Sunday, September 28th 4-6 pm in Seattle at my cottage. Meetup!
Anyone is welcome.
It’s an introduction and walk right through self-inquiry using The Work of Byron Katie. You’ll get a taste of the process. $10 donation but if you’re between jobs and even that amount is tough….this is my service to you, and I’m honored to offer this work. I have handouts, bring a pen and journal or paper.
Then on October 4th, a Saturday afternoon 1:30-5:30, I’m offering a mini retreat where you can earn 4 CEUs if you’re a mental health practitioner. $70 for first-timers, $55 if you’re repeating the afternoon. You’ll do The Work yourself, and also learn to facilitate someone else through it too.
For either one, just write and say “yes” and I’ll get you signed up and send you a link to make your payment (or you can bring it the day you come).
You know, speaking of mini retreats or meetups, it’s kind of weird offering something as profound and life-changing as self-inquiry has been for me…..in only a few hours.
Sometimes sitting together with eager individuals to do The Work feels like I’m offering something a little absurd like “come find out how to have a deep relaxation towards life, accept yourself, and accept all those people you’ve ever known…in two hours.”
Really? I mean, who could “get” something like that in two hours?!
I didn’t, that’s for sure.
And then, I realize….I’m having a slightly stressful thought.
I want people to understand, to find this practice helpful, to dissolve their pain, to feel the love and joy of life.
I want them to feel as completely and deeply trusting of reality, even if difficult and rough things happen (especially when those painful, rough, horrible things happen).
I don’t have answers for anyone.
But I feel a thrill of excitement about being alive and being here that is nothing like the dread, fear and depression I once had. I would love if everyone got to experience this!
My current husband says he’s not too sure he would have been attracted to me when I was younger.
Ha ha! I wasn’t attracted to me! So of course not!
I think these kinds of thoughts: “I want everyone on the planet, everyone I touch, to feel loved, hopeful, accepted. I want everyone to feel liberated from their torment, their sadness at the events that have happened in their lives, their worry about the future.”
Well, that’s really sweet and nice….(and actually genuine)….
….but if right on the heels of that sentiment is an urge to help, like an ache, or a wanting inside for someone to be happy….then uh oh.
Better check in with The Work.
I would love it if everyone could find peace, feel loved, be happy, calm down, relax, wake up, find freedom….is it true?
Well. Yeah! Of course I want that!
Are you sure they aren’t peaceful, though? Even those grumpy, mean people? Even those addicts? Even those who have experienced terrible misfortune? Even the people who committed suicide?
Yes. They aren’t!
I think it could have gone better for them. I really do. I’m sad when I think about their lives being so disrupted, and containing so much suffering.
It’s true.
How do you react when you believe, though, that it really would be better if those people found peace….like, now?
Hmmm.
It’s a bit off the Totally Letting Go energy.
It’s got an urge to it, a big *hope*. Like there’s a better way.
I once had a friend who thought breath-work and dancing every day was the end-all be-all and everyone should do those two things and all the people who didn’t do those two things were unhappy losers.
I once was on an airplane with a couple who wanted me to join their religion and prayed for me, with me sitting right there. They were so well-intentioned, it was really very sweet.
And, it wasn’t my thing.
Who would you be without the belief that you need to find peace? Or that anyone else does either? Or that you know anything about what’s helpful for someone else?
Wow, crazy.
Different.
I pause.
Without the belief….I just go about my business.
It’s hilarious, really.
I notice I still offer meetups, and mini retreats, and workshops, and Year of Inquiry, and couples counseling, and solo sessions, and teleclasses.
Part of me looks at all that and thinks “what on earth is she doing?”
It is soooo funny!
And soooo fun!
Without the belief that anyone needs any of what I’m offering in the least, I notice I enjoy everyone more and more and more.
People come and go and stay or leave.
That’s the way of it in every moment, all day long. Activity happening. Movement of life, going here, coming there, active, pulsing.
I could just as easily be cleaning houses or waiting tables or acting on stage or going to an office building every day….all completely fascinating options.
Turning the thought around: I would love it if I could find peace, feel loved, be happy, calm down, relax, wake up, find freedom.
It is irrelevant if anyone else “finds” these things.
And peace, love, happiness, calm, relaxation, awakeness and freedom are already here, available to me, right now.
Even in the darkest, most terrible, threatening moments.
I know that’s weird to say. It’s not diminishing your very great difficulties.
Only that life is this. All these things. And different “answers” and ideas and orientations and learnings.
Nothing is The Answer.
“Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
Whatever way you’ve gone and whatever way you’re going, you can stop right in this moment that you’re reading these words and see if the difficult thing you’re believing is actually true.
Your way.
“Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” ~ Morpheus
Much Love, Grace