This is not the only book you will ever need to read to sort yourself out. At best, it can point you in the right direction if you want to do the work of self-discovery. You’ll need to reference other sources, such as the Real.Clear. seven-book series of spiritual teachings, to fill in all the blanks about topics touched on here but not fully fleshed out. We can only cover so much ground if we want to stay focused on the task at hand—namely, how to heal ourselves.

This isn’t a simple task and trying to make the instructions too step-by-step may give the wrong impression. Doing the work of self-knowing isn’t easy. The goal of this guide isn’t to make short work of reaching the holy grail; this isn’t Seven Quick & Easy Steps to Nirvana.

Instead, think of this book as providing a compass for your journey. Of course, as any halfway-decent Girl Scout can tell you, you will need more than just a compass when you’re lost in the woods. You need to know how to read the darn thing. You need to have some idea what direction to head to get out. And you may need to have made some preparations for surviving a few cold, dark nights before you do.

Truth be told, no one gets out of planet Earth alive. But we can come out ahead by learning to make the best use of our time here. And that starts the day we begin doing the work. So let’s get at it.

—Jill Loree

After a couple decades crawling around in my psyche’s basement with a flashlight, I’ve come to understand many patterns at work that have driven parts of my life in destructive circles. Most were completely unknown to me previously; I just didn’t see them. It was hard work getting to know and heal these patterns, and of course there is always more to uncover. This is the real work of being human.

As I walk through my day-to-day life, now with more peace and awareness, I see many people struggling with some life issue or another. These are decent, well-meaning people—friends and acquaintances—who are struggling with the same things over and over, without really changing underlying inner dynamics that could be changed. I have the sense that many people don’t know what it looks like to do their work.

What “doing your work” means to me is noticing the disharmonies that arise in each of us as we walk in the outer world, and then searching for and clearing the causes in our inner world. Because the real causes are always the stuck places in our emotional, mental, and energetic bodies. Nothing outside of us is ever the cause of our disharmony; our inner world creates our outer world.

This isn’t a new idea. It’s what Jesus was talking about when he said advised us to pay attention to the log in our own eye, rather than fretting over the splinter in someone else’s. He was pointing out the doorway to freedom.

Disharmony with the outside world is unable to change without untangling the stuck places deep inside us. So when we do this work and cumulatively untangle our inner selves, real freedom is possible. Immeasurable peace, joy and inner security are our birthright.

Yet without stepping through the doorway, it is hard to know what’s on the other side. Our intention is to give a sense of what it looks like “on the ground” while “doing your work.”

—Scott Wisler