This Messy Magnificent Life

A Field Guide

By: Geneen Roth

Narrated by: Geneen Roth

Geneen Roth, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Women Food and God, explains how to take the journey to find one’s own best self in this “beautiful, funny, deeply relevant” (Glennon Doyle) collection of personal reflections.

With an introduction by Anne Lamott, This Messy Magnificent Life is a personal and exhilarating read on freeing ourselves from daily anxiety, lack, and discontent. It’s a deep dive into what lies behind our self-criticism, whether it is about the size of our thighs, the expression of our thoughts, or the shape of our ambitions. And it’s about stopping the search to fix ourselves by realizing that on the other side of the “Me Project” is spaciousness, peace, and the capacity to reclaim one’s power and joy.

This Messy Magnificent Life explores the personal beliefs, hidden traumas, and social pressures that shape not just women’s feelings about their bodies but also their confidence, choices, and relationships. After years of teaching retreats and workshops on weight, money, and other obsessions, Roth realized that there was a connection that held her students captive in their unhappiness. With laugh-out-loud humor, compassion, and dead-on insight she reveals the paradoxes in our beliefs and shows how to move beyond our past to build lives that reflect our singularity and inherent power. This Messy Magnificent Life is a brilliant, bravura meditation on who we take ourselves to be, what enough means in our gotta-get-more culture, and being at home in our minds and bodies.

Relatable and relevant for women of a certain age

So honest about the never tending and distracting struggle toward wisdom and enlightenment. This is a gift we can embrace and consume joyfully with full heart!

Rigorously Honest with herself

I like how real the author is.
She doesn’t dress it up.
I laugh and cry.

So good!!

This book is like a meditation. Full of wisdom, humor and truth. I both laughed and cringed at some of her insights, seeing myself in them. I will read this book again and again.

Listen

The author’s reading makes it seem as if I’m listening to wise words from a wise friend...beautiful, compelling —and funny.

To me messy means delicious!

I totally enjoyed this book. It had even more impact hearing it in the author's own voice. Highly recommend being in the moment and soaking it all in!