A Life of Meaning

Exploring Our Deepest Questions and Motivations

By: James Hollis PhD

Narrated by: James Hollis PhD

Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 myths 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”. 

Investigate the mystery of your existence through the portal of depth psychology

A Life of Meaning is a profound audio exploration of the nature of meaning and how we can orient toward it or away from it with the choices we make. Through examination of myth, literature, historical figures, and the wisdom of depth psychology, Hollis provides penetrating insight into the search for purpose. Here you’ll explore:  

• How our story-seeking mind forms our sense of meaning from early experience 
• Why these early stories inevitably fail as we are called to our own path 
• Skillfully accessing the inner oracle of your dreams 
• Shadow work - where we fear to tread, yet where our greatest treasures may be found 
• Missing the mark - examining the archetype of the Seven Deadly Sins through a psychological lens 
• Dispelling the “ghosts” that haunt our memories and possess our psyche 
• Finding personal resilience in times of internal and external change 
• Living more fully in the presence of our mortality 
• Guidance for coming into alignment with your soul’s abiding quest for meaning at any stage of your life 

Nobody else can provide you with a sense of meaning. Anyone who tries is attempting to enroll you in their own version. In A Life of Meaning, James 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”.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2020 James Hollis, PhD (P)2020 Sounds True

My Favorite Jungian

Another great lecture series from James Hollis. Hollis simplifies Jung's concepts, and makes them accessible to a layman like myself. I've read and listened to most of his work, and I feel that this audio book is my favorite. Further Recommendations are: What Matters Most, Swamplands of the Soul, and On This Journey We Call Our Life.

Deeply moving, deeply profound,

James Hollis at his most meaningful, very personal and totally relational at the same time.

Insightful, thought provoking, and relevant

This is the second audiobook from Dr. Hollis in my collection, the other which is Through the Dark Wood which I have listened to many many times over the years. I really enjoy hearing him speak, his eloquent use of words and way of framing concepts which touch on the mysteries of life. Every time I listen I find inspiration and learn something new, and this lecture is no exception.

Being now in my mid forties I find Dr. Hollis' sage view points relevant to my own life, as well as reaffirming to my choices thus far and revealing areas I still have to grow. While someone younger could certainly gain wisdom and insight from listening to this, I have found in my own experience that I relate to his words more the older I get. I do not think that Through the Dark Wood, although powerful when I listened to it 10 years ago, landed as much as it did hearing it again recently. And I have a notion that A Life of Meaning may still yet reveal new significance to me in the years to come.

Regardless of age, I recommend this for anyone with an open mind that has a disposition for thoughtful reflection. Dr. Hollis does not provide the answers, but certainly asks meaningful questions with insightful anecdotes and brings light whereby one may find their own path. I'm sure I'll be listening to this one again.

Deep and Moving

James Hollis is a brilliant man, erudite, educated, compassionate, uniquely capable of guiding a person through the difficult landscapes of the psyche and beyond. His understanding of human psychology is grounded you Jung to be sure, but he calls upon poetry, mythology, world religions, literature and more to gorgeously illustrate the points he makes in each chapter of this book. There is much here to consider and this will be a book that one can return to often for support and insights.

James Hollis at his best

James Hollis has been a brilliant voice in the many discussions around mental health, and on the many questions on to how to navigate the uncertain journey of the second part of life. I admire all his writing till now, but this wise and compassionate book, and it’s elegant delivery, is nothing short of superb.