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

By Sunny Schlenger

Book Overview

Does that sound impossible? In Organizing for the Spirit , organizing expert Sunny Schlenger demonstrates how the "stuff" of our lives--the objects that fill our homes and offices, as well as how we manage our time (whether we are productive or procrastinating)--offers clues to what we really value in life. With simple and practical exercises, Sunny guides you through a step-by-step process to take stock of your life, clearly identify what really matters, and then use that clarity about values and priorities as a guide to organize both your physical environment and your time. The result is a life of meaning and harmony--in the office, the studio, the home, and beyond. Organizing for the Spirit is nothing less than a revolutionary guidebook for creating the life you were meant to live.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787967599
• ISBN13: 9780787967598
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 139 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Great wisdom Workable solutions

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 provide

Organizing Benefits

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.

Inspirational

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.

Birthday Present

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.

Terrific, Unique approach to getting Organized

"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.