„Julia is very focused on the essential. The transformational aspect of the practice. She does not get stuck on formalities. This is what makes practicing with her so powerful.
She is very talented at creating a group atmosphere conducive to this transformational process. Her inspirations and dharma-talks always derive from a place of spontaneity and authenticity. She embodies what she talks about.
Throughout the retreat she was also available for one-on-one interviews. These particularly helped me disentangle the processes and mechanisms underlying maladaptive patterns. Different states of being are like “programmes” that can switch on due to certain triggers. While previously I had the impression that everything was happening very quickly, automatically and I had no volitional control over it, Julia’s guidance helped me perceive those subtle triggers on a bodily level and thought level. Through developing this awareness, I was able to perceive that these states, thoughts, and storylines that previously felt so close, real, threatening, were purely constructed and lacked inherent existence. Giving me a choice to say “no, I don’t want to go into that”, dropping the thoughts and feelings starting to come to the surface. I gained great confidence from this process, and it helped me tap into, as Julia says, a sense of unconditional “okayness”.
A further related insight, came from being able to observe my mind at work – how attention jumps from one object to another, sometimes gets stuck on one object when emotion and storylines are related to it and derives satisfaction from “constructing”. This objective observation of the functioning of the mind helped me create a further distance from it and recognise how inaccurate its interpretation and storylines are.
For example, worry and rumination give us some type of satisfaction. It feels as if we were “fixing something” or somehow doing something productive towards the solving of a real or perceived issue. However, these thoughts are based on information from the past and additionally interpreted through the lens of our conditioned mind – hence, with great probability, totally inaccurate.
This insight during the retreat challenged me to learn to make friends with uncertainty. While uncomfortable, this space of uncertainty gave me a new clarity and openness of mind, also energy and excitement. I am now able to watch the mind, look at it, smile and say to myself “that’s okay, that’s the nature of the working of the mind, I don’t need to take it too seriously” and open up to spacious awareness and not knowing.
While there is still more work to be done, I can say with certainty that this retreat has greatly improved my quality of life. In sum, I would recommend a retreat with Julia to anyone who wants to get to know themselves and find liberation from mental afflictions.“