Have you heard about the work of Byron Katie yet? She works on questioning your thoughts and uses meditation to work through them. After years of depression, she finally found the light again by observing her thoughts and choosing more constructive and helpful ones.ย
What are the four questions she is talking about?
Her method consists of the following four questions:
- Is my thought true?
- Can I absolutely know that it is true?
- What happens, how do I react, if I believe the thought?
- Who would I be without this thought?
An example of a personal thought exploration
I have watched Byron Katie’s video “is it true what I think?” What sticks to me the most is how others see me. Can I even influence it? And if so, how exhausting is it to be inauthentic to control others’ perceptions of me? Is this about how others see me or how I see me?
I learned that this thought might come from other ideas, like:
– “Not feeling good enough.” Questions: not feeling good enough for what? I turn this thought around to “I feel good enough”. Is this less or more true than the other thought?
– “I feel less secure about the future than successful people.” Is that true? Can I turn it around, and what happens then? For example, “I feel more secure about the future than successful people.” That may be true also.
– ” I feel tired of working.” This is also a thought that I have believed for a while. If I turn it around, it will be, “I’m not feeling tired of working, and I feel excited to work, and I love it.” Will this change the outcome, and is this still authentic?
Have you worked with Byron’s Katie’s method? What is your (first) impression of it? The comments are open for sharing.
Thank you for reading.
Warmly,
Anique
