BONUS EPISODE - Preview of S3E5, Befriending Addiction and Suicide with IFS

The Soul of Life

**BONUS PREVIEW of S3E5 with IFS (Internal Family Systems) Lead Trainer Michael Elkin. This full episode drops on August 27th, 2021.

Most of us have been conditioned our whole life to have strong moral judgments against things like addictions or suicide. Right? Aren’t these just categorically bad things that we have to fight against? This is really what is so mind-bending and revolutionary about the IFS model.

Mike has a reputation within the IFS community for enthusiasm teaching about what IFS calls our Firefighter parts of us—the protective parts of your personality that typically show up as extreme beliefs or behaviors like anger, addictions, compulsions, or suicidality.

"Your willpower and your conscious decisions have very little to do with what you wind up actually doing."

We talk about this state of mind that IFS calls Self—but is really just all of our core spiritual qualities—which it turn out if you call upon it (and that’s really what IFS teaches people to do) it the power to heal and transform any parts of you that have become extreme or unhealthy or unbalanced—and I have to say this is NOT what typical psychology or typical theology offers.

Traditional psychological and religious teaching usually tells people to constrain their bad thoughts or behaviors. Manage your anger. Fight your depression. Overcome your addiction. But these management tactics require constant vigilance, and like a virus mutating in response to survival pressure, there’s a hardening or resistance to change: We discuss how, instead of fighting and resisting so-called “bad” parts of you, it’s far more productive to become curious and explore the motivations behind behavior or feelings that aren’t in your best interest:

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***7-Week Stress Reduction & Relationship Growth Course***

If you and your significant other are looking for ways to improve communication and strengthen your partnership, there is still time to enroll in my upcoming live 7-Week Mindfulness and IFS course, called Mindful Marriage. Partners of any kind are welcome. It's a one-of-a-kind offering that can truly transform how you show up in intimacy. For more information visit: https://community.souloflifeshow.com/