Doing The Work Shows Me How To Celebrate Change

Change-Your-LifeLast night the Thursday Year Of Inquiry group spent time investigating our topic this month. We’re in our last month of being together for an entire year, doing The Work.

Our topic?

Well, appropriately….the topic is endings, when something is lost, when it appears to be gone forever.

When they change, when it’s over, done, finished, kaput, altered, not going as expected or planned in any way.

Complete. Dead. Permanently deleted.

People in our group had all different situations, as usual, to examine.

A son who was growing up who spends less time with his parents, a beloved grandpa who had died long ago. Someone admirable who left, moved away. A lifestyle that ended. A real estate deal not unfolding as planned.

How many times in my life have I thought, with sadness, that it was unfortunate that something or someone was no longer with me, or that something was going differently than I wanted it to go?

Wow. What a big lens to look through at life where the lens is sour, victim-ish, disappointed, bleak, doomed.

It went wrong. It could have gone better. That person is lost and gone forever. 

Is it true?

Are you completely positive it’s true that it went wrong, or could have gone better, or they’re totally lost?

Well….yeah! On the really scary dreadful stuff, of course it could have gone better, are you nuts?!

Can you absolutely know it’s true?

Um…..Yes? Pretty dang sure.

How do you react when you think it went wrong, it could have gone better, or it’s gone?

I have an image of that moment, when I was doing something I felt *horrible* about…making out for several hours with a boy when I was in sixth grade, hating every moment and waiting until it was over, but NOT SAYING ANYTHING.

Rats, that was a bummer. I called myself a wimp for about twenty years.

Or what about when I’ve injured myself and it appeared this body would never be the same again.

It could have gone SO much better! I was terrified and trying to fit in and didn’t want my really good friend who I loved to find me irritating and a bummer to the party.

I’ll never recover, I wish it was like the old way, I want it to be like it was before.

Sigh.

How do I react when I believe it?

RRRRUUUUNNNNN for your life!

Push it down, don’t think about it, ignore it, be on alert to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

It’s very tense.

“I don’t have any rules. I don’t need them. There’s a sense of order that goes on all the time as things move and change, and I am that harmony, and so are you. Not knowing is the only way to understand… Meanings, rules, the whole world of right and wrong, are secondary at best. I understand how some people think they need to live by rules…It’s very frightening for them to watch the world unfolding in apparent chaos and not realize that the chaos itself is God in his infinite intelligence.” ~ Byron Katie

Who would you be without the belief that it went wrong, or was lost and gone forever?

Wait for it.

Without any belief at all that it should have gone different than it did?

Peaceful. Right Here.

Looking around this room as I write. Pottery red wall, spider dropping from the ceiling, beautiful red and white rug, wooden floor, fingers tapping on computer, eagles chirping outside, quiet.

Turning it around: it went just as necessary, it went chaotically and wildly as it needed to go, everything fades away, returns, vanishes, appears, nothing remains the same, that was then, this is now, it was needed for just that long, then no longer needed in that form.

As the inquirers found in Year of Inquiry….YAHOO! It changed!

(Do you hear Celebration by Kool and The Gang playing in background?…OK that may be a bit far for your situation).

But could there be benefits for why it went the way it did? Could it be the universe is kinder than you thought? Are there advantages, or perhaps even simply noticing all is well?

“To give up the egoic will, all you have to do is not complain about what is.  Be aligned with the isness – people, situations, whatever – this is already as it is.  It’s the inevitability of is.  Become friendly with what is, and you become intelligent for the first time. With the simple act of surrender to the inevitability of the present moment, another energy comes. You could call that universal will, you could call that intelligence, you could call that the creative solution to whatever the so-called “problem” is….You and the Universe become one, and as such it creates through you as this form.” ~ Eckhart Tolle 

If you’re longing to end your struggles and relax your thinking, by questioning it, and you’ve wanted to join with other like-minded people in support of this Great Inquiry….Year of Inquiry starts next month.

Early Bird registration still open for another day until August 16th! I would be honored to have you. Click HERE for all the information. Write to grace@workwithgrace.com if you have any questions.

Year-Long doing The Work Shows Me How

“I’ve so appreciated the Year-Long experience and intend to continue because of the opportunity to do the Work coming at me 3 times/month without me having to initiate. Doing the Work in that regular, consistent way has brought me to some deeply-held beliefs I was unaware of and was able to Work at unravelling. The Year-Long provides me with the long-term on-going class that allows me some breathing room between sessions, but always the next class to look forward to. After 5+ years of doing The Work, I continue to ask the questions and do the turnarounds because I get peace of mind each time. The stressful thought/experience unravels, I am gifted with awareness…I never knew what my business was before The Work.  And I did not know HOW to take responsibility for my life and actions. I did not know HOW to forgive others or myself. I did not know HOW to let go. Doing The Work shows me how.” ~ J, 2013-2014 YOI Participant

Much love, Grace