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From the moment Martha and her husband, John, conceived their second child, all hell broke loose. They were a couple obsessed with success. After years of matching IQs and test scores with less driven peers, they had two Harvard degrees apiece and were gunning for more. But the dream had begun to disintegrate. Then, when their unborn son, Adam, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, doctors, advisers, and friends in the Harvard community warned them not to keep the baby.
As the creator of Life Designs, Inc., Martha Beck has helped hundreds of clients find their own North Stars and figure out how to fulfill their potential and create joyful lives through her lectures, seminars, and one-on-one counseling. In this book she shares her step-by-step program that will guide you to fulfill your own potential.
Described as one of the best-known life coaches in America, in media such as Psychology Today, O columnist Martha Beck has demonstrated a rare gift for helping people who have gone off course to find their way back to authentic, rewarding lives. Now, in Steering by Starlight, Dr. Beck describes the step-by-step process she uses with her private clients to help them find their way back to their "homing instincts" - their true destinies.
Martha Beck, the beloved columnist and lifestyle counselor from O, The Oprah Magazine, returns with a new prescription for personal fulfillment. The Joy Diet shows readers how to add ten "ingredients" to their daily routine to change the course of their lives: to find purpose, overcome obstacles, heal wounds, and build dreams.
Many people feel called to help others and change the world, but they just don’t know how to fulfill their potential. They have the creativity and passion, but often get lost, not knowing how to direct their energies. Now, popular life coach Martha Beck shows how readers can find their calling in service and healing - while realizing their destiny. With a sparkling, compassionate, and often irreverent style, Beck draws from a combination of ancient wisdom and modern science to help readers consciously embrace vital skills that may be embedded in our DNA and are now made accessible again.
In 2012, Mormon General Authority Marlin K. Jensen acknowledged that members are leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "in droves". Access to the internet is often credited and blamed for this mass exodus, where members learn about problematic doctrines and cover-ups of LDS history. Many are happy as Mormons. And many are not. Those who leave, and those doubters who stay face struggles that few others can understand.
From the moment Martha and her husband, John, conceived their second child, all hell broke loose. They were a couple obsessed with success. After years of matching IQs and test scores with less driven peers, they had two Harvard degrees apiece and were gunning for more. But the dream had begun to disintegrate. Then, when their unborn son, Adam, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, doctors, advisers, and friends in the Harvard community warned them not to keep the baby.
As the creator of Life Designs, Inc., Martha Beck has helped hundreds of clients find their own North Stars and figure out how to fulfill their potential and create joyful lives through her lectures, seminars, and one-on-one counseling. In this book she shares her step-by-step program that will guide you to fulfill your own potential.
Described as one of the best-known life coaches in America, in media such as Psychology Today, O columnist Martha Beck has demonstrated a rare gift for helping people who have gone off course to find their way back to authentic, rewarding lives. Now, in Steering by Starlight, Dr. Beck describes the step-by-step process she uses with her private clients to help them find their way back to their "homing instincts" - their true destinies.
Martha Beck, the beloved columnist and lifestyle counselor from O, The Oprah Magazine, returns with a new prescription for personal fulfillment. The Joy Diet shows readers how to add ten "ingredients" to their daily routine to change the course of their lives: to find purpose, overcome obstacles, heal wounds, and build dreams.
Many people feel called to help others and change the world, but they just don’t know how to fulfill their potential. They have the creativity and passion, but often get lost, not knowing how to direct their energies. Now, popular life coach Martha Beck shows how readers can find their calling in service and healing - while realizing their destiny. With a sparkling, compassionate, and often irreverent style, Beck draws from a combination of ancient wisdom and modern science to help readers consciously embrace vital skills that may be embedded in our DNA and are now made accessible again.
In 2012, Mormon General Authority Marlin K. Jensen acknowledged that members are leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "in droves". Access to the internet is often credited and blamed for this mass exodus, where members learn about problematic doctrines and cover-ups of LDS history. Many are happy as Mormons. And many are not. Those who leave, and those doubters who stay face struggles that few others can understand.
From a rare insider's point of view, Unveiling Grace looks at how Latter-day Saints are 'wooing our country' with their religion, lifestyle, and culture. It is also a gripping story of how an entire family, deeply enmeshed in Mormonism, found their way out and what they can tell others about their lives as faithful Mormons.
Founder of the largest indigenous Christian church in American history, Joseph Smith published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was 23 and went on to organize a church, found cities, and attract thousands of followers before his violent death at age 38. Richard Bushman, an esteemed cultural historian and a practicing Mormon, moves beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud to explore his personality, his relationships with others, and how he received revelations.
Three decades after leaving the Mormon faith, Latayne Colvett Scott looks back to her original journey out of Mormonism and the reasons why she left. Revised and updated, this third edition of The Mormon Mirage presents both a fascinating inside look at Mormonism and new and formidable evidence against its claims and teachings.
Everyone knows how to lose weight: eat less, move more. But so many dieters who know what to do still don't do what they know. Why not? Because they don't understand the brain-body dynamics of weight loss. Now, cutting-edge research has revealed that millions of dieters following typical weight loss programs are actually programming themselves to get fatter.
Is it possible for a news anchor to become a professional athlete? Can a disheartened architect build a new career as a luxury car designer? They can, and they have, says Martha Beck, whose advice is sought each month by over two million readers in O: The Oprah Magazine. Now, on Follow Your North Star, she teaches you how to recognize the cues from within that will tell you whether your job, relationship, environment (even your daily schedule) are leading you in the right direction.
In A Mind at Home with Itself, Byron Katie illuminates one of the most profound ancient Buddhist texts, The Diamond Sutra (newly translated by distinguished scholar Stephen Mitchell), to reveal the nature of the mind and to liberate us from painful thoughts, using her revolutionary system of self-inquiry called "The Work". Byron Katie doesn't merely describe the awakened mind; she empowers us to see it and feel it in action.
Born and raised in a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish family, Tova Mirvis committed herself to observing the rules and rituals prescribed by this way of life. After all, to observe was to be accepted and to be accepted was to be loved. She married a man from within the fold and quickly began a family. But over the years, her doubts became noisier than her faith, and at age 40 she could no longer breathe in what had become a suffocating existence.
Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism.
In this first book of The Complete Heretic's Guide to World Religion series, historian and award-winning atheist author Dave Fitzgerald takes us behind the Salt Lake curtain for a glimpse at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and answers your questions: Where did this multi-billion dollar tax-exempt corporation come from? Did Joseph Smith really sleep with all those women? Are the Mormons going to take over the whole world, and if so, is there any way to stop them? But that's not all!
Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than 50 women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. While previous accounts of his life have been distorted by hagiography or polemical exposé, John Turner provides a fully realized portrait of a colossal figure in American religion, politics, and westward expansion.
Always seeking to be an obedient Priesthood girl, in her teens Rebecca Musser became the nineteenth wife of her people's prophet: 85-year-old Rulon Jeffs. Finally sickened by the abuse she suffered and saw around her, she pulled off a daring escape and sought to build a new life and family.
The Work is simply four questions that, when applied to a specific problem, enable you to see what is troubling you in an entirely different light. As Katie says, "It's not the problem that causes our suffering; it's our thinking about the problem." Contrary to popular belief, trying to let go of a painful thought never works; instead, once we have done The Work, the thought lets go of us. At that point we can truly love what is, just as it is.
However, soon after Martha began teaching at Brigham Young University, she began to see firsthand the Church's ruthlessness as it silenced dissidents and masked truths that contradicted its published beliefs. Most troubling of all, she was forced to face her history of sexual abuse by one of the Church's most prominent authorities. This book chronicles her difficult decision to sever her relationship with the faith that had cradled her for so long and to confront and forgive the person who betrayed her so deeply.
This beautifully written, inspiring memoir explores the powerful yearning toward faith. It offers a rare glimpse inside one of the world's most secretive religions while telling a profoundly moving story of personal courage, survival, and the transformative power of spirituality.
"The book is full of Beck's laugh-out-loud hyperbolic wit and exquisitely written insights." (Publishers Weekly)
I found this to be a riveting story and as a third generation Utah Mormon I found her depiction of Mormon culture to be right on. I was raised in Utah, graduated from BYU and served a mission for the LDS Church, and in my opinion, Martha Beck is just telling it like it is. Anyone wanting a glimpse inside the faith will find her account interesting and perhaps disturbing, but just because you don't like the message why shoot the messenger? I found her personal revelations believable and backed up with strong physical evidence despite family denials. I think people should listen to her well written story and decide for themselves.
43 of 60 people found this review helpful
What did you love best about Leaving the Saints?
This woman's courage. Dedication to the truth.
What did you like best about this story?
Her ability to confront an inconvenient truth.
What about Bernadette Dunne’s performance did you like?
Natural reader.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Many spooky moments.
Any additional comments?
Hard for me to confront the people that left reviews here, volunteering to add to her burdens. Every time we knock a woman in the dirt, we all die a little. Some folk are ruthless and even offended by a woman's honest story, this is very spooky.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
A lot of this story was about the author’s spiritual journey, love, forgiveness, peace and self-control. She seems to be the “perfect” person, stifling anger, judgment and bittnerness. I found myself both in awe and disbelief at the same time. She was almost TOO perfect a person. After a while all that got old. I enjoy biographical works like this and “Beyond Belief” by Jenna Miscavige Hill was a better read.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I thought this book was fantastic. Brilliantly written and expertly read I found it hard to put it aside. As a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who has begun to seriously question the authenticity of the organization, I found several parallels between my experiences and those of Mrs. Beck. Like the author, my doubts began when I experienced the endowment and marriage rituals in the temple. Also, as time went on I began to realize that the church was organized and run more like a giant corporation whose purpose was to create and sustain a false image rather than a self-sustaining religious organization based on truth. It can be argued that the LDS church was founded with lies and is sustained by lies, hence the great ongoing efforts required by its leaders to sustain it's momentum. This message comes across clearly in this book.
If you are considering becoming a member of the LDS church or if you are currently a member who wants to experience a non-church endorsed viewpoint I highly recommend this book. Also, I would recommend "No Man Knows my History" by Fawn S. Brodie.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I found the book enlightening and a little scary. Riveting story, effective and engaging narration. In short, exactly what I seek in a recorded book.
I'm also not a Mormon. As a reader/listener of this book without an ax to grind, I wonder about the negative reviews I saw here. Was there a separate agenda? Hard to say, but worth consideration.
Order the book and decide for yourself.
22 of 33 people found this review helpful
This is a beautifully told, love-filled story. It is exactly what being a beautiful human being can strive for, having a real human life while dealing with the true cruelties of existence. I was touched by Ms. Beck's story. I was raised Mormon and am no longer a member, however it has lifted so many veils of confusion I still sensed but could not explain about where I came from and why my parents were who they were. I feel like I am now part of what is probably Beck's invisible circle of comrads. i'd love to thank her in person for leaving me feeling full of love and understanding for myself, my parents and mormons, and in fact, all people.
12 of 19 people found this review helpful
This is one of my favorite topics and only one of many books I've read. I admire this author and her dealing with some difficult personal and spiritual dilemnas.
14 of 23 people found this review helpful
Martha Beck's personal story was gripping and fascinating. I suppose she will be shunned by her family for her honest account, but it needed to be told. I admired her exploration and objectivity in discussing secret family matters. Thank you for writing when most people would have stuffed it in their emotions.
17 of 30 people found this review helpful
One star for the effort.
I became skeptical when her "repressed memories" were discovered. How many psychologists lost their licenses to practice or are in prison for this "diagnosis?" These "repressed memory" cases in the 1990s were debunked by qualified Psychologists shortly after they became vogue and ruined hundreds of innocent peoples lives.
I'm no expert in theology but this is an apparently another in a long list of intellectuals who is incapable of living the tenets of her religion and, rather than simply choosing another direction in life, has chosen to twist truths and cry "poor me" in an attempt to discredit the organization.
Come on Ms. Beck, move on and write something constructive.
42 of 77 people found this review helpful
A quick search at google for "Martha Beck's family" will retrieve her 7 siblings response to her book. They all seem to disagree about this being classified as non-fiction.
25 of 46 people found this review helpful
I knew nothing about Mormonism or Martha Beck before listening to this audiobook, though I've since gathered that she is well known in the US - unsurprisingly with notoriety in the Mormon world. I chose it out of interest in the spiritual autobiography of which the subtitle indicates.
What the title doesn't indicate is that the book is as much about sexual abuse as it is about religion and faith. Had I known this I wouldn't have chosen it, but though I was shocked and upset by the content on this subject, I'm glad I listened to this book because it's not just about surviving abuse and the consequences of a traumatic childhood, nor just about the (also disturbing) inner workings and foundations of the Mormon church, but is very much about finding the paths of healing, grace, courage, forgiveness, love, and truth.
I think Martha and I would have to part company on some of the New Age-y aspects of spirituality that the synopses of some of her more current books indicate, nevertheless, I found this book spiritually uplifting and challenging and I'm glad I listened to it.
This book is very interesting and for someone who knew almost nothing about the Mormon religion, it was fascinating to hear about it and my attention was captured all the way through. I would discourage anyone considering reading this book from reading the whole synopsis as it gives to much away - it spoils some of the shock and surprise and that is a pity.
The book is wonderfully narrated and that makes it probably an easier book to listen to rather than read since the author tries to explain some complex religious ideas and discusses her very intense thoughts. There is a lovely thread of humour that runs through the book and I would recommend this book to people who are looking for an eye opening read that is very well written.