| « Previous |
“Creating Your Personal Legacy” Class
| Remember the times of your life with scrap book |
| Written by Lu Stitt |
| Friday, 25 March 2011 00:00 |
+
Tom Hood/Larson Newspapers Preserving memories is something everyone wants to do — to keep those bits and pieces of a life well lived preserved for coming generations. If that is true, then why do most of us just toss the items in a box and stick it under the bed or in the back of the closet? “Oftentimes, people just don’t know how best to put those items together in some type of organization,” Sunny Schlenger said. “There are many ways to create your personal legacy.” Schlenger teaches a class through Yavapai College’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute to help people create and preserve their life story using the memorabilia, photographs and writings they’ve kept piled together in a box. The first step, she said, is organizing. “It doesn’t have to be done all at once. You can even start with one photograph and write a description about it and why it is important to you,” Schlenger said. Schlenger has written two books on organization. After her parents died, she inherited a large number of pictures and collected items from several years of saving. “Some [organizing skills] I knew and some I didn’t. I started scrapbooking about the same time and found I had to find things first, then organize them,” Schlenger said opening the book she made. “I decided I wouldn’t just pass along a box of unmarked ‘stuff’ to my kids.” From that decided statement, Schlenger came up with an idea of how to put her life into a book, then the idea for a class began to surface to help others do the same. “In my class you take one photograph and write about it, focusing on the positive. You ask questions of why and how this item is important. Include what memories and feelings are associated with the photograph and why. If we take it a step further, we can create pages from an era, like the 1960s or one year,” Schlenger said. Other ideas for organization are by people, family or events. It can be very basic, like a photograph and information about the people pictured. This is done most often with very old photographs of an ancestor. Creating a personal legacy is not just about remembering the past. It’s paying attention to the present and passing the stories along. “I want my kids to know what life was like for me on March 8, 2011. You can go from very general, like who is my family, to what I did yesterday,” Schlenger said. She starts by asking the question, “If you were gone tomorrow, what would you want others to know about you and the life you lived?” She said it is like an African proverb she likes to quote: “When an elder dies, it is as if an entire library burned down.” What Schlenger and the people in the class will do is keep it simple and specific to the individual. Every person’s life is different, even if the experiences are similar. Many people crossing the American plains and prairies in the 1800s to find a better life in the West bore some of the same hardships, but the journals they wrote were all different. “History books were written from people’s writings, how they saw what was happening. We all have a history that is worth telling. It helps us to see our purpose in life — why we are here,” Schlenger said. “It also helps us revisit those most treasured moments of our lives.” Creating a personal legacy can be like a treasure hunt to discover those bits and pieces, and why they have been kept as cherished possessions. “It helps connect us to ourselves and to each other. You can approach this from any angle,” Schlenger said as she opened several books on a table to demonstrate the different approaches she has used with her own legacy project. “It’s a lifelong process you can start at any age.” She said virtually everyone who comes to the class walks in the door with a tub full of photographs and collected items, and wants to organize them somehow. “Where should I put this item?” is a big question for most people, Schlenger said. “I want to help get people where they are and bring them into the perspective of their life as a story. I encourage people to write about their lives and having an item to write about helps,” she said. “I think this is part of my mission, to help people record their own lives.” The class is also designed to help people understand what is important in their life, what is worth keeping, and how, with a deep breath, to blow the rest away. “People need to record their lives, and not be just a name on a family tree or three paragraphs in a newspaper obituary. It’s a way to reclaim your life and have something to pass along,” Schlenger said. Schlenger is the author of “How to Be Organized in Spite of Yourself” and “Organizing for the Spirit.” She received a bachelor’s degree in social and behavioral sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s in counseling from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Schlenger has lived in the Village of Oak Creek since 2007. Creating Your Personal Legacy will be taught for five weeks beginning Friday, April 8, from 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in Room 39 of Yavapai College Sedona Campus, 4215 Arts Village Drive in West Sedona. For more information, call 649-4266. |
Combatting Clutter
Combatting Clutter
THRIVE – VOLUME 2, ISSUE 6 – APRIL 2008
Sunny Schlenger is featured in this April 2008 article on Thrive.
“Penny, rest her soul, has been dead for at least 25 years. An extreme case of clutter-itis, maybe. But most of us can relate on some level — that closet we just keep throwing stuff into and closing the door, the drawer in the kitchen with its hodge podge of contents, the magazines stockpiled in the garage. Don’t wait 30 years to get organized, start now, advises Sunny Schlenger, professional coach and organizer and author of “How to Be Organized in Spite of Yourself” (Penguin/Putnum)…”
John Tesh quotes Sunny Schlenger from Family Circle
Quoted in the John Tesh Radio Show Newsletter
From the Family Circle, January Issue
Sunny Schlenger was quoted for the January issue of Family Circle, and quoted from that article in John Tesh’s Radio Show newsletter.
“Organize your environment. If every flat surface in your house is piled with papers and junk, watch out. Sunny Schlenger, author of Organizing for the Spirit, says you can tell how well you’re dealing with life by what your environment looks like. She points out that clutter can overwhelm your spirit, and disorganization causes constant, imperceptible stress. The fix: spend 10 minutes every day de-cluttering one spot where things accumulate. And stop trying to find places to store what you don’t really love or need. Give it away or haul it to the curb. With less stuff to take care of, you’ll have more time to devote to the things that really move your life forward.”
MarthaStewart.com in Body + Soul, Green Living – Cut the Clutter
Cut the Clutter
By Christine Richmond
MarthaStewart.com in Body + Soul, Green Living
September 2006 It doesn’t seem so bad at first. A stack of bills (or your kid’s latest artwork) sits on the kitchen table, and some old photos amass on the floor by the bed. Somehow, these innocent-looking piles proliferate, as if by their own free will. In mere days, a few contained cases of clutter morph into utter mayhem—and you have no idea how. (more…)
The Harvard Resource: News and Information – How to Make Those “Sweeping” Changes
How to Make Those “Sweeping” Changes
By Natasha Hunter
The Harvard Resource: News and Information
for Harvard University Faculty and Staff
July 2005 It’s a beautiful afternoon and you’re standing glumly in your office, staring at seemingly endless stacks of, well, stuff. When did those piles get so high? What the heck is in them, anyway? And how are you going to dig yourself out?
While the time may not be less busy, summer months can be a moment to take on special or neglected projects. Many Harvard employees choose summer to attack the previous year’s accumulation of papers, files and miscellany, in order to face the new academic year afresh. Moreover, as Harvard’s supervisor of recycling and waste Rob Gogan points out, “This is the season for moving, renovations and office cleanouts – plus a lot of dorms are cleaning out and upgrading.” (more…)
Microsoft Home Magazine – Lose the Clutter, Find Your Soul
Lose the Clutter, Find Your Soul
By Kama Lee Jackson
Microsoft Home Magazine
April 12, 2005 For Janette Kincaid, clutter isn’t just taking up space in her home. It’s taking up space in her thoughts, day and night.
“I’ve got a list going in my head as to which rooms or areas I need to tackle first,” says the Burlington, Ont., working mother of two. “The other night I couldn’t sleep. I got up, went through and organized my youngest daughter’s drawers. It had been bothering me that they were so full of stuff that she can’t wear anymore.” (more…)
The Record – Special To The Record
Special To The Record
By Delia Blackler Perretta
The Record
January 6, 2005 If you’re like most people, you probably made a couple of New Year’s resolutions. Maybe you’re planning to hit the gym every day. Maybe you’re swearing off junk food. Or maybe you plan to conquer all that clutter in your house. Those focusing on the latter may want to consider the ancient Japanese tradition of Osoji to increase their chances of success – because willpower alone might not cut it. Osoji is both a literal and metaphoric cleansing of the physical and spiritual stains of the past year. (For more information about Osoji, visit kyotoguide.com/e-p01-interview).
But if you think you’ll be able to reorganize your entire house in a weekend, even with Osoji’s help, think again. (more…)
Fort Worth Star Telegram – Are we Overdocumenting our Lives?
Are we overdocumenting our lives?
By Alyson Ward Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Fort Worth Star Telegram
October 24, 2004 Our relatives send us 500 photos to sift through online. If there’s an event, we have a videotape of it. Technology makes it easier and easier to catalog our lives — but does that mean we should?
Jill Caren saw a storage-space shortage in her future.
Her 2-year-old daughter, Rachel, has started using crayons and fingerpaints and glue. The result: lots and lots of art projects, too many for the refrigerator door.
(more…)
John Hopkins Magazine – Finding Meaning in Clutter
Finding Meaning in Clutter
By Marlene England
Johns Hopkins Magazine
September, 2004 Life can get pretty messy at times. Just ask Baltimore native, best-selling author, and life coach Sunny Schlenger.
A professional organizer for 25 years, Schlenger’s seen it all. Bedrooms filled floor to ceiling with papers and knickknacks. Grocery bags overflowing with unopened mail. Executives paralyzed by a fear of filing — and drowning in a sea of papers. Families too busy to share meals, let alone conversation.
Schlenger believes there is hope for the messes — and their makers. And she’s determined to tackle the time and space challenges that can make life seem so overwhelming. (more…)
Girl Zone – Be Who You Are
Girl Zone
September, 2004 There’s only one you. Your individuality should be driving everything you do. But, sad to say, many of us end up being someone other than who we really are. Whether we haven’t discovered our uniqueness yet or we’re trying to please someone else, we’re not living as authentically as we could. We’re settling for lives that are absent the challenges and contributions that rightfully belong to us. We need to learn to live with integrity, be comfortable with our authenticity, and rediscover our person passions before we can truly be who we are.
Baruch Spinoza said, “To be who we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming is the only end in life.” But what, exactly, does it mean to be who we are? One place to begin answering this question is to observe your personal style, not just your style of dressing, but everything you do. Personal style is the outward manifestation of your inner self. It showcases your natural preferences and expresses what you truly love. (more…)
| « Previous | Next » |
