Peace Talk Episode 242: Self-inquiry and Compulsion--What if I am frantic about my addictive habit?

When we do something over and over that doesn't seem to serve our best interests, we can feel so defeated, ashamed, furious.  Our situation looks severe.  The other day I got a note from a listener: My life is falling apart, I need help, I can't stop taking pills and my husband has divorced me and I live far away from my kids now, with my health plummeting. I feel disabled, I'm frightened. Many of us feel this way when we do a thing over and over without changing, even though we've promised and thought about changing thousands of times before.  Here's one thing to notice today, to consider (even though it may be tricky): Who are you without your thoughts? Who are you if you don't identify with thinking everything you're imagining?  How might this be less tricky for us to tap into, even just a tiny bit? You may be surprised to see a drop of inquiry energy can allow another glimpse of life to come along. The Work of Byron Katie is a practice of self-inquiry allowing us to work with stresses appearing in the mind, and to relax with our experience of life.  Grace Bell, facilitator of The Work, assists people to identify and question their stressful ways of looking at life.  She offers Year of Inquiry, a vibrant membership community of inquirers Sept-June each year.  Grace also has a special love for those suffering from eating issues including disordered eating (disordered thinking) of all kinds--having suffered from this behavior and thought/feeling process herself and finding an unshakable peace within around eating, food, health and behaviors with eating.  Grace works with all kinds of compulsions, habits and addictions as they are all the same thing: a pull to some behavior, substance or activity in order to help us with our stressful feelings and thoughts. As Byron Katie offers us (founder of The Work); when we believe what we think, it creates unnecessary suffering. When we question what we think, we feel lighter and less serious about what is. We even begin to laugh. We notice who we really are is peaceful already, a human being living life as best we can--learning, growing, loving.  In the public sessions on this youtube channel, we have all-group inquiry sessions called First Friday Inquiry, we have interviews with practitioners of The Work, we have Eating Peace videos (on the eating peace playlist) and we have individual sessions in The Work by courageous people willing to be recorded for Peace Talk podcast and this channel. Thanks to everyone involved in what is shared here on this channel, as it is great service to others in the world who find their way here and who are curious about life without "believing" thought all the time.   In all-group sessions and solo sessions, we begin with a judgment...and move into the four questions and turnarounds. Willingness to be real and honest with your thinking is the first powerful step in The Work.  No one ever has to share when attending Friday Inquiry, and thank you when you do.   For the Work With Grace programs and more information, and to get on the Grace Notes mailing list for updates and sharing of all kinds around The Work, please visit www.workwithgrace.com To receive notice of Eating Peace programs, videos and vlog posts, visit www.workwithgrace.com/eating-peace and join the mailing list. To join the Grace Notes family of readers right now, Grace's popular blog on using The Work of Byron Katie to grow a peaceful life, get the thorough START HERE guide to letting The Work, work right here: https://workwithgrace.leadpages.co/start-here-guidebook/ Where to find me: workwithgrace.com grace notes from the past at workingwithgrace.com https://www.facebook.com/WorkWithGrace/ https://twitter.com/ByronKatieCoach https://www.linkedin.com/in/workwithgrace/ https://www.instagram.com/byronkatiecoach/