Customer Reviews

Organizing for the Spirit: Making the Details of Your Life Meaningful and Manageable

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I just finished this book last night and it's really, really wonderful. I cried on the last page!! Nobody does that with a self-help book!!! Sunny Schlenger has created something inspirational, and the writing has Zenlike moments of lucidity that are timeless and gorgeous. If you want to think about your life in a truly new way, this is the book for you.

This is what I call a birthday present I will give to all of my friends. Finally, someone who realizes the personal reward and power of organizing the spiritual and emotional self. This book gently guides us through our emotional investments and addictive choices, so we can manage our time better. It makes us see how the synergy of our feelings and beliefs can help us actualize our authentic self, or as Sunny Schlenger says Organizing for the Spirit. Get this book and your life will be more simple.

We've seen so many de-cluttering and organizing books over the last five years that you wouldn't think there was room for anything new. Yet, Sunny Schlenger's Organizing for the Spirit is a breath of fresh air.

Schlenger has always taken a different approach, promoting that each individual has his own organizing style and needs. Her new book helps you take stock of all aspects of your life, identify what really matters, and then set priorities. For example, you end up knowing what your stuff means to you, how it helps or hinders you, and what you can do to make that stuff be part of your personal development.

An easy read, "Organizing for the Spirit is about achieving harmony between our inner and outer selves," says the author.

Organizing for the Spirit is a good book for the small pieces of wisdom one finds throughout the book that challenge the reader like in Chapter 2 where one finds the suggestion that we enter our place of resident as if a visitor. Then quietly survey the surroundings and ask oneself what the space tells about the person who lives here. And then ask oneself what does one want to project when a visitor enters?

Does ones space tell what you want? Then the author asks the reader to check off from a list what do you value most today? Some of the choices are Adventure, Affection, Autonomy, Challenge, Change, Community, Competence, Contribution, Creativity,Effectiveness...Happiness, Health, Integrity, Location... Privacy, Religion, Security, Wisdom.

Her Organizing As Self Discovery is good because it challenges the reader to savour going thru things and choosing what really matters, as well as becoming self disciplined and actually finishing some unfinished projects that you really wanted and want to do, and the sense of accomplishment one gets from becoming refocused. Maybe this is why Spring Cleaning is so invigorgating to me.

One of my favorite books is Write It Down Knowing What You Want and Getting It by Henriette Anne Klauser where she suggests keeping a journal. Same with Sunny Schlenger the author of this good book Organizing for the Spirit. She notes in Pat Attention Through Writing A Column 'Writing a column is a good exercise for sensitizing you to the present moment and enabling you to look at things with a fresh eye. It doesn't matter if you think you can't write. The purpose is to find something --anything--that piques your interest and then explore your thoughts and feelings on the subject'. I prefer a journal myself, but writing ones thoughts down daily permits a person to fine tune what they really want from what they think they want, over weeks and months.

Her Living In Procrastinationland reminds me of another book I appreciate The Procrastinator's Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now by Rita Emmett. Procrastination is one if not the main reason people end up with such a cluttered life. Cluttered home, cluttered life.

Her Redeveloping Frontier Values is excellent because the author reminds the reader that (page 122) 'Todays kids don't get to see the relationship between what they do to help their family and the intrinsic value of that contribution. For excample, if you went out and milked the family cow, you were able to put food on the family table. When you tended a garden, you did the same. If you built a drinking trough for the family horse, or put tar in the chinks of the log cabin roof, or sewed a dress, there was a visible connection between your efforts and the service that was provided'. This is something I wish more parents today would realize. Especially those who give their kids everything materially, since I believe children want boundaries and a sense of purpose which helping out at home provides.

Also appreciate the authors views on giving to others, because some of the best years in this country (USA) were pre 1990's when people were more involved in community groups as volunteers helping others. Every religion I have studied have some belief that its more blessed to give and that in giving we are blessed.

"Organizing for the Spirit" fits perfectly with my hectic, working-Mom, juggling a zillion-things-at-once lifestyle. It's helping me learn to make "me" time and understand and except my personal style. The approach is straight forward with wonderful story-telling that made me feel as if I was having coffee with a friend. I tend to keep a lot of stuff, but now know that thoses things are important extensions of who I am. It's true that the organizing approach highlighted in this book helps the spirit in all of us shine bright.

Imagine if we could really look at our lives without procrastination. Imagine if we could disarm our defenses and misperceptions. And imagine if we were consumed by this new transformation, all because we explored the possibility of reorganizing the contents of our lives. Much like the way emotional intelligence is the ability to manage our emotions, this book helps you manage your life with a heightened self. Henceforth the evolutionary step of Organizing for the Spirit. I highly endorse this book.

Perhaps the author is a better speaker than she is a writer and perhaps her workshops are more inspiring and insightful than her books? Unfortunately this book was neither informative nor inspiring. It consists of rambling remeniscenses about the author's life, which seem unrelated to what the author supposedly set out to do (to make the details of your life meaningful and manageable). She rehashes cliches and clobbers us over the head with heavy-handed metaphors. Ugh. The only thing that could have saved this book was better editing , which would have left you with 1 page of material that was worth reading (the exercise of walking through your home and assessing what you love and what you don't). There are far better books than this, using far better exercises to help you discover what you love, what your values are etc. Don't waste your money or your time on this one!

"Organizing for the Spirit" is a wonderfully insightful and inspiring book! Not only does Sunny Schlenger help me organize the clutter but she also reminds me that to be able to continue to give of myself to my family and my community that it is absolutely necessary to take care of my spirit by focusing on those things that bring joy into my life. She energizes me to rediscover my dreams that have been lost under my list of to do's and provides meaningful exercises to help me work towards those dreams. I find Sunny's book to be a helping hand in guiding me towards my inner happiness. A book to be re-visited when my spirit starts to wilt and needs a little nourishment!

Wow! Do I love this book! I came from the computer industry where we managed information in enlightening and entertaining ways. We revolutionized information. This book revolutionizes our baggage into "transformational art" and makes us see how to be in charge of our lives. This is what we call empowerment and realignment.

If you're searching to improve your outlook and get insight, this is a great book. It's written in an interesting manner and is very easy to read. The author brings up alot to think about.