James Hollis, Ph.D.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘔𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳: 𝘙𝘦𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘖𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘴 explores the need to know ourselves more deeply, and the many obstacles that stand in our way. The various chapters illustrate internal obstacles such as intimidation by the magnitude of the project, the readiness to avoid hard work, and gnawing self-doubt, but also provide tools to strengthen consciousness to take these obstacles on. Additional essays address living in haunted houses, the necessity of failure, and the gift and limits of therapy. Most of all, Hollis address the resources we all have within, or can obtain for ourselves, to lead a more abundant life and to step into larger possibilities for our unfolding journeys.

Refracted Visions of Ourselves

The Broken Mirror

An Invitation to Listen to Your Soul’s Calling How do you define "growing up"? Does it mean you achieve certain cultural benchmarks—a steady income, paying taxes, marriage, and children? Or does it mean leaving behind the expectations of others and growing into the person you were meant to be? If you find yourself in a career, place, relationship, or crisis you never foresaw or that seems at odds with your beliefs about who you are, it means your soul is calling on you to reexamine your path. With Living an Examined Life, James Hollis offers an essential guidebook for anyone at a crossroads in life. Here this acclaimed author guides you through 21 areas for self-inquiry and growth, challenging you to: • Recover Personal Authority—how to stop living in response to the expectations placed on you • Choose Meaning Over Happiness—why seeking truth instead of entertaining distractions ultimately leads to greater fulfillment • Exorcise the Ghosts of the Past That Bind You—how the voices that haunt you can lead you to grow • Bestow Love on the Unlovable Parts of You—recovering the guiding force concealed in your Shadow • Construct a Mature Spirituality—the five essential elements of integrating meaning and mystery into your life • Seize Permission to Be Who You Really Are—the challenge of fully showing up for your life With his trademark eloquence and insight, Dr. Hollis offers Living an Examined Life to inspire you toward a life of personal authority, integrity, and fulfillment. "It is my hope that this book will be a tool to recover your respect for that which abides deeply within," writes Dr. Hollis. "You will not be spared disappointment or suffering. But you can know the depth and dignity of an authentic journey, of being a real player in your time on this turning planet, and your life will become more interesting, taking you deeper than ever before."

Wisdom for the Second Half of the Journey

Living an Examined Life

A Masterful Author and Jungian Analyst Examines the Qualities That Bring Meaning to Our Human Journey. What is it that brings meaning to your life? Our culture tells us to seek wealth, power, prestige, or even enrollment in someone else’s idea of a worthy cause—yet where do we turn when these paths fail to fulfill our need for purpose? “When the old stories and beliefs that once defined us have played out and grown exhausted,” teaches Dr. James Hollis, “our task is to access our inner compass, the promptings of the psyche that help us find our way through the complex thickets of choice.” A Life of Meaning is Hollis’s profound exploration of the nature of meaning and how we can orient toward it or away from it with the choices we make. Hollis offers an examination of myth, literature, historical figures, and the wisdom of depth psychology that provides penetrating insight into the search for purpose. Join him to explore: • How even cherished narratives splinter and lose potency over time • Why dreams are windows into your internalized patterns and base assumptions • How to excavate and understand your earliest, most foundational beliefs • The power of fear and how it shapes unconscious reactions • Recognizing and rising to the occasion of a “summons of the soul” • How to anchor yourself during times of uncertainty and change • Why it’s important to be aware of and closely examine your shadow • How to reckon with old feelings of shame, betrayal, resentment, and regret We all have to discover our own sense of meaning. No one else can do it for us. In A Life of Meaning, Hollis offers no easy answers or feel-good certainties—instead, he shares his most valuable questions and reflections to help you find the courage, persistence, and inspiration to navigate your own odyssey. “It’s humbling work, this process of getting our lives back,” he teaches. “Yet I submit to you that’s worth the price of the ticket, for in the journey our lives become ever more luminous.”

Relocating Your Center of Spiritual Gravity

A Life of Meaning

What guides us when our world is changing? Discover the path to deeper meaning and purpose through depth psychology and classical thought. How did we get to this crossroads in history? And will we make it through—individually and as a species? “We all assumed that learning, rationality, and good intentions would prove enough to bring us to the promised land,” says James Hollis. “But they haven’t and won’t. Yet what we also do not recognize sufficiently is that this human animal is equipped for survival. In time, as we have seen of life’s other insolubles, we grow large enough to contain what threatened to destroy us.” Dr. Hollis’s readers know him as a penetrating thinker who brings profound insight and sophistication to the inner journey. In Living Between Worlds, he broadens his lens to encompass the relationship between our inner struggles and the rapidly shifting realities of modern human existence. You will learn to invoke the tools of depth psychology, classical literature, philosophy, dream work, and myth to gain access to the resources that supported our ancestors through their darkest hours. Through these paths of inner exploration, you will access your “locus of knowing”—a wellspring of deep resilience beyond the ego, always available to guide you back to the imperatives of your soul. Though many of the challenges of our times are unique, the path through for us, personally and collectively, will always rely on our measureless capacity for creativity, wisdom, and connection to a reality larger than ourselves. Here you will find no easy answers or pat reassurances. Yet within the pages of Living Between Worlds, you will encounter causes for hope. “We can find what supports us when nothing supports us,” Hollis teaches. “By bearing the unbearable, we go through the desert to arrive at a nurturing oasis we did not know was there.”

James Hollis, Ph.D.

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