This is the second book by Martha Beck that I've read.(I'll write about The Joy Diet soon too.) One of the things I love about Martha Beck is her style: straightforward with home truths and humour mixed in. She has wonderful turns of phrases, like this: "I also got married and had myself three rug rats, demonstrating the sound life-planning skills of a meth addict who goes bungee jumping without a cord."
It came to me at just the right time, as I was heading into the "Ring of Fire" as she calls it. In particular, her advice to "let the moment be what it is" has been a lifeline at times. Another idea I really liked was making your choices based on what feels expansive and being aware of what things make you feel constricted.
The first four chapters are a progressive mechanism to deal with challenges in your life, with each chapter talking in depth about each method. The next five deal with finding your path and strategies to help you both uncover and guide your next steps.
Some of it covers familiar ground, and it synthesizes the ideas in The Joy Diet, but I really loved the approach. I especially found useful the ideas of starting from the end and leaning into the Ring of Fire. I haven't decided yet if it's going into my personal library, but I'm seriously thinking about it.
You can read an except here. The jacket blurb is below.
How to live your right life no matter what!
Described as one of the best-known life coaches in America in media such as Psychology Today, NPR, and USA Today, O columnist Martha Beck has demonstrated a rare gift for helping people whose lives have gone off course to find their way back to authentic, rewarding lives. Now, in Steering by Starlight, Martha 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.
Bringing together cutting-edge research in psychiatry, neurology, and related fields in an accessible, substantive, original way, Dr. Beck offers powerful new methods for solving the problems that beset ordinary people. Using her trademark wisdom, empathy, and engaging style, she connects readers with personal coping strategies that are not yet widely available as she helps them overcome the alienation that is causing them to lose sight of their own North Star.
Dr. Beck identifies three stages along the path to recapturing a satisfying life:
- "the stargazer" helps readers understand why it's so easy to lose themselves and offers strategies for sighting their North Star
- "the mapmaker" uses this newly clarified perspective to evaluate one's situation and plot a course for upcoming years
- "the pathfinder" discusses the adventures that may be encountered as one travels along this new life course
Whether it's seeking better relationships, more focused career direction, the achievement of specific fitness goals, or a more harmonious lifestyle, Steering by Starlight's colorful anecdotes, case studies, and exercises will point the way.
