290. I was taken advantage of

This week’s episode looks at an old faithful belief: He/she/they took advantage of me. From having cab drivers hold back five bucks from your change to being hoodwinked in a business deal or transaction, we’ve all likely experienced something that caused us to pick up this belief that we can be taken advantage of. In some cases, like one of the brave and vulnerable shares in this episode, that belief is very well backed-up with some horrifying past images and experiences. In these cases, it’s pretty radical to open to the idea that what Byron Katie says might be true – if people could do better, they would. Whether this sounds like spiritual bypassing to you, or something in you is curious about what it might be like to live from this perspective, we invite you to follow along in this profound inquiry with a situation from your own life where you believed you were taken advantage of.

This week’s episode brings you a beautiful and profound group inquiry that begins with considering the possibility that who and what we are is actually good. Tom has brought up this line of inquiry many times before, but in this setting what comes up is one of the main fears that blocks us from experiencing ourselves as good: the fear of getting hurt. It seems logical, right? If we’re loving and open, we could theoretically get hurt more easily. For many of us, the solution we come up with is to close our hearts off from others. Interestingly, this contributes to our sense of ourselves as Not Good people. But what if there’s no need to close our hearts? What if the hurt we’ve experienced actually comes from a lack of openness to something? What if we don’t have to fear getting ‘hurt,’ and can allow ourselves to live our loving nature?

This week’s episode begins with an invitation from Tom to try on the statement “I’m ready to devote my life to serving what serves Love.” Notice what comes up with that sentence. Is there a willingness? Or is there some sticky fear that still takes precedence? In a group setting, this episode is an exploration of what thoughts still hold us back from serving Love in our lives (thoughts that insist we, others and reality should all be doing something better, for example), and what it might be like to let them go.

Welcome back, Love Is The Power listeners! This week’s episode is a lively and profound group inquiry beginning with questioning the thoughts, “It’s serious,” and, “What I do matters.” From there, the line of inquiry brings to consciousness the need to be special, and Tom points out that eventually…the body dies. So with that awareness, he asks, what becomes important now? If your answer falls somewhere in the zone of “I just want to enjoy life now,” you’re going to love this episode. If your mind went somewhere else, feel free to bring it to this inquiry and experience the joy and power of the present moment.

This week we're bringing you another old favourite episode from the vault (November 2021!) as the Love Is The Power retreat last week meant no new recordings. Enjoy! We'll see you next week with a brand new episode. Have you ever considered that desire, lack, and fear might go together? For example, you believe something’s missing from your life (like a romantic relationship) and then you desire to fill that gap. Or, you desire to be with a partner and simultaneously fear rejection. Many of us have bought into the idea that the formula for bringing something into our experience is to identify lack and to desire what is evidently missing. But if lack and fear bookend desire, wouldn’t you rather choose a more effortless and natural way to live? Rather than playing the desire, fear, and lack game, what if you let people and relationships come and go as they may? Who would you be in this moment if you were completely free of desire?

Hey Love Is The Power friends! This week we're coming to you with an old favourite episode from all the way back in 2020: The cost of careful living. When we know who and what we are is good, we want to see our blind spots. We stop living carefully and live more honestly. Which pretty much guarantees that someone will be offended. To the mind, the path of unconditional peace can look like silence or being a "doormat." But is it? Luckily, there is only one way to find out. Join in this inquiry with a situation from your own life, or just enjoy the shares from participants.

This week’s episode explores an experience that’s probably familiar to a lot of people who practice self-inquiry or another spiritual practice. On any kind of ‘spiritual’ path, it’s easy to experience a lack – a desire for what you might call ‘enlightenment.’ We can hear about and understand the idea of oneness, that in reality nothing is separate, and want to know that for ourselves… sometimes to the point of causing a lot of stress in our day-to-day experience. What would it be like to drop that desire for a moment? Or to drop the idea that since we’ve done The Work so much, we should be okay with everything by now. If you can relate to any of these experiences of self-beratement in the name of ‘enlightenment,’ this episode is for you!

This week’s episode is a group inquiry into what it’s like when we believe we have to change something about ourselves. Whether it’s big (like an addiction or relationship pattern) or small (like a tendency to leave wet laundry in the washing machine), most of us tend to pick up this idea somewhere along the way in childhood that who we are, exactly the way we are isn’t enough or acceptable. What can go hand in hand with that belief is the belief that the people around us aren’t allowed to be the way they are either. And then we tend to throw in the whole world at that point and condemn it too. But if we get still, how does this thought actually affect us? What if we could let go of needing to change something about ourselves or anyone else for a moment? What would that be like? Join in this group inquiry and experience your answer for yourself.

This week’s meditative contemplation begins with an invitation to notice what comes up internally in response to Byron Katie’s statement that just when you think it can’t get any better, it has to – it’s the law. You might notice the mind brings up every opposition possible. It seems so backwards, doesn’t it? On planet Earth we’re accustomed to thinking, “Well, it can always get worse,” and trying to prevent whatever that is. But could Katie be right? What if it really is the nature of the Universe that it can just get better and better, and as Tom puts it in this episode, when we struggle it’s because we’re attached to struggling? Sometimes when we question these long-held beliefs, a vague sense of lacking the authority to create our own reality through our powerful minds can surface. That’s why The Work is so powerful – you get to ask you what is true. Enjoy this beautiful flow of conversation and insight on living self-inquiry, led by Tom Compton as he begins another joyful lap around the sun.

This week’s episode is for anyone who has ever felt the paralysis of trying to make a decision while the thought “I could get it wrong” is playing on a loop in your mind. In this group inquiry, we’re looking at that thought; whether it’s actually true, how it affects us when we believe it, and who we would be without it. What if life isn’t constantly measuring us and judging every action or inaction? What if it’s like a car GPS that, when we miss an exit or take a ‘wrong’ turn, simply reroutes and shows us the fastest way from where we are to where we want to be? What if the condemning is all an inside job–and inside job we could simply let go of?