resources that most other such books on the subject leave out. For example, there's a wonderfully clear guide to the latest egg-freezing technologies. And an even-handed weighing of the benefits and risks of "hooking up." All in all, I'd rank this book among the best out there on the subject. Definitely 5 stars.

Jennifer Taitz was a guest speaker on a podcast I was listening to and briefly mentioned this book. I ordered it out of curiosity and it has been a profoundly important book in healing after a break up—although I know I could have used this book while even in a relationship. It reminded me how being alone doesn’t have to mean anything other than focusing on your value as an individual. She also does a good job of supplying the reader with tools on how to stop ruminating, overthinking and misinterpreting in a way that I can integrate into any relationship in my life. Truly grateful for this find and the ways it has equipped me to better understand my tendencies which feel normalized and validated all while being able to address them.

I’m not a big reader, but I obviously bought this book at a time when I feeling like I was becoming impatient with my single status. I used to light a candle, cozy up under my electric blanket and read this book. I felt like the author was my friend telling me stories. Helping me see I wasn’t alone in the way I was feeling and reminding me to focus on the things in my life that I do have control of.I got about halfway through the book before I found myself in a new relationship. (Perhaps because I was in a better mindset?)I was actually kinda bummed I didn’t finish the book because it was good and I was proud of myself for making it halfway through a book. I decided to keep reading and I questioned if it was weird to do so because I wasn’t single.The more I read, I realized it’s not weird at all. It still is a book about self love.I’ve heard that a relationship should be the cherry on top to your already awesome life. So I’ve continued reading this book for comfort and reminders.I haven’t finished it yet, but I will.I actually recommended this book to my single friend and she bought it and has liked it so far.