The Life Organizer: A Woman's Guide to a Mindful Year (Hardcover)

by Jennifer Louden (Author) "What if there was a way to organize and guide your life that more closely resembled lying back on an inner tube as the current..." (more)
Key Phrases: sunday monday tuesday dates, shadow comforts, life organizing, Life Planner, New York, Pablo Neruda (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Meeting with clients, hauling the kids to soccer, supervising the kitchen remodel — women today juggle so many commitments that many don’t find time to focus on their own dreams. First created for her own needs, Jennifer Louden’s Life Organizer is a datebook for the soul that helps women create the life they want. Divided into four sections, the first part defines “inner organizing” and explains how to use the book. Next, Louden defines “time monsters,” “minimum requirements,” “shadow comforts,” and other pertinent concepts. Fifty-two two-page spreads, one for each week of the year, include prompts for goal-setting and soul exploration. Stories accompanying each section show how other women have used the organizer to make a time for inner play and for finding the soul’s purpose. Most of all, the book helps women hold themselves gently accountable, giving them ideas to explore their inner needs and a place to record the progress they’ve made.

From the Back Cover
"This wonderful book is a tribute to the sacred and very practical aspects of time management. If you want a more soulful, clear life, follow Jennifer Louden's advice."
-- Judith Orloff, MD, author of Positive Energy

"You are not holding in your hands a book. Instead, imagine a set of sacred nesting dolls that you open, one by one, each delighting you more than the last. As you get to the precious one in the center, you find your own heart. It whispers, `welcome home.'"
-- Dawna Markova, author of I Will Not Die an Unlived Life and cocreator of Random Acts of Kindness

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: New World Library; illustrated edition edition (January 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1577315545
• ISBN-13: 978-1577315544
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,995 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Miracle Waiting To Happen, February 20, 2007

By	M. E. Sumner-Wichmann (Questa, NM USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For years, twenty-six to be exact, I have longed to return to the life of my heart's desire, theatre. Instead, I cared for aging parents, moved to the country to raise our daughter and tried to substitute other creative endeavours for my lost love. As my daughter nears college age, this desire began looming again, creating no end of frustration and self-bashing for wanting something that was impossible.

Then I ordered The Life Organizer, being a great fan of Jennifer's work. I took some time for myself and began reading the first chapter and when I reached the line "Desire is the flow of life we yearn to swim in, the urge to be one with Spirit, and the way to stay in touch with this flow is through knowing what we want without insisting that we get it", my world blew apart.

It was like a huge weight falling off my shoulders. I felt free at last to let my desire flow, to stop blocking it with shoulds and impossibilities. Within days, my whole life had turned around. Now, instead of sitting here, falling into depression when my daughter leaves for university, my husband and I will be moving temporarily so that I can get my MFA in costume design. Everything fell into place, from finding the perfect place to apply, to renewing my old theatre contacts and finding more than enough recommendations to accompany my application.

Now, I will be using this delightful book week to week, to help me stay in touch with who I really am, while still carrying on as a member of this wonderful family with whom I am so fortunate to share my life.

Not everyone will have such explosive results, but I cannot recommend this book highly enough. As with all of Jennifer's work, it is truly a creation of the heart.

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like No Other, February 28, 2007

By	Meg Cox "journalist/author/quilter" (Princeton, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

This very unusual book is not linear and takes some getting used to, but it's a powerful tool. Jennifer Louden has put a lot of years into studying what women need to do to sustain and nurture their own best selves. This book invites women to create a Life Plan, and shows intriguing examples of plans created by other women. This book can be used in so many ways: pick it up at random and you'll find a pithy quote you can ruminate on for hours. Try some of the more formal exercises, such as following the guidelines week by week. The Life Organizer isn't about making your closets neater: it's about penetrating more deeply into who you are every day, embracing what that is, and taking yourself to whatever is the next level for YOU. Jennifer, you just keep getting better!

112 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Life Preserver for Exhausted Women, February 26, 2007

By	Janet Boyer "JanetBoyer.com" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"I had to create a new way of dealing with the overwhelm after trying to squash my life into organizing systems that didn't fit and didn't help." - Jennifer Louden

I'm used to reading books cover to cover, so The Life Organizer by Jennifer Louden threw me for a loop. Decidedly non-utilitarian, I found the book disconnected and disorienting--at first. I set it aside in mild frustration.

But amid the dozens of books, audios, DVDs and decks strewn about my house waiting to be read/heard/viewed/reviewed, The Life Organizer kept calling out to me. I just HAD to pick it up...more than once.

Apparently, I didn't take the author seriously when she wrote:

"This is not a typical self-help book--it's not meant to be read cover to cover. It's not offering you advice and it doesn't contain a single idea about how to make yourself better than or different from how you already are. Rather, it's an interactive guidebook, a collection of possibilities to inspire you in creating your way of participating with life and with your gifts."

Ahhhhh...something different. An approach from the right brain--a place of intuition and heart-centered, body-honoring knowing, instead of the usual left-brain "do this or else" analytical approach.

Louden acknowledges that living from the inside out may feel like "we're making it up as we go along"--and this is perfectly normal. In fact, her method of life organizing is "fluid and flexible improvisation"--it is "always evolving and is unique to you."

So I delved right in to the Life Organizer--randomly and frequently--and wouldn't you know it...I found exactly what I was looking for every time! It was uncanny how I stumbled on relevant anecdotes, observations, or questions for contemplation.

For example, I turned to page 9 and my eyes fell on "Without action, without decision, you remain in possibility, which is safe and beautiful but eventually enervating and boring." Holy endless possibilities, Batman! This hit me exactly where I was at the time. Although I'm a highly productive writer/reviewer, I sometimes (more than I'd care to admit) languish in the glorious fog of pure potential. And it DOES drive me nuts after awhile! I decided to DECIDE...and just do what I set out to do, even if I take baby steps.

Another time, I turned to "Amy's Three Questions", one of the "Stories Along the Way", and I so much appreciated this entire section which spoke about assessing our relationship with our feelings, with Spirit, and with OURSELF. (Whoever you are, Amy...BLESS YOU. I've randomly turned to your section several times and get something new each reading!) Amy's three questions boiled down to exploring inner nooks and crannies and choosing life--instead of "thrashing around bemoaning stuckness or perceived flaws."

Although The Life Organizer may seem a bit higgledy piggledy, premium common sense and perennial wisdom grace the elegant, glossy pages of this book. I was thrilled to see echoes of The Work by Byron Katie (a technique of asking "Is this true? Can you know that it's true? How would you feel without that stressful thought?"), as well as the crucial notion of challenging the personal stories that limit us.

For example, Ms. Loudon felt discomfort around her knee and made up a very painful, fatalistic story about her pain. After seeing a friend in the healthcare profession who told her it was merely "wear and tear", she literally experienced a shift in perception and action. Truly, our assumptions can torment us and limit us in ways we cannot imagine.

Filled with true stories by women, insightful quotes, spaces for journaling, and questions for contemplating, The Life Organizer is an undated "planner" that leads us by the hand--back to the body, heart and spirit of our unique self. It is a life preserver for those caught in the net of perfectionism, shoulds, and over-striving--as well as those mired in the quagmire of "shadow comforts", "time monsters", or pervasive ennui.

Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present (coming Fall 2008 from Hampton Roads Publishing)