Dr. Martha Beck

And the thing is, the costs are high and the rewards are high. If you go gradually, you're going to get a smaller amount of gain, you know, by the year. If you run off a cliff, you can have a really rough ride, but you might come out with a lot of positives. And your skill of quitting, it reminds me –

If people come to me, I try to give them all the value in one session, like hear this and go away. All right, take notes. If you don't really want to do something and you don't really have to do something, don't do it. Now, give me my money and go. Because that's the whole thing. If you don't want to do something and you don't have to do it, don't do it.

If people come to me, I try to give them all the value in one session, like hear this and go away. All right, take notes. If you don't really want to do something and you don't really have to do something, don't do it. Now, give me my money and go. Because that's the whole thing. If you don't want to do something and you don't have to do it, don't do it.

And that's a really quick way to find out what you do want.

And that's a really quick way to find out what you do want.

So I like, you have to get more and more attentive to what's going on inside. And I think some form of meditation, whether it's expressive writing or painting or just sitting still, is very helpful at noticing these fine details. And there's, I'm kind of joking when I say if you don't want to do it, you don't have to do it, don't do it. But ultimately, that's true.

So I like, you have to get more and more attentive to what's going on inside. And I think some form of meditation, whether it's expressive writing or painting or just sitting still, is very helpful at noticing these fine details. And there's, I'm kind of joking when I say if you don't want to do it, you don't have to do it, don't do it. But ultimately, that's true.

And the way you decide there are things that you don't want to do, but you actually do have to do them. Not because people want you to, but because you have to do them. And the way I experienced that, I like to describe it with something the Buddha used to say a lot. And that was, wherever you find a body of water... You can know if it's the sea because the sea always tastes of salt.

And the way you decide there are things that you don't want to do, but you actually do have to do them. Not because people want you to, but because you have to do them. And the way I experienced that, I like to describe it with something the Buddha used to say a lot. And that was, wherever you find a body of water... You can know if it's the sea because the sea always tastes of salt.

And wherever you find enlightenment, awakening, your own truth, your path, you can always recognize it no matter what form it takes because enlightenment always tastes of freedom. He did not say happiness. He did not say benefit. He did not say, you know, mania, true love. He said freedom. And when you know, like, I did not want to meet with my parents, for example, in my therapist's office.

And wherever you find enlightenment, awakening, your own truth, your path, you can always recognize it no matter what form it takes because enlightenment always tastes of freedom. He did not say happiness. He did not say benefit. He did not say, you know, mania, true love. He said freedom. And when you know, like, I did not want to meet with my parents, for example, in my therapist's office.

I was terrified of both of them and of the whole community. My therapist could have been run out of business in the town we lived in. But if I had not done it, I would not have been as free. So I had to do it. But that's a really different I have to do it than my mother really, really would be happier if I became a doctor.

I was terrified of both of them and of the whole community. My therapist could have been run out of business in the town we lived in. But if I had not done it, I would not have been as free. So I had to do it. But that's a really different I have to do it than my mother really, really would be happier if I became a doctor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When I asked you what your body felt when you started paying attention to it and you said it relaxed. It's a sense of – I also mentioned flow, which is the sense of being completely – almost the sense of self-disappearing and being in complete harmony with something that is moving through the world.

When I asked you what your body felt when you started paying attention to it and you said it relaxed. It's a sense of – I also mentioned flow, which is the sense of being completely – almost the sense of self-disappearing and being in complete harmony with something that is moving through the world.

My undergraduate degree is in Chinese, and so I found out about Taoism earlier in my life, and it's not really a religion the way we would think of it. It's the sense that there is an energy that flows through nature and that if you don't fight it, you will... You will live the life you were meant to live.

My undergraduate degree is in Chinese, and so I found out about Taoism earlier in my life, and it's not really a religion the way we would think of it. It's the sense that there is an energy that flows through nature and that if you don't fight it, you will... You will live the life you were meant to live.

And the sense of letting go of everything else except letting that thing work with you and through you, that to me is freedom.