Beck - Finding your way in a wild new world : reclaiming your true nature to create the life you want

From Finding Your Way in a Wild New World

The mother rhino paws nervously, and I feel the impact tremor in the ground beneath my own feet. She is huge. She is nervous. She could kill me as easily as I clip my fingernails. But my mind is filled only with wonder, distilled into two basic questions.

Question 1: How the hell did I get here?

Question 2: What the hell should I do now?

Both issues seem equally mysterious.... But it all seems to clear nowit was my true nature that brought me face to face with a rhinoceros.... Im finding out what it feels like to reclaim my true nature. Its one of the most wonderful things Ive ever experienced. And, because ecstasy loves company, I want you to experience it too.

The wild new world of the twenty-first century is the perfect setting for reclaiming your true nature. And your life will work much, much better if you let it direct your choices. It will bring you freedom, peace, and delight; give you the optimal chance of making a good living; and help you create the best possible effect on everything around you. Im not certain exactly how it will play out in your case, but heres what I do know: its time you met your rhinoceros.

Finding Your Way in a Wild New World is a remarkable path to the most important discovery you can make: the knowledge of what you should be doing with your one wild and precious life. Its a journey to the thing that so fulfills you that, if someone told you, Its right outsidebut watch outit could kill you! youd run straight toward it, through the screen door without even opening it. Life coach and bestselling author of Finding Your Own North Star Martha Beck guides you to find out how you got to where you are now and what you should do next with clear, concrete instructions on tapping into the deep, wordless knowledge you carry in your body and soul. There are certain people who sense that they are called to do something fulfilling and significant, but who often get caught in self-destructive, unproductive cycles. This is the book that will lead you to unleash your incredible creative energyand fulfill your lifes purpose.

With her inimitable ability to translate inner life into accessible, witty, sparkling prose, Beck draws from ancient wisdom and modern science to help readers consciously embrace their skills and create the life they really want. What shes found is that these people with great passion, empathy, and creative potential often sense a higher callingin a society where that calling isnt even recognized as real. They often have within them a quiet power that could change the world; they lack only the tools. Beck offers real, actionable methods to tap into that power. She shows how to find your inner identity and your external tribe of like-minded people. She demonstrates the four simple tools for transformation: Wordlessness, Oneness, Imagination, and Creation. With clear step-by-step instructions and guided reflections, Beck shows how to drop into the wordless state of communion with nature and self, how to experience for yourself the oneness between yourself and the universe, how to be empowered by the spark of inspiration, and, finally, how to take action and realize creative potential to make a lasting impact on the world.

Compassionate and inspirational, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World is a revolutionary journey of self-discovery that leads to miraculous change.

MARTHA BECK is a writer and life coach who specializes in helping people design satisfying and meaningful life experiences. She holds a bachelors degree in East Asian studies and masters and PhD degrees in sociology, all from Harvard University. She worked as a research associate at Harvard Business School, studying career paths and life-course changes in todays economic and social environment. Before becoming a life coach, Beck taught sociology, social psychology, organizational behavior, business management, and career development at Harvard and at the American Graduate School of International Management. Her nonacademic books include the New York Times bestsellers Expecting Adam and Leaving the Saints, as well as Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Liveand Steering by Starlight. Beck has also been a contributing editor for many popular magazines, including Real Simple and Redbook, and is currently a columnist for O, the Oprah Magazine. Beck lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with her family.

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Copyright 2012 by Martha Beck

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Free Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Free Press hardcover edition January 2012

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Library of Congress control no.: 2011029265

ISBN 978-1-4516-2448-9
ISBN 978-1-4516-2461-8 (ebook)

Note to Readers
Names and identifying details of the clients and some others described herein have been changed. Quotes are intended to be illustrative or to reflect the essence of a conversation, and are not necessarily verbatim.

CHAPTER 1
QUICK WAYS TO WAYFINDING (STILLNESS, TORMENT, AND DELIGHT)

CHAPTER 2
TINY RELATIVES AND THE PATH OF SACRED PLAY

CHAPTER 3
MESSAGES FROM THE EVERYWHEN (THE PATH OF PARADOX)

CHAPTER 4
HORSEPLAY AND THE TECHNOLOGY OF ONENESS

CHAPTER 5
MY AUNTIES, THE TREES (ONENESS WITH THE GREEN NATION)

CHAPTER 6
GETTING FAMILIAR WITH FAMILIARS (ANIMALS AS GATEWAYS TO ONENESS)

CHAPTER 7
YOU! YOU! YOU! (HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS AS GATEWAYS TO THE ONE)

CHAPTER 8
IMAGINATION PRONKS

CHAPTER 9
PROBLEMS? WHAT PROBLEMS? (USING IMAGINATION TO MEND YOUR LIFE)

CHAPTER 10
LET YOUR IMAGINATION CRACK YOUR PUZZLES

CHAPTER 11
WHEN EVERYTHING GOES RIGHT BECAUSE EVERYTHING GOES WRONG

CHAPTER 12
FORMINGNOT FORCINGWHATEVER YOU WANT

CHAPTER 13
FORMING YOUR ART, MENDING YOURSELF

CHAPTER 14
HOW TO FORM A LIVING

CHAPTER 15
LEAPING INTO THE WILD NEW WORLD

The imminent possibility of being killed by a rhinoceros isnt bothering me nearly as much as I would have expected. True, my heart fluttered when I first saw her, but from awe, not fear.

Well, maybe a little from fear.

Until this exact second, my friend Koelle Simpson (her first name sounds like Noelle, but with a K) has been so focused on the rhinos footprints that she forgot to look upa common mistake for people who, like both of us, are just learning to track. By the time Koelle raises her eyes and leaps backward six inches, nearly bumping into me, were within about twenty feet of the rhinoceros.

Trust me on this: observing an animal in a zoo, particularly an animal the size of a Subaru Forester, is very different from encountering it on foot in its own neck of the woods. I can be startled into a cardiac emergency by a reasonably robust spider, so realizing that Im close enough to spit on a mountainous animal who has two enormous pointy horns is... disconcerting. I open my mouth to yip like a wounded poodle. But then the awe kicks in, and I simply stare.