Are you ready for some group therapy with Alanis Morisette?
Though a sampling of almost any of the 7-time Grammy-winner’s tunes reveal much about her approach to spirituality, healing and self-development, an up-close, in-person session with Alanis (she joined the likes of Deepak Chopra and Neale Donald Walsch for the “Celebrate Your Life” event in Scottsdale, AZ) proved to be fascinating.
“Let’s have a dialogue,” began Morissette, draped in all black, every bit the hip rock star/ spiritual Goddess, before inviting us through a series of self awareness/inquiry exercises (“Am I willing to try on new behaviors for my partner?”), before espousing on everything from childhood wounds (which created “survival strategies” she found were incompatible with intimacy) to God, and her own rocky path to personal and spiritual enlightenment. So how’s she doing so far?
“I hate myself less and less and less and less every day,” mused Morrissette, with equal parts humor and candidness. “Self hatred still shows up,” she added, before explaining why a hugely famous, successful rock star sought solace in spirituality. “I feel that I’ve grabbed every brass ring American culture told me I should want, and it ultimately didn’t make me happy, so there was no other direction to go but in.”
What’s been her greatest accomplishment thus far? Morissette says it’s her “capacity to sit in a painful feeling – and it’s not fun to sit in grief – and really feel it, and not run,” she answered. Elaborating a bit, she included her ability to “actually feel a feeling that I was taught was not allowed,” and learn to replace ‘survival strategies’ with real intimacy.
Morissette’s career was famously built on dissecting her tumultuous relationships (“You Oughta Know”) and setting them to music, which led her to this insight: “I had to learn to love what I hated in others, so I could learn to love that very thing in myself.”
And when those mean, critical voices in her head still linger? “I tell them to fuck off.” -- Mitch Rustad
Go HERE to find out if Alanis Morrissette is coming to your area anytime soon. Can you relate to her spiritual journey? Have your learned to replace the 'survival strategies' in your life with real intimacy? Leave your comments?
love alanis, pretty cool to her this about her...
Posted by: Steve | 02/17/2014 at 02:34 PM