All the Joy You Can Stand: 101 Sacred Power Principles for Making Joy Real in Your Life [Hardcover]

Debrena Jackson Gandy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2000

As a successful writer, keynote speaker, consultant, and seminar leader, Debrena Jackson Gandy has helped thousands of African-American women access their inner power and live life more joyfully and boldly. All the Joy You Can Stand: 101 Sacred Power Principles for Making Joy Real in Your Life is the eagerly anticipated follow-up to her best-seller, Sacred Pampering Principles. This engaging, thought-provoking book features 101 Power Principles that will help you tap into what brings you joy in your life and give you the spiritual tools to manifest the desires of your heart, including how to:Discover Your Sacred SelfStrengthen Your Gratitude MusclesIntegrate Renewal Into Your LifeBe a Sensuous WomanFree Your Creative GeniusCultivate Your IntuitionBecome a Spiritual GardenerBe the Architect of Your LifeExpand Your Joy Threshold

Using insightful stories from her own life, as well as the lives of her readers, friends, and seminar and lecture participants, Debrena Jackson Gandy has written an uplifting and transformational get-real guide for women who want to develop their spiritual strength and actualize their divine potential. Whether it's freeing your spirit by learning to release and forgive, or discovering how to more gracefully move through life's cycles and seasons, here are proven answers for some of life's most difficult questions. Prepare to be challenged and to ask yourself, "How much joy can I stand?" For as Debrena says, the more joy you can stand, the more joy God gives you.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Motivational speaker and author Debrena Jackson Gandy offers 101 "Sacred Power Principles" specifically written for African American women. Each principle is presented in a brief chapterette, making this an easy-to-digest, fast-paced read. Yet beneath her warm, girlfriend-to-girlfriend style of writing, Gandy packs a wallop of wisdom, which is why this works so well in small bites.

Most of the "Sacred Power Principles" revolve around the issues of internal self-care and self-love, arenas where black women still struggle, Gandy says. "We've been told to love ourselves and we know it's a good idea, but many of us haven't seen it modeled and it hasn't been 'exemplified' for us," she writes. "It exists as a good idea in our minds, but it is not yet a reality in our lives. Taught how to maintain and groom our bodies. Yes. Taught to love ourselves? No."

Although the spiritual and self-empowerment principles explored in this advice-laden book are ones we've all heard before, Gandy manages to use fresh metaphors and offer original suggestions. Her 101 chapters explore principles such as "Suspend judgment," "Claim your gremlins," "Know your ministry," "No more jerky moves," "Create intimacy with sister friends," and "Be bold, bodacious, and succulent (BBS)." --Gail Hudson

Review

"Sister Debrena shifts the reader's spiritual gears from conditioned time-lock living to better 'energy or life force' management that will enhance your 'joy' ratio. Oh, what joy will flood your soul after reading this book. Amen; or, for gender inclusion, 'awomen.' "
--Dr. Gwendolyn Goldsby Grant, Essence columnist and author of The Best Kind of Loving


"Debrena Jackson Gandy possesses the secret of joy! Blessedly for us, she shares it in the spirit of sisterhood. All the Joy You Can Stand is a wonderful treasury that you won't want to keep to yourself."
--Stephanie Stokes Oliver, author of Daily Cornbread: 365 Secrets for a Healthy Mind, Body, and Spirit


"An excellent read for anyone on the path to peace of mind. Debrena has written a wonderful guidebook that will lift your spirit,  comfort your heart, and improve your life."
--Dr. Grace Cornish,        author of 10 Bad Choices That Ruin Black Women's Lives


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (June 13, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609605984
• ISBN-13: 978-0609605981
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,131,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional-Tells you specifically how to get JOY, September 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: All the Joy You Can Stand: 101 Sacred Power Principles for Making Joy Real in Your Life (Paperback)

This book is written to the black woman, but it trancends all racial boundries.

Read the first couple of pages of the excerpt and find out how the author's mentor gets her to be very specific in the diretion she takes in this book. On page three of the paperback, you really find out whether or not you need to read this book. I will site the authors words here that I find to be the key theme of this book:

Is your spirit killed?
"On the outside, we may look like we're doing fine, while on the inside, we are hemorrhaging spiritually. For many of us, the erosion has left holes in our souls and a trail of other effects: loss of motivation, procrastination, loss of energy, loss of passion and enthusiasm; feeling unfocused, unfulfilled, disorganized, always on the go, off center; being unsettled, anxious, nervous, indecisive, irritable, fidgety, or feeling as if your life has become one rushed hectic, stressful routine."
I am sure you will not be disappointed with this author's work. She speaks loud and clear! Just read it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PUT THIS ON YOUR SELF-HELP TOP 10 LIST!, August 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: All the Joy You Can Stand: 101 Sacred Power Principles for Making Joy Real in Your Life (Hardcover)

I have been a self-help book junkie for 20 years and this book is now on my personal "TOP 10 MUST KEEP" list. Debrena has somehow taken the mystery out of basic mental and spiritual health principles. Her writing style is not "preachy" and is respectful of differing spiritual/religious belief systems. I prefer books that have real meat and are not personal journals of the author's life experiences. Debrena provides just enough personal experience to back up a concept. I really liked the way the book is organized by subject, rather than chronologically. It is so important for African American women to read self-help books from other women of color, because our experiences are different and our style of expression is different than mainstream America. Get yourself a highlighter when you sit down to read this book because you will need one! I wish I had written this book myself.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT!, January 11, 2001

By 

kwiyet L> "kwiyet" (St. Louis, Missouri USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All the Joy You Can Stand: 101 Sacred Power Principles for Making Joy Real in Your Life (Hardcover)

Truly excellent book. Get in touch with your sacred feminine self (the book mostly "speaks" to women, and black women in particular, but the recommendations, suggestions and styles are so that anyone can use them, believe in them, and get renewed sense of support and wellbeing). Check the table of contents of the book first, and pick titles of something that will get your day started and help you feel good, open, renewed and refreshed. Each piece is only about 1-2½ pages long so you read one when you wake up in the morning, on your lunch break, on the bus, are any time you need an uplifting anecdote. Very good to read when you are taking some solitary time to be alone. Her style of writing is wondrous, funny, charming, and enchanting. You'll learn how to be more open, receptive, and how to channel creative, positive, and negative energy in ways that can benefit you in all aspects of life (personal, financial, social, physically and emotional).