“I was 25 years old and I was asking myself: what makes a human life worth living? And against (very much against!) the advice of my doctors and advisors, I decided that what made a human life worth living was the experience of joy. Emerson said, ‘Beauty is its own excuse for being,’ and I believe that joy is beauty felt. It is its own excuse for being.”
In this week’s all-new episode of THE IDEALISTS., host and entrepreneur, Melissa Kiguwa speaks to Martha Beck, a PhD Harvard-trained sociologist; president of world-renowned company, Wayfinder Life Coach Training; and Oprah's life coach. Her most recent book, The Way of Integrity, was an instant New York Times Best Seller and in it, using the hero's journey within Dante's Inferno, Martha challenges us to envision a life of complete joy... unencumbered by self-limiting beliefs and cultural programming.
In this episode, Martha delves deep into how we all can achieve integrity, which she defines as absolute and total alignment of one's mind, body, and soul.
Highlights:
Martha starts the conversation by recounting while working on her PhD at Harvard, she became pregnant with her son who she learned would be born with down syndrome. Despite being told by her advisors and professors that an abortion would protect her career, Martha absconded from their advice.
She began to question what makes a life worth living and came to her own answer— that the search and capacity for joy through the liberation of the human mind is the reason for living.
Martha then shares why she believes the full realization of one’s gifts leads to enlightenment.
Lastly, Martha discusses her audacious vision for the world— to end suffering for all through the transformation of consciousness.