August 10th Seattle: Mini Retreat 1:30 – 5:30 pm. A brief intro and plunge right in to The Work of Byron Katie. Start from scratch with beginner’s mind. End with new insight through investigation on any stressful situation you’ve ever encountered (you pick which one). Mental health professionals can earn 4 CEUs.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (picture tumbleweeds blowing across the wide open plains…the inner mind).
I noticed an old familiar tumbleweed this morning: I need more time!
Holy Moly this thought can be frustrating and definitely stressful.
I love investigating this thought, though, instead of just believing it and reacting to life with it totally entrenched in the mind.
What do I need more time for? Why do I need more time?
Well, GOSH! Of course I need to complete all the following items…yesterday:
- I need to check and respond to emails
- I need to read my class materials
- I need to sit down and watch my training videos
- I need to finish that book
- I need to go to the library
- I need to learn how to make a video
- I need 75 minutes at the gym
- I need to make those 4 phone calls
- I need to buy those items at the Rite Aid
- I need to finish my book on recovering from eating issues
- I need to schedule my fall classes
- I need to organize my calendar, my desk, my to-do list, my retreat plans, my hand-outs, my grocery store list, my bank statements, my bills….
It can go on and on.
And why do I actually need to do these things?
Because, because…I need to do them to succeed, to improve my life experience, to make more money, to avoid feeling needy in the future, to produce something meaningful, to feel happy and peaceful, to avoid forgetting about someone or something, to make sure my kids are safe and secure, to keep my health excellent, to gain knowledge, to rock the casbah.
It is truly incredible to enter the world of self-inquiry around all these kinds of things…the things we are apparently needing to do in order to be successful, healthy, happy and accomplished.
The list is endless! I could add so much more!
But do I really need to do that thing I think I need to do? Is it absolutely critical that I respond, call, email, schedule, buy, get, organize, finish that thing?
Sometimes people get really worried about who they would be without the thought “I need to do that.”
I might lie like a slug on the couch and waste my life away. I might never finish my book. I might never do anything of true value. I might have no purpose. I might not earn any money, I might never go to work, or go to the store. I’d be apathetic, lazy, boring, slow.
It would be depressing. I’d be a failure!
I can’t give up that thought! Even if it’s stressful!
Are you sure? Are you sure you’d be “wasting” time if you did nothing? Are you sure whatever you’re doing is “nothing”?
Are you sure that you’d even WANT to do “nothing” if you didn’t have the thought “I need to do something”?
Perhaps, like me, you can discover that without the belief that you have to do something, you actually find out that you LIKE doing some things, even things on your list.
Such as going to the gym.
I love my gym! So fun! (Except for when they replay the Van Halen Classics channel over and over…)
But it’s NOT wrong if you don’t like it, at all, its the way of it.
As I question “I need more time” over and over again (when it becomes stressful) I discover without the thought….I am here in this moment, with a mind that’s having fun thinking about stuff that can get accomplished, and I’m really not taking it all seriously.
There goes that Crazy Mind! With all it’s Crazy Ideas!
For some weird reason, even though I believe I’ve never eaten it, the ad for Trix Cereal comes into my mind sometimes from American TV when I was a kid. (Silly Wabbit, Trix Are For Kids!)
Silly Mind! Tricks Are For Kids!
Not taking the mind’s TO-DO list very seriously. That to-do accomplishment list is such a sneaky trick!
Making me think I need more time! Ha!
Turning it around, I do not actually need more time. I don’t need to “work” at all this.
My heart is beating, my lungs are breathing, my body is going from young to old on just the right trajectory.
Without my help.
There are enough hours and minutes in every day.
The quantity of time here on the planet is enough, from birth to death, from sun up to sun down, from point A to point B.
What if I simply lived that turnaround, instead of believing in Not Enough Time?
What would I be like if I walked around today, going about my business, in the grocery store, getting up in the morning, talking with my family…always believing that there is plenty of time?
Oooh boy, doesn’t that sound exciting?
Suddenly, here in this moment now, I feel very satisfied, trusting of the universe and the enough-ness of it all….being here, right now.
“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time–past and future–the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
Much Love, Grace
P.S. Money class starts July 11th now (not tomorrow). Join us!
- Earning Money: What’s Your Problem? Questioning Your Beliefs About Money, Work and Business. Thursdays, July 11 – August 29, 2013, 5:15 – 6:45 pm Pacific time. 8 weeks $395. Register Here.
- Our Wonderful Sexuality: A Safe Place For Inquiry on Painful Thoughts About Sexuality. Fridays, July 12 – August 30, 2013 Noon – 1:30 pm Pacific time. 8 weeks $395. Register Here.
- Mini Retreats Seattle. Saturdays, 6/15, 8/10, 9/7, 10/12, 11/30, 2013, 1:30-5:30 pm. Goldilocks Cottage. $70 includes intensive, handouts, tea and snacks, $55 repeater rate. Click here to register for mini-retreats:
- Loving Your Body Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat. June 26-30, 2013. For all the information please click HERE.