About this item
Highlights
- Our joy has a geometry, a shape.
- Author(s): Richard Beck
- 174 Pages
- Religion + Beliefs, Christian Life
Description
About the Book
Drawing from positive psychology, author Richard Beck (Hunting Magic Eels) explores concepts like gratitude, mindfulness, ego volume, and the small self to provide readers with a road map toward a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life.Book Synopsis
Our joy has a geometry, a shape. We must learn to look outside ourselves to find it.
In a world where mental health issues and loneliness are at an all-time high, it's more important than ever to find ways to cultivate joy, community, and meaning in our lives. Many of us feel trapped within ourselves, struggling to find a way out of our own negative thoughts and emotions. Author and psychologist Richard Beck (Hunting Magic Eels) argues that we are struggling because our shape is currently ""curved inward."" We are self-focused, self-absorbed, ruminative. We're trapped inside ourselves. And we're definitely not happy or filled with joy. So how do we control our egos and ambition when those drives have been useful to us in the past? How do we engage our imagination and our faith?
In his latest book, The Shape of Joy, Beck offers a powerful argument for how we can break free and rediscover the transcendent and the sacred. Beck argues that to find true joy and fulfillment, we need to understand the importance of ""curving outward"" and moving beyond the self to encounter true lovingness. Drawing from the principles of positive psychology, Beck explores concepts like gratitude, mindfulness, ego volume, and the small self to provide readers with a road map toward a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life. Whether you're struggling with mental health issues, yearning for a deeper connection with your faith, or simply seeking greater happiness and fulfillment, The Shape of Joy will offer you an inspiring vision for a better future.
Review Quotes
"In this visionary and original work, Dr. Richard Beck rises above the nonsensical self-help landscape and offers an inspiring picture of what it means to seek and obtain wonder. Beck boldly challenges our failing mental health ecosystem and the waning status quo. With the heart of a teacher, he lays out a new, research-driven path for healing our deepest individual hurts and collective cultural pain." --Dr. John Delony, Wall Street Journal #1 best-selling author and host of The Dr. John Delony Show
"Beck reveals the toxic cultural soil in which we are all planted, which prevents us from attaining the life of meaning and fulfillment that we desire. More importantly, he offers an antidote that will allow our lives to bear the fruit of goodness and peace." --Falon Barton, campus minister, University Church of Christ, Malibu, California
"A much-needed resource in our age of despair and mental anguish, a timely word addressing the current state of our mental health and the overall increase in our social decline. The path to lasting joy draws our attention beyond ourselves. The shape of joy pulls outward, beyond the self toward the sacred and holy. This book will have a life-changing impact on those who are open to its message." --Nathan Burrow, preaching minister, Hillcrest Church of Christ, Abilene, Texas
"Richard Beck uniquely plants himself at the complicated intersection of psychology and spirituality, sharing wisdom that seems counterintuitive to our modern sensibilities. He invites us away from the dizzying fray of our internal lives, toward one another and, ultimately, toward transcendence and the Divine. By grounding the self in a Reality beyond ourselves, we can practice and discover our way into true joy." --Natalie Magnusson, assistant director for the Master of Religious Education in Missional Leadership program, Rochester Christian University
"Dr. Beck is a trustworthy guide as he leads us to look not just within but beyond ourselves." --Chris Seidman, lead pastor, The Branch Church, Dallas, Texas
"For a modern world filled with anxiety and heartache, Richard Beck illuminates a path toward true and abiding happiness. The path leads us to exchange the inward focus that traps us in negativity for a life that is 'curved outward' toward love and connection. Beautifully blending psychology and spirituality, this book is a guiding light for all of us who walk in dark shadows." --Amy Bost-Henegar, chaplain and pastor
"Richard Beck is a master at taking complex ideas and making them accessible. The Shape of Joy is another example of his use of this gift. Calling it 'the geometry of self, ' his use of the metaphor of geometric curves to explain the angst of our culture--particularly on the heels of the pandemic--offers a clear path forward." --Jackie L. Halstead, CEO, Selah Center for Spiritual Formation, and author of Leaning into God's Embrace: A Guidebook for Contemplative Prayer
"Rather than inward-focused attempts at self-love and acceptance, Beck calls us to rethink the shape of joy as the embrace of quieting internal noise, rejecting the superhero complex, moving toward humility as self-forgetting, reaching out toward the needs of others, and, finally, anchoring joy in a sense of mattering through spiritual transcendence and love." --Brad D. Strawn, Evelyn and Frank Freed Professor of the Integration of Psychology and Theology, Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy; coauthor of Enhancing Christian Life and coeditor of Spiritual Diversity in Psychotherapy