Martha Beck

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

“Caring for your inner child has a powerful and surprisingly quick result: Do it and the child heals.”

“I really do think that any deep crisis is an opportunity to make your life extraordinary in some way.”

“I have come to believe that there are infinite passageways out of the shadows, infinite vehicles to transport us into the light.”

“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.”

“As much horror as we have always created, we are a species that keeps moving forward, seeing new sights in new ways, and enjoying the journey.”

“The way we do anything is the way we do everything.”

“If we're stuck with having expectations, there's a very good reason to embrace positive ones: It's that we often create what we anticipate.”

“I practice staying calm all the time, beginning with situations that aren't tense.”

“Western democracies exalt the ideal of social equality, but our economic system arguably emerged from 16th-century Calvinism, a religion whose members believed that God showed favor by bestowing wealth and other forms of success on what they called 'the chosen.'”

“Friends, there are many areas in which I need encouragement, but worrying is not one of them. I worry the way Renee Fleming sings high Cs: Effortlessly. Loudly. At length.”

“Tiny steps will get you to your goal months and months sooner. A little is better than a lot.”

“When your entire brain is active, that means you are taking everything in through all sense perception. Your entire memory bank and your instincts are in play, so you make much quicker and more intelligent choices.”

“I feel about aging the way William Saroyan said he felt about death: Everybody has to do it, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case.”

“I don't believe that there are no spiritual beings around us. I don't know what to call them, I don't know how they work. But I know they're there.”

“Anger elicits anger, fear elicits fear, no matter how well meaning we may be.”

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

“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 cannot count the times I've been defeated, humiliated, or physically injured immediately after saying the words, 'Hey, how hard can it be?' But that never seems to stop me from saying them again.”

“What happens when we're willing to feel bad is that, sure enough, we often feel bad - but without the stress of futile avoidance. Emotional discomfort, when accepted, rises, crests, and falls in a series of waves. Each wave washes parts of us away and deposits treasures we never imagined.”