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Meditative Story

Martha Beck: Letting our hearts take the lead

Meditative Story

WaitWhat

Mental Health, Society & Culture, Mindfulness, Spirituality, Meditation, Religion & Spirituality, Personal Stories, Health & Fitness, Storytelling, Society And Culture

4.63.1K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s not surprising that Martha Beck, best-selling author and columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine, grew up as a high achiever. Attending Harvard University for both undergraduate and doctoral degrees, Martha spends years fighting to be the smartest person in the room and contending with serious anxiety. It’s only after a revelatory trip to Japan that Martha learns to put her rigid pursuit of intellect aside and find true happiness in the peaceful empty spaces between all things.

Listen to Nataly Dawn's Meditative Story, "My battle as a beginner opens up worlds of wonder": https://listen.meditativestory.com/NatalyDawnPIO

Learn more about Martha: marthabeck.com

Follow Martha on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themarthabeck/

Follow Martha on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themarthabeck

If this episode resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to share your reflections by rating and reviewing Meditative Story in your podcast player. It helps other listeners find their way to show, and we’d be so grateful.

Each episode of Meditative Story combines the emotional pull of first-person storytelling with immersive music and gentle mindfulness prompts. Read the transcript for this story: meditativestory.com

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey there, it's Rohan.

0:02.0

With some exciting news to share, Meditative Story is now on YouTube, so you can now experience

0:08.9

full length stories with gorgeous visual backgrounds, short clips from our storytellers, and even

0:14.7

some meditation videos from me, which I love to record out in nature.

0:20.1

We hope you'll come along for this new venture.

0:22.6

You can follow the channel at meditativestory.com forward slash YouTube, that's meditativestory.com

0:30.1

forward slash YouTube.

0:46.7

When ad comes on for a seasoning called aginomoto, and I hear my daughter say aginomoto, she

0:55.2

doesn't get it exactly right, but I see satisfaction on her little face.

1:01.1

She mouths the words, says them over and over again, sometimes getting them wrong, not caring.

1:08.3

She's completely unself conscious, completely free.

1:21.6

Our minds are capable of so much, but frustratingly, they can also be the thing that stands between

1:29.9

us and our own happiness.

1:33.7

In this week's episode, celebrated author and live coach Martha Beck tells the story

1:39.8

of how she learned to stop striving to be the smartest person in the room.

1:45.4

And during an eye-opening summer in Japan, finally put her intellect aside to open herself

1:51.9

up to everything else the world has to offer.

1:57.7

In this series, we combine immersive first-person stories, breathtaking music, and mindfulness

2:05.1

prompts, so that we may see our lives reflected back to us in other people's stories.

2:11.3

And that can lead to improvements in our own inner lives.

2:17.4

From weight to what, this is meditative story.

2:23.4

I'm Rohan, and I'll be your guide.

...

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