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2023 NAUTILUS
SPECIAL HONORS

Nautilus Book Awards

GRAND WINNER

PERSONAL GROWTH & SELF HELP- GOLD

Reclaiming the Sacred: Healing our Relationships with Ourselves and the World
Jeff Golden

Reclaiming the Sacred: Healing our Relationships with Ourselves and the World
Jeff Golden

Self Published

About Jeff

As your guide, I should probably inform you that I once got totally lost while trekking alone in the Amazon. I did eventually find myself unlost, but that was through no fault of my own. After a sleepless night and then a day of doing everything I could to re-find the trail, I gave up and just started hiking in the general direction I needed to go, and within 20 minutes, I happened on the trail and was on my way again.

I like to ask people, “Would you rather be hiking with someone who got lost in the Amazon but also got out of it and is the wiser for it, or someone who’s never gotten lost in the first place?” I submit that in Reclaiming the Sacred, both the course and the book, you are getting the best of both worlds. You’ve got me – a rather pleasant companion who has spent a vast amount of time both delighting in, and occasionally getting lost in, the terrain we will be exploring.

More importantly, though, we’ll be joined along the way by literally thousands of experts–Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning psychologists and cosmologists, economists and historians, saints and poets, and a few fictional characters thrown in for good measure–not one of whom, I believe, has ever been lost in the Amazon.

About the Book

The result of twelve years of research, Reclaiming the Sacred grounds us in our inherent joy, purpose, and belonging—both for our own sakes and the sake of the world.

It starts with an overview of the science of happiness, highlighting the things that most nourish human well-being—and some that don’t, most notably money and possessions. It goes on to examine the ways money nonetheless hooks so many of us and the profound consequences our materialism has for us and the world— most critically, the global climate crisis.

And then it goes beyond all of that, diving into the very heart of ourselves and the world, taking us on an exhilarating journey—both scientific and mystical—of reclaiming the sacredness of ourselves and this gorgeous world.

An Excerpt From the Book

"As we’ve surrounded ourselves with more and more possessions, we’ve grown further from the sacredness of the world, and the sacredness of ourselves. As we’ve elevated economic growth and production and consumption to the highest measures of success and purpose, we’ve closed ourselves off from so much of the joy and wonder and belonging that are inherent in us and the world.

We have an opportunity to reorient our lives toward the things that really do matter. An opportunity to slow down, to be present, to hear our deeper callings. An opportunity to shift our attention from “the things we don’t have” or “the things we have to give up,” to so much that we do have. From food and shelter, to our breath, the sky, movement, life.

We have an opportunity to reweave ourselves back into the human community and the family of all living beings, the family of the land and trees, the otters and grasses—to live with them in relationships of respect and wonder.

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We have an opportunity to reclaim ourselves and this world as sacred.

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It is a profound blessing that so many of the changes our current crisis requires are precisely what best serve us. So much of what we must surrender actually impoverishes us—even those of us who have supposedly benefited the most from it. And so much of what we must embrace actually nourishes happiness, abundance, and belonging.

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Indeed, the extensive research that has been done in regards to the sciences of happiness, abundance, and belonging offer a way forward out of this system and its deceptions and poverty, and into entirely different ways of thinking and feeling and living. They are like golden threads we can follow home to the heart of ourselves and the world.

 

That is the journey of this book: to follow these golden threads of happiness, abundance, and belonging, to return home.

 

[1] All facts and quotes in the introduction are cited in the main body of the book."

01 - Aging Consciously

02 - Animals & Nature

03 - Body ~ Mind ~ Spirit Practices

04 A - Business & Leadership: Self-published, or Small Press

04 B - Business & Leadership: Large Publisher, or Large Hybrid Publisher

05 - Creativity & Innovation

06 - Ecology & Environment

07 A - Fiction: Self-published, or Small Press

07 B - Fiction: Large Publisher, or Large Hybrid Publisher

08 - Food, Cooking, & Healthy Eating

09 - Gift & Specialty

10 - Green, Restorative Practices /Sustainability

11 - Death & Dying / Grief & Loss

12 - Health, Healing & Wellnes

13 - Heroic Journeys

14 - Inner Prosperity & Right Livelihood

15 - Journalism & Investigative Reporting

16 A - Memoir & Personal Journey: Self-published, or Small Press

16 B - Memoir & Personal Journey: Large Publisher, or Large Hybrid Publisher

17 - Multicultural & Indigenous

18 - Parenting & Family

19 A - Personal Growth & Self-Help (Self-published, Small Press, or Hybrid-Small Press

19 B - Personal Growth & Self-Help (Large Publisher, or Hybrid-Large Publisher

20 - Psychology /Mental & Emotional Well-Being

21 - Photography & Arts
22 A - Poetry
22 B - Lyric Prose or Hybrid Works
23 - Relationships & Communication
24 A - Religion / Spirituality of Eastern Thought
24 B - Religion / Spirituality of Western Thought
24 C - Religion / Spirituality of Other Traditions
25 - Science and Cosmology
26 - Social Sciences & Education
27 - Social Change & Social Justice
28 - World-Cultures' Transformational Growth & Development
29 - Rising To The Moment 

Children's Books
30 A - Children's Picture Books / Fiction
 Ages 2- 6 Years (Preschool- Grade 2)
30 B - Children's Picture Books / Non-Fiction Ages 2- 6 Years (Preschool- Grade 2)
31 A - Children's Illustrated / Fiction Ages 6- 9 Years (Grades 1- 4)
31 B - Children's Illustrated / Non-Fiction Ages 6- 9 Years (Grades 1- 4)

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Mid-Grades & Young Adult
32 - Middle Grade Fiction, Ages 8- 12 (Grades 4- 7)
33 - Middle Grade Non-Fiction, Ages 8- 12 (Grades 4- 7)
34 - Young Adult (YA) Fiction, Ages 13- 19+ (Grades 8- 12)
35 - Young Adult (YA) Non-Fiction, Ages 13- 19+ (Grades 8- 12)

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