The Work

The Work is based on four questions  and a process called a "turnaround".

The four questions are:

1.Is it true?

2.Can you absolutely know that it's true?

3.How do you react when you believe that thought?

4.Who would you be without the thought?

The Work can be done either by oneself or with another person.

First one identifies a belief or thought related to a topic that causes anxiety or unhappiness. Initially one is encouraged to choose something which feels important, which annoys or troubles you, that someone else does or did: for example "My mother never loved me," or "Tom shouldn't expect me to solve his problems."

One by one, the person doing the Work asks themselves or is asked each of the four questions listed above. If they are doing the Work by themselves, people are asked to write down their response, and if they are doing it with another person they speak their answers aloud.

After the four questions, the thought is literally turned around to its opposite. For example: "My mother never loved me" turns around to "My mother always loved me," Then the person doing The Work sees if they can find ways that this new thought is equally true, or more true, then the original thought.

The turnaround also takes the form of turning the statement around to oneself: "I never loved my mother," or "I never loved me."

Katie sumarizes The Work as: "Judge your neighbor, write it down. Ask four questions, turn it around."

Katie has applied this technique to exploring painful beliefs across many topics including relationships, parentingillness, death and trauma. She has facilitated the work with audiences in widely varying situations, from ordinary people dealing with financial worries to prison inmates and survivors of armed conflict.

Quotes from Byron Katie

"When I argue with reality, I lose. But only 100% of the time."

"I am a lover of what is, not because I am a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality."

"Every story is a variation on a single theme: This shouldn't be happening. I shouldn't have to experience this. God is unjust. Life is unfair."

This summary is taken from    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Katie.

To watch Katie work with a number of people see the video clips on www.thework.com

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