Inner Simplicity: 100 Ways to Regain Peace and Nourish Your Soul (Paperback)

by Elaine St. James (Author) "IF YOU'RE THINKING about achieving a level of inner simplicity, no doubt you've already taken steps to simplify other areas of your life..." (more)
Key Phrases: inner simplicity, right brain mode, use your journal (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Reduce inner 'clutter' and disarray and create harmonious personal feelings through a title which tells how to enhance creativity and confront personal fears. Meditations and personal lessons are packed into a guide which contrasts the author's own avenues of enlightenment with suggestions for improvement. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Description
The author of Simplify Your Life offers a path to the simpler life of mind and spirit through meditation, solitude, making spirituality a regular part of the day, and getting in touch with your creativity. Original. 75,000 first printing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (April 20, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078688097X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786880973
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,902 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice little book, June 20, 2002

By	atmj (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Elaine St. James is the "Queen" of simplicity. Not only does she give you good advice she also gives it succinctly.

One neat way to read this book is a "hint" per day. Then this little book will take you 100 days to read. You will also internalize some of the messages so much better as well. The odd thing about when you do this, sometimes you hit a particularly pertinent hint on the day you need it.

This book is separated in 6 sections and includes a reading list. I especially like books that include reading lists as they help guide you to similarly minded books.

The six sections are:
1. Things you'll want to do: General ideas for getting in touch with yourself.

2. Easy things to think about doing: Ideas to help you become aware of how to simplify.

3. More difficult things to think about doing: Some real hard steps to pare down. Some of these might be pretty difficult for some.

4.The hard stuff: Well, this is the emotional housecleaning part. Some times our heads are full.

5. Some fun stuff: Cool ideas and further tools to try.

All in all a very jam packed useful little book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview, especially for "beginners", July 24, 1998

By A Customer

I am a fan of the other "simplicity" books by Elaine St.James, and this one did not let me down. She has organized the book in a way that makes for easy reading. As with the first book in this series, St. James covers 100 topics. Each of these subjects are grouped into "chapters" of sorts, by the perceived difficulty of the task. The material is also cross-referenced quite nicely.

The ideas contained in the book are basic, but extremely powerful. Anyone who's been into selp-improvement for a while will probably have some of these ideas in other forms already. Still, "Inner Simplicity" is a great refresher. It managed to give me a few new ideas, even though I've got many classics of philosophy, spirituality and "new age thought" on my shelf.

At the end of the book, I was very glad I'd purchased it!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The universe whispers the same hints to us all - simplify..., November 25, 2003

By	OAKSHAMAN "oakshaman" (Algoma, WI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

When it comes to the art of simplifying one's life it would be hard to find a better practical guide. I highly recommend it- not because I followed it to simplify my own life, but because I found that I had already discovered practically every one of the 100 entries on my own. It was almost uncanny that I had come to the same conclusions and techniques in my own quest towards simplicity (life review, discarding nonsupportive relationships, journal keeping, wisdom literature, listening to one's inner voice, reducing media exposure, discarding useless distractions, practice dieing, weekend retreats, etc., etc., etc.) Of course the author lists Synchronicity as #10, so perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. It seems that the universe whispers the same hints to all of us, if we merely quiet down enough to hear.

This is not a trivial, hippy-dippy, New Age title. The author is a former business woman. While it is true that she refers to synchronicity, meditation, yoga, runes, and consulting a psychic, she does so not because it is the newest, hip, New Age fad, but rather because it represents an ancient, effective, wisdom.

One of the hundred suggestions listed is to take a year off from work and do nothing. This is sound advice- I grew immeasurably when I did this. Be cautioned, however, that the corporate world will never forgive you for this. If you try to re-enter the corporate structure this will be a permanent black mark on your work record. Of course, once you internalise the other 99 tips in the book you will probably never wish to return to the corporate hierarchy anyway....