It’s sooooo weird lately how complicated or tricky The Work appears, as I’ve been working with people brand new to it.
It seems simple.
And yet….
I remember what it was like when I first encountered it when I read Loving What Is.
The first time I heard the question in my mind “is it true?” and was trying to do The Work, I said “huh?”
I heard a New York east coast accent voice, also in my head, saying “you talkin’ to me?!! you talkin’ to me?!!”
(Like Robert Deniro in Taxi Driver).
How would I know if something is true or not? Jeez!!
I didn’t even have the sense of inner self that could actually answer the question, or even believe I could try.
And then, question 3?
It was so painful!
How do I react when I believe a stressful thought?
I’m trying to forget about it! Why’d you have to remind me!?
Then question 4….
….what in the ?
Who would I be without a thought?
I pictured a sort of vacant-headed strange animal. No thought?
That sounds horrifying!
And turnarounds seemed extremely tricky. I could find the opposite, but then I was sort of stumped, unless I had a super easy simple original concept I was taking through the process….
….like “I hate her.”
One verb. I don’t hate her, she hates me, I hate myself.
True, true, true.
Anything more complicated would get whacky and I’d skip one accidentally, and some of the wouldn’t even make sense.
But over time, it got easier, and easier, and easier.
It became fun to practice, to experiment, to try things on and be astonished at the alternatives to my thinking that had its typical ruts it would stay in over and over.
The thing is, the Work wasn’t exactly “fun” or “interesting” for about two years, not for me.
It was weird.
I didn’t see the use. Because I didn’t actually do it.
When I went to the school, THEN I did The Work, and THAT changed everything.
I suddenly saw that huge viewpoints I had carried with me since I was a kid could be completely dissolved.
Now that was pretty incredible. I was completely blown away.
I loved that I could use my very own mind to imagine other ways of seeing the world, like putting on a new pair of glasses. Everything in a different color entirely.
So even if The Work seems meh, or you haven’t had a huge lightbulb go off yet when doing it….give it a little more time.
Wonder about the questions themselves. Actually let you answer them, with the final answer, without being so full of self-doubt.
“You are the teacher and healer you’ve been waiting for.” ~ Byron Katie
Love, Grace