Getting Lost in Disturbed Energy? Ask Someone to join you in The Work.

lostindark
Don’t go to far into the darkness. You don’t have to do The Work alone!

Last spot available for 3 days in The Work in Seattle starting Friday. We meet in a beautiful private home in Magnolia.

Bring your painful thoughts about your life, the places you get stuck….and leave with lightness and freedom.

Who would you really be, using your brilliant imagination, without your stressful beliefs?

The power of the group can be transformative, and really help you “get” The Work.

(Hit reply if you’re interested, and want to register).

Speaking of groups.

There’s nothing like a full set of ears, eyes, and feelings in the form of a group of people to help you get into your honest personal work.

This happens in any modality.

Where multiple people, or even one other person, are gathered….

….there are more minds involved than only yours.

One mind, questioning itself, can be a bit tricky.

The other people present help you keep steady in your work, not run away mentally or emotionally. No one has to give you advice or tell you what to do, they are simply present to you finding your own answers.

At the monthly meetup last weekend, as always, I loved the contributions, feedback, and sharing from other people even if they weren’t on the hot-seat doing The Work on an important situation.

I’m clapping my hands right now thinking about how awesome it will be to do The Work with a much larger number, and for three whole days, as people assemble to dive into inquiry this coming weekend (including Friday). The majority of the group will be people in Year of Inquiry, but it’s open and accessible to anyone else desiring this kind of freedom from stressful thinking.

The feeling is phenomenal, and so supportive.

Whenever I’ve been stuck in my own work, there’s nothing like feedback from someone else.

Why?

Because to get out of your own very seductive story, even when it hurts, is really, really difficult.

It’s like a locomotive going 120 mph down a one-way track!

You start being blind to what’s really true for you. Things get murky, foggy, distorted, hazy.

You’re activated. You’re triggered. You believe you’re in danger, or being criticized, or something’s wrong.

You try to fix it…..QUICK!!

But if you stop and put yourself in a group of people, or even get one other person to be with you as you consider your thinking…..

…..an incredible thing happens.

You stop freaking out.

If someone asks you…..“Wait, now, are you SURE that’s true?” you get to stop a moment, to pause.

In this pause, you may grasp some awareness and clarity, or sanity, just for a second.

“Imagine that while you’re lost in the disturbed energy you actually do one or more of the things that your mind is telling you to do. Imagine what would happen if you actually quit your job, or if you decide, ‘I’ve held this in long enough. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.’ You have no idea how big a step down that is. It’s one thing if the disturbance is going on inside of you. But the moment you allow it to express itself, the moment you let that energy move your body, you have descended to another level.” ~ Michael Singer

If someone asks you the next question….”How are you reacting with the thought?” you begin to watch yourself.

You get some breathing room.

If you’re stumped when it comes to the fourth question “Who would you be without your thought?” people can possibly help you.

They can remember who they are without the belief, since they aren’t triggered in that moment.

Connect with others doing The Work.

Hand someone the Four Questions and say to them “ask me these questions, please, and just sit here listening to my answers without saying a thing.”

Anyone can do this work and stop believing what their minds are saying.

What a relief.

Go find a partner, invite people over, go to a group, take a class, join a retreat….get with someone else and do your work together.

You’ll be happy you did.

Much Love, Grace

 

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet…Look! It’s A Thought!

the speed of thought is *zoom*
the speed of thought is *zoom*

It’s amazing how speedy quick thought happens.

Kinda like Superman.
Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Thoughts are crazy wild, racing down the German Autobahn.
It is concerning, since thoughts move and multiply so chaotically and exponentially, when a thought produces stress.
Gentle, happy, easy, smooth or wonderful thoughts aren’t so difficult to deal with.
(Although…funny side effect……when you question troubling thoughts, the thrilling ones can also dissolve. This is not a bad thing. More on this another day).
Thoughts. Move. Fast.
This is on my mind because I spoke about “stopping” thought on the Peace Talk podcast I was recording just today.
You can’t.
Stop thought, that is.
But you can stop believing what you think, taking it seriously, thinking its important, repeating it for years.
How?
Through self-inquiry, of course. Do The Work.
Why do it though?
What a pain…..I mean, it takes work. It seems like when doing the work, the mind is busy-busy and the brain is analyzing and obsessing and contemplating and “working” and crunching.
You have to write things down, to have to get people to ask you the four questions, you have to look at your immature, frightened thinking.
Who needs it!?!
Jeez! Give it a rest!
That’s the thing, though.
Have you tried to give it a rest, and noticed…
…you actually can’t?
Mind thinks thoughts.
“You either question your stressful thoughts, or not. That’s your only choice.” ~ Byron Katie
If you notice your mind has occasionally been full of thoughts about a topic, a person, an issue, an incident or a situation.
And you’ve even tried many ways of resolving these thoughts, getting rid of them, shaking them off, changing the channel, eating, drinking, distracting yourself, falling in love, quitting, moving on, going to therapy.
If you’ve tried everything, may you might want to write down what runs through your mind?
The uncomfortable, terrible thoughts.
And ask….
Is it true?
Are you absolutely sure?
How do you react when you believe this, when you think it over and over again? What happens inside your body? How do you act?
Who would you be if you just got here from Jupiter and you weren’t a human after all but instead were an entity made of star dust? Like ET, what if you had never learned, with all your conditioning and stories, all the ideas you have about THIS difficult situation?
Can you use your imagination to see things differently?
Start with one simple painful thought.
Like….she hurt me. He hurt me. I’m in danger. This isn’t safe.
Become an un-believer. Give yourself the freedom you really, truly desire.
The freedom you truly have already.
“Human beings have a drive for security and safety, which is often what fuels the spiritual search. This very drive for security and safety is what causes so much misery and confusion. Freedom is a state of complete and absolute insecurity and not knowing. So, in seeking security and safety, you actually distance yourself from the freedom you want. There is no security in freedom, at least not in the sense that we normally think of security. This is, of course, why it is so free: there’s nothing there to grab hold of.” ~ Adyashanti
Much love,
Grace