Great Books

One Day My Soul Just Opened Up is a program of inspiration and motivation that will help you work through problems and improve your emotional and spiritual health. Through exercises and readings, Iyanla provides you with the tools to tap into your strengths and make your dreams come true. One Day My Soul Just Opened Up will open your mind, heart, and soul to the truth of your identity as a creative and powerful being.

Ordained minister and "spiritual life counselor" Iyanla Vanzant doesn't know the exact moment when her soul opened up "and the spirit of the divine entered [her] body." But she will always remember the key insight that opened the door to her soul and simultaneously locked the door to her insanity: "If you know who walks beside you, you can never be afraid." This is the premise from which Vanzant has launched her enormously successful 40-day, spiritual self-help program. One Day My Soul Just Opened Up is designed as day-by-day journal/workbook to help readers believe in a divine presence while pondering daily spiritual lessons such as simplicity, peace, compassion, and nonjudgement. The charismatic Vanzant (whom Oprah Winfrey considers to be one of the world's most admirable spiritual leaders) has a gift for humble, tell-it-like-it-is talk. She is also a wise and warm soul, eager to help others trust in love and find a relationship with God in order to get on with their lives. Readers especially like her daily list of inspirations titled "Let Me Remember." For example, under day 23, "When You Feel Angry," she uses the list to remind readers: "All things work to bring me healing"; "Forgiveness will provide relief and release"; and "Love will heal anything that is not an expression of love." --Gail Hudson

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.

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

THE #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER What's love got to do with it in the meantime? You know where you want to be, but you have no clue how to get there. You know exactly what you want in life, but what you want is nowhere in sight. Perhaps your vision is unclear, your purpose still undefined. On top of it all, your relationships, particularly your romantic relationships, are failing. If these scenarios feel familiar way down in the deepest part of your gut -- then you, my dear, are smack dab in the middle of the meantime. Every living being wants to experience the light of love. The problem is that our windows are dirty! The windows of our hearts and minds are streaked with past pains and hurts, past memories and disappointments. In this book, Iyanla Vanzant teaches us how to do our mental housekeeping so that we can clean the windows, floors, walls, closets, and corners of our minds. If we do a good job, our spirits will shine bringing in the light of true love and happiness.

Many listeners will recognize relationship fairy-godmother Iyanla Vanzant's positively charged style from her frequent appearances on Oprah®. She infuses this reading of her own book with the cadences of a revival preacher on a Sunday morning. (It's no surprise, then, to find "ordained minister" listed in her biography.) Using housecleaning as her central analogy, she urges listeners to clean out their heads and souls if they want to be prepared for real love. Using anecdotes from her own life and those of others, she outlines how personal responsibility and respect for oneself can clean the attic, clearing the way for long, healthy relationships. (Running time: 2 hours, 2 cassettes) --Kimberly Heinrichs

Bestselling author Iyanla Vanzant has had an amazing and difficult life -- one full of great challenges that have unmasked her wonderful gifts and led to the wisdom she has gained. In this simple book, she uses her own experiences to show how life's hardships can be relanguaged and re-visioned to become lessons that teach us as we grow, heal, and learn to love. Iyanla Vanzant is an example of how yesterday's tears become the seeds of today's hope, renewal, and strength.

"Life is about cleaning up the crap and, while you're doing it, being okay with the fact that you have to do it.... A word of caution. You can't get caught up in the crap! If you do, you will surely lose sight of the real meaning of life and lose your Self." Iyanla Vanzant knows plenty about dealing with just such "crap." She has led a difficult life, full of periods of abuse and self-loathing, but she has managed to learn "the lessons beneath the tears" and move beyond her grief and into understanding. In Yesterday, I Cried, she passes these lessons along, continually stressing that past hardships can and should be used to teach us how to grow, heal, and love others and ourselves. The message is one that has been echoed in her bestsellers One Day My Soul Just Opened Up and In the Meantime, but when presented as a memoir, the result is particularly moving. As any regular Oprah viewer knows, Vanzant is a feisty and charismatic orator, and her no-nonsense style translates well into print. She is candid about her experiences without ever painting herself as a victim, effectively coming across as inspirational rather than preachy or self-pitying. The tone of the book is especially engaging because she seems to be actively working out her problems as she writes, gently pulling the reader into what becomes a mutual catharsis. "Of all things to master," she asks, "why did I have to pick tears?" By the end of Yesterday, I Cried, she finds the answer. And in searching the depths of her own soul, she encourages others to do the same.

Are you in the Meantime? Are you confused, angry, disappointed, frustrated, anxious, apprehensive, sorry for yourself, or generally wiped out? If so, my friend, you are in the meantime. Are you ready to put the pieces of your life together? Are you ready to begin the process of healing? Are you ready to give and receive love in all of your experiences? In Living Through the Meantime, bestselling author Iyanla Vanzant will lead you, step-by-step, to a greater understanding of your own past, your motivations, and your desires. Once you have completed this program of meditation, self-care, and self-examination, you will be able to move beyond your meantime experience and into the love that is your true essence.

The "meantime," according to best-selling author and inspirational speaker Iyanla Vanzant, is that in-between stage of life when you're gathering up strength, evaluating past mishaps, and preparing for the next chapter. Using the metaphor of psyche as house, Vanzant believes that the meantime offers a perfect opportunity for tackling a rigorous cleaning. "We are going to go through every inch of your emotional and spiritual house and clean up the mess, clear out the debris, fix the leaks, stop the squeaks, and reveal and repair any damage we can find," she promises in this workbook. Readers who felt soothed and inspired by Vanzant's In the Meantime will probably appreciate this floor-by-floor companion workbook. Every chapter of Living Through the Meantime contains an assortment of "Caring Exercises," ranging from affirmations, such as "I now place my faith in the power and presence of God's love" to quasi-therapeutic fill-in-the-blanks statements. (For example, "My earliest experience of feeling betrayed was ___.") Vanzant is not the most eloquent or sophisticated of writers, but she does seem to touch people's hearts and crack them open. Her main agendas are self-reflection and trust in God. Fans who are ready to tackle a hefty self-improvement project will not be disappointed with this workbook. Newcomers should check out her earlier book before committing to this one. -- Gail Hudson

From the bestselling author of Until Today! and One Day My Soul Just Opened Up comes a unique invitation to prayer -- and her most deeply personal book yet. Over the years, bestselling author Iyanla Vanzant has received many letters from readers who want to know how to pray. Some are afraid they are praying wrong. Some want a formula. Some think their prayers are unworthy. Here, Iyanla shares the realizations that changed her experience with prayer once and for all: Every thought, every word, every action is a prayer; focus on God's presence in everything -- and everyone -- and prayer becomes as natural as breathing. The prayers in Everyday I Pray culled from Iyanla's own prayer journal, address a variety of topics and situations. It is Iyanla's hope that they will spark a light in the hearts of readers, and that others will come to know the peace of God's grace. With this intimate collection, she invites readers everywhere to join her in making the thoughts, words, and deeds of everyday life more reverent, honorable, and loving.

Iyanla Vanzant is known internationally as the leading authority on spirituality and empowerment for Black women. As a featured speaker at the Million Man March, she launched her message to the Black men who have long been part of her following. With forthrightness and powerful insight, Vanzant teaches them how to recognize and draw upon the power of the spirit within themselves. Recognizing the obstacles set before Black men in the past and the powerful forces still at work against them today, Vanzant seeks to help both men and women nurture the strength and power they possess – that of their history, their souls, and their relationships with each other. The Spirit of a Man is a brilliant and transformative blend of practical self-help, contemporary spirituality and ancient African spiritual wisdom.

      The revised and expanded 20th-anniversary edition of Iyanla Vanzant’s first published work offers a powerful path to self-empowerment through the revitalization of one’s spiritual and ancestral roots. Written with Iyanla’s signature healing stories, this classic guide to uniting the will with the spirit teaches that only you have the power to make a change for the better. With chapters on basic breathing and meditation techniques, setting up a home altar, connecting with ancestors and guardian spirits, and the extraordinary power of forgiveness, this book is a perfect companion on the way toward the real you.       Known for teaching by principle and example, this exclusive edition also contains Iyanla’s special “What I Know Now” commentaries and an original CD. These tools will challenge you to stop struggling and start recognizing that it is possible to reconcile your humanity with your divinity. Whether you are a beginner on the path or a veteran in need of refreshment, Iyanla’s prescriptions can support your growth from the comfort of spiritual adolescence to the wisdom of spiritual maturity. You no longer need to settle for the way things are . . . you can open up to the way things can be—if you dare to tap the power within!

A companion volume to the best-selling Acts of Faith discusses the eight ""valleys"" that cause stress and imbalance for women of color and explains how women can cleanse their minds and promote a healthy foundation for living in the modern world. 125,000 first printing.

You are special. You are precious. You are It! Today, Iyanla Vanzant is a bestselling author with her own business and a loving family. But it wasn't so long ago that she was a teenager -- a sixteen-year-old mother and high school dropout on welfare. Iyanla knows that a young woman's journey can be lonely and hard. She remembers how difficult it is to put into words the way you feel, how it feels to want to be loved. In Don't Give It Away!, Iyanla presents a workbook in which you can write your feelings and express your thoughts about the things that matter to you -- your family, your friends, your body, and your love life. Problems at home and at school are a natural part of every young woman's life, but understanding what to do with how you feel about your problems is the key to growing up. Iyanla Vanzant shows you that the love you seek is the love that you are.