I recently had a chance to review Essential Living: A Guide to Having Happiness and Peace by Reclaiming Your Essential Self. There were parts of this book I really liked, and parts that I didn't completely buy into, just like most self-help books.
As adults, we often experience this: we get something we thought we wanted, but it still doesn't quite make us happy, or we still want more. Psychologist Dr. Shelley Uram explains that it's because what we really crave are qualities found in our Essential Self, and we need to peel back the layers until we discover what we really want, not what we think we want.
What I really liked about this book is that it focused on qualities of life: peace, love, joy, freedom, connectedness. These are more important than things, or traditional markers of success like money, fame, or possessions. The part I didn't quite buy into was about the ancient survival brain, although it made sense, I just think that it's less the ancient survival brain and more modern messages that short circuit our connection to who we are.
The book has practical advice, exercises, self-assessments, and tools to help readers dig down deep and figure out exactly what they really want. There's not a ton of jargon that makes it hard to understand, nor is it a book that just skims the surface and makes everything ok. It's for people who are serious about getting to the core of their being, and identifying their true core values in life.
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