We all want more love in our lives, especially when the world requires more from us every day. Lasting intimacy—a close and enduring relationship with someone we love who cherishes us—is an indispensable source of strength, resilience, and hope, one that we especially turn to in challenging times. But too often being in an intimate relationship means we have to compromise—or lose—vital aspects of ourselves. How can we avoid sacrificing our own self-care to get the love we want? In this original, surprising, and deeply revealing exploration of the self and relationships, Dr. Jeffrey Rubin brings the art of flourishing to life. The idea is startlingly simple: self-care is the foundation of intimacy, and intimacy is the culmination of self-care. The Art of Flourishing provides the reader with the tools necessary to thrive, to live a life of meaning, passion, and fulfillment. An expert on both Eastern meditative and Western psychotherapeutic traditions, Dr. Rubin draws on the best practices of each to create a new and accessible path to living authentically. His unique synthesis provides a remarkably lucid guide for handling our emotions wisely, discovering our purpose, and uncovering barriers to intimacy—the hidden emotional weeds that kill passion, such as conflicts over communication and power, boundaries and sexuality. Drawing from case examples and personal experiences, Rubin explains how to remove these obstacles to nurture empathy and mutual respect. Creating and cultivating a garden of love enables us to grow as individuals and nourish our connections with others. It widens our horizon of possibility, deepens our humanity, and helps us flourish, which is a priceless gift to the world. --- from the publisher Reviews: "What a wonderful book! Jeffrey Rubin seamlessly integrates east and west, heart and mind, science and metaphor, universal principles and personal advice.”
—Tal Ben-Shahar, author of Being Happy “The Art of Flourishing is more than a practical manual for flourishing in these turbulent times. It offers step-by-step procedures for broadening the scope of one’s own well-being while deepening intimate relationships. But more, it displays Dr. Rubin’s profound wisdom of the human psyche. His many years of uniquely combining the best of Eastern and Western approaches in his own life and as a psychotherapist make this book a treasure.”
—Joel Kramer, coauthor of The Guru Papers and The Passionate Mind Revisited “Jeffrey Rubin’s Art of Flourishing is at once a philosophical meditation on happiness and a practical how-to book that might help us find it. It is a lively, clearly written, and compelling argument for how we can better understand ourselves and our relationships, not least by exchanging the fantasy of control for the possibility of compassion.”
—David Scott Kastan, George M. Bodman Professor of English, Yale University “Jeffrey Rubin has written an immensely readable, engaging work that points the way toward a life that actualizes our deepest and most essential selves while simultaneously linking us to others in bonds of love and personal commitment. Drawing on the wisdom of the Buddhist tradition on the one side and integrating the insights of psychoanalysis on the other, Rubin explores hitherto unseen possibilities of confluence and synthesis between East and West. The Art of Flourishing emphasizes the value of bringing together a profound meditative attitude toward our lives with a radical openness to self-understanding. This book is an important contribution to the contemporary search for meaningful ways of life in our changing and challenging times.”
—George Atwood, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Rutgers University “Meaty…A great read with empowering information that can help you achieve exactly what the title promises. I found myself nodding along with the many excellent points brought up by the author in regards to the challenges we face living in our modern society.”
—The Everything Yoga Blog “A work of art in itself; and I’ll be referring to it often as I continue to pursue balance, happiness and fulfillment in my life. It’s basically a handbook for it!...[Rubin] provides brilliant and easy methods for readers to gain more spirituality and wholeness in a material world…I whole-heartedly urge you to pick up The Art of Flourishing if you are at all interested in creating a rich and fulfilling life you love and wish to maintain it.”
—LiveLighter.org About the Author: JEFFREY B. RUBIN, PhD, is the creator of meditative psychotherapy, a practice that he developed through insights gained from decades of study, teaching, and helping thousands of people flourish. The author of the critically acclaimed books Psychotherapy and Buddhism, The Good Life, and A Psychoanalysis for Our Time, Dr. Rubin is a practicing psychotherapist in New York City and Bedford Hills, NY, and has taught at various universities, psychoanalytic institutes, and Buddhist and yoga centers. He lectures around the country and has given workshops at the United Nations, the Esalen Institute, the Open Center, the 92nd Street Y and Yoga Sutra. His pioneering approach to Buddhism and psychotherapy has been featured in The New York Times Magazine. |
