In Sacred Selfishness: A Guide to Living a Life of Substance, "Harris lays out specific steps readers can take in order to live a life of self-realization, meaning, value, and love...Those seeking a deeper sense of self will heed his message." - Publishers Weekly "Bud Harris is a lantern on the path - clear-eyed, big hearted, and illuminating." - Julia Cameron, author, The Artist's Way
This fresh 2015 second printing of the paperback version of Sacred Selfishness is in response to a continued, renewed interest in this key contemporary topic dealing with healing and wholeness. As children, most people learn that selfishness is not a healthy quality. But, says Jungian analyst Bud Harris, there is one kind of selfishness that can actually help people value themselves and their lives. This book guides the reader to discover what self-forgiveness, self-love, and loving life truly mean by helping resolve problems in modern life - unhappy relationships, stagnating career, financial issues, and even weight problems. Using strategies such as analyzing dreams, developing inner dialogue, and keeping a detailed journal, Sacred Selfishness wisely assure us that our lives are sacred tasks, where holiness is love and the way to the Divine is through self-knowledge. Sacred selfishness is valuing ourselves enough to develop into authentic human beings, who give back vitality and hope to all around us.
While growing up, unselfishness was usually defined as putting the needs of others above our own. As a result, we became outward-directed people, cut off from our inner source of energy and vitality. If we have failed, through the years, to develop our own individuality, eventually we may slide into depression and ill health. It is only after becoming whole again that we can help others and truly renew our society.
In the tradition of Scott Peck's The Road Less Traveled and Thomas Moore's The Care of the Soul, Bud Harris shows us to value and love ourselves, to think for ourselves, to have lives of our own, and to be able to love others without losing ourselves. It is only after becoming whole again that we can help others and truly renew our society. This is the path of sacred selfishness.