Soul-Deep Beauty
Fighting for Our True Worth in a World Demanding Flawless
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About
We Are Being Lied To
It's time to get honest with ourselves. Culture's beauty standards are messed up. We all know it, and we all think we can resist the pull to look a certain way. Yet most of us--our daughters and nieces too--still strive for a broken kind of beauty and feel I'm. not. good. enough.
For Melissa Johnson, a marriage and family therapist, this lie eventually led to battling an eating disorder. Through that experience, she saw that chasing broken beauty breaks women in so many ways. She also realized that true, soul-deep beauty is not impossible--it abounds in us and all around us. And now Melissa's on a mission to help you
· uncover the hidden damage cultural lies about beauty have on your mind and soul
· reconnect with God, in whose image you are made
· walk away from shame and striving
· love yourself--and others--unconditionally
True beauty is the fullness of life we are longing for. It's the reality that blows our minds, affirms our true worth, and invites us into an adventure that meets our deepest longings. And it's true beauty that will save us if we open our eyes to it.
"Nothing is more shattered or more misunderstood in our lives than beauty. On our own, we are unable to recapture God's vision for it, and every generation needs guides who can reintroduce it to us again for the first time. In Melissa Johnson, we have such a guide."--CURT THOMPSON, MD, author of The Soul of Desire and The Soul of Shame
Endorsements
"This book is a wake-up call in all the right ways. Melissa shows us how 'beauty' has been co-opted to become the ultimate distraction for so many of us, distracting us from our true purpose and true identity. In our image-based world, Melissa's message could not be more important. We need this reminder to reorient to true beauty, soul-deep beauty."
Bob Goff, New York Times bestselling author
"Nothing is more shattered or misunderstood in our lives than beauty. We are unable on our own to recapture God's vision for it, and every generation needs guides who can reintroduce it to us again for the first time. In Melissa Johnson, we have such a guide, and with Soul-Deep Beauty, she has offered us a vision and a way not only to encounter, but to practice becoming the very beauty that God has foreseen us to be. Read this book, and find your soul's beauty emerging more truly than ever you imagined it could."
Curt Thompson, MD, author of The Soul of Desire and The Soul of Shame
"Every single day--maybe every single hour of most days--I talk about self-worth. I talk about identity and the way we see ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. As a therapist for girls and families, one of my greatest hopes for every human who walks out of my office is that they would know their worth . . . inside and out. I'm so grateful for this book by Melissa Johnson that I believe can help them discover just that. Soul-Deep Beauty is what we all need in a world that is captivated by image and constantly pushing us toward perfection. There is so much more . . . to us and to the way God sees us. Thank you, Melissa, for pointing us toward true worth."
Sissy Goff, LPC, MHSP, bestselling author; speaker; and Director of Child and Adolescent Counseling at Daystar Counseling in Nashville, TN
"Melissa's message abruptly challenges society's tendency to make money off women's shame. She sheds light on the many lies that wreak havoc on women's hearts, minds, and bodies. Reading Melissa's words will call on the 'more' that your soul was made for. The truths in this book will allow you the grace, strength, and courage you so desperately need to fight off the shame and lies that you have been living in. I pray your heart be ready to receive, for there are many deep God truths wrapped in these pages."
Kathryn Shultis, Be a Blessing Co.
"This book will make you change your perspective from culture's standards to Christ's standards. The way Melissa captures the problem and solution to how we view beauty is absolutely necessary to understand."
Tori Hope Petersen, bestselling author of Fostered
"The best-kept secret of American culture is that it runs on shame, and we buy into it. Melissa Johnson exposes this reality with honesty and vulnerability, guiding readers to redefine beauty by developing a more soulful, holistic relationship with their bodies."
Steve Wiens, pastor and author
"With plenty of research and vulnerable storytelling, Melissa Johnson's book has the power to loosen the chains of shame and self-hatred that have been sold to women for generations. Soul-Deep Beauty will reorient readers to the Source of their true worth and help them counter cultural lies with the truth that they are whole, loved, and free."
Katelyn Beaty, editorial director of Brazos Press and author of Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits Are Hurting the Church
"An original contribution to the literature of beauty and body image from a Christian perspective. Johnson vividly demonstrates how the quest for physical perfection, as defined by our toxic culture, leaves us spiritually impoverished. One doesn't need to believe in God to appreciate her illuminating analysis and to applaud her recovery."
Jean Kilbourne EdD, award-winning filmmaker of Killing Us Softly
"Many of us know that we are swimming in toxic waters when it comes to issues surrounding body image, eating disorders, and our overall relationship to ourselves--which is why I'm deeply grateful for the resource that Melissa Johnson has provided us in her book Soul-Deep Beauty. With precision and compassion, Melissa helps name not only the wounds that plague us, but the source of hope and healing available to us as well. This is a sobering and yet hopeful book that is needed for such a time as this."
Aundi Kolber, MA, LPC, therapist and author of Try Softer and Strong like Water
"Melissa has a passionate heart for the true gift of God's beauty; one that frees, transforms, and heals. In this vulnerable, encouraging story, she invites her readers both to encounter that beauty and also to be defined by it rather than the false ideals of beauty so prevalent in the modern world. Her writing will be a gift to many."
Sarah Clarkson, author of This Beautiful Truth: How God's Goodness Breaks Into Our Darkness
"With both expertise and wisdom, Melissa Johnson gently guides readers through an honest examination of the distorted cultural norms we live in and ushers us into a thought-provoking consideration of true, soul-formative beauty. A timely and insightful read!"
Elizabeth Peterson, MA, CSD, spiritual director and retreat facilitator of Commune Soul Care
"In a book that seamlessly weaves together faith, social critique, and personal narrative, this book is an invitation to remember that we are beautifully complex and multi-layered humans, created to know and experience ourselves for all that we are, loved by God exactly as we are."
Dr Hillary McBride, registered psychologist and author of The Wisdom Of Your Body
The Authors
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© Stephanie Pieske Melissa Johnson
Melissa L. Johnson (impossible-beauty.com) is a marriage and family therapist, as well as a spiritual director. She is also the founder of Impossible Beauty, a blog and podcast dedicated to redefining beauty as "the life of God at work in us and...
Continue reading about Melissa Johnson
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Melissa L Johnson
Melissa L. Johnson (impossible-beauty.com) is a marriage and family therapist, as well as a spiritual director. She is also the founder of Impossible Beauty, a blog and podcast dedicated to redefining beauty as "the life of God at work in us and...
Continue reading about Melissa L Johnson