One Day My Soul Just Opened Up: 40 Days and 40 Nights Towards Spiritual Strength and Personal Growth [Import] [Unbound]

Iyanla Vanzant (Author)

Product Details

• Unbound
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (December 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0684873834
• ISBN-13: 978-0684873831
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (135 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,229,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

With more than 8 million books in print, Iyanla Vanzant has truly established a dedicated fan base.
Iyanla's path to success took her through a multitude of life-changing experiences that shaped the profound insights she eagerly shares with others. A neglected, overweight, sexually abused child who was shuttled from one family to another, she became a teenage mother on welfare living in the projects of a major urban city. Vanzant took control of her life when she walked out of her second abusive marriage and entered Medgar Evers College in New York and then the City University of New York Law School. She moved to Philadelphia with her children and became a public defender for three years. Then she eventually became an ordained minister, who was committed to a message based on the principles of divine power and self-determination.

Iyanla combined her professional skills with her life's lessons and embarked on a writing and speaking career. Her mass appeal is evident in her overwhelming success as an author. In the Meantime was a #1 New York Times bestseller, where it spent 20 weeks on the list, and she has had numerous other major bestsellers. As a nationally recognized speaker she has sold out such prestigious venues as New York's Jacob Javits Convention Center, Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, Atlanta's Civic Center, and the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Vanzant is also familiar to the daytime TV audience from her role as a regular contributor on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Acclaimed journalist and producer Barbara Walters recognized Vanzant's extraordinary appeal, seeing in her a "breakaway talent" with the potential for huge success in daytime television. With Walters and partner Bill Geddie on board to executive produce, Buena Vista Productions to develop the show, and Buena Vista Television as distributor, the road to Iyanla was forged.

Vanzant has received numerous accolades for her work. In 1992 Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley named October 21st "Tapping the Power Within Day" in honor of a workshop she presented in that city for African-American women. In 1994, the National Association of Equal Opportunity in Education, an organization comprised of the presidents and administrators of the 117 predominantly Black colleges in the United States named her Alumni of the Year. She also was awarded an "Oni" by the International Congress of Black Women as one of the nation's unsung heroes, and she served as the national spokesperson for Literacy Volunteers of America in 1998.

In 1999 she was listed among the 100 Most Influential African-Americans by Ebony magazine. Later that year, she was awarded the 31st NAACP Image Award for "Outstanding Literary Work, Non-Fiction" for Yesterday I Cried. She also earned her first Honorary Doctorate degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, from the City University of New York, Medgar Evars College. In 2000, she earned her second honorary degree, Doctor of Divinity, from the Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, Ebony has named her one of their "55 Most Intriguing People," Vibe magazine tabbed her one of "100 Leaders of the New Millennium" and Newsweek recently included her as one of the "Women of the New Century."

The mother of three and grandmother of four, Vanzant lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband Adeyemi and Mr. Coco, their cat.

To learn how Iyanla can help you get started on your journey toward spiritual

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, March 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: One Day My Soul Just Opened Up: 40 Days and 40 Nights Toward Spiritual Strength and Personal Growth (Hardcover)

This book has been very powerful for me, and is effortless to incorporate into even a busy life. There are so many good books on spirituality, but this one is unique because it breaks down many universal spiritual principles into concise daily readings, with sections on "Honoring Yourself," "Honoring Others," "Honoring the Process," "Honoring Your Feelings," and more. Within each section, each day has one spiritual principle you read about, and has a short space for you to write your own take about what you've read. It also has a space to reflect at the end of the day any experiences you've had relating to that principle (don't worry, it's not a huge journal-type project - all the writing takes me less than 5 minutes a day, and adds immensely to the power of the program). Because my time is so tight in the morning, I do the reading the night before. (The readings are short - most only 3 pages.) I'm about halfway through the 40 days, and my soul is opening up, and I find myself looking forward to my nightly reading, as an inspiring and relaxing ritual. I'm sure you'll also find many of the readings to speak directly to issues you're having now, and others will validate things you've already become aware of, and yet others will be on tap when you are struggling with different things. It is a brilliantly concise book, and one with all its tools clearly laid out so it can be referred to again and again long after the 40 days are past. (I really encourage you to go through it one chapter at a time as she mentions, because each principle will sink in much more than if you attempt to read it as a chapter book.)

61 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not a Disappointment, It's Even Helping This Old White Lady, April 16, 2000

By 

"alabasterwoman" - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Day My Soul Just Opened Up: 40 Days and 40 Nights Toward Spiritual Strength and Personal Growth (Hardcover)

Hardly a "disappointment". This book is excellent. And I'm happy to say, it is for ALL women (and men for that matter), and has even helped this old White lady along for the past several weeks to see things differently, to expand more spiritually. True, Vanzant doesn't address YOU or YOUR problems... Instead, she leaves that up to YOU. No one can know you better than yourself; no one can tell you how to reshape your life better than you... I don't like strangers telling me how to "fix" myself, so I appreciate the fact that Vanzant never does this in her book. I also appreciate the fact that Vanzant doesn't force her religious views on her readers. Instead, she shows respect for everyone's individual beliefs while giving readers "permission" to explore their OWN spirituality and the way they view the world. The chapter on Trust, for example, got me thinking and prompted me to progress to a new, better, higher level of understanding about what "Trust" means TO ME. Psychologists call it "reframing" -- seeing things from a different perspective so you gain a greater understanding of whatever the "things" are. Vanzant "reframes" a lot of things, helping readers to see issues like Creativity, Trust, and Personal Divinity from different angles. I recommend this book to EVERYONE who wants to explore their own souls and gain a greater appreciation of themselves and their relatioship to their Spiritual nature. You have to do the work yourself, but this is an excellent tool to help you do just that.

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent spiritual workbook and guide for Soul searchers, February 11, 2000

By 

ELEANOR E PIERCE (Amsterdam, Holland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Day My Soul Just Opened Up: 40 Days and 40 Nights Toward Spiritual Strength and Personal Growth (Hardcover)

This book is a wonderful workbook style guide to those of us looking to make changes in our lives. If you are someone who has reached a point in your life where you want and need to make life changes, get this book! Iyanla Vanzant has a wonderful sense of humor that everyone can relate to. She write as she speaks and her vocabulary is familiar and funny. Her advice is direct no BS advice/encouragement to get going with these changes. She answers the questions, "OK, now what do I do?" This book is simple and managable for those of us who love to say "I have no time to find myself." This workbook is simple and fun. You will make time for Iyanla's humor and words of wisdom. Put this book on your kitchen table in the morning and take it to bed with you at night. Once you get into the routine of waking up and going to sleep with this book you will look forward to your time with Iyanla and more importantly with yourself. And before you know it, Your soul will just open up! Love it when that happens!