Ursula Carlin
I’ve a lot of experience with suffering. Before The Work I was always looking outside myself for reassurance, recognition and approval, masking a deep insecurity that there was something wrong with me. I was never really here—always trying to get somewhere better—in the future, where I’d be fixed.
Fearful, anxious and full of self-judgements, the body and mother were my main battlegrounds. I believed that I couldn’t be at peace until I liked how I looked, until I loved my mother, and I used these thoughts to stay at war with myself.
Through The Work I discovered the most amazing realization: there’s more peace in meeting my thoughts with understanding than in trying to change them. As soon as I open to and allow any thought, peace is here, freedom is here. When I see that, joy bubbles up inside, transforming acceptance of what is into loving what is. Now when I judge or attack others, or myself, when I feel powerless, afraid or confused, I’ve The Work to show me that this is not who I am. It’s given me a reference for freedom.
I notice how The Work flows into everything, bringing clarity to the work I do as a brand strategist and as a yoga teacher, as well as bringing softness and ease to relationships. When I fell, breaking my pelvis, it showed me how one of my biggest fears, physical injury, could be a joyful, even blissful experience and, despite my consultant’s opinion that I’d have “excruciating” pain, a pain-free one too.
My life has changed from feeling dislocated, alienated, and dependent on the world for my happiness to feeling more at one with life, more open to whatever shows up. I find myself falling into peace with this body and that mother. I’m more trusting in the essential goodness of life, others, and myself.
I’ve done The Work extensively on: mother, body image, money, abuse, fear, shame, anger, self-judgements, infidelity, sexuality, god, identity, and work. I love to do The Work on any issue with individuals, groups, and organizations in person or by Skype or phone.
If you’d like to do The Work with me, or ask questions about The Work, please call or email me.