{"id":22678,"date":"2023-11-11T18:53:44","date_gmt":"2023-11-11T18:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wanderlust.com\/?p=324257"},"modified":"2023-11-11T18:53:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-11T18:53:44","slug":"loving-what-is-krista-williams-on-the-beauty-of-ifs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/11\/loving-what-is-krista-williams-on-the-beauty-of-ifs\/","title":{"rendered":"Loving What Is: Krista Williams on the Beauty of IFS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join Krista Williams at Wanderlust Palma\u00efa<\/a> in Playa del Carmen, MX \u2014 Dec 7-10, 2023. She\u2019ll be leading an IFS session, as well as a workshop on Tarot & Archetypes, and of course hosting her super-popular pod: Almost 30. Join us!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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We\u2019re guessing that your Instagram feed is as replete with wellness leaders and influencers as ours is. And that you\u2019ve probably noticed an uptick in references to a seemingly new wellness trend called IFS, though this methodology or theory has been around for decades. What, exactly, does IFS mean in a healing context, and where should one begin to peel back the layers on learning more? We turned to Krista Williams<\/a>, an IFS-informed teacher and speaker, who will be leading a workshop on Internal Family Systems at our next festival.<\/p>\n

Wanderlust:<\/strong><\/em> If you had a 60-second elevator pitch for IFS, what would it be? Talk to us like we\u2019re your great aunt and don\u2019t understand millennials or instatherapy speak.<\/span><\/p>\n

Krista Williams:<\/strong><\/em> A lot of us know about the \u2018inner critic\u2019\u2026 the voice inside of us that doesn\u2019t always feel so warm and fuzzy. It\u2019s that part of us that keeps us in line, always has something negative to say and often is the voice that focuses on how we look, how we\u2019re perceived, how successful we are\u2026This idea of the inner critic, how it impacts us and most importantly how it\u2019s NOT who we are, is a great example of Internal Family Systems. IFS is where we can have multiple experiences, multiple truths, and various \u2018parts\u2019 of us that can be activated at various points in our life. We can be both happy and sad when our first born child is graduating high school and going off to college, we can be scared and excited if we are going for that promotion at work. From a high level perspective, we know that our brain is a parallel processor and the mind can think in multiples.<\/span><\/p>\n

Internal Family Systems<\/a> is a life changing \u200b\u200b<\/span>psychotherapy tool that conceives every human being as a system of protective and wounded inner parts (these various feelings and truths we can hold are seen as \u2018parts\u2019) and that we all also have a core Self. The core self is that undeniable aspect of who we are, the Self is felt when we feel things like compassion, curiosity, clarity, creativity, calm, confidence, courage, and connectedness. <\/span>There will probably never be scientific proof that Self exists because of its elusive nature. It cannot be recorded externally and, therefore, it cannot be measured. All we know is that everybody seems to have the potential to be in that state and, when Self leads, changes and healing that were not possible before become available. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Within Internal Family Systems, the goal is to get to know all the aspects of who we are, by inviting them in, loving them, and embracing each feeling that we have. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The goal of Internal Family Systems is to become your own healer and to love yourself in any state, any emotion, any feeling, just as you are. Through the work you work with each \u2018part\u2019 to see what information you can glean for greater self acceptance. As an example: if you are someone who binges food, there is an aspect of you that finds binging for comfort, and then another part that no longer wants to binge. In IFS we would get to know (through curiosity, questioning, meditation and kindness) both parts in that scenario in order to understand, love and eventually create a new experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"krista<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

WL: <\/strong><\/em>In what ways have you seen IFS support healing in a way that feels more authentic or practical than other methods?<\/span><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong><\/em>There are a lot of different tools, resources, books, healers, gurus and ways to support our journey in life, but what I love about IFS is that once you understand it, it becomes intuitive and you\u2019re able to use it without anything else or anyone else, everyday. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The belief that we are our own best healers, and that we have all the tools we need to become whole, is one of my favorite aspects of IFS.<\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Understanding the simple principles of what it means to hold multiple truths, to love even the parts we deem unloveable, and to use mindfulness to un-blend ourselves from other parts in order to reconnect with our true essence. There\u2019s nothing for you to buy, nowhere for you to go, and nothing more for you to do than to apply more compassionate awareness to yourself on a daily basis through the IFS method.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"krista<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong><\/em>For anyone that wants to be their own healer, or find a way where in the moment they can find greater compassion for themselves then IFS can help you. If you have done work where you have reached a point in your process where you have done the things, but now need to access a deeper level of self love<\/a>, then IFS can help. As I mentioned, to start, I think one of my favorite ways to use IFS is by identifying and working with the Inner Critic, which a lot of us can relate to. When we think about that Inner Critic voice and when it\u2019s activated, we can use IFS to get curious about, make space for, and un-blend from the rest of who we are. Once we recognize, depersonalize from that voice we can eventually get to know, learn about and see what that voice is doing for us (which in most cases it\u2019s trying to protect us from pain\/hurt\/rejection\/abandonment the best way it knows how).<\/span><\/p>\n

WL:  <\/strong><\/em>Curious to hear your take on this: talk to us about the multidisciplinary wellness influencer. IFS is a relative newcomer on the scene. Do you think that adding more tools to your teaching toolkit is always a good thing, or do you see folks flitting from one modality to the next in search of the method that will stick? What\u2019s your litmus test for a wellness leader that is walking the walk? <\/span><\/p>\n

KW: <\/strong><\/em>IFS is a relatively established technique used in the therapy world for a while now, but as therapy has made it\u2019s way more mainstream (thankfully to social media and the #instatherapy world). As someone that has been in the wellness space for a while, has learned a lot of things, practiced quite a bit of modalities and been introduced to many tips and techniques, I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s less of a \u2018tool\u2019 and more a shift in mindset. When I think about the tools I have leveraged, it\u2019s in order for me to get something, or to be something different. IFS is about loving what is. It\u2019s not about changing, it\u2019s about accepting. There is no running, or being in the mind so much as it\u2019s being present with the feelings, the body and the truth. I have found in my work that it\u2019s been something very integrative, seamless and most importantly\u2026 kind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\"Almost<\/p>\n

Website<\/a> | Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve found that IFS is less of a tool and more a shift in mindset. When I think about the tools I have leveraged, it\u2019s in order for me to get something, or to be something different. IFS is about loving what is. It\u2019s not about changing, it\u2019s about accepting.<\/p>\n

The post Loving What Is: Krista Williams on the Beauty of IFS<\/a> appeared first on Wanderlust<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}