Martha Beck

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

Denial exists because human infants, though equipped with trust-o-meters, are built to trust, blindly and absolutely, any older person who wanders past.

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.

People are so afraid of authority figures and doctors are authority figures.

Whether you've seen angels floating around your bedroom or just found a ray of hope at a lonely moment, choosing to believe that something unseen is caring for you can be a life-shifting exercise.

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.

My own nature hovers between neurotic and paranoid. I've developed the habit of mentally listing things that make me optimistic about the future. I do it every day.

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.

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

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.

Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury.

My point is that perceptual bias can affect nut jobs and scientists alike. If we hold too rigidly to what we think we know, we ignore or avoid evidence of anything that might change our mind.

In one century, we've added 28 years to our average life span - a change so rapid that our brains couldn't possibly have evolved to accommodate it.

Bracketing has turned all my experiences, remembered and present, into a gallery of miracles where I wander around dazzled by the beauty of events I cannot explain.

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.

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

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

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

Allowing children to show their guilt, show their grief, show their anger, takes the sting out of the situation.

No one else can take risks for us, or face our losses on our behalf, or give us self-esteem. No one can spare us from life's slings and arrows, and when death comes, we meet it alone.