NOT BELIEVING MY MIND

"It’s so seductive, this seeking, separate self. It thinks it’s going to solve the problem, but it is the problem."

I first met Jeff in 2007, shortly after he began facilitating small groups in his home. I appreciated having a local place to gather monthly with like-hearted people, while also being in regular communication with more far-flung teachers such as John Wheeler and Scott Kiloby, who I was only able to be with in person when they came to the D.C. area. 

Shortly after Scott first developed the Living Inquiries, I went through the training and became a certified facilitator in 2013. This method of embodied inquiry (being with our moment-to-moment emotional, physical and energetic experience) has intuitively evolved over time, for me, to be very similar to how Jeff works with people, helping them to remove the emotional blocks that stand in the way of knowing What they really Are. 

There were other teachers who influenced me through their writings, especially Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle and Adyashanti. However, over time, I found my interest in all of these teachers falling away as I learned to trust my own inner teacher more and more.

The only one who I remain connected with is Jeff because he has become a dear friend and a source of generous and ongoing support in my own deepening. I am honored that he invited me to help him create this website and to write a (forthcoming) book together.

As with Jeff, I tried other types of meditations over the years and found that ones that focused on the breath or a mantra to be unsatisfactory in that they did not provide any ultimate relief from suffering; and they were often even energetically upsetting to the body, which only increased my suffering. Instead, like Jeff, I had an intuitive desire to simply bring my attention directly to this sense of Presence and rest in and as That more and more.

If you would like to know more about my background, or what I like to call my “spiritual misadventures” around always trying to find the right way to somehow solve the “problem of me”, you can check out these two articles that I wrote for elephant journal in 2016: Why Yoga & Ayurveda Couldn’t Save Me & I Am What I’ve Been Seeking

I have also written two books: Facilitating Yourself with Scott Kiloby’s Living Inquiries and Let Go of Your Stories, Let Go of Your Stuff - Clear Out Your Clutter and Set Yourself Free with Self-Inquiry. The basic message I want to convey with these books is that you don't have to believe everything your mind tells you. Stop buying into all of your thoughts and, instead, see the falsehood of the limiting stories and beliefs you carry around about yourself and the world. Experience your emotional world directly, without the overlay of mental stories, and it will release its hold on you. Live a life of greater freedom and possibility!

~ julie