What Is Awareness? (And Why It Matters) | Understanding Consciousness

Here's a strange question: Who's watching your thoughts right now?

You're thinking—thoughts are moving through your mind. But something is aware of those thoughts. What is that?

Today we're exploring awareness—the part of you that never changes. This might sound abstract, but it's actually the most practical thing I can share with you.

Because when you realize you're not your thoughts, everything shifts.

🎁 FREE STARTER KIT: First Response Guide to Thought Storms
Tools for working with thoughts from the place of awareness
Download: https://workwithgrace.lpages.co/starter-kit-first-response-guide-to-thought-storms/

In this video:

The difference between thoughts and the awareness watching them
Why you are the screen, not the movie
Michael Singer's question: "Who notices you're thinking?"
One practice to try this week: noticing thoughts without being controlled by them

Key insight: Your thoughts change constantly. Your feelings change. Your circumstances change. But awareness? Awareness never changes. It's the constant.

"You are not your thoughts. You are the space in which your thoughts arise." - Anthony de Mello

This is part of my series exploring how minds work and the nature of human experience.

Drawing from wisdom teachers like Michael Singer, Anthony de Mello, Byron Katie, and the understanding that we are not our thinking—we are the awareness observing it.

New videos 3x/week:
📅 Video 1 - How minds work, therapy insights, wisdom teachings
📅 Video 2 - Inquiry for compulsive behaviors (eating, drinking, scrolling, etc.)
📅 Video 3 - The Work of Byron Katie + Grace Note readings

CONNECT:
🌐 Website: workwithgrace.com
📧 Email: gracewithwork@gmail.com
💬 What's one thought you're going to practice noticing this week? Drop it in the comments.

#Awareness #Consciousness #MichaelSinger #AnthonyDeMello #SelfInquiry #TheWitness #Mindfulness #MentalHealth #InnerPeace #Meditation #SpiritualWisdom #TherapyTools #PersonalGrowth #QuestionYourThoughts #TherapistOnYouTube

Today's Grace Note is about making inquiry accessible—because you don't need perfect conditions to question your thoughts.

Someone once asked me: "How long does The Work take? I don't have time to journal for an hour every time I'm upset."

Here's the truth: you can question a thought in under five minutes. In the car. While making coffee. While your kid is getting their shoes on.

The point isn't to do it perfectly. The point is to do it.

🎁 FREE STARTER KIT: First Response Guide to Thought Storms
Includes the 4 Questions laid out step-by-step for quick inquiry
Download: https://workwithgrace.lpages.co/starter-kit-first-response-guide-to-thought-storms/

In this video:

The 5-minute speed version of Byron Katie's inquiry process
Why waiting for "perfect conditions" keeps you stuck
Step-by-step breakdown: 6 steps in 5 minutes

Byron Katie's Four Questions:

Is it true?
Can you absolutely know that it's true?
How do you react when you believe that thought?
Who would you be without that thought?
Turn the thought to the opposite, to yourself, switch places with the other

This week's practice: Set a timer for 5 minutes. Pick one recurring stressful thought. Question it using the steps in this video.

This is part of my series: Grace Notes + The Work of Byron Katie.
Grace Notes are excerpts from my newsletter (2011-present) where I documented my inquiry journey. At the end of each week I share one concept from a Grace Note and then dive into a practice from The Work.
New to The Work? Visit thework.com for free resources and worksheets.

New videos 3x/week:
📅 Mondays - How minds work, therapy insights, wisdom teachings
📅 Wednesdays - Inquiry for compulsive eating & addiction
📅 Fridays - The Work of Byron Katie + Grace Note readings

CONNECT:
🌐 Website: workwithgrace.com
📧 Email: gracewithwork@gmail.com
💬 What's your biggest barrier to doing inquiry? Let me know in the comments.

"I Can't Stop" - Is It True? | Client Story Using The Work

"I can't stop eating." or I can't stop drinking or I can't stop thinking about my ex-boyfriend.

If you've ever thought this and felt completely defeated by it, this video is for you.

Today I'm sharing a common client story about what happens when we question this thought using Byron Katie's inquiry process.

🎁 FREE STARTER KIT: First Response Guide to Thought Storms
Includes the 4 Questions framework for questioning any stressful thought
Download: https://workwithgrace.lpages.co/start...

In this video:

Why "I can't stop" is not actually true
The four questions that revealed what was really happening
The difference between "I can't stop eating" and "I can't stop thinking about eating" and also "I can't stop feeling"

Bring curiosity to your wonderful self--this is the peaceful path. Put your behavior out of a job more naturally, instead of applying aggression.

Key insight: The problem isn't the eating. It's thoughts about the eating that makes you feel powerless, and thoughts about life that make you feel powerless.

This is part of my Wednesday series on inquiry for emotional eating and compulsive behaviors.
While I focus on emotional eating, this questioning process works for any "I can't stop" thought—drinking, scrolling, worrying, people-pleasing.

New videos 3x/week:
📅 Mondays - How minds work, therapy insights, wisdom teachings
📅 Wednesdays - Inquiry for compulsive eating & addiction
📅 Fridays - The Work of Byron Katie + Grace Note readings

CONNECT:
🌐 Website: workwithgrace.com
📧 Email: gracewithwork@gmail.com
💬 What's one "I can't stop" thought you'd like to question? Drop it in the comments.

I started Grace Notes, my newsletter to readers, in 2011. My first note began with "LIVE! From the New Year's Cleanse!"

In 2011, about 6 years into using The Work of Byron Katie to question my stressful stories, I was amazed to realize how much calmer and more peaceful I was in my life in general. I felt nothing like I once had felt. It was like a door had opened....permanently for the better.

🎁 **FREE GUIDE: Starter Kit--First Response Guide for Thought Storms Download here: https://workwithgrace.lpages.co/start... Includes The Work's 4 Questions framework *In this video:*

• Peace is possible with The Work of Byron Katie in your pocket
• The Work is a form of self-inquiry which has been practiced in various forms for centuries by wise people who become aware that their problems stem from the way they think about the world, not the world itself

*The Four Questions:*

1. Is it true?

2. Can you absolutely know that it's true?

3. How do you react when you believe that thought?

4. Who would you be without that thought?

Then, find your turnarounds: to yourself to the other to the complete opposite

*This is part of my Friday series: Grace Notes + The Work.*

Grace Notes are excerpts from my blog workingwithgrace.com (2011-2021) where I documented my inquiry journey.

*New to The Work?* Visit thework.com for free resources and worksheets.

What if the part of you that does crazy or unwanted behaviors, like emotionally eating, isn't your enemy? What if it's actually trying to protect you?

In this video, I share the way I love to work with compulsions: first, to bring curiosity to the conversation. The Internal Family Systems (IFS) perspective on binge eating and emotional eating is one modality that holds this view. You can completely changed how you view your compulsive behaviors. Instead of fighting the urge, what if you listened to it?

🎁 FREE GUIDE: Starter Kit--First Response Guide for Thought Storms
Download here: https://workwithgrace.lpages.co/start...

In this video:

Why the "grabbing part" isn't your enemy
The protector that showed up when you were overwhelmed to take over and get it handled
How to acknowledge urges with compassion
A simple 5-second practice to try this week

New videos every week:
📅 Mondays - General inquiry, therapy wisdom, 3 Principles
📅 Wednesdays - Inquiry for compulsive eating & addiction of all kinds (with inquiry and Internal Family Systems)
📅 Fridays - The Work of Byron Katie + Grace Notes

CONNECT WITH ME:
🌐 Website: workwithgrace.com
📧 Email list: https://workwithgrace.lpages.co/sign-...
💬 Questions? Leave a comment below!

Title: Open Inquiry: "I Don't Want to Hear Bad News" — The Work of Byron Katie with Grace Bell

Join Grace Bell for an open inquiry meditation based on The Work of Byron Katie. In this heartfelt group session, participants explore everyday stressful thoughts — fears about bad news, asking for what we need, protecting loved ones, and finding work.

Grace guides the group through the four questions and turnarounds of The Work, inviting compassion for the mind, gentle awareness of triggers, and freedom from believing our thoughts.

🕊 Highlights:

Meditation on Byron Katie's quote from Loving What Is

Participants inquire into "I won't get a job," "She shouldn't have started drinking again," and "They'll think poorly of me if I make a request."

Discover how thoughts arise like clouds and dissolve without attachment.

Learn why inquiry softens the mind's survival response and brings genuine peace.

✨ "The value of The Work isn't that the thought disappears — it's that it loses its power."

🔗 Learn more about Grace Bell's retreats and inquiry groups: workwithgrace.com

#ByronKatie #TheWork #GraceBell #SelfInquiry #Mindfulness #EmotionalFreedom #meditation

The Work of Byron Katie is a practice of self-inquiry allowing us to work with stresses appearing in the mind, and to relax with our experience of life.

Grace Bell, facilitator of The Work, assists people to identify and question their stressful ways of looking at life.

She offers Year of Inquiry, a vibrant membership community of inquirers Sept-June each year.

Grace also has a special love for those suffering from eating issues including disordered eating (disordered thinking) of all kinds--having suffered from this behavior and thought/feeling process herself and finding an unshakable peace within around eating, food, health and behaviors with eating.

Grace works with all kinds of compulsions, habits and addictions as they are all the same thing: a pull to some behavior, substance or activity in order to help us with our stressful feelings and thoughts.

As Byron Katie offers us (founder of The Work); when we believe what we think, it creates unnecessary suffering. When we question what we think, we feel lighter and less serious about what is. We even begin to laugh. We notice who we really are is peaceful already, a human being living life as best we can--learning, growing, loving.

In the public sessions on this youtube channel, we have all-group inquiry sessions called First Friday Inquiry, we have interviews with practitioners of The Work, we have Eating Peace videos (on the eating peace playlist) and we have individual sessions in The Work by courageous people willing to be recorded for Peace Talk podcast and this channel. Thanks to everyone involved in what is shared here on this channel, as it is great service to others in the world who find their way here and who are curious about life without "believing" thought all the time.

In all-group sessions and solo sessions, we begin with a judgment...and move into the four questions and turnarounds.
Willingness to be real and honest with your thinking is the first powerful step in The Work.

No one ever has to share when attending Friday Inquiry, and thank you when you do.

For the Work With Grace programs and more information, and to get on the Grace Notes mailing list for updates and sharing of all kinds around The Work, please visit www.workwithgrace.com

To receive notice of Eating Peace programs, videos and vlog posts, visit www.workwithgrace.com/eating-peace and join the mailing list.

To join the Grace Notes family of readers right now, Grace's popular blog on using The Work of Byron Katie to grow a peaceful life, get the thorough START HERE guide to letting The Work, work right here: https://workwithgrace.leadpages.co/start-here-guidebook/

Where to find me:
workwithgrace.com
grace notes from the past at workingwithgrace.com
https://www.facebook.com/WorkWithGrace/
https://twitter.com/ByronKatieCoach
https://www.linkedin.com/in/workwithgrace/
https://www.instagram.com/byronkatiecoach/

In this First Friday Work of Byron Katie session, Grace Bell guides participants through the powerful process of questioning their stressful thoughts. Together, they explore how shifting perspective can dissolve suffering and open the way to clarity and peace.

Listeners will hear real-life examples of thoughts under inquiry—ranging from comparing ourselves to others, to managing inner criticism, to wishing others would behave differently. This episode is an invitation to discover that freedom is available in any situation, once our unquestioned stories are brought into the light.

Episode Highlights

[00:00] Introduction — Grace welcomes participants and introduces The Work of Byron Katie.

[04:15] Thought #1: "They are more secure than me." — Exploring comparison and insecurity.

[14:20] Thought #2: "I want the mean voice in my head to stop." — Meeting the inner critic with compassion.

[27:05] Thought #3: "He should explain himself." — Letting go of demands and finding personal peace.

[41:10] Thought #4: "They should reciprocate." — Questioning fairness and expectations in relationships.

[55:00] Closing reflections and group takeaways.