Byron Katie offers a method of examining the stories you tell yourself. She calls it The Work: a series of inquiries that help you identify a belief so you can then ask: Is it true? Can you absolutely know that it’s true? How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought? Who would you be without that thought? And, then, once you’ve answered the four questions, she offers ways to turn the thought around.
In workshops it is fascinating to watch happens when people release long held beliefs and assumptions and free themselves up to write. We make up so much stuff about writing – what we need to be able to write, why we’re not good enough, what else needs doing before we’re ready to write. Even with the loudest voices of the impostor, it doesn’t take long to find your writing voice again.
We’ve been struck by the simplicity that Byron Katie offers in inviting us to check what is really true, and how our beliefs about what is true shape what we do and who we think we are. And, most importantly, there is that question: what if we drop that belief? Sure, doubt might come back, and when it does, you can ask the questions again. What is really fascinating, inviting and challenging all at the same time, is that instead of suggesting you adopt a new belief, you simply drop the one you don’t need.
NEXT: Dynamic Balance