Depression
Those of us who are familiar with the guided practise of Byron Katie’s The Work know that every stressful experience, no matter how small, is a version of grief. These situations might influence your thoughts to trigger small twinges of sadness, anger, or even a deep depression is a natural reaction of things not going the way you expected them to. You only expect things to go a certain way because you project thoughts, judgements, and beliefs on them and then you are faced with disappointment when they don’t go that way. You need to invest time and effort into doing The Work of Byron Katie as a regular practice, and what I discover from questioning my stressful thoughts about “small” incidents is equally powerful as what I discover from working “the big ones.”
Add Your Heading Text Here
Depression is often described as an in balance in the mind and The Work is about trying self-inquiry as a means of mental balance. It will guide you on the journey of investigating thoughts that cause you suffering. It will give you the tools to pin down thoughts that create negative emotions and reactions and trace back to why they exist in the first place. It makes your brain practice different perspectives and shows you why they are just as true, if not truer than the automatic stressful thought — and with the ultimate bonus — that they make you calmer and happier.
Depression exists when we argue with reality
Byron Katie says the need to be right, and for reality to be wrong, is only your ego speaking, and it drives most stress and depression in people. Resistance in itself is a result of stressful thoughts because you cannot resist what is without suffering. Therefore, you need to think about what your identity and present moment is without that resistance. Questioning your own beliefs is where freedom unfolds. Using the Four Questions in The Work above is the first steps to self-inquiry.
What is Byron Katie’s The Work?
The Work is a meditative process, which includes taking a moment of stillness to get in tune with yourself and a fuller experience of life. It is an inquiry into us to identify the thought that you’re thinking and believing in an actual situation in the past or your future that you may fear or dread. It won’t be easy, and you know what, it shouldn’t be, to question our thinking to see our part, and look at ourselves from a different perspective. The Work will allow everyone to wake up to our true reality of our nature.
- You may be suffering and experiencing disempowering emotions
- The Work believes that you are suffering because of the thoughts at the core of the suffering
- The Work has five elements: four questions and a turnaround
- You endeavour on a still, present, meditative written exercise to work your way through these questions
- You’ll discover that you’re thought is not an accurate reflection of reality. And when you realize this, you simply can no longer believe the thought. Once the attachment to the thought goes away, your suffering will disappear
The simple truth of it is that what happens is the best thing that can happen. People who cannot see this are simply believing their own thoughts and have to stay stuck in the illusion of a limited world, lost in the war with what is. It is a war they’ll always lose, because it argues with reality, and reality is always benevolent. What actually happens is the best that can happen, whether you understand it or not. And until you understand it, there is no peace.
— Byron Katie
