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Make Room for Joy: Finding Magical Moments in Your Everyday Life

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Make Room for Joy! Finding Magical Moments in Your Everyday Life

Author: Susan L. Colantuono

Susan L. Colantuono's book "Make Room for Joy!" is refreshing, delightful and helpful. Written as a workbook, it encourages readers to sit down and do something about the areas of our lives that aren't joyful. And--Susan knows about which she speaks. In a two-year period she had to deal with her husband's departure. He had left her for another women. This left her with financial problems and a son to raise by herself. A contract she had spent months working on that may have promised her financial freedom failed because of political infighting. And she had to sell the dream house which she had designed. Most would feel beaten after a two-year period like hers. Colantuono, however, discovered she had not only survived, but she had thrived. "I hadn't given in to bitterness, anger, despair, cynicism, hatred, pessimism or defensiveness," she says. "I have been blessed with wonderful family and friends. And I face each day with indomitable optimism." Colantuono's joyful spirit shows in this book. That's why it is easy to believe that you and I can share in this joyfulness even if the prospects of doing that don't seem promising right now. Ten chapters of "Make Room for Joy!" have exercises included with the reading. Some tasks the reader must complete include sitting down and thinking about how joy feels. Readers then must list the circumstances that brought on those feelings of joy. The author tells us we must honor and acknowledge those feelings--and learn to recognize them. How many of us think to do this each day? How much brighter would our lives be if we did these simple tasks? Hints are given as to how to arrange things around us so joy is encouraged and our lives are simplified. To "Make Room for Joy! . . . Literally" Colantuono advises us to "purge" our living areas. Every time she purges, "I felt a lightening of burdens and a freeing up," she says. I found this to be true. All the less things to clean, repair, worry about or trip over. Purging material items is not the only type of cleansing that is in order. To feel joy we must practice forgiveness. It is not as easy to let go of hurt feelings or grudges as it is to let go of an unnecessary item. Colantuono shows us that by being unforgiving we only hurt ourselves, then she gently leads us to behaviors that help free us and allow us to forgive ourselves. Further lessons illustrated in the book are lessons of enjoying "Time-Outs," and "Joy- Breaks." She beckons us to awaken our senses, and to "Walk with an Appreciative Heart." Cultivating and appreciating beauty in our lives is important, as is closing out ugliness. I enjoyed this book because it deals with real lives and the heartbreaks and joys of real people. Colantuono's suggestions are thought provoking, simple and clearly stated. Most important the exercises are fun to do and they are nurturing. A blurb from Colantuono's media kit says, [Make Room for Joy!] Is "heartware and software for the soul" I think that pretty much says it all.

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Making Room for Joy is fun to read yet full of fundamentals on how to put more joy into one's daily life.Susan Colantuano has found a way to take concepts others make complex and reduce them down to simple basics. Truly, this book will help the reader learn how "...to stop and smell the roses". It's a book to read over and over again, either in its entirety or in pieces!