Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Trusts by Iyanla Vanzant

4 Stars

312 Pages
Publisher: Hay House, Smiley Books
Release Date: June 17, 2017

Nonfiction, Self-Help, Self-Empowerment, Self-Improvement

The book is divided into the following parts and chapters.

Part 1: Trust in Self
Chapter 1: Trust – It’s Complicated
Chapter 2: The Way in is the Only Way Out
Chapter 3: Can You Trust Yourself?
Chapter 4: Dare to Tell the Truth

Part 2: Trust in God
Chapter 5: Villa Nova
Chapter 6: God and Gravity
Chapter 7: Building a Relationship with God

Part 3: Trust in Others
Chapter 8: Trust or Consequences
Chapter 9: Excuses
Chapter 10: Trust in Others Is Trust in Self

Part 4: Trust in Life
Chapter 11: The Chicken and the Egg
Chapter 12: Broken Trust
Chapter 13: The End of History

I found the group exercises eye opening. The author explains how you cannot trust others if you cannot trust yourself. The part on Trust in God was more spiritual than religious. She mentions God can be male or female. She points out that falling down or failing are not reasons to stop trusting. This was an interesting read.

This was a great book to help with people who need to work thru trust issues. It gives great examples of how to move forward with trusting others.

In Trust Iyanla Vanzant covers more ground than I thought possible from a single word. Throughout the book she argues that in order to be functioning, successful, loved, and respected (my words, not hers), you must first have trust in four things: yourself, God, others, and life (that is, trust the process). Through anecdotes she shares how negative emotions like anger, resentment, frustration, and suspicion arise from a lack of trust that your needs will be met.

From section one when she says you can’t have self love without self trust through section four when she says to trust the process of life, Vanzant covers a ton of ground. She spends a good part of the book on learning how to trust the still small voice inside you. If you don’t trust yourself, you can’t trust anything or anyone else, so this is a good place for her to begin the book. Toward the end of the book, she even discusses some of the inherent trust issues that have led to so many black people in this country being shot by police offers.

I learned a lot about myself and about human behavior in general while reading this book. I highlighted a number of passages throughout and have already revisited them since finishing the book. I think this will be a book that I come back to again to read in snippets here and there as my own journey of trust evolves. Vanzant gave me a lot to think about regarding how I interact with this world. Until reading this book, I didn’t realize how much of our pain can be traced back to lack of trust.

I recommend this book for most people (which is not something that can be said about many books), especially for those who feel that something is misaligned in their own lives. You can read it cover to cover or dip in and out as you are ready. Either way, start at the beginning, because the book builds off of trust of self. After that, you can skip around.

Another great book by Iyanla Vanzant. Highly recommended.

Profoundly enriching, enlightening, empowering.
With great mastery and inspiration, his very personal writing, authentic and exquisite, Iyanla gives us wonderful content. All the reading is so deep and meaningful that it touches very intimate fibers of our humanity.
With her keen vision of life, her experience in the journey of her own existence and based on all her personal work, this book is worth from beginning to end!
The message is deeply transformative that invites empowerment. At the end of the book I was left with a delicious taste of clarity and beauty on the subject.
My gratitude to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book

Like her previous books, "Trust" by Iyanla Vanzant doesn't disappoint.

Iyanla Vanzant is a brilliant mind, soul and author. Trust was a great book and should be read by everyone!

I love me some Iyanla Vanzant and have been reading her books since before anyone knew who she was! This book had some wonderful insights, trust is a state of mind being one, and carried Iyanla's authentic voice throughout. Definitely worth a re-read.

Iyanla Vanzant, packs powerful information into this book if one is willing to risk taking this personal growth step. I would recommend taking the risk. Most helpful.

This is a very thought provoking book. It explores the meaning of trust. She outlines the four essential trusts, trust in God ,trust in life,trust in yourself and trust in others with examples along the way. This book gets you thinking and is written from the heart.