Contains the typical self-help advice, but with a practical twist. I got this from the library, but I'll be buying a copy so I have time to go through the suggested ideas. ( )

I adore Martha Beck. She's one of my favourite life coaching mentors. I thought I'd read every book she's ever written -- until I came across this one at my local library. I picked it up, thinking it was a traditional diet book. (Martha has written on food and body image before, in THE FOUR DAY WIN.) However, I was delighted -- and not altogether surprised -- to find that THE JOY DIET offers various "menu items" for living a happier, more fulfilling life.

As always, Beck approaches these topics with her unique blend of compassion, insight, and humour. It's a heady mix that speaks straight to my soul. I took countless notes, and I began applying the suggested exercises in my life immediately. I saw an improvement in my overall well-being and peace of mind right away. As always, Beck's books land in my lap just when I need them most. ( )

I have all her books and this one I didn't finish it. I think she lost her magic in this one and I lost my trust for her theory in this one... ( )

On ‘Nothing’ (15 minutes of meditation a day)

Almost all of us have been assaulted by hurricane winds, rapacious fires, and shattering earthquakes or some sort: we live on that kind of planet. Do you remember the last time your preconceptions were blown to smithereens, your heart burnt to a cinder, your confidence shattered? Look back on it now (or if you’re in the middle of it, look around), and see if in the midst of that devastation – right in the center of it-you half-sense something still and small. Listen for it. Beneath, around, even within the cacophonous chaos of your life disintegrating, something infinitely powerful and surpassingly sweet is whispering to you. It is when all of our something are collapsing that we may finally turn to nothing, and find there everything we need.

…If you are currently in any kind of pain, you may find something oddly compelling about the words of the great nothing-doers. Though they make no logical sense, they have an irrational resonance that sticks to the suffering soul even after the mind has forgotten them, the way nectar remains on your fingertips after you’ve held a flower.

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On Desire

Did you ever notice how many award-winning children’s books and films focus on someone who adopts a wild animal, then has to chase it away so that it can live normally with its own kind?...I think this is such a popular theme in juvenile literature because it is an archetype of the way growing humans learn to force away their desires.
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It’s as though that wild animal you loved, but dutifully chased away, keeps finding its way home and crawling though every door and window of your life. You can spend the rest of your days forcing it to leave again and again and again, or you can give in to what your heart has been telling you all along: that true love –any true love, no matter how impractical, improbable, or inconvenient—is not just one of the things around which to build your right lift. It’s the only thing.

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I’ve never had a client who was truly enraptured by the thought of just sitting in the sand for the rest of eternity…they also know they are meant to do something –to engage their energy and intelligence, to connect with others, to somehow make the world a better place.

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Michelangelo once said, “If people know how hard I work, they wouldn’t find my achievements so remarkable.”

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Feasting

You were born to be open and honest and brave and playful, to laugh often, to love much, to be loved much in return. You were born for joy… ( )