Shelter for the Spirit: How to Make Your Home a Haven in a Hectic World – Transform Everyday Acts Into Spiritual Exercises for Peace and Renewal

by Victoria Moran

Even though Americans spend thousands on furniture, appliances and interior decoration, many of our homes have become little more than drop-off zones where we collapse after work, glued to the TV while gulping down a microwave dinner. The home can be so much more than that, says Victoria Moran. It can be a haven in which people can revitalize mind, body and soul. That's what Shelter for the Spirit is all about. Merging Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with a sensitivity to the demands of modern life, it provides people with usable directions for bringing a sense of peace and renewal to their homes. Whether addressing how to get rid of clutter, decorate in a way that respects your personality, clean house as a spiritual exercise or celebrate special days (and ordinary ones too), Shelter for the Spirit shows how the quality of attention we give to everyday acts can transform our lives. The only book of its kind, it helps all readers make their homes places in which they and their guests enjoy spending their moments.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Inspirational, Religion, Personal Development, Family

240 pages, Paperback

Published May 6, 1998

About the author

Victoria Moran is an inspirational speaker, a certified life coach, and the author of ten books, including Lit from Within; Fat, Broke & Lonely No More; and the international bestseller Creating a Charmed Life. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Body + Soul, Natural Health, and Yoga Journal. Her blog, “Your Charmed Life,” is published daily on Beliefnet. She lives a charmed life in New York City.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! I bought it on the recommendation of someone who has long homeschooled her children in Waldorf education and used this book as a guide for simplifying her life. I found it to be so full of truths and wisdom that I wanted to underline the whole book! Victoria Moran is a very entertaining writer, and she describes her own journey to peace and joy very frankly and with wonderfully practical ideas. She has gained great insights on her journey through life and I am so grateful that she wrote them into a book to share with the rest of us. This is a wonderful handbook on how to create a home and find peace within it.

[Bloodorange · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad I bought this book. Victoria Moran's voice has been helping me protect my sanity since my early twenties, and there's so much here on how to make your home life a better one.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Randomly plucked off a library shelf in the "frugal living" section, this was a lovely read. And I've purchased a copy for my home library -- a re-read with high lighter and pen is warranted. Moran provides rich detail into converting your living space (apartment, room, ranch house, condo) into spce to nurture your spirit. From cleaning tips to hosting gatherings to celebrations, it is filled with inspiring ideas and quotes. I especially enjoyed her description of a holiday as one you do not need to recover from.

Released in 1997, it predates the contemporary age of cell phones, always being plugged in, and 24x7 news loops. Her ideas provide great refuge from a world that never stops.

I will be interested in reading any of her other writing.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmmm.... this was ok. On the positive side, I like the authors style of writing, it works for me as it’s positive and upbeat and feels genuine and I’ve found that with all her other books too. However, although I enjoyed this, I don’t think I found anything new here. I was going to give it 2 stars but that seemed unfair, so 2.5 rounded up to 3. Great if you’re unsure where to start on your home, but it felt quite rehashed from other books and skimmed the surface on other topics like feng shui... sorry, I did want to love it!

[Tina Cipolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a pretty nice treatment of how to make your home more than just a roof over your head. It has a new-age current running through it but if that doesn't bother you, this is a pretty interesting read on all the things a home can be. Topics range from cooking, cleaning, decluttering, homeschooling, homebirth working at home and dying in your own home.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot of good in this book. I particularly enjoyed the profiles at the beginning, showing various ways that people create a home for their souls. And my own soul resonates strongly with the central idea, the guiding principle of the book, that one's home, however simple or grand, can be infused with things that calm our spirits and make us feel safe and at peace. I love Moran's emphasis on home-making as soul work, and appropriately Thomas Moore wrote the Forward. I especially liked the chapters on Cleaning, Cooking, Making a Home, Comforts, and Sitting. Several chapters, particularly the ones on Celebrating and Simplifying, seemed over long for their content, which is why I'm not giving it another star. It's a book that inspires some new thinking about what is important in life and would be especially good for a reader who is just setting up a home or who has become unhappy with her current living conditions and is looking for ways to make align her surroundings with the promptings of her heart, the elements that give her soul ease.

[Shirley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was fine and had good contemplations that are better read slowly, but I felt like I was slugging through it most of the time. She did a good job expanding on the nuances of what makes a home and how to better fine tune the one you're in. I just didn't connect with the writing style.

[Sylvia Light · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shelter for the Spirit gradually and consistently captured my heart. Chapter by chapter I came to live snd admire the ideas brought forth. Easy to follow, a great read. If you like the idea of living a peaceful and satisfying life, this book provides plenty of living support. Give it a try.

[Carrie Dalby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read and full of great reminders, but nothing new to me. A good book to read at the start of the new year or whenever you're working on a lifestyle improvement. Helped motivate my new year's cleaning/organizing.

[NormaJean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Gently written to encourage gentleness to yourself.

[Anna Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

My father recently gave me this book which he has read back in early 2000s when he was building his home. This book came to me at a time I deeply needed it, while many of the concepts were not new to me, the way it came together was the closest I have ever experienced to a spiritual experience and I soaked up the pages as they touched my soul. I have read and learned about meditation but the way this touched on practicing it touched me in new ways. I finished it today after savoring and writing down quotes and sending them to loved ones. I bought five additional copies to send to people I want to share this book with. While some of the things the book touches on like answering machines and other technologies are dated the concepts are timeless. I am so thankful I read this book and while I do not often re read books I will read it again.

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many good gems and tidbits in this book! Some important perspective shifts too. I’m so glad Victoria wrote this book, I just love her writing and I always finish her books learning many helpful ideas.

[lady cherise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed most aspects of this book, particularly the ones about how the things and people we invite to our space can affect the vibe even after they leave, and how to be thoughtful about food shopping and make it enjoyable. Some parts were a bit woo or outdated in terms of technology (answering machines, homeschooling, religious stuff) but it shows how the world changing and becoming faster has been a constant in our lives for decades.

[Susan B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got to page 150 before saying, "Enough!" There's some good information in the book, some good quotes, but I just don't care for the author's writing style or the new age aspects.

[Hope Irvin Marston · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT BIG OOPS ON MY PART. My apologies. I read lots of books and this review below is not for SHELTER FOR THE SPIRIT. (I read two books on how to clean-up your house. I will track down which one this was and correct my boo boo.) I will post below this wrong review my thoughts on the Moran book.

This comprehensive, all inclusive, self-help book showed me precisely how to rid my mind and my home of accumulated clutter. Since I'm 85 years old and I've lived in the same home for more than fifty years, this won't be accomplished over night. But I know I can do it one day at time.
I recommend this book to all who need a workable plan to spiff things up inside and out. The copy I read was obtained through Interlibrary Loan. Now that I know it's value firsthand, I will purchase my own book so I can read it with highlighter in hand and refresh by mind on how to tackle things needing the boot.

SHELTOR FOR THE SPIRIT Review
This helpful book is a great in depth follow-up to the two books that encouraged me to get rid of the clutter in my home. It's an in-depth account of how the widowed author created a shelter for herself and her young daughter after the passing of her husband. Topics covered range from "A Loving Foundation" to "Comforts." There are enough details in each chapter to enable the reader to "Go and Do Likewise."

Hope Irvin Marston, author or a Charlotte Award 2021 Nominee, THE WALLS HAVE EARS: A BLACK SPY IN THE CONFEDERATE WHITE HOUSE.

[Deb Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

My brother-in-law recommended this book when I shared that I was feeling untethered and what a great book it was for me to dive into. I now feel grounded in my surroundings now and have a new appreciation not only for my h0me but also for cleaning it!

The biggest gift of the book was translating Ms Moran's anecdote of how her house and how she and others saw it transformed when she started talking about it for its positive qualities instead of its lacks. I have been in the habit of complaining about my life and feeling unhappy most of the time. Now, when asked, "how are you" I answer that life is good for it truly is. Life is life, meaning there are good and easy parts coupled with bad and hard parts. Now that I am sharing the good, I feel joy every day.

For years, the books I have read have been from the library as I generally do not read books more than once. This one I decided I needed to own a copy of and I am so excited that it arrived yesterday in the mail. What a great tome to refer back to when I need a reminder to Shelter my Spirit.

[Lain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victoria Moran is one of my favorite inspirational/self-help writers. Her writing is clear and concise, and not shadowed by a lot of "woo-woo" New Agey fog. Even when she writes about spiritual topics, she grounds her suggetions and comments in concrete terms.

This book talks about making a house -- whether a city apartment, a rural farmhouse, or a suburban ranch -- into a home. She does talk a bit about decorating (mostly in terms of buying what you love and what has meaning for you, and discarding the rest). But most of her suggestions involve LIVING in the space to sanctify it as home.

I would have liked a bit more in terms of specific house ideas (furnishings, etc.), but overall I found her suggestions useful and practical, if a tad dated (the book was written in 1998, after all).

Very helpful for me as I navigate a time in my life where "home" is a bit more mobile than I'd like.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with so much of what is brought up in this book. I would love to spend more time thinking about how I can view my home through all my senses and make it more comfortable. This book emphasized the same areas that I've read in other books: de-cluttering, meditating, slowing down; all of which I am trying to remember and put into practice. (Unfortunately, it does seem to me that all my friends who have very zen-like homes live alone. There's something about having kids that makes it difficult to achieve a meditative homestead.) I haven't created a shrine or quiet place for myself...maybe something in the future.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Simplicity is NOT boring. Simplicity is not self-denial. It is an indulgence, providing you with a wealth of time and space.

"Simplicity IS discerning the essential from the unessential. Simplicity is having room for the unexpected. It is savoring life.

"Most of all, simplicity is freedom: It's freedom to choose what you want in your life because you're not letting in everything that shows up. It's freedom to do what you want because you're not already committed to more obligations than you can handle and the maintenance of more objects than you'll ever use."

"Simplifying ought to be simple, but since we live in a society built around complexity it isn't."

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When your home is to your soul's liking, you'll find something to sing about more often." page 5

"Just remember that those things that get attention flourish." page 8

"The consensus of every major religion - and the majority of people who consider themselves happy - is that the primary task of human beings is to learn how to love." page 40

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

life changing. First read it several years ago and have checked it out again and again from the library since. Love!

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

some of it applied to my lifr

[Tori Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my go-to references