Until Today! : Daily Devotions for Spiritual Growth and Peace of Mind [Paperback]

Iyanla Vanzant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2001

If there are situations, circumstances, or perhaps relationships in your life that you have been struggling to overcome, trying to work through, or doing your best to work around, throw your head back and declare to the universe, "Until Today!"

Whatever has been going on in your mind, your life, or your heart can stop -- right now, if that is truly what you desire. However, you must be willing to "do a new thing." You must spend a little time, each day, in devotion to the truth about yourself and your life. You must make a conscious approach to what you think, what you feel, and what you do. Devotion will clear up misconceptions that may have obscured your vision until today!

Bestselling author Iyanla Vanzant presents a new book of devotions for anyone on the path to spiritual empowerment. These daily devotions will create powerful changes in the circumstances of your life that have held you back and will place you on the road to personal strength and peace of mind.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This book of 365 daily devotionals supports the time-honored adage, "Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?" The charismatic spiritual leader Iyanla Vanzant knows how easy it is to stay stuck in "old sentiments, resentments, beliefs, decisions, agreements, judgments, and ideas that may have become habitual." Through these devotions Vanzant hopes to show readers that the easiest way to create change is to simply shift your attitude--today. "We often work so hard to get the things we want that we miss the fact that it is the landscape of the inner world that stands between us and true happiness."

In the closing paragraph of each one-page devotional Vanzant names an old way of thinking and offers readers a new attitude to try on "just for today." For example, Vanzant writes, "Until today, you may have believed that you had to stay in the painful hole of hurt caused by the loss of a loved one. Just for today, make a conscious effort and choice to cover the hole and move on." Some might consider these devotions a fancy term for affirmations. Vanzant scoffs at the notion. Time spent in devotion is not a "New Age trick through which you can impose your will on God, the universe, or those around you," she writes. "Devotion is the reverent, personal act of surrendering your will to the Divine will." --Gail Hudson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

More inspiration from Vanzant.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone (August 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684859971
• ISBN-13: 978-0684859972
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,445 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

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Healing the mind, body and soul!, December 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Until Today!: Daily Devotions for Spiritual Growth and Peace of Mind (Hardcover)

This was so moving for me. I am just recently out of a bad relationship, one of many. A friend shared with me a copy of this book before I bought it myself. Iyanla touches on the deepest parts of my heart, and shows me that I am not alone. Coming from a not so good childhood...and thinking as I grew up that men were always going to hurt me in the end, therefore never allowing myself to honestly open up and trust one, I have just been going through the motions of a relationship for years. Never understanding why it is that I just cant seem to find "happiness". And she, very vividly, explains that we all have a past but we can't allow it to ruin our future! And only now in retrospect, with the aid of this book showing me and allowing me to really understand, can I see that I was doing just that. If you are not sure about where to go for help, or unsure of how you can get beyond your "skeletons in the closet", like many of us, than this is definitely for you! She is helping me to find myself all over again from the inside out....Healing the mind, body and soul.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Speaks Directly To You, April 2, 2001

By 

P. Bigelow (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Until Today!: Daily Devotions for Spiritual Growth and Peace of Mind (Hardcover)

Vanzant's latest book is in a day-to-day devotional format. Having devoured everything else she has written, I didn't hesitate to pick this up. Well, get ready to be smacked hard upside your head every single day.

The author seems to have the view of a seer, and every single piece is directly related to what's happening in life at exactly that moment. Each devotion ends with the phrase, "Until today..." and a statement like "you may have been feeling as if you were about to break down. Just for today, call forth the strength, courage, wisdom, insight, power and love of the spirit of life. Ask that you be guided through the next minute, hour or day to a place of peace." (January 31)

Each month has a focus - life, love, awareness, acknowledgment, acceptance forgiveness, etc. Each day's reading focuses on internal personal and spiritual growth, self-acceptance, change and producing peace in your life.

It is an excellent book for those who have thrown out all the other daily devotional books including those for "Women Who Do Too Much." I expect to wear the pages of this book out over the next years.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Until Today......I didn't know there was more to learn, April 23, 2001

By 

Nikki (Decatur, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Until Today!: Daily Devotions for Spiritual Growth and Peace of Mind (Hardcover)

This was one of the many books that I own by Iyanla, and though it isn't as insightful as the others, this book still allows you to learn more...about yourself and others. And the way she lets you know that you may not have known this "Until Today" and if you never use this again just use it "just for today...". I think that the 365 day motivational is just what people need to know that everyone isn't perfect everyday, but they can at least try. If you are looking for a daily motivational that isn't a speech or something telling you that is is easy to change, when you know it isn't, this is the book for you.