This Messy Magnificent Life

A Field Guide

By: Geneen Roth

Narrated by: Geneen Roth

Inspiring, personal, and often spiritual reflections on how women can find peace, make wise choices, practice joy, and step into their power from Geneen Roth - author of the number one New York Times best-selling Women Food and God.

From the beginning, Geneen Roth was told she was too sensitive, too emotional, too curious, too demanding, too intense, and too big. Yet gaining and losing weight for decades did not improve her self-worth or reduce other people's criticisms. Like most women who struggle with their weight, she believed that if she could resolve what seemed to be the source of her self-hatred - how and what she ate - she would be thin, happy, and free. That belief, she discovered, was false.

When her misery with food ended - and didn't change anything except the size of her thighs - she kept trying to fix other broken parts of herself with therapy, intensive meditation retreats, and rigorous spiritual practices. Yet it was only when Geneen stopped trying to change or fix herself that she was at last able to feel at home in her mind, body, and life. Now, she shares the wisdom of giving up this project and finding the freedom, peace, and wholeness that await us just beyond it.

With humor, compassion, and insight, This Messy Magnificent Life explores the personal beliefs, hidden traumas, and social pressures that shape not just women's feelings about their bodies but also their confidence, choices, and relationships. This provocative, enchanting, and sometimes laugh-out-loud look at the imperfect path women take to step into their own power, presence, and ownership is based on the author's personal journey and her decades of work with thousands of women around the country.

Roth embraces everyone's unique and often unsung potential and shows us how to be open, curious, and kind with ourselves; how to say no to people and ideas that hold us back; how to let go of grudges and anxieties; how to pick ourselves up after setbacks; how to say a resounding yes to the world; how to move from fixing ourselves to finding ourselves; how to find joy in the ordinary; and how to experience the extraordinary right here and now in our bodies.

With a foreword by Anne Lamott, This Messy Magnificent Life is a compelling and often quirky look at what it means to be an imperfect but unapologetic woman living a (mostly) magnificent life.

©2018 Geneen Roth (P)2018 Simon & Schuster Audio

Relatable and relevant for women of a certain age

So honest about the never tending and distracting struggle toward wisdom and enlightenment. This is a gift we can embrace and consume joyfully with full heart!

Rigorously Honest with herself

I like how real the author is.
She doesn’t dress it up.
I laugh and cry.

Absolutely incredible.

What a beautiful book and so touch with how we live our lives. Forever grateful.

A must read as always, thank you Geneen.

It’s a message we cannot hear enough, but Geneen‘s ability to articulate, describe, and bring her gift of writing and truth into the explanation is a dialect and language my heart understands.

So good!!

This book is like a meditation. Full of wisdom, humor and truth. I both laughed and cringed at some of her insights, seeing myself in them. I will read this book again and again.

Listen

The author’s reading makes it seem as if I’m listening to wise words from a wise friend...beautiful, compelling —and funny.

To me messy means delicious!

I totally enjoyed this book. It had even more impact hearing it in the author's own voice. Highly recommend being in the moment and soaking it all in!

great food for thought!!

really enjoy all Geneens books. She is SO positive and really helps you look at things differently. I'll listen to it again.

Thank you!

I am filled with tremendous peace and joy for the spirit I am and amazement for nature and life itself. Thank you, Geneen for shifting my focus to the wonderment of now. 👑♥️

Further Along the Path

Where does This Messy Magnificent Life rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Geneen Roth talks about food but more importantly she talks about life. She encourages women to be their own authority in their life. This book guides the listener to quit paying attention to her inner critic (aka: crazy aunt in the attic) and do what is right for herself. Stop the self improvement, stop dieting, stop following other people’s rules, and live your own life. She ends the book with touchstones to guide the listener to be present in her life.