Up From Here: Reclaiming the Male Spirit: A Guide to Transforming Emotions into Power and Freedom - Softcover

Vanzant, Iyanla

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006052250X ISBN 13: 9780060522506

Publisher: HarperOne, 2003

Synopsis

For men — and
the women who love them —
a guide to transformation
and true power

The world needs your light. The world needs your life.
Every woman and child needs you also.

Few men are taught the true spiritual essence of masculinity. In Up from Here Iyanla Vanzant empowers men with the insight and skills they need to identify, name, and understand their feelings, as well as to overcome the old patterns of behavior that result from misusing or not tapping into their emotional strength. In clear terms Vanzant shows men how to use the energy of emotions to move beyond painful, negative feelings such as rage, shame, fear, and anger to authenticity and strength.

Like the phoenix, you can rise up from here,
out of the ashes of the crash and burn of the past,
to claim your true identity and power.

By using Vanzant's "power tools" men can transform their frustrations and failures in love, life, and work into opportunities to claim their true potential and purpose.

About this title

Review:

In Up from Here, bestselling author Iyanla Vanzant speaks directly to the black men of America, offering specific spiritual tools for transforming themselves into better husbands, fathers, partners, and friends. Assuming that most of the men who pick up this book are already in some kind of crisis, Vanzant writes:

This is what I hope for you: that you'll be able to see that where you are now, dark as it may be, has a purpose.... When you're low there's nowhere to go but up--and together we can go up from here.

Vanzant (In the Meantime) profiles seven men, all with different problems, to show readers how they can dig themselves out of the spiritual messes they make. We meet Roy, whose deep-rooted anger and big-ego attitude get him fired from his job; he's reluctant to take responsibility for any of this. There's Eddie, a 50-year-old "nice guy" who's threatened by the fact that his wife earns more money and recognition than he does. After each profile Vanzant launches into a lengthy section called "Transformation Plan and Power Tools." This is where she dishes out her "up from here" advice, such as "Instead of comparing yourself to others, take an honest assessment of where you are in your life." We like Vanzant because she cuts through black male stereotypes and despair without sugarcoating the fact that spiritual work requires hard and even (gasp) emotional work. Take heart, according to Vanzant: no one has sunk so low that he can't rise up from the crash and burn of his past to claim his true identity and power. --Gail Hudson

About the Author:

Iyanla Vanzant is the bestselling author of In the Meantime, One Day My Soul Just Opened Up, and The Spirit of a Man. She is the founder and executive director of Inner Visions Spiritual Life Maintenance Network and the Inner Visions Institute of Spiritual Development.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 006052250X
• ISBN 13: 9780060522506
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240