An 8-week online course to identify the root causes of off-balance eating and restore connection to our balanced self..... without control, managing our behaviors or food, or using willpower.
No matter how far down the road of craziness you've gone with food, eating and body image--and no matter how long you've been on that road--eating peace is possible for you.
This Foundations course will give you the principles to understand compulsion with food, identify the thinking running below the surface that causes repression, escape and numbing behaviors....and change your mind.
I wanted to thank you SO MUCH for this amazing class. I am really just blown away by the knowledge and compassion you held for us. Your class is life-changing and I am so grateful. ~ Michelle
WHERE TO BEGIN WITH THE WORK ON EATING
The Eating Peace Foundations Course is the best place to start a deep-dive into understanding the stories, assumptions and, to be honest, identify the lies we're telling about how the world looks that cause us to reach for food, or to starve ourselves on purpose, or the flip-flop between both.
We often hear that the eating behavior is not the true problem, it's the beliefs and feelings prior to our behaviors that are the cause of our eating. But how do we interrupt the pattern? Many of us just feel overwhelmed, angry, bored, or frightened...and find solace in eating or in avoiding eating. We're not even sure what we're thinking, so how can we identify the stories, so we can even get in there and question them or understand them better?
Doing The Work on any compulsion or "addiction" brings the same dilemma of what to "do" or how to "deal" with the feelings activated within us. But it doesn't have to be a "dilemma" or a problem. In the journey of anyone seeking peace with food (or any other off-balance or compulsive behavior) we have two areas to life or two directions we're looking at closely, noticing stressful beliefs infusing each one.
Area One: The world of eating itself. I like to call it the Food Religion. In our religious beliefs about food--thou shalt and thou shalt not--we look at the food itself, judgments about bodies and weight, thoughts about appearance, longevity and health, and beliefs about what the eating means. As we identify and question these stories, something shifts and we become more open, less dependent on rules, more willing to flow with what is.
Area Two: The second area is about investigating stressful experiences we've been through in our lives, and to notice how we've thought something is wrong with us, or we've concluded something painful about life itself. Sometimes, we've become unwilling to feel what we feel about life because of these experiences, and often been terrified of feeling anything upsetting, all the while noticing an underlying unease is with us about the past, or about what's ahead.
When we look at situations where we felt powerless, victimized, or deeply hurt, we can discover by looking at our thoughts, and questioning them, that the thoughts are what cause our suffering and our impulses to eat or starve ourselves now. Not the situations. The situations are over. It's our recycled thinking that brings more suffering.
This is a remarkable insight.
In this course, you'll be introduced to 8 foundational arenas to explore that help us get unstuck from compulsive eating, compulsive thinking. We'll look at both the area of our Food Religion and also the area of generalized stress and pain, and question both. When we question these stories that fuel eating off-balance, our habitual repetitive patterns of thought break apart and melt. We discover we're safer than we imagined, and more powerful than we imagined, not helpless. When we feel safe, and empowered, we don't overeat, or under-eat. We naturally move into balanced, clear behavior with food.
While we're not expecting a "cure" to all compulsion forever through Eating Peace Foundations, what you learn will address the root cause of off-balance thinking and eating, and, many have discovered an extreme reduction or release around binge-eating, obsessive thinking about eating or food, and weight loss. You'll know how to continue on your journey to freedom. You may find an immediate awareness of the strength, love and peace already contained within you (it's definitely there). You may find you're not who you were assuming yourself to be: a bad, greedy, confused person who needs to be locked up or punished when it comes to food.
Instead, you discover how eating became a doorway in to something deeply important to you. Your eating has been trying to help you. Perhaps the eating has not been an enemy, but instead has helped you survive. Perhaps eating has had a wisdom in it you had not been aware of.
WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THIS COURSE:
The Eating Peace Foundations course is excellent for people wanting to apply self-inquiry to compulsive eating issues. If you're new to The Work of Byron Katie and questioning thought-identification, wonderful! If you're a seasoned practitioner, you may find something very useful here.
Eating Peace Foundations includes:
SCHEDULE TBD
In addition to these recorded sessions, there are lessons inside each unit for how to further practice challenging your beliefs on that particular topic, exercises to assist you knocking down the walls between you and peace, and music to listen to on each topic--for freedom and inspiration. The topics covered and the exercises provided will give you key options for exploring your experience of food, how you eat, urges, concepts about weight, our relationship to people, situations and life itself.
These 8 topics address the deeply embedded thoughts that keep us aggravated with food, and how to turn in a more peaceful direction.
WHAT'S INCLUDED IN EACH UNIT?
Unit One: Trapped or Free. The great question we have when engaging in behavior we know brings us unhappiness, is what is coming between me and my freedom to Eat or Not Eat? Am I a victim, or am I truly free? If I believe I'm trapped....what are the stories I'm telling? How can I turn my attention in the direction of freedom, rather than feeling like a prisoner in a concentration camp of beliefs about food? Here, we get started in identifying disempowering beliefs and taking them through the inquiry process so we understand the inner chatter of the mind--the fearful, sometimes terrorized, mind.
Unit Two: Eating Our Feelings and Freedom to Feel. We've all heard of emotional eating. The fact is, food is soothing, pleasurable, distracting, and magnetizing. It works to calm an emotional disruption (temporarily) like boredom, anxiety, memories of trauma, rejection, sadness, grief. It is grounding. It brings energy. But when we substitute eating for feeling, we end up suffering. We're in physical pain. We feel self-hatred. You'll learn how to be interested (or just willing) to be with your feelings. Included is a marvelous TED Talk by an eating disorders specialist about what we can learn from our feelings and experiences. You'll also receive three practices Grace has used for wonderful benefit.
Unit Three: Planning for safety--Let's Talk About The Food. In this session we will address the ancient question of creating a plan that works specifically for you. I have planned, I have weighed-and-measured, I have eliminated or modified what I eat, and finally I have returned to following an internal system I was built and born with (you have it, too) that tells you when and what to eat. You may need to give yourself some structure while you uncover your inner tool--the regulator that says "hungry" and "full". You'll be introduced to Tiny Habits, a way of making small, easy, safe changes. You will have a way to work with how to be with food today that serves you instead of controls you and supports you in finding balance where you are right now.
Unit Four: How Do I Look? Healing Body Image Angst. Body image criticism is enormously stressful AND we judge our concerns about body image, weight and imperfection as superficial and wrong to have in the first place. In this work, we get to see what we think and believe onto images, and why we've felt it's so critical to appear a certain way. As we see what's true, we can relax with the body we have even if we genuinely want to lose weight. The good news is, when we relax, our eating relaxes, and body naturally falls into a normal, balanced weight.
Unit Five: Afraid and Powerless to Safe and Empowered. Most people are aware that traumatic experiences, especially in childhood, can bring a sense of fear when not resolved. Fear by its very nature turns the human psyche (when not questioned and understood) towards escape, avoidance, management. We try to simply find solid ground (survival). Many of us also have shame about how powerless we feel, not just about food and eating and our weight, but about life itself. You don't have to face all your fears, this work is about being with fear, and opening up to doing it without eating. It's not as hard as you think. You are more powerful and safe at the core of who you are than you have realized.
Unit Six: Family of Origin Dinner Table. The experience of our family of origin has striking consequences on our relationship with eating. We'll look at mother, father, sister, brother and name the family stories by identifying what we saw, learned and adopted--innocently--from our family of origin. To become aware of this, and then inquire, can change our perspective and give us new possibilities for how we feel about eating, to find our own agency and compassion. In this unit, you will also receive a bonus lesson on Saying An Honest Yes and No, which is critical for many with eating compulsions to learn. I myself had tremendous trouble saying "no" to people or requests made of me because I was frightened of hurting peoples' feelings and frightened of rejection. To question our stories about rejection, being kind or nice, saying "yes" and saying "no" can move mountains of belief aside and free us to eating peace.
Unit Seven: Empty, Bored, Dissatisfied. We study one of the primary triggers for compulsive and obsessive eating; restlessness, boredom, malaise, dissatisfaction. We're seeking entertainment, something's missing. We feel hungry for something and not sure what we long for--food doesn't really satisfy us, even if it tastes so good. Dropping deeper with this apparent trigger, we can understand how to work with emptiness and boredom and missing something much more clearly...without eating as a replacement.
Unit Eight: Letting Go and the Surprising Turnarounds to #6. Eating sometimes seems mundane, like something we shouldn't have to care about. But consumption and wanting and desire and satisfaction are all symbolized and experienced directly in eating, and in all of life. To find peace with these experiences of being human, and having a body, is the greatest spiritual journey we can have, even if we've never had trouble with off-balance eating. We'll get to look at how we perceive the future, and find peace in the imagination. We dive deeply into what's called in The Work of Byron Katie "the turnaround to #6". This refers to the prompt in question six when we are studying a difficult experience and answer the question: "What do you never, ever want to experience again?" Listening, we can clearly identify our fears and turn them into freedom.
BONUSES:
In addition to the 8 Units of the Eating Peace Foundations course, you will also get these bonuses:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Will the course work in my time zone? If you enroll in the LIVE version of Eating Peace Foundations, every live session will be saved and you will get to meet with Grace and a group of students weekly. Many of the course materials will be available as soon as you purchase the course and you can come back again and again to review them.
How long will the course materials be available to me? There are no plans to limit your access. As long we are offering the course, you will continue to have lifetime access to it. There is a log-in button for everyone who owns this course on the Eating Peace page at www.workwithgrace.com
What's the investment for Eating Peace Foundations?
Eating Peace for personal attention, Q&A and guidance with weekly live sessions: The course is $497 or 3 monthly payments of $197. You will have access to Grace for the 8 weeks and are encouraged to ask for what you need, to ask for clarification around the beliefs we're questioning. Everyone in the course will be in a live app to share and you'll have daily check-ins on the app. You will also receive emails in between live sessions with exercises, powerful questions and suggestions for your day-to-day experience during our time together.
Are scholarships available? Yes, if finances make it impossible for you to participate, please contact us and request a scholarship application. We are open to reading your circumstances and needs in critical times.
When are the live sessions for the Eating Peace Course? These are scheduled at different times usually twice a year. Be sure to get on the mailing list for Grace Notes and/or Eating Peace to be alerted to the next session.
What if I have questions? You can send Grace an email at grace@workwithgrace.com any time with specific questions.
How is this different from Eating Peace Experience or Eating Peace Inquiry Circle? Or the mini-workshop on how to do The Work on eating? Each offering here in Eating Peace is unique and different, like the different types of meals and food we need to nourish ourselves: a snack, a full-course dinner, a nourishing simple breakfast.
The Eating Peace Experience is an immersive live program that dives deep. This program is a full-course meal for those seeking eating peace. It is a robust program lasting several months and I am with everyone every step of the way, supporting you to experience the peace you've been seeking. We take a step-by-step journey with a group, from beginning to end, with videos in between and small personalized changes you decide on making. Mostly, the focus is on questioning your internal experience and watching the compulsion and stress dissolve. Everyone enrolled in the Eating Peace Experience also gets free access for the length of the program to Eating Peace Inquiry Circle for twice-a-week inquiry.
The Eating Peace Inquiry Circle (EPIC) is a simple drop-in online circle for people who want to do The Work on eating, food, compulsion, body....and much beyond that to feelings, relationships and other concerns. People can choose to join EPIC for a month, or ongoing for as long as Grace is offering these guided facilitations in group inquiry. There are no rules. The only requirement for membership into EPIC is the desire to make peace with eating--to make peace with the mind.
The mini-workshop on How to Do the Work on Eating is a 3 hour presentation and workshop which is then cut down into bite sized pieces for anyone who is wondering HOW to do The Work on eating issues. You'll watch the mini-workshop to easily get the process of applying four questions and finding turnarounds to stressful beliefs related to eating off-balance.
In addition to taking the Eating Peace Foundations course I encourage you to find a partner to do The Work with in your life regularly, join First Friday free inquiry power hour with Grace once a month, enroll in Summer Camp for The Mind--a live inquiry blitz of open sessions Monday-Friday during the summer only, or, join Year of Inquiry, making The Work of Byron Katie an ongoing practice in your life.
Do I need to have previous experience with The Work of Byron Katie to benefit from this course?
No, you don’t need to know anything about The Work of Byron Katie to take the course. However, you're encouraged to familiarize yourself with the four questions and turnarounds of The Work before you begin. You can do this by reading “Loving What Is” by Byron Katie or watching videos or listening to audios of Byron Katie doing The Work with people--free on youtube or at www.thework.com.
Does this course include any tips on what kind of food to eat, or how to get nutritional advice?
No, this course is focused on stressful thinking that drives emotional and compulsive eating, and how to move through it. We identify and question the thoughts that fuel frantic or sad or lonely eating. By doing this, we open the doors to freedom with food, celebrating the joy of eating, and stabilizing in body weight permanently for the rest of our lives--never needing to "try" to lose weight again. What IS included is how to create a plan that's perfect for you.
Can I Get My Money Back If I’m Not Satisfied?
Of course, if you find that this course does not meet your expectations in any way, just let us know and we’ll be happy to give you your money back.
If I've been a member of Eating Peace Experience or the Eating Peace Immersion Retreat, will this cover the same material? Some of this material will surely be familiar, but this is a simple format offered live, and created to bring foundations to those of us struggling and wanting support in finding our freedom from eating issues. You'll get to engage with a group, which is immensely insightful for seeing the similarities in our collective journeys.
WILL YOU TAKE THIS COURAGEOUS JOURNEY TO ACCESS THE EATING PEACE YOU'VE BEEN SEEKING?
I knew my life was not meant for constant obsessive thinking or worrying about food. I knew my life was not meant to constantly be fighting with urges, cravings, weight gain, diet planning. Something in me, despite all my suffering, knew that I wasn't born with something missing, I wasn't born broken when it came to eating, I wasn't born missing the ability to eat peacefully and enjoy food and stop when satisfied.
This pathway ultimately is a spiritual journey into the true self, to be willing to welcome this predicament, to accept that something is inviting us to become aware, to wake up. Eating disruption was my hell, and yet turned out to be my pathway to heaven. It was incredible to bump into The Work of Byron Katie along the way, and all the other teachers who supported me in a personal healing journey to eating peace.
"The one you are looking for, is the one who is looking." St Francis of Assisi
There is something vitally important about rediscovering your inner eating peace. It can change not only your relationship with food, and the relationship you have with your body.....but your relationship with people, money, all the feelings that rise and fall in our interior world, all the events you encounter, and life itself. Since eating gives us life and offers us energy and union with reality, it is profoundly important to find the freedom we've been seeking. You can do this. You can touch the unconditional love, the mystery of who you truly are, the one who knows how to live without an eating issue or an eating problem or eating angst. You are not the compulsion. You are peace itself. The world is waiting for you.
READY? SIGN UP FOR EATING PEACE FOUNDATIONS!
This approach to Eating Peace gathers three vital and important principles together, and lives out of them:
1) Eating (or any consuming activity) is a part of the flow of in and out, up and down, of life….and everyone can live eating peacefully with that flow, like the tides going in and out…..everyone. Without any upsetting fluctuation in weight. You are not a special case that can’t be cured, no matter how long you’ve been suffering with this problem.
Eating, food, and body image has grown to have more importance in your world than it should because of your perceptions and unconscious, limiting, very stressed mental activity. You’ll learn what you need to say “no” to in your life, and most importantly, you’ll question the stressful lies you’ve been believing that drive off-balance eating.
Eating that isn’t peaceful can be an invitation to growth and expansion, a deep desire to return to balance. It may not be as difficult as you think. You can do this.
“This class has been huge for me since I was so new to Byron Katie's Work. My sense of peace around food is wonderful and I thank you deeply for helping me find it.”
"Thank you so very much for your help in the wonderful program you gave. You gave me much to think about, and I can feel a sense of peace that I can’t remember the last time I felt. Thank you, thank you.”
The slides, the presentation, the fact that I could watch whenever I was able made it possible for me to participate from Australia. When I questioned ”I need to eat” one day at night, I suddenly remembered The Work. I turned it around “I don’t need to eat.” I couldn’t believe it worked. I didn’t eat, for the first time in years.
“I had an amazing night. Woke up around 2.30 and worked ‘I need to control my eating’. I clearly saw that fears are what drive the eating. It feels like I cracked the code! So simple. I've done some work on my eating but not at this depth! Thank you so much."
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