Self-pity, a dominant characteristic of sociopaths, is also the characteristic that differentiates heroic storytelling from psychological rumination. When you talk about your experiences to shed light, you may feel wrenching pain, grief, anger, or shame. Your audience may pity you,… — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
As I obsess about my ancient problems, I feel more like I'm sinking in quicksand than lighting a torch. I'm creating neither heat nor light, just the icky, perversely pleasurable squish of self-pity between my toes. My only defense is… — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
Imagine what you'd do if it absolutely didn't matter what people thought of you. Got it? Good. Never go back. — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
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… — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
If I tell a man he needs to quit his soul-sucking job, he has to go home and fight with his wife or fight… — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
I was learning to track rhinoceroses in Africa and tracked right up on an animal that really I thought was going to kill me. — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
There has never been, and never will be, anyone who sees, thinks, or responds exactly the way you do. Whether you’re revolutionizing physics or… — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
Most of my clients don't realize that the way they look and the way they think about their looks are two separate issues. — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
The power to bring me out of solitude - or to push me back into it - had never belonged to another person. It… — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
Learning to quit while you're not ahead, when the dull ooze of depression tells you things are not going to get any better, is… — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
The important thing is to tell yourself a life story in which you, the hero, are primarily a problem solver rather than a helpless… — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
A joyful life isn’t about others; it’s about the brightness that is associated with being alive. Your path to it is through anything that… — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
Fear is the raw material from which courage is manufactured. Without it, we wouldn't even know what it means to be brave. — Martha Beck Copy Share Image
