This interactive course is about discovering a new way of engaging with your compulsions rather than endlessly trying to manage them.
We can be compulsive about most anything – drugs, alcohol, overworking, cigarettes, pornography, worrying, screen time, biting our fingernails, self-judgment, or being overly busy. The statistics show that we have been ineffective in managing them and, if we control one, another usually takes its place.
This new way is about listening rather than controlling, opening rather than closing and relating to your compulsion rather than being lost in it.
Instead of seeing your compulsion as something that is wrong with you, you will discover that it is an ally on the journey back to a deep and trust-filled relationship with yourself and with your life.
Week 1: The Foundation of Our Healing Journey
We will explore the definition of compulsion and how they have served us in the past. We will then look at how we have been working with them and why this doesn’t bring the lastly healing we long for. We will then lay the foundation for a new relationship, one that cannot only heal our compulsions but heal us too.
Week 2: The New Way to be with Compulsions
We delve into the vicious circle of being compulsive – acting on our compulsions, attempting to control them, self-judgment and despair and then repeating the cycle. We will then look at a whole new way of being with them – a way that slowly moves you from management to engagement, so you can begin to comprehend the healing that your compulsions are offering you.
Week 3: The Joy of Curiosity
We will explore the difference between managing your compulsions and engaging with them. We then begin to develop one of the most powerful healing tools you will ever have – your curiosity. The power of human attention is beyond your wildest imaginations and we are only beginning to tap into it. Transformation happens as you discover how to be curious about what you are experiencing so you can respond rather than react.
Week 4: A Core Fuel for Your Compulsions
One of the core fuels of our compulsions is a deeply hidden belief we all carry – that we need to be better or different than what we are. Whether this belief is quietly corrosive or has grown to enormous proportions inside of you, it is possible to heal this misperception, so you no longer need your compulsions to numb you out from its heartache.
Week 5: Coming Home to Your Heart
As the Little Prince said, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” (to our minds). All lasting healing happens in our hearts and we will explore not only how deeply we have put ourselves out of our own hearts, but also how to come home to its deep nourishment and wisdom.
Week 6: The Skills and Your Compulsion
We begin by investigating one of the most powerful skills for being healed by your compulsions – the skill of asking life for help. You cannot heal your compulsion all by yourself. If you learn how to ask life for help, it will support you every step of the way. We will then delve into how to use the skills we have explored – breath, embodiment, curiosity, the heart and asking life for help – to heal and be healed by your compulsion.
Week 7: Bringing It All Together
Through examples and stories, you will get a deep sense about how this revolutionary approach will feel and look like in your daily life. No matter what you are experiencing, you will know how to respond rather than react, moving beyond struggle into an alive, nourishing connection with yourself and with your life.
Week 8: Full Circle
We are not only exploring how you can heal your compulsions but also how your whole life can be healed. A powerful story will help you see this clearly and show you what true healing looks like as you allow your compulsions to heal you to your core.