During the Being With Byron Katie Silent Retreat the actual sessions with Katie and audience were not, of course, so silent.
Hands were raised, incredible questions asked, wisdom shared, and the brilliant dialogues and people doing The Work with Katie, so inspiring.
It also wasn’t so silent in the head.
Yaketty yaketty yak.
The mind works so fast, it’s chattering and talking and making it’s opinion known so quickly, you can’t even hear the words.
The imagery that arises in the mind, the words, the sensations….
….they all seem to travel at 120 miles per hour. Or 200 kilometers.
Faster than the speed of light, it’s a bird, it’s a plane….it’s a THOUGHT!
And the thought acts like Superman, too.
This is true, real and great and powerful. Be afraid.
After the very first day of the retreat, I suddenly became aware that I had been chattering about several big things in my life, without even stopping to question them, for months.
It was like the brakes went on, screeching to a huge halt.
Katie asked everyone to consider moments in their lives when they believed they were not OK. Make a list.
Who would I be without any of those stressful thoughts about moments when I supposedly wasn’t OK?
Here’s one thing I noticed. And when it occurred to me, I just shook my head and almost started laughing out loud.
Most of the stressful times when I thought I really wasn’t OK, when I was scared….this is a little embarrassing….
….I was sitting on my couch, alone in my cute little cottage living room.
Here’s me reading a text saying she’s through with the family.
Here’s me reading a letter I just opened in the mail from the Department of Health.
Here’s me reading an email from an old flame saying he’s coming over. Now.
Here’s me reading my bank statement which says $10.16 and I have a mortgage bill of $1800 due in two days.
I mean. It’s just soooo obvious that the stress came from inside my creative head, not from actual reality. It was all future anticipation of what horrible thing might happen in an hour, or a week, or a couple of months.
None of those things I pictured ever happened. Not one.
Wow.
And the rest of the retreat only went up from there.
A stunning reminder of the power of the incredible question: is it true?
“You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.” ~ Byron Katie
