Quotes from Martha Beck

My deep belief is that all of us have the same lifelong work: to learn honesty, courage, and love. To learn, in other words, how to be our best selves.

Creating ways to be happy is your life's work, a challenge that won't end until you die.

There are things that can only happen through you when you are still. Silence is often the most important work you can do.

The most common reason we stumble into the delusion of powerlessness is that we're afraid of what other people would do or say or feel if we were to act as we wanted.

Many of us have spent a lifetime trying to be what we're not, feeling lousy about ourselves when we fail and sometimes even when we succeed. We hide our differences when, by accepting and celebrating them, we could collaborate to make every effort more exciting, productive, enjoyable, and powerful. Personally, I think we should start right now.

Standards of beauty are arbitrary. Body shame exists only to the extent that our physiques don't match our own beliefs about how we should look.

If you're feeling intransigently ambivalent, it might pay to formally accept what's already happening - that is, decide not to decide.

Many people think passion is a fuzzy feeling that makes taking action effortless. In fact, it's the gritty courage and tenacity to forge onward.

Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury. If everyday experience hasn't convinced you of this, there's research that will.

I now believe that bêtes noires usually attack because we're thwarting our own destinies. Calming the beast turns us toward our best lives.

The only way to the Place beyond Fear is to do the thing you fear most. This is how to surrender to your best destiny.

The position that I take partly as a result of living in Asia is where you stop living according to your expectations and you become available to experience things as they are.

The heart is a tender but hardy organ. Daring to have a wonderful experience, even though you may get hurt, is the only way you'll realize its deepest desires.

Hopeful thinking can get you out of your fear zone and into your appreciation zone.

Imagination is the doorway you walk through into every future moment. Are you walking through doorways to pain or to joy?

Anything you're trying to will is focused on the future; it's always associated with some sort of anxiety that makes the present moment somewhat uncomfortable.

I've developed the habit of mentally listing things that make me optimistic about the future. I do it every day.

Although beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, the feeling of being beautiful exists solely in the mind of the beheld.

No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.

You have the freedom to live and let live, to love and let love. Granting yourself that freedom is one of the healthiest, most constructive things you can do for yourself and the people who matter to you.

Seek art from every time and place, in any form, to connect with those who really move you.

Standards of beauty are arbitrary. Body shame exists only to the extent that our physiques don't match our own beliefs about how we should look.

Sometimes a psychic tells you something and it feels wrong and others may be right on the money. It's your choice about whom to trust, and giving that trust is something we do ourselves.

Hopeful thinking can get you out of your fear zone and into your appreciation zone.