Inner Simplicity: 100 Ways to Regain Peace and Nourish Your Souls
Author: Elaine St. James
List Price: $9.95
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ISBN: 078688097X
Publisher: Hyperion (04 May, 1995)
Sales Rank: 33,663
Average Customer Rating: 4.21 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Nice little book
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.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Oh my
The shear beauty of this book comes from Elaine's way of inviting us to reconsider many unproductive constructs by which we stucture our lives. I find it interesting that self-described religious and/or spiritual people find fault with a small part of this book. Frankly, Elaine is not trying to be a catalyst to move people away from religion. On the contrary, she invites her readers to reconsider the most important aspect of religion ... spirituality. Almost every religion could stand to simplify by reducing dogmatic practices that do not add to the true purpose of the religion. Thus, I believe Elaine is constructively bold in her approach. My reaction to reviewers, who profess to be more enlightened about spirituality than Elaine, is to remember their belief is just one in a sea of billions of others. I don't believe Elaine is trying to sway readers to a specific spiritual path. Instead, Elaine encourages everyone to discover a unique spirituality that is free from mandates of organized religions. I find the rest of the book to be an exceptional sequel to "Simplyfy Your Life." I find the fact that Elaine separated outer and inner simplification to be helpful rather than a hindrance. Our attentions spans have grown shorter as part of our "sound bite society." Thus, focusing on the inner and outer, in separate books, helps distinguish important differences between the simplification of each area of life.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Good Guide...
INNER SIMPLICITY is a set of 100 suggestions that can improve the quality of your life. Like the parables of old, this little book holds many bits of wisdom that can lead to happiness and contentment. No matter what your life circumstances, St. James words can be applied in some measure. For example, I am using a suggestion she makes for encouraging yourself in a 'good' behavior. Each day I remember to exercise, I stick a shiny little star on my wall calender. The calender looks pretty and I feel good (if it works for children, why not reward your own inner child??). Another suggestion St James makes involves "examining the costs of saying no." Along with reducing the need to be "in the know" it goes a long way toward making life more pleasant. You can use these 'readings' as daily guides. I read the book from cover to cover over several weeks, and now refer to various suggestions each day. Each suggestion is a (small) page or two in length, so you can read it at the start of your day. Frequently the suggestions are interlinked. For example, figuring out 'what you have to teach others' is linked with 'learning to forgive'. I like this book so much I am going to read others by St James - especially 'Living the Simple Life'.
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