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Organizing for the
Spirit
by Sunny Schlenger |
Living soulfully is:
- living in tune with yourself – discovering who you
are and why
- you’re here
- knowing that everything is connected;
- a lifelong adventure, and the best possible trip you
could ever take!
I believe that appreciating your uniqueness is the
sine qua non of living soulfully. No two people have
exactly the same combination of talent and life
experiences, and therefore there’s room for every
individual to make his/her mark. Not just
"room" actually; there’s a designated place
for you at the table of life, and you’re not
fulfilling your destiny if you don’t pull up a seat.
Living soulfully is the way to learn where your place
is, and to take it proudly. By living with integrity,
enjoying the present moment, utilizing your gifts and
reaching out to others, you are nourishing your soul and
keeping the connection healthy.
This is the basis for my Organizing for the Spirit
program – a focus on who you are, where you are, the
importance of taking pleasure in your activities, and
giving to others out of gratitude for your blessings.
Building on these four cornerstones enables you to
manage the details of your life in concert with the
vision of your soul.
Living soulfully allows you to stay in touch with
that vision. When you feel disconnected from your soul,
you lose sight of the big picture of your life.
Day-to-day activities become overwhelming instead of
fulfilling and it’s easy to be distracted by
insignificant happenings around you. The art of managing
your time and space has as much to do with the whispers
of your spirit as it does with understanding the
principles of organization.
Since everything is connected, it’s important to
look for the markers that tell you when you’re living
soulfully. Synchronicities abound when you’re in flow
with your Higher Self, and you see meaning where you
might not have seen it before. For instance, the
"stuff" around you becomes more than just
"stuff." It’s all an extension of you;
representations of decisions you have made in the past
-- decisions that can be re-made in the present to
reflect more of the person you are today.
Have you thought about what portion of your daily
activities, and how much of your surrounding space is
representative of your current needs and
interests? At the end of the day, are you pleased with
the choices you have made? Are you listening to what
your soul is telling you?
Living soulfully involves uniting mind, body and
spirit in the ever-changing present moment. It means
sustaining a broader perspective that allows you to
shift into patterns of behavior that are more supportive
of who you are, and who you are meant to be. It’s
opting for inner peace and hope and joy, instead of
negativity and worry.
Living soulfully is not necessarily easy. It means
surrendering to reality in order to transcend it. It
means battling your insecurities and fears, so that you
truly accept your own power to make a difference. It
means appreciating the small things. It also means being
kind to yourself, and knowing that in spite of
everything, you're always doing the best that you know
how to do.
Living soulfully is at the same time a journey and a
destination. Like Dorothy in "The Wizard of
Oz," all you have to do is follow your heart’s
path home.
© Copyright 2002
Sunny Schlenger. All Rights Reserved.
Sunny Schlenger has been a
Professional Organizer for almost 25 years, working with
large and small corporations, non-profit agencies, and
individuals to help them manage their time and space
more creatively and effectively. She does personal
coaching as well as group training and special project
facilitation. Sunny also conducts The Happiness Seminar,
a practical and motivational program on how to maintain
a healthy balance in one’s life, and has designed an
on-line corporate newsletter to help employees deal more
positively with the stress that can be caused by time
overload.
Her clients and sponsoring
organizations have included Hoffmann-LaRoche, Lipton,
Computerland, Kidder Peabody, Dupont-Merck, Pfizer, U.S.
Navy, International Association of Financial Planners,
Bloomingdale’s and The Wharton School of Business. She
has spoken for non-profit organizations such as the
American Heart Association, the American Institute of
Banking, the International Platform Association, the
Maryland State Department of Education, the National
Association of Female Executives and the New Jersey
Association of Women Business Owners.
Sunny is the co-author of How
To Be Organized In Spite of Yourself
(Penguin-Putnam), a Book-of-the-Month Club selection
that is now available in an updated 10th
anniversary edition. She has been profiled in such
publications as The New York Times, Fortune, USA
Today, Working Woman, Self, Success, New Woman and
McCall’s. She has also been featured on national
television broadcasts, including ABC’s "Live With
Regis & Kathie Lee", CNN’s "Sonya –
Live in LA," FNN’s "Money Talk", and
Lifetime Cable’s "Working Women’s Survival
Hour." Sunny appears in The Power of Flow (Belitz
& Lundstrom) as a Flow Master who has learned to
adapt the principles of flow to create an exciting and
fulfilling life. Her next book, Organizing for the
Spirit (Jossey-Bass/J.Wiley & Sons) will be
released next year.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins
University, Sunny holds a B.A. in Social &
Behavioral Sciences and received her Masters degree in
Counseling from the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. Sunny believes in growth, achievement,
renewal and joy – at both personal and organization
levels. By combining specific how-to’s with dynamic
philosophy, she has created a unique and successful
approach to mastering the dual challenges of staying
productive and feeling good.
Her website is www.suncoach.com.
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