Self-Empathy and Thought Inquiry

October 22, 2021 / No Comments

Self-Empathy

Love and understand yourself first. Thereafter one can authentically connect with another person.

In this exercise I will help you identify your comfortable and uncomfortable feelings, which often exist simultaneously. That is the nature of a negatively and positively charged universe.

I will guide you in noticing how the feeling in the mind is accompanied by feelings in the body.

We will then search for the underlying unmet needs that are the source of the uncomfortable feelings and the met needs which foster the comfortable feelings.

Finally, we will identify multiple strategies to meet your unmet needs and to celebrate your met needs.

This simple, yet profoundly transformative practice is based on the work of Marshall Rosenberg and Nonviolent Communication.

Mastery of self-empathy is the foundation of relating to others. This is one of the keys to peace on earth. Those who complete this 3 session self-empathy course can then proceed to explore in dyads and communities in the next level courses. 

I’m Keen! Keep Me in the Loop!

Thought Inquiry

Thought inquiry is the practice of observing one’s thoughts, noticing how thoughts influence our experience of life, examining the validity of those thoughts, and turning them around when we want to. It is an examination of what is true and what is imagined and is based on a couple of converging paradigms: The Work of Byron Katie and The Three Principles.

In this exercise, I will help you observe how powerful your thoughts are in creating your experience and how you are equally powerful in creating the experience of life you want to have, without changing another person, place, thing or circumstance in your life.

“In the beginning there was the word,” right? And the word was a thought. In Greek philosophy translations of the term logos include word and thought, and refer to the mind of what some consider God and I call the infinite intelligence of the natural universe. But I digress, and not really. Thought inquiry is a practical skill, and is also essentially a way of joining with the Tao, the flow of harmony in the universe.

So much of our suffering is tied to the thought, “This is not the experience I am supposed to be having.” And yet, this is the very experience you are having. Thought inquiry helps us play aikido, with our thoughts and find the path of least resistance in changing their direction so they no longer hurt us, but rather become our friends, or leave. 

“It’s important to realize inquiry is about noticing, not about dropping the thought…Inquiry is not about getting rid of thoughts, it is about realizing what is true for you, through awareness and unconditional self-love. Once you see the thoughts, the thoughts let go of you, not the other way around.” – Byron Katie

I’m Keen! Keep Me in the Loop!