Reminder to all Breitenbush participants from the past: if you register before May 1st, your fee is only $295 (you save $100). Important to write to me grace@workwithgrace.com if you are coming back so we can alert the offices at Breitenbush of your special repeater fee.
And setting up time to sit and do The Work in the power of a group….what a wise and wonderful thing to do.
Well, it sure has been for me. The difference between me BEFORE spending time questioning my thinking….and me AFTER questioning my thinking….
….is almost unrecognizable for me inside myself.
This could only happen when I set aside the time, as a priority, for self-inquiry. And in different phases of my life, this hasn’t been easy.
Recently, a YOI (Year of Inquiry) participant who just attended the School for The Work for the first time called me and said “Wow. After doing The School, I realize I want to do The Work all the time. I need to be in this Year of Inquiry group more than ever.”
Maybe some of us are such good “do-ers” in this world, that sitting quietly and examining our beliefs just doesn’t appear to be that productive.
Believe me, when I have typically “set aside time” on my own calendar without an official retreat, guidance, facilitation, teacher, a group, or a one-on-one session with another inquiring friend……
…..guess what that blocked out time looked like in real life?
Errands, going to the gym, reading, answering emails, laundry, updating curriculum, tweaking my website, dishes, talking with my husband and kids, checking my texts, looking at the internet, adding on a last-minute client right into that exact blocked out slot.
All the productivity teachers talk about the same kind of thing.
They suggest doing the thing first that has the greatest, most meaningful value for you, every day.
It’s weird that we’re set up this way…to sort of skip over this quieter song within, and “get” everything else “done”.
There is something of great draw for you in your heart, something has stirred inside you with desire for personal understanding, but you dismiss it and set it over in the corner to come back to, later.
Even something as common as exercising, taking a new class, meeting a good friend for tea, creating something new, taking your car to the shop, making a doctor’s appointment, finishing your book.
You don’t do it now. You wait.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But once you see the pleasure, the change, the movement of energy and a shift in your feelings, the dissolving of stress, unhappiness leaving, or confusion becoming clear….
….then whatever assisted in that change, whether slight or magnificent, becomes very, very interesting.
To put it mildly.
Then, you hardly need to set aside time for retreat and personal inquiry and meditation. Because your life becomes full of it every day, all the time. No need to go anywhere or do anything. Your mind *thinks* and you wonder if it’s true, and you might start laughing.
Awareness of who you truly are stays centered, clear, present in every tiny moment.
But what if your mind is so speedy that you aren’t sure what you’re even thinking in the first place that leads to stress? What if you feel hurt by someone? What if you feel fearful about having cancer, upset about losing your job, self-critical about hating your boss, sad because of the lack of fun or sexuality in your primary relationship, or disturbed with the way you drink or eat?
What if there is something that keeps pestering you for awareness, understanding, clarity or resolve? What if something BIG went down between you and someone, and you can’t stop thinking about it some nights?
Maybe that commenting thinking voice is there for a reason!
It’s a strange thing to compare the investigation of the mind with athletic training. But as an athletic person myself, I find it wonderfully similar in many ways.
Here is this body that is a moving machine. Here is this thinking machine. Being “me”. Resisting, planning, formulating conclusions, getting conditioned, believing, hoping, imagining, seeing, knowing, learning, adding, subtracting.
There appears to be an identity here that is unique, thinking, perceiving from this special vantage point. There appears to be a body here that might “win” if competing with the best in the world.
All very well….until a fly gets in the ointment. You’re training for the Olympics, and you twist your knee.
A powerful athlete does everything to take care of that knee. She moves over to healing the knee, so she can carry on with the bigger picture, the greater goal.
This is how I see every session, every group, every telecall, every retreat, every gathering of souls doing The Work together. We’re on a journey, and we’ve noticed we have a common “situation”.
The mind got twisted. So instead of continuing to ignore it, we’re turning our attention to it entirely.
Because without healing that injury, there will be no chance for anything more. No Olympics. No peace.
“We must free our mind from all that it has collected, all that it clings to, all that it depends on. This begins by realizing that we are in a psychological prison created by our minds. Until we begin to realize how confined we are, we will not be able to find our way out. Neither will we find our way out by struggling against the confines we have inherited from our parents, society, and culture. It is only by beginning to examine and realize the falseness within our minds that we begin to awaken an intelligence that originates from beyond the realm of thinking.” ~ Adyashanti
The Work….which is four questions and then finding the turnarounds….is a simple structure for this inquiry. Simple, yet complex.
The questions are big ones, the answers are your own.
But oh how incredible to examine the thoughts that create stress in your life, the ones that bring on sadness, terror, anxiety, anger, and emotional pain. These kinds of thoughts and memories that produce something that feels like falseness.
The falseness of forever being a “do-er” without stopping to slow down, take a look, and enter something deeper in yourself.
“An uncomfortable feeling is not an enemy. It’s a gift that says, ‘Get honest; inquire.’ We reach out for alcohol, or television, or credit cards, so we can focus out there and not have to look at the feeling. And that’s as it should be, because in our innocence we haven’t known how. So now what we can do is reach out for a paper and a pencil, write thought down, and investigate.” ~ Byron Katie
Before self-inquiry, I had to look to a ton of different solutions in order to find relief.
After self-inquiry? All I needed was a pen a paper, time to investigate, and then…the joy of not believing everything I think.
If you want to give your mind the attention it seeks on that issue (or issues) that keep pestering you for resolution….
….then come immerse yourself in the beauty of knowing you, investigating your mind, and getting a glimpse of who you really are.
Because no one wants to stay in a psychological prison. And it’s hard to stay in there all by yourself.
Find a partner, get someone you know to facilitate you, start writing out your answers to the four questions, take a class, sign up for Breitenbush.
You’ll be sooooo glad you did. You could change your life, your world, your past, your future. Really.
Because that’s what has happened for me.
Love, Grace