LIFE OF LOVE
Join Grace and friends for a journey of....
....all in the power of community.
Who are you, really, without your stressful stories? Want to find out?
"Never underestimate the power of a group to change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Meade
"We're all walking each other home". ~ Ram Dass
"Being part of this group is one of the best things that happened to me the past year. I love the regularity of the group, and I also love the occasional 'popcorn style' inquiry where a statement is relatively broad and everyone gets to find a situation to do inquiry on. I loved the partnering. I was a bit nervous about it at first, but I have worked with such amazing people, even sometimes after our month as partners was finished, and consider some of them to be friends. I really liked the monthly sessions and loved delving into a topic. Grace, you have put together something wonderful and I cannot wait to be back next year."
It all began after I attended The School for The Work of Byron Katie in 2005, a nine day program built to allow every participant to clearly identify their terror, shame, difficult encounters and traumatic experiences in their lives....and to apply four questions to these problems. When these questions were applied with care and attention, people were able to see their problems in any entirely different light.
This was true for me, too.
I had come to the school believing I had suffered terribly because of my upbringing, my troubling relationships, and my anxiety. I believed I was a nervous wreck and an addict, and had tried just about everything to fix myself.
I had recovered from the extreme level of binge-eating, but still obsessed about my body size and shape, felt inadequate as a young mother and wanted to give my kids a perfect life, and was hyper critical of my husband and myself. I also felt endlessly like I didn't have enough money (I got a scholarship to attend the school), was a lousy employee or money-earner, and felt anxious about cancer, friendships, loss and mean people.
Basically, let's be honest, I WAS a nervous wreck.
Up to that point, I had not only tried every therapeutic method known to humankind to become different, I had also visited every church, spiritual center, religious organization, available guru, and read every book about enlightenment I could get my hands on. I had been in a year-long group to study the Course in Miracles. I had joined a 9-month program for transformational change. I had been secretary of an AA meeting and attended many 12-step groups. I had been in a therapy group for 3 years to learn how to cope better with people and life.
Had things changed for me over time, with all those studies and programs? Yes, absolutely.
But I was never satisfied, and I'd start looking, thinking, feeling, and analyzing again. I'd drink some wine. I'd make plans to loose weight. I'd look at different places to live and different homes to move into. Not that there's anything wrong with any of these things, it was just so restless. Endlessly restless.
When I was attending the School for The Work, with Byron Katie guiding all the sessions, we were asked to write down our honest thoughts about difficult life situations we had experienced. We could identify our problems, and complain openly about them, without trying to hide them!
Then, we applied four questions, and turnarounds, to the concepts about life and problems we had identified.
I was stunned.
I was able to answer the questions, also with absolute honesty. I found my own answers were wiser than I expected. I started getting a sense that I didn't need to hunt throughout the world for an answer "out there" but that I could question my own mind, and find the freedom I was seeking was already there--I just hadn't been able to see it through all the tangled mess of nervous thinking and feeling.
One day during the school, a man shared about his sister getting killed on a family vacation when he was only 19, and she was 17. It was the most shocking story I had heard there.
Byron Katie and this man dialogued about death, shock, trauma, surprises, and horrors of history and of life. She did not tell him anything special, she simply asked those same four questions, and shared some of how she has answered similarly in her own painful situations in the past. I could see that this man could feel a forgiveness, or an acceptance, for what had gone on, a sense of love for life and for his sister.
I thought during the whole dialogue about my father, and his death from cancer when he was fairly young. I was holding his left hand when he died, and my three sisters were all there along with our mother, and my father's best friend.
I suddenly became aware that love had never been taken away. That my father lived on. That everyone dies, and what if I didn't argue with it? Or demand life be different than it was? I clearly was suffering when I argued that whatever happened, shouldn't happen.
Wow.
If I could make friends with death, and with all the painful things that happen in life, I could do anything, cope anywhere, not have to avoid dangers.
Upon arrival back home, I had my share of difficult events and change that still happened. Some of it causing a lot of initial pain and fear. But I had four questions and turnarounds I knew how to apply to the stories that rose up inside me! I would do The Work, and find immense relief in the process of self-inquiry. I kept finding a willingness to see things differently--almost like my mind WANTED to rest more and not get so worked up.
It became a draw to do The Work. Not a project.
I got a partner, joined a course with a facilitator, kept staying in touch with people who I met at my original school. And then, one day a few years into my life that included the ability to question my thinking, I noticed I hadn't done The Work in several weeks. I was very upset with my first husband, who had announced he was leaving the marriage.
I knew to stay open, involved and connected to whatever was going to happen in this long-term relationship I had with my husband, and not crumple into a panicked heap on the floor (my dramatic image)....I needed other people to do The Work with more often.
I couldn't find a group anywhere. But I had been working with people as a facilitator, just a little bit. I had spent many hours partnering with others from my school, doing The Work together.
In a moment one morning while quietly making my coffee in the kitchen, I thought "why not create a program where people can come and stay in contact with self-inquiry, stay in conversation and community together. A place we can show up, share when we're under stress, receive facilitation and talk about what we're most afraid of without shame or adding more fear to it?!"
Other programs existed like this, for many years. This one could be about The Work!
Year of Inquiry was born. Fourteen people jumped in and said "yes". We met once a week on a teleconference call (there were no video calls back them). It felt so amazing, and was such a safe place for people to bring their thoughts, feelings, emotions and predicaments to the group, that many wanted to sign up again the following year.
I have been grateful ever since to have this place to come to, to have this ongoing rich conversation that helps me--and everyone--see through our personal thinking into reality, which is ever-changing, full of possibility, and available to support me right here, right now. Enlightenment is available and who we really are when we don't believe everything we think.
The Work of Byron Katie and self-inquiry is not just a method or tool. It is a way of life. When we do The Work, we feel the peace we've been seeking, the peace that's been waiting for us all along.
The Work allows you to go inside and experience the peace that already exists within you. This peace is unchanging, immovable and ever present. The Work takes you there, and it's a homecoming. ~ Byron Katie
Year of Inquiry offers a way to do less, not more. We are not improving ourselves. We are turning towards a deeper understanding of what life is like when we stop wishing, pushing, demanding both life and ourselves be different. What is here? Who am I really, even when I've gone through so much loss? What is available without our stressful concepts about being human and being alive?
We're not giving up in resignation, we're opening to the presence of What Is, and something magical happens: we feel the support available from life. We see our minds are not in charge of life....and that's OK. The unconditional mystery we seem to be made from has never left us. We realize we can feel at home in our own skin.
What changes? Our beliefs, our thoughts, our assumptions about who we are and what it all means. When this changes, our behaviors also change, along with our feelings. We no longer want to hurt ourselves or others--we see we never did.
A YOI participant shared once that she's a more loving person since practicing this work and having these conversations in inquiry for a year. More loving to her teenage kids, to her husband, to her elementary school students, to her co-workers....but most of all, to herself. She named us all YOLO's because she kept thinking it when she saw YOI written down.
YOLO is perfect. Year of Inquiry, Life of Love.
Year of Inquiry is a powerful ten-month program, supporting us all to identify and question what we're thinking, feeling or believing that hurts . Practicing this work brings out the love, abundance, and creativity already lying within, waiting to be expressed.
For those wanting to connect with others tapping into investigating our fears, angst, self-sabotaging behaviors, disappointments or failures, this is an amazing place to do it. This is also a place to learn to facilitate for those wanting practical experience, and to receive facilitation using The Work of Byron Katie.
Become an agent for loving change.
Yours. For those Others you encounter or live with like your children, parents, siblings, neighbors and co-workers, teachers, clients, students. For your world.
"I can not speak strongly enough about how much Year of Inquiry has helped me to transform my life. When I look back on where I was, I see that I'm calmer, my finances are much better, I'm dramatically more organized and much more consistently happier.
It is phenomenal to me how much better my life keeps going and how much more sense it makes. I was anxious in my sleep last night, and I kept trying to do The Work on my thoughts that 'something was wrong'. That led to me to jump on the Year of Inquiry call today. Again, I experienced the shift from pessimism, anxiety, and depressed thoughts to optimism, serenity, and curiosity about the future. I'm so grateful.
The cumulative effect of 5 full years of participation in Year of Inquiry has been profound. The ongoing support of a community of people doing the Work has resulted in me doing the Work so much more and therefore benefitting so much more than I would have on my own. Investing in my state of consciousness over and over again has resulted in me being clear that I could be homeless, lose all social status, etc, and still be happy. The freedom this has given me has been phenomenal. Year of Inquiry has been a cornerstone in my increasingly solid sense that nothing can take away my happiness, not even my thoughts, for long!"
There are three gaps that seem to impede our ability to find peace in situations where we felt burned emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually.
1) The urge for more. That what we have is not enough (and neither are we). More training. More research. More seeking. Like an ever-present attitude of pressure or willpower that soon, you’ll get it or get there, but you're not there yet.
2) Wanting to do it alone. We don’t want anyone to push us (very understandably) or boss us around, or scare us, or brainwash us, or bore us. Nor do we want to try something that winds up failing again. We don't want to abdicate our own authority, so we hesitate to ask for help or share, and we're isolated. We don't want to reveal anything shameful, so just want to resolve our suffering on our own.
3) The third missing link or gap is the uncanny ability for us to go unconscious. Not really our fault, simply the amazing power of the mind to bury feelings, avoid pain, whistle in the dark, try to be “positive” without really accepting the “negative.” We think suppressing our pain will make it go away. Unfortunately (or, fortunately) this only causes it to come out sideways in self-sabotage, fear or more isolation.
Year of Inquiry is a way to have a concrete, clear way to work with negativity, worry, depression, despair, conflict and lack...and transform them through asking and answering questions of yourself. Four questions. Your answers.
Instead of moving into More, DIY or Unconsciousness, we identify and question stressful thinking.
Your own personal work is brought to the group in the way you feel most comfortable: attending live calls, listening to recordings, sharing via our small-group private app, posting your work in writing, and doing partner pairing work. You get to choose your favorite way of tapping in to what works for you.
The most important thing?
You, questioning your stressful thinking and seeing thoughts, behaviors and feelings for what they really are: not YOU.
"It is really valuable to make the personal connections/ friendships that we are forming in the group. They are those lifetime, special connection, we-were-in-it-together kinda friendships. And, like The School for The Work, it's basis is life-giving, healing, transcending. So the friendship level is a very high vibration. Like we support each other in being the best we can be, which for me means the most peaceful/loving we can be, (rather than the most successful in society's eyes we can be.) It reminds me of the bonds and friendships I formed in seminary."~ YOI Participant
Touch a hot stove. Ouch. You immediately pull your hand away.
Later, the mind begins to think about that terrible moment.
Will I touch a stove again? Will there be a stove in the next place I enter? How can I protect myself against getting burned? I need to know about the location of all stoves in my vicinity. What if a stove shows up where I work?
Life is hard. I'm not safe. I should be more careful. It shouldn't have happened.
Many of our stressful perspectives began in early years of our lives: Family of Origin, school, peers, society, religion, culture.
In our inquiry circle you'll focus on one topic every month (always with the option of moving to where you want or need based on your life experience--in other words, no one has to stay in the lines).
Our monthly topics:
We'll also have occasional exercises for anyone available to address your questions and inspire you to understanding new ways to work with the following common concerns:
Year of Inquiry helps us take centuries-old wisdom of self-inquiry on down a path of inner awareness, not taking the mind so seriously, dissolving our shame.
We create the container to:
Join us. All you need is willingness to show up for the parts that work for you, in the smorgasbord of offerings included.
Happiness is a clear mind. A clear and sane mind knows how to live, how to work, what emails to send, what phone calls to make, and what to do to create what it wants without fear....
....These four questions will join any program you've got and enhance it. Any religion you have, they'll enhance it. If you have no religion, they will bring you joy. And they'll burn up anything that isn't true for you. They'll burn through to the reality that has always been waiting.
~ Byron Katie
While Grace does happen to be my birth name, the grace I'm really talking about meeting here is the magical unexpected gift of healing, kindness and compassion that enters our lives when we calm the busy, judgmental interpretations we've gathered and learn to love what is with new fresh eyes.
Doing The Work of Byron Katie became this way of grace for me. I was nervous, depressive, extremely introverted, and full of confusion about the meaning of life. I was compulsive and reactive and addictive. I learned The Work, and life has slowly, significantly, profoundly changed from the inside out since attending my first Byron Katie event in 2004.
In the brilliant book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, he shares that 10,000 hours of practice and attention to any endeavor brings expertise, flow and creativity to that practice.
I've had the very good fortune to do this work repeatedly, opening the mind to change, silence, peace and insight:
a) attending around 20 events with Byron Katie including 5 Schools for The Work.
b) sitting in The Work with other people one-on-one and myself in writing since 2005, facilitating groups, running meetups, trading sessions with partners, volunteering on the Help Line for The Work, and running a thriving business dedicated to the practice of The Work full time since 2013.
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. ~ Aristotle
For those who also want to learn to facilitate The Work and receive the best from those facilitating you, and everything you encounter in life: Join me in Year of Inquiry with grace--the surprise of what we can be gifted.
Week One starts with orientation so you understand the process, the technology, all the ways we get connected, and what to expect.
We begin with the Judge Your Neighbor worksheet. Even if you are super experienced in The Work, we will slow down and spend time with our stressful thinking, weeding out the deepest roots of our thoughts so we land on underlying beliefs.
Together, we will spend time identifying concepts we tend to repeat and believe. Then, we’ll move into inquiry. We're questioning the belief "my judgments are terrible" in this step. We get to see how what is believed is not true for us.
We start our early work together with simply noticing who, what, when we are bothered. You’ll know where to begin. You’ll be guided through the worksheet to find your stressful beliefs. We’ll do The Work.
Anyone in Year of Inquiry can focus on the topic of the month, or move into their own Earth School topic (you know what you're needing to study--the stress is the signal).
People who have influenced us greatly are often very important for The Work. We’ll move into the Closest People We Encountered in Our Lives – Mother, Father, Aunt, Uncle, Grandpa, Grandma, Siblings, Others. These are perhaps our oldest memories, from childhood. The people who we were presented with in our life journey at the very beginning passed along many beliefs and ideas. We were immersed in the culture, the words, the pictures, the sounds of our environment and these important people, or their absence.
We will include what we learned, saw, took in and “bought” with these people. We will consider how we felt and include all our ideas and judgments on our worksheets.
Is your belief "they hurt me"? Do you think one or all of these people should have been different, or should be now? Would life be better if they had been better?
Special attention will be given to facilitating, and questions about partnering in The Work. This will continue all year.
In our present day-to-day lives, we might notice very repetitive thoughts of complaining about not enough time, energy, or happiness with ourselves.
These thoughts about what we’re doing or how we’re living can whittle away at our psyche or our happiness, internally causing stressful reactions and frustration or sadness.
Simple looking at them head-on, all the moments we wish would be slightly different (better, simpler, more, less, etc). We get to find out who we would be without the thought that something ABOUT ME needs to change in order for me to be happy, who we would be if we did not need any more of something, or any less.
Our self-judgments and complaints are hard to live with. But there’s a way to work with them….turn towards them, and see them directly.
What has scared me in my life? Whether long ago, or more recently, we get to look through memories where fear or anger was present, and look closely. The way we find out what we believe about the universe, or reality, or our lives….is to see the middle of the moments of resentment, anger or fear. These are the compass feelings that tell us where and how to look.
The moment many of us need more money, whether it's now or in the past, or in the imagined future….we feel stress. Our minds may think with panic about how to get it, keep it and hold on to it.
What's under the money story? Do we believe we need outside support? Is money outside of us? Who are we without or stress about survival, being supported, needing?
If we have enough money, or more than enough, the moment we think we should be doing something “good” for our community when we are not, we feel a twinge of guilt or great discontent. We might feel like people only like us because we have money, or maybe we feel sad because they are jealous.
Many of us have visions of those ultra-wealthy people, or poverty-stricken people, and feel anxious with the pictures in our minds of people in these conditions. We might think “I’ll never get there” or “I hope I never get there”.
Money is so closely tied in with our work and livelihood, what we do in the world, that often we feel that we “have to” work or that we’re trapped by the system of using money.
From this point of needing or wanting to offer service, earn money, or experience happiness in our work…studying our internal thinking with open-heartedness can offer great peace in this process of work, money, earning, and whatever we think is a problem.
Byron Katie wrote an entire book devoted to the urge to “get” love from someone else in the world, other than ourselves; “I Need Your Love, Is It True?”
This month we return to this book for a re-read if you already have it, and if this is your first time, you’re in for a treat.
We focus on the situations we find most stressful and painful when it comes to relationships, and especially primary love relationships (but you may choose your focus). This month is about ANY relationships we've found troubling.
This is a time when you can really look at what you believe is true about how relationships should go, what you want, and what you expect. You will have the opportunity to look at whatever has brought out the most disappointment, sadness, anger, fear or unhappiness in your life when it comes to love. If an important family member is the focus of your stress...this is the time to dive deeply into whatever relationship appears to ail you.
Bodies are the focus of such immediate, quick, very agonizing stress that it’s almost hard to catch all the thoughts about bodies and their difficulties on paper. But as we take the time, we will find out what we’re thinking and believing that is most fearful.
What disease, injury, chronic pain, accident or trauma have you suffered from, even after it was over?
This will be an amazing time to return to your fears, frustrations and unhappiness when it comes to having a body. We will have the chance to identify even those beliefs we feel critical of believing, like “my thighs are too fat” or “my face is too wrinkled”. The freedom in questioning these types of thoughts, and taking them seriously instead of brushing them away or criticizing ourselves for having them, can be incredible.
Many of us take programs to develop our lives, focusing on what we’d like to “have” like success in business, success in relationships, success in so many areas of life. There is a way to explore desire, wanting, seeking and needing, and inquire into the deepest beliefs present.
To "live" your turnarounds is one of the most profoundly transformative practices of The Work itself, bringing this deep awareness into the body rather than holding it only in the head or in thought.
We'll explore some beautiful ways to live The Work based on your own discoveries, and how to practice and make change in your world through action. Action actually becomes easy, quick, clear and productive when we've questioned the blocks in our thinking that keep us afraid, uncertain, or indecisive.
As we begin to review our work this year, we can also take the time to look at what we fear in the future. Our anticipated worries lead us to hesitate, withdraw, and not meet life fully.
We spend time looking this month at the profound question "what's the worst that could happen?" in a way that brings us to seeing our nightmares clearly, so that we can enter inquiry at such a deep level, our nightmares do indeed dissolve.
With this amazing question, we can actually begin to laugh at our greatest fears, and lighten the load of our imagination in ways we never thought possible. People in Year of Inquiry have said about this month's topic that they had no idea they held such depth of worry within...and no idea they could delete their suffering with four simple questions and turnarounds.
In a safe, open setting we've become aware through our practice of The Work that we can feel freedom by questioning the thoughts that form a foundation of many of our stressful situations.
We look at the subjects and topics of our work this year, and take a slower and more in-depth look at what we've identified that we never, ever want to experience in our lives again.
Some of these most fearsome thoughts are beliefs about ourselves and what we've done wrong. Some of these fearsome thoughts are about loss, and what we believe we can't handle.
In this work, it may seem odd to actually turn the spotlight on what we would prefer to brace ourselves against, what we hope NEVER happens, what we wish would remain hidden.
But the love we build together this year…in great intimacy and trust…can offer a safe, clear, committed place of awareness. We find this as we sink into understanding that what we've imagined we never, ever want to occur...could be tolerable, or even acceptable, even something we look forward to. Laughter may unfold, or surprise.
Now....we fly.
“We change the world not by what we say or do, but as a consequence of what we have become.” ~ Dr. David R. Hawkins
Join me in this incredible year of questioning your stories. We’ll all be explorers together. Let's Be the Change.
Grace Bell, Certified Counselor, Founder of Year Of Inquiry and Trained long-time Facilitator of The Work
WHEN WE MEET
Attend one or all live, or watch the recordings
A: The live group sessions meet 2 times each week, with one week where we don't, every month, to do topic workshop and one-on-one partnering work to happen. Choose one session to come to solidly, and you're welcome to attend them all. Also included in YOI is a private writing/gathering place online, a special topic every month, and parter pairing with one other person in the group every month (optional).
A: No. You'll learn The Work by doing it. But it really, really helps to read Loving What Is and to understand the idea of what it means to identify a belief or concept, question it, and find a new way of thinking about something--without all the "trying" to find a new way of thinking about something. This will really, deeply challenge the mind. It will not be comfortable--but its the safest way to look at what we're believing that I've ever encountered. No one tells you what to think. Four questions, Your answers and turnarounds.
A: I've never been around such kind, open-minded people as those willing and interested in practicing The Work. We have group agreements from the beginning to establish clarity around privacy and emotional safety. If you're shy, welcome to The Work in community. Perfect place to do your work and discover unconditional connection with other humans.
A: Congratulations, you're in a perfect program to truly get your work done. Yay that someone bugs you in the group. I mean it. Once very early in the first few years of YOI, a person left Year of Inquiry because they didn't like the partner they were assigned (you get a new partner every month). Have you left things because of a challenge with one person? Jobs? Organizations? Places you cared about? Mother? Father? Consider staying if you notice irritation, anger, rage, sadness, fear, the urge to rescue or help, pity, or judgment arise with someone else. That's the gold. They may remind you of someone. (And, it doesn't mean you can't ask to have another partner--go for it. I'll re-assign you as best I can).
A: Question your thoughts about why or how you came to believe this. It may be the end of suffering on the "good enough" thought. You can ask anything on a live call about facilitating. Sometimes, this aspect of The Work really touches on life with others in open communication, and learning I don't have to "do" anything special at all. Nothing is required. Simply listening, being honest.
A: These calls are primarily built for a meditation in inquiry. Beginning with a concept and walking through it, everyone getting to share in chat or with their voices, or one person does The Work. Any way we organically arrive at inquiry works. People often bring a Judge Your Neighbor worksheet and can read it out loud. There is ALWAYS sharing time at the beginning for questions about The Work, and how The Work is running in your life. There is time for reflecting on changes and shifts you're noticing as the weeks go by.
A: While we're asking you to sign up for the year, just like other programs that run Sept-June, things sure do happen. What is requested is four months participation before withdrawing. Then, if you need to leave, off you go to fly onward. No "have to". You'd receive a partial refund or have your monthly investment canceled at that point, no questions asked. We do spend a lot of time getting everyone on board and building a cohesive group, so give YOI four months to simmer in you. Whether on the month-to-month plan or you pay in full, we request you remain on board for 4 months.
A: There are 4 payment programs for Year of Inquiry:
People starting in January 2025-June 2025
A: No full scholarships for Year of Inquiry--there is so much time, technology, cost, attention and organization behind the scenes for this whole-year program. However we DO have the option of a partial scholarship for some of our spots. Please see the scholarship application link on this page below. There has also been a Scholarship Help Donation Bucket which people have contributed to in the past. The way people are selected is, two other readers objectively go through the scholarship applications and Grace then takes their informed suggestions to honestly consider. Everyone interested in scholarship help will know by Oct 1st at the latest. Write grace@workwithgrace.com to share your situation and request.
A: Eating Peace Experience Immersion program is very specifically focused on people with eating issues who feel uncomfortable, frustrated or totally out of control. The "eating" compulsion has become a habit and pattern of reactivity. Binge-eating, bulimia, dieting, starvation, weight up and down, over-eating at meals. Any patterns of eating that are creating more suffering.
Eating Peace Experience program runs for 6 months. It's very high touch and immersive. Similarities between EPE and YOI are live calls and partner pairing and sharing in a written forum. My intention is to support people ending their off-balance eating permanently. A big intention. But I have experienced this myself and I want to share the freedom with others and am ever-learning how to do it best. The investment for EPE is for a shorter, intense impact.
Year of Inquiry addresses many human topics we tend to get disturbed about, and while we do look at our conditioned habitual behavior (spending, eating, drinking) and our reactive thoughts we're believing, we concentrate on stressful thinking about events, situations, people, the body and money. Both aspects of life are very important. If you can't stop the addictive/compulsive behavior you remain very foggy. Many off-balance eaters start with Eating Peace Experience, then join Year of Inquiry the following year.
Year of Inquiry allows the curriculum of Your Life to be the teacher. Your mind can learn to take the role it really wants to take: a peaceful place, not a torture chamber or a critical companion.
A: No. However, EPIC (Eating Peace Inquiry Circle) calls are open to YOI members for them to join if they want to (for a smaller rate). So anyone can do YOI and join in EPIC calls any time at the same time, or, to take Eating Peace Basics or the Eating Peace Mini-Workshop along with YOI, but we recommend you not "binge" on it all at once and it really is too much to take Eating Peace Experience at the same time as Year of Inquiry.
Investment options:
"There’s this incredible thing that’s happened. At the beginning when I started with your programs, Grace, I just couldn’t talk. I was the one who never talked. When I did, it was only because you called my name and I had to say something! I was so anxious. And it’s amazing what I have to share. I don’t know when it happened. I am taking a new course right now, and people couldn't stop shutting me up. It happened in Year of Inquiry. It’s happened thanks to your retreats. Thank you for being yourself and doing what you’re doing. I love you."
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"I try to convince all the people I work with: Go to retreats, immerse yourself in Year of Inquiry. My first retreat with Grace got me slowing down. I was not amused. I thought; I’m going to crank through a bunch of worksheets! That’s worth driving 18 hours for! I did only ONE! Then I signed up for Year of Inquiry. Basically I’ve done 5 out of 6 of the past Years of Inquiry. Phenomenally helpful. Phenomenally helpful!
I now do The Work multiple times a week. I find the partner work SUPER helpful. I just keep seeing the value: Year of Inquiry, Year of Inquiry, Year of Inquiry. I love being immersed in The Work. Doing The Work with others has a snowball effect. The more I do it, the better I feel, the better I am in the world. The biggest juice is ME doing The Work, not necessarily watching Katie do The Work online. It’s so sweet to notice how different I am. I encourage everyone to keep going."
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"I’m having an amazing experience. I am doing The Work on my wife in our group, and I’m doing it only on her for 30 days. Two decades of entrenched thinking about what my problems have been in this relationship. I was so sure I was right about my perceptions, about her, but by doing these worksheets day after day and questioning these thoughts, I had the thought; “What exactly was the problem? Why was I so uptight about this?” It’s dissolving. As I do these worksheets every day it’s like what happens is I cease to be at war. The practice of The Work is really the key. I’m experiencing this. It never would have happened if it wasn’t for Year of Inquiry.”
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"I’ve found Year of Inquiry so valuable. Sharing in Marco Polo has been such an incredible practice, to share when I’m uncomfortable. This space has been critical for that. I feel the energy of connection in this group, even without meeting you all in person.”
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"I loved the support of YOI since September. I really needed and wanted The Work to help me own my responsibility for what’s going on inside me, instead of getting triggered by my sister or my husband and blame them, and think if they changed everything would be OK. I can honestly say that how I feel towards my husband has changed significantly. I so, so appreciate the generosity of everyone who has shared, whether in Marco Polo, or a meeting, or in writing, or on sessions. Before I started YOI, I’d resent a lot of little stupid things, like for example, I’d not feel like dealing the cards during a game with my husband when it was my turn to deal. Sort of like resistance to living. I wouldn’t call it depression, but it was. I always believed I was a person who prefers the sidelines, not a “doer”. But I wake up now thinking “oh, I wonder what will happen today?!”
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"Wow--it just seems like [Year of Inquiry] is something that’s now folded into my life: Marco Polo, partner, work, live classes. It’s so hard to measure human outcomes, but because of participating in Year of Inquiry, I have some evidence. I’ve been able to do some public speaking and not freak out about it. The format of these YOI classes, and being with people who are initially strangers, allows me to see it’s OK to say anything. It’s OK to be in a group. It’s OK not to be in other peoples’ business. I feel comfortable doing presentations at work. I have more confidence. I really do understand how we all have shared thoughts and experiences, I don’t feel as lost. I’m able to laugh easier than I did at the beginning of YOI. I feel less certain, less sure about things--in a good way. I don’t have to own the way things go. I have more room in my heart, and my thinking about things.
Wow, I have felt so supported. Thank you everyone, thank you."
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"Thank you to Grace for believing in me, trusting me, and walking beside me as I went through what was arising about facilitating. You have created a space in which I feel safe to explore and show up as I am. What an amazing gift! And, thank you all. It has been a privilege and a joy to sit with you all in inquiry this year. I love the quote by Ram Dass that Grace sometimes shares “we are all just walking each other home.” I feel grateful to have traveled beside each of you this year. With love and deep gratitude"
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"Grace is great and so sincere and thoughtful. She practices what she preaches. I like her sharing personal stories too because I can relate. Very organized. Very knowledgeable. Such quick loving responses in our special private forum."
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Year of Inquiry has worked. The times are great and I like that it's all the calls plus a week off a month. No burnout. Nice to be able to listen to recordings. Grace is organized with the technology and it works. I do like our Slack forum for keeping connected. YOI has been a positive experience for me."
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