Martha Beck What Does It Mean To Be Faithful

Martha Beck: What Does It Mean to Be Faithful?

Martha Beck —

August 22, 2017

Martha Beck: What Does It Mean to Be Faithful?

Martha Beck — August 22, 2017

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Martha Beck is a renowned life coach, New York Times bestselling author, and monthly columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine. In partnership with Sounds True, Martha released the audio program Follow Your North Star and will be a featured presenter in the upcoming online offering The Self-Acceptance Summit. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Martha and Tami Simon talk about the courage necessary to clearly evaluate difficult situations and to know when to leave when that situation no longer suits you. Martha speaks on her journey through “the center of hell” that came with her son’s Down Syndrome diagnosis and what that experience taught her about maintaining faith during times of change. Tami and Martha also discuss her experiences as a life coach and the many challenges that stand in the way of self-acceptance, especially relating to body image. Finally, Martha explains how she remains confident, positive, and joyful in her commitment to awakening consciousness and healing the natural world. (63 minutes)

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Martha Beck is a monthly columnist at O: The Oprah Magazine. She is the New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Diet (Crown, 2003), Finding Your Own North Star (Three Rivers Press, 2001), and Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic (Berkley Publishing Group, 2000). Martha has coached hundreds of individuals over the past fifteen years, and recently, NPR called herthe best-known life coach in America.She has taught career development at the American Graduate School of International Management, performed research at Harvard Business School, and consulted to numerous Fortune 500 corporations.

Author photo © Phyllis Lane

Listen to Tami Simon's in-depth audio podcast interview with Martha Beck:
What Does It Mean to Be Faithful? »

Posted August 22, 2017

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Each week on Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon interviews leading voices in the Mind/Body/Spirit space about a vast spectrum of fascinating ideas. Since 2009, Tami and her guests have been exploring the edge of understanding, nearly 1,000 episodes on the honest work of change, including spiritual discovery, awakening, intuition, purpose, trauma, and grief.

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Just One Question | Martha Beck: What Do I Do At Three...

Martha Beck — July 2, 2026

Three in the morning. Brain already running. Every unfinished thing in your life suddenly very urgent. Sound familiar?

We pulled this week’s question because when Tami asked Martha Beck what to actually do in that moment, her answer was genuinely not what we were expecting. No breathwork protocol. No journaling prompt. What Martha offers is something way simpler — and honestly, kind of revolutionary in how low the bar is.

Martha Beck is a Harvard-trained sociologist, bestselling author, and one of the sharpest minds out there on anxiety and how we actually heal it. She’s been working through her own anxiety since childhood, and she’s arrived somewhere really good. (Spoiler: it involves audiobooks, furry blankets, and thinking like a golden retriever.)

Here’s some of what she gets into:

Why she plays Sounds True audiobooks at half-speed in the middle of the night — and why slowing down is the whole point
The self-kindness practice she uses when her brain won’t quit, including the exact question she asks herself
A story from Liz Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love about a two-word message that Martha keeps coming back to — it’s a good one
How decades of anxiety can actually rewire into something peaceful, and why what fires together really does wire together

Honestly, this one left us wanting to go take a nap. In the best way.

Taken from the full Insights at the Edge conversation with Martha Beck. Find the complete interview in this feed or at soundstrue.com.

This episode is sponsored by Omega Institute, a global gathering hub for lifelong learning and spiritual exploration. Omega offers weekend workshops, special events, rest and rejuvenation retreats, professional training, online learning, and more. Discover what calls to you at eomega.org/true.

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Martha Beck, PhD: Beyond Anxiety

Martha Beck — April 8, 2025

Just hearing the word “anxiety” can be enough to make you feel it. If you’re someone who’s struggled with chronic anxiety, panic attacks, or simply feeling safe in a world that seems far from it, this is a podcast for YOU. Here, Tami Simon speaks with renowned life coach and bestselling author Dr. Martha Beck about her new book, Beyond Anxiety. Enjoy this empowering conversation filled with science-backed techniques and spiritual insights to take a creative, whole-brain approach to freeing yourself from anxiety.

Tami and Martha discuss why anxiety can’t just be ended—it must be replaced; the neurology of creativity; the left brain anxiety spiral and the negativity bias; the link between the right brain and our sense of purpose and meaning; the metaphor of the puppies and the cobra; the futility of trying to control the environment; the amygdala and the metaphor of the hall of mirrors; lovingkindness meditation; the power of a calm human voice and how to be an “anxiety whisperer” for yourself; self-care (including sleep!); HSPs (or highly sensitive people); the money excuse; the story of Griffin the therapy dog: a lesson on questioning our fears; the shift from fear to joy; the eureka effect and how the right brain “loves an impasse”; appreciation of the present moment; the mnemonic device, “KAT”: kindness, art, and transcendence; and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

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Martha Beck: What Does It Mean to Be Faithful?

Martha Beck — August 22, 2017

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Tara Brach: Choosing to Love in Perilous Times

Tara Brach — June 23, 2026

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What if the bravest thing you can do right now is refusing to close your heart?

This week, Tami Simon speaks with Tara Brach—beloved meditation teacher, clinical psychologist, and bestselling author of Radical Acceptance and Trusting the Gold—about her new inner workbook with Sounds True, The Courageous Heart: Choosing to Love in Perilous Times. At a moment when so many people feel pulled between despair and action, Tara offers a grounded path through both.

Join Tami and Tara to explore:

How to stay spiritually engaged—without burning out or spiritually bypassing the reality of suffering
The bodhisattva path as a living practice: what it means to be an “awakening being” in ordinary, everyday life
Why grief is often covered over by anger—and how moving through grief unlocks the capacity for love and action
The RAIN practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) for working with armoring, fear, and excruciating pain in the heart
The shift from head space to heart space—and a brief guided meditation to experience it directly
How aspiration becomes the fuel for the spiritual path—and why Tara “sandwiches” her day with it
The practice of seeing basic goodness in others—including stories of Father Gregory Boyle and John Lewis that illuminate how this changes everything
What to do when you feel alone, disconnected, and uncertain where to start

Whether you’re overwhelmed by current events or searching for a more engaged and openhearted way to meet this moment, Tara Brach offers both the courage and the practical tools to begin.

Listen now and choose to love. →

This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.

Enter for a chance to win the Monthly Magic Subscription Journey. It includes 12 months of tea, a loose leaf starter kit, monthly virtual classes, and free shipping worth $673. Learn more at ClubMagicHour.com/TRUE (no purchase required). Get 20% off your first order of Magic Hour tea at ClubMagicHour.com with the code TRUE.

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Just One Question | Thích Nhất Hạnh: What Is the ...

Thich Nhat Hanh — June 18, 2026

What if the root cause of every social problem — starvation, ecological destruction, violence — wasn’t a broken system or a corrupt institution, but a collective state of unawareness? And what if the most powerful act of social change available to you today happened in your own mind?

That’s the territory Tami Simon explores in this remarkable exchange with Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen master who founded Plum Village, pioneered engaged Buddhism, and became one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. Recorded more than two decades ago beneath a willow tree, this conversation feels astonishingly present.

Thích Nhất Hạnh’s answer to Tami’s question doesn’t point outward to policy or protest — it points inward, then ripples out. Individual awakening, he says, is collective awakening. Your practice is social action. Your light is contagious.

What you’ll hear in this exchange:

Why individual mindfulness practice is inseparable from social transformation
How collective enlightenment spreads — and how it already has, in ways we don’t always recognize
The role artists, teachers, economists, and politicians all play in the work of awakening
How to stay rooted in hope — and action — without being swallowed by despair

This is a short clip, but it carries the full weight of a lifetime of practice and teaching. It may change how you think about what you’re doing every time you sit down to meditate.

This clip is taken from the full Insights at the Edge conversation with Thích Nhất Hạnh. Find the complete interview in this feed or at soundstrue.com.

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Peter Russell: Meeting Exponential Change with a Quiet...

Peter Russell — April 7, 2026

We live in a world accelerating faster than the human mind was built to handle. So what do we do with that?

This week, Tami Simon speaks with Peter Russell—author, speaker, and leading thinker on consciousness and spirituality, with degrees in theoretical physics, psychology, and computer science from Cambridge—about his new book, How to Meditate Without Even Trying, featuring a foreword by Eckhart Tolle. Decades after coining the term “global brain” and predicting the internet, Russell turns his visionary lens on the present moment: a world of staggering technological power and equally staggering stress.

Join Tami and Peter to explore:

From global brain to global mind: how AI represents the next threshold in humanity’s collective evolution
Why exponential change is not going away—and the hidden costs it’s placing on our personal and planetary systems
Forgiving Humanity: why the crises facing our species may be the inevitable result of accelerating development, not human failure
Accepting the possibility of extinction—and how that acceptance can paradoxically free us to live and serve more fully
The shift from “saving the world” to navigating these times with grace, compassion, and groundedness
Why meditation is more necessary now than ever—and how effortlessness, not discipline, is the key
“Letting in” before letting go: a practice for metabolizing emotion and releasing tension at its root
The tension in thinking—and how noticing it during meditation changes how we think outside of it

Whether you’re overwhelmed by the pace of the world or simply looking for a steadier way to move through it, Peter Russell offers both perspective and practice.

Listen now and find your way back to the quiet.

Martha Beck: What Does It Mean to Be Faithful?

Martha Beck: What Does It Mean to Be Faithful?

Martha Beck — August 22, 2017

900 Episodes and Counting…

Meet Your Host: Tami Simon

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