Truth and safety, together in one place!? Image: Weepers from the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon, Borman workshop (attributed to), Renier van Thienen (I) (attributed to), c. 1475-1476, Rijksmuseum. Used with permission. — Truth and safety, together in one place!?

Image: *Weepers from the tomb of Isabella of Bourbon, Borman workshop (attributed to), Renier van Thienen (I) (attributed to), c. 1475-1476, Rijksmuseum. Used with permission.*

Hello friends! As I've written, I recently read my mentor Martha Beck's new book, The Way of Integrity. She mentions something I'd thought about a lot, but not in a good way: the phenomenon of the workshop junkie.

(Yes, it me 🙋‍♀️.)

I always felt bad about being a bit of a huge workshop junkie. Real shame about this. Like, why did I always feel so good in a workshop, such a volcano of ideas and plans, only to have those feelings dissipate often as soon as I left, and almost always before leading to very many actual life changes?

Well, Martha says why, and it's this: a workshop is, for many of us, a safe place to be ourselves. Maybe the only place we have.

And wow, how powerful that is. To experience truth and safety, together at last! It's really a peak experience. Of course we want this, even if we have to keep going somewhere else (besides work, home and whatever third place we might have) and pay $$$ to get it.

My life, happily, is no longer such that I have to leave home to experience truth and safety together. I have lots of truth, safety and relief in my life.

But if you do not, I hope this weekly newsie is something of a place like that for you. I'm obviously not creating a community per se inside a newsletter, but I do want to create a space, a space for you to contemplate food and eating and the like free of shame or awkwardness.*

Let me know how it's working for you.

*And ALSO! My NEXT CLASS IS COMING IN SEPTEMBER. Our purpose is to create a powerful permanent positive change together RIGHT INSIDE that class. It won't be like one of those weekend workshop situations with no lasting effects.

I know August for many people is not a time to paying lots of attention to email, so there will be opportunities to register for class before you go away for the summer, should you be so lucky.

So keep an eye out for that, and that's the week!

For workshop junkies.