The Reading Warehouse

It's time to get over your self

Written by a clinical psychologist and student of Eastern philosophy, this handy little guide offers a radical solution to anyone struggling with self-doubt, self-esteem, and self-defeating thoughts: "no-self help." By breaking free of your own self-limiting beliefs, you'll discover your infinite potential.

There is an insidious, global identity theft occurring that has robbed people of their very recognition of their true selves. The culprit--indeed the mastermind of this crisis--has committed the inside job of creating and promoting the idea that we are all a separate self, which is the chief source of our daily distress and dissatisfaction.

No more than a narrative of personhood pieced together from disparate neural activations, the self we believe ourselves to be in our own minds--although quite capable of being affirming, inspiring, and constructive--often spews forth a distressing flow of worry and second-guessing, blaming and shaming, regret and guilt. This book offers an antidote to this epidemic of stolen identity, isolation, and self-deprecation: no-self (a concept known in Buddhist philosophy as anatta or anatman).

The No-Self Help Book turns the idea of self-improvement on its head, arguing that the key to well-being lies not in the relentless pursuit of bettering one's self but in the recognition of the self as a false identity born in the mind. Rather than identifying with a small, relative sense of self, this book encourages you to embrace a liberating alternative--an expansive awareness that is flexible and open to experiencing life as an ongoing and ever-changing process, without attachment to personal outcomes or storylines.