Ramit Sethi. Everything happens at the right moment. – The Work of Byron Katie with Grace

Attending big events, conferences, workshops, retreats or courses are all something many of us have experienced.

It’s a big deal to have your curiosity sparked, decide to say yes to something, come up with the funds, make plane reservations or drive for hours to get somewhere, arrange your accommodations, leave your daily life behind, get time off work.

What’s more is….you want deeply to come away with vital or inspiring information, or a change of heart, or a completely new perspective that makes it all worth it.

That’s why you’re going in the first place.

There’s a lot riding on some of these things we attend!

The story in the mind is….when I get there and go through this thing, I’ll get “x” or I’ll obtain “y” or I’ll learn “z” and then I’ll have something I didn’t have before….

….and I’ll feel better, or I’ll feel fabulous, or I’ll feel transformed, or I’ll feel inspired.

So you know how I mentioned I was visiting New York?

Well, one reason I’m here was to attend a one-day conference all day long yesterday for people who run businesses, like me, who want to share their message, get their book published, understand publicity, share authentically with the world.

To be honest, this is not really my “thing”.

I’m usually headed to a silent meditation retreat, a personal growth workshop or a training that helps me be more effective with clients and students, or with myself.

I like studying peace, more than anything.

This was almost the antithesis of peace, for the introverted inner me.

Ha ha!

I was connecting and being with people all day long in conversation, with microphones, stages, chairs, coat-checks, bathroom lines.

Asking people what they do, hearing interviews, listening to a few experts, asking an editor about my book proposal next steps.

But after I’ve done The Work for awhile, I’ve got to admit, this is one pretty clear way I’m different, directly as a result of doing The Work.

I can still hear the internal thoughts float through, but somehow, I’m not really disturbed.

I really do know they aren’t true.

Here’s what they sound like, right in the middle of the conference, during breaks, keynote speakers, getting tea, walking from the front of the room to the back, seeing the person sitting next to me:

I don’t fit in
I should just take a picture
I should talk/shouldn’t talk to him/her/them
I don’t know how to connect with everyone
I am different than whatever’s going on here
this is not “my” greatest pleasure
it’s too loud
people are looking at me
I have nothing to say
what a fascinating world….look at her purple hair, his leather jacket, her huge smile, his tired worried face, their blonde heads leaning together, the sun pouring in the window.

It’s like a steady flow of thoughts, sounds, sights, smells.

Those thoughts float in, like little warning labels.

But then it’s like there’s a hand reaching out, as if to shake hello, saying:

“Oh hi…is it true?”

“Are you sure that’s true?”

“Oh…remember when you used to think that was true, like, all the time? Yah, that was funny, wasn’t it. Chuckle.”

All I can say is, this was probably the most fun I’ve ever had in my life at one of those conference-type educational meet-other-people and learn business thingies.

I even got surprised by meeting one person who popped in for lunch who was not an official part of the conference and didn’t speak publicly at all, and who happens to be a rock star in the business world.

I shared with him what a kick I get out of his newsletter writing about his mom, and told him it makes me happy about my own high-expectation parenting of my own kids.

I told him my son follows him, too, at my demand, er..I mean encouragement…and he apologized for using the F-Bomb sometimes, and he said I was a good mom.

It was so cute.

So fun to meet the delightful Ramit Sethi

OK….so maybe this type of event doesn’t necessarily offer a “spiritual experience”, or a shift of consciousness that’s totally life-changing so that it feels like rebirth, or a cracked open perspective, or a massive transformation in mind-body-spirit….

….or does it?

Why couldn’t anything have the possibility of inviting me to stop assessing constantly if something was “worth it”….

….but instead to simply flow into yes, or no, or maybe, and watch the way the environment around me changes….

….while something within is steady, persistent, and peaceful as a deep, vast lake.

I do fit in, always, and the world fits in me
someone else should take a picture, not me (see above)
talking just happens, or it doesn’t
I know how to connect with everyone
I am the same as whatever’s going on here
this is my greatest pleasure
it’s just right in sound level
looking is happening, and not happening at all
I have something to say (and nothing to say! halelujah!)

What if this quiet, empty room I’m in now, while writing this, was just as amazing as one full of people, or a meditation retreat, or the busy city Saturday streets?

Who would I be without my story?

Who would you be without yours?

“Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it… it’s just easier if you do.” ~ Byron Katie

Much love, Grace

P.S. Some of the very best thoughts about a future success story are around money and business. Do yours cause you stress, when you aren’t “there” yet? Come do The Work on it! Abundance, Desire and The Work Weekend. March 18-20. Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. $295.