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" Am I doing what I really want to with my life? That this question seems almost impossible to \u00ADanswer is partly due to cowardice: As Jack Nichol\u00ADson put it, we can&amp;#039;t handle the truth. But according to self-help guru Martha Beck, who served as The Oprah \u00ADWinfrey Show&amp;#039;s go-to life coach, it&amp;#039;s also \u00ADbecause we&amp;#039;ve lost touch with the part of ourselves that holds such \u00ADessential truths: our natural instincts. In Beck&amp;#039;s \u00ADseventh book, Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, she \u00ADunfolds a road map back to the &amp;quot;true self&amp;quot;\u2014a \u00ADwiser, calmer, evi\u00ADdently still-intact (though long under\u00ADnourished) individual equipped with an innate sense of \u00ADpurpose and \u00ADidentity, irrespective of whatever she&amp;#039;s been socially \u00ADconditioned to achieve. Beck&amp;#039;s route to enlightenment heads straight into mystical \u00ADterritory, which may \u00ADpresent a roadblock for hard-line \u00ADrealists but will come as no \u00ADsurprise to her loyal fans. She \u00ADbegins with \u00ADtechniques for \u00ADachieving a \u00ADmeditative state called &amp;quot;wordlessness&amp;quot; that \u00ADdials down our \u00ADrunning thought stream and accesses \u00ADinstead &amp;quot;the \u00ADintelligence of the nonverbal mind.&amp;quot; From this \u00ADisolation and \u00ADquietude, we progress to &amp;quot;oneness,&amp;quot; \u00ADmentally \u00AD&amp;quot;connecting&amp;quot; with \u00ADmetals, plants, animals, and, \u00ADeventually, other \u00ADpeople. In the third step, &amp;quot;imagination,&amp;quot; we attempt to divine what &amp;quot;wants&amp;quot; to happen as opposed to what we egoistically desire; and, lastly, in &amp;quot;forming,&amp;quot; we \u00ADmanifest what previously existed only in thought. Pursuing any of these states requires intensity, persistence, and a \u00ADcertain leap of faith. But then, who said the \u00ADanswers were supposed to come easily?  Why do we need to discover our &amp;quot;true nature&amp;quot; now? I expect that many readers will be frightened by the environment\u2014what&amp;#039;s happening around us, from war to economic collapse to arguments at home\u2014and \u00ADunfamiliar with trusting their instincts. What I want is for them to be unfazed by the environment \u00ADbecause they deeply trust their \u00ADinstincts.           And non-Western cultures have a better grasp of this? We have this odd cultural belief that there&amp;#039;s the human world and the natural world. It&amp;#039;s considered bizarre by other cultures. To them, it&amp;#039;s extraordinarily obvious that what makes us happiest is to be responsive to our essential self\u2014by that I mean your body but also your personality and your brain. To know what that true self is without social pressure is to know your true nature.  What kinds of social pressure? The expectation to marry? To earn a living? All of the above. You get social pressure from your parents, who teach you to pay attention to certain things and not to others. You get it in school. I happen to love reading. Socialization in school was pleasurable because it matched my true nature. But someone like [skateboard star] Tony Hawk, his nature says, &amp;quot;Move all the time.&amp;quot;  What do wild animals have to do with wising us up? In the book, I try to take readers with me to Africa and into nature again and again, because as you start \u00ADtuning in to things that aren&amp;#039;t human, you find the same joy, the same freshness, the same energy as when you were two or three years old.  Can you boil down the mental state you call wordlessness? It&amp;#039;s moving attention out of the logical, verbal part of the brain to use all parts of it. According to some neurologists, that analytical part is processing 40 bits of information a second, while the nonverbal brain is processing 11 million bits. When your entire brain is active, that means you are taking everything in through all sense perception. Your entire memory bank and your instincts are in play, so you make much quicker and more intelligent choices.  You advocate &amp;quot;imagining,&amp;quot; but you disparage the new age \u00ADconcept of willing one&amp;#039;s desires into being. Anything you&amp;#039;re trying to will is focused on the \u00ADfuture; it&amp;#039;s always associated with some sort of anxiety that makes the present moment somewhat uncomfortable. The type of imagination I&amp;#039;m talking about is a spontaneous response to being completely present. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/books/interviews/a9097/are-you-ready-to-really-get-wild-613878/?click=smart&kw=ist&src=smart&mag=ELM&link=-SMT-ELM>