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A Love Attempt

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Developing your emotional intelligence? Learn simple and practical techniques to cultivate your love competence…

◆ Everyone wants love. We’re so desperate for it that we are frequently willing to take any deformed shape of it. But what if we can bring in the idea in a developed and genuine form to make it available to every person?

Morhaf Al Achkar obtained his Ph.D in education and is currently a practicing family physician at the University of Washington. He was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Since then, his research has focused on the experience of patients living with cancers. His first book is based on interviews he did with 39 patients who live, like him, with advanced illness. He explored how these patients find meaning, cope, and build resilience. Using his deep understanding of philosophical concepts, Morhaf shares his understanding of love from the perspective of someone aware of his finitude.

◆ By following his easy-to-apply practical exercises, Morhaf invites you on a journey of dialogue and reflection to improve your Empathic Abilities.

Inside A Love Attempt, you’ll

The Pragmatics of LoveHow to Love by recognizing and capturing the opportunity.How to reconstruct what is being and learn about context and biography to communicate with loveHow to become oriented to understanding and agreement to act communicatively with LoveHow to develop a strategy to reinforce and abstract some learning about yourself to Become Authentic with LoveAnd much, much more!◆ A Love Attempt™ is the third book in Dr. Alachkar’s self-help series. The first was on Resilience and Meaning. The second, his memoir, was released only six months before the first draft of this project. In Being Authentic, he wrote ideas about love but did not develop them sufficiently. So he is completing that project here◆

◆ Dr. Alachkar’s elegant but transparent manuscript is packed with thought-provoking insights and concrete action steps to make salient our native competency for loving so we can then orient our next actions toward embracing love. If you want to learn the conceptualization of love and say “My next act is A Love Attempt!” then you can’t afford to miss Morhaf’s essential guide.



✓ Unlock your true love potential with this easy-to-follow guide Today! ♥

122 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 23, 2021

59 people are currently reading
57 people want to read

About the author

Morhaf Al Achkar

6 books13 followers

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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Wendy Beckman.
Author 14 books32 followers
August 15, 2021
A Love Attempt: Your Practical Guide to Love by Morhaf Al Achkar is a gift of love. However, as he puts it, "This book does not contain a personal account of my love attempts--sorry to disappoint the nosy people." Instead, it is more of an analysis of love: what it is, how we receive it, how we give it.

Al Achkar was born in Aleppo-Syria in 1983. He migrated to the United States in 2006 after finishing medical school, and then he obtained a Ph.D. in education from Indiana University. He has written three books, this last one written while he was fighting Stage IV lung cancer.

Al Achkar's writing style is analytical yet accessible. I found myself re-reading many of his statements:

"Do it for yourself and for them, and forget me when I am gone."

"We genuinely love when we act with love and devote less attention to the feelings that accompany it."

"If I ask you who first taught you about love in the sense of presenting it to you as a recipient, you'd probably say your mom."

"Wherever you are in life and whatever your upbringing was, you have been given love by someone at some moment when you were little, period." I often think about this when I read of someone's horrible deeds, that once in that person's life, he or she was an adorable little baby and someone might have loved him or her. I reject, however, that everyone has been loved at least once. I believe some babies are born into emotional poverty and stay there their entire lives.

"...I would say your wish for this or that type of action from someone is good evidence that you have already developed a conceptualization of loving. You're mindful of what you want and wish others had given it to you. You know the love you didn't have."

Al Achkar also has some insights for us in thinking about our own lives, which really resonated with me:

"We will die and leave everything behind."

"I own my own life only when I am alive."

He includes exercises in the book, as well as direct advice for how to earn love, such as listening with love. He does not go into great detail when he discusses sexual love, but he offers advice, especially that "no means no."

I highly recommend this book for those who have wondered if they have ever felt true love, who are seeking love intentionally, or who desire a reminder what love was when it was new in our long-term relationships.

Profile Image for Jamie Bee.
Author 1 book119 followers
September 17, 2021
A Philosophy on Love

I found this to be a rather philosophical book about love, at times rather pedantic in the author's expression of his point of view on the subject. While the book does have shortcomings, I believe the author has good intentions with it. By the book's definition, it in itself is what the title states. The main postulate of the book is that love is not a feeling but action. The rest of the book flows from that core belief. So a “love attempt” is when we act lovingly toward another, only thinking of them and their needs. The author has several sections detailing how to do that, like through listening and being authentic as well as getting more specific about how to act lovingly. Each section ends with a summary and directives about how to implement what the author has stated. This sounds rather straightforward, but it isn't. I found the text a bit heavy-handed at times and the implementations sometimes more vague than I would like. I also wasn't wild about the author's insistence, essentially, on the utter selflessness of these “love attempts.” As we are human, I don't think it negates loving actions if they are less than “perfect” and mutually benefit “we/us” instead of just “you.” By the way, the inside subtitle states this is a step-by-step guide, but I didn't necessarily see any proper “steps” involved. Still, I found this book to be a fascinating read.

I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
Profile Image for Guadalupe Herrera.
250 reviews2 followers
July 3, 2021
Emotional Intelligence at its finest

They say that there is more to intelligence than just being smart. I happen to agree. I have often said that I can be "emotionally inept" while being logically sound. This book, "A Love Attempt" by Morhaf Al Achkar, teaches how to cultivate emotional intelligence and competence in terms of love. While I like to pride myself on portraying my emotions more on the logical side, inwardly is a different story. I learned a few things from this book. It is not just love for another person in a romantic way, but it also encompasses other forms of love. There is a variety to this which can only serve to help expand my own know-how and make me that much more well-rounded. If the reader is looking to find a sort of logical way to love competence, this is the book to read. Well-organized, detailed, and wonderful, I would recommend this book to anyone who needs just a little bit more.
Profile Image for Agustina Sureda.
606 reviews13 followers
July 8, 2021
A Love Attempt: your Practical Guide to Love is an absolutely unique view that the reader gets to know by reading the book. Muhaf Morhaf, an educator that was diagnosed with lung cancer, shares his understanding of love from the perspective of someone aware of his or her finitude by creating wonderful research asking various patients living the same faith he is.
I have to say this book blew my mind away. We as humans are used to thinking about love in the “shape” of a couple, but this narration brings so much more information to the table. It can get a little bit philosophic at times, but it is an amazing point of view. The authors personal feelings always managed to get to your heart, and it truly gave me a new perspective about what love means to people, and I definitely learn not to take anything for granted. A wonderful book!
Profile Image for Kourtney Bradley.
481 reviews10 followers
July 12, 2021
Practical advice for any form of relationship

This is designed to be a practical guide for love, and though that premise may sound a bit underwhelming, it's actually full of practical advice that can be useful for those looking for some new approaches and outlooks for future relationships. This one takes the approach further than just romantic relationships and helps readers to understand the depth needed for any relationship. As written from the perspective of someone who has experience with reflecting on relationships due to advanced lung cancer, the author focuses on what really matters and how the effects of relationships can influence people's lifelong emotions. This one is highly recommended for anyone who is looking for a practical and helpful approach for relationships, whether romantic, platonic, or familial.
Profile Image for Celeste.
995 reviews26 followers
July 1, 2021
Love is the subject of thousands of movies, books, poetry and all kinds of art expressions but I think that we rarely stop to think and wonder about it. The fact of finding love or not is considered something completely random and fortuitous. In his inspiring book, “A Love Attempt”, Dr Morhaf Al Achkar invites readers to read about, discuss and conceptualize love. The author provides an insightful explanation of the concept of love and how it may take different forms. He does so in a simple and straightforward fashion which matches the pragmatic perspective stated in his work. This thesis is followed by practical and easy to follow techniques to foster our capacity and ability to love. I really enjoyed this book and I think that it is very interesting. I highly recommend it.
Profile Image for Alfredo R.
603 reviews8 followers
July 2, 2021
I gave love a chance

Morhaf Al Achkar, the author of “A Love Attempt”, wrote this book from scratch, basing it on his own background knowledge, what he had learnt while developing his professional career and his own recent, and dreadful, experiences.

He explains the meaning of “Emotional Intelligence” - a concept that both teachers and parents should bear in mind and work on. He attempts to help readers be emotionally intelligent and start constructing loving and caring relationships.

A word, a gesture, and a smile can make a difference and it was important to me to notice it. I have changed my attitude towards the world with the help of this book. I hope it can help other readers, too - it is never too late!
Profile Image for Liz.
1,383 reviews31 followers
June 28, 2021
Generally, when we think about love, we do it from a couple's love perspective, but this book is much more than that. Love can come in different forms and packages.
"A love attempt" is an inspirational book written by Morhaf Al Achkar. After being diagnosed with cancer, the author began his research and his journey of dialogue and reflection, with patients who were also diagnosed with cancer.
I loved this book which offers reflections and perspectives of the author that were useful to him. In my opinion, I believe that it can help us all to navigate the world of understanding and love. I really recommend this incredible read.
871 reviews28 followers
June 29, 2021
“A Love Attempt” by author Morhaf Al Achkar aims to be a practical guide to love, for those who want to develop their emotional intelligence. And from my point of view, it accomplishes and surpasses that purpose; being a useful and beautiful book.

Written from the perspective of someone aware of his finitude, as his author is a lung cancer patient, this reading introduces “a developed and genuine form of love and make it available to every person”. And apart from his wise insights and reflections, there are concrete exercises and practices for every day.

All in all, this is an enlightening and thought provoking read, assisting readers in discovering and embracing love.
Profile Image for ELISABET.
166 reviews2 followers
June 30, 2021
I must admit that I could have waited for a quite pink book about love, but instead, I found a full guide that I define as clarifying. In my opinion, this is a book that everyone could and should read; I would definitely recommend it to my friends. I think that the principles that the author included are applicable to couples, family, friends and ourselves. This content is a true key for authentic love - a healthy one.

This is a self-help book and corresponds to that guide that helps if it is put into practice. The author is quite experienced in that important subject and has the adequate degree education for that. This book describes the way to know, develop and reconstruct love.
173 reviews8 followers
July 11, 2021
This book was an easy read, though a little repetitive at times, as a lot of self-help books need to be to make the book. I love books that delve into relationships, but this was the first one I have read about love specifically. The book goes through a definition of love and then goes through a number of other areas, such as how to give and receive love and authenticity in love. He combines it with his own personal experiences. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in books about relationship or finding out more about giving, receiving and understanding love. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Profile Image for Carol M..
246 reviews2 followers
July 2, 2021
A Love Attempt is an inspiring and thought-provoking book that has made me reflect and has moved me a lot. Morhaf Al Achkar has gone through one of the most difficult moments of his life after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Yet, he made the most of his struggle to help others with his broad knowledge. I must admit I felt identified with many situations he describes and at the same time I could learn from his perspectives and opinion on how to build and maintain stronger relationships. This is a strongly recommended book that I am glad I have included in my kindle list.
Profile Image for Mia C..
1,088 reviews25 followers
July 3, 2021

Although “A love attempt”, written by Morhaf Achkar, seems to be a romantic novel, it is not - it’s even more interesting than that. The author delves into the question of what is love, not the romantic one, but all forms of love. The book is short but the content is really interesting and complete; the author was concise but added what is really important to this read.
I don’t agree 100% with Archkar because we all have a certain perspective toward the topic, but I really respect his view and found it entrancing. For this reason, this is a book that I recommend reading.
Profile Image for Santiago Flores.
1,033 reviews11 followers
July 13, 2021
Author Morhaf Al Achkar made me see love in a different way; he opened my mind and heart, too. Knowing his story and reading this book was really inspiring. “A love attempt” is a book that means a lot - I have learnt a lot with it. I have learnt to see things from a different perspective. I think that my empathic abilities were asleep and woke up just after this read.

It is well written and the narrative captured my attention from beginning to end; it is clear and not wordy. In fact, the book is not very long. I really recommend reading it.  
Profile Image for Immanythings.
117 reviews
Read
July 31, 2021
I rarely read books like this one; however, the title caught my eye. This was an eye-opening read, after reading the back cover, I was surprised to see all the ways we can achieve or kill love when it's right in our face. If you struggle or have struggled with love this is a great self-help read. Although only 115 pages, I read and reread many of the pages.
Profile Image for Maria McNamee-Hirt.
84 reviews
December 10, 2022
Read it

Inspiring. Thoughtful. Morhaf Al Achkar is a Syrian Immigrant who put his skills to work making this with the big picture of his life and his audiences left VES in mind.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews

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