Back in 2000, I had just moved to another city. It was nearby where I grew up but in a whole different culture. I had been attending a new-age church before the move. I met new friends and started a new life.
I had been through a rough patch because of the move with my daughter and was looking for answers. Walking down the cobblestone street with a friend, we noticed the lights on in the building where we held our church. I walked in, and there was a woman sitting with a man in the center of the circle of people asking the man questions.
We sat for a bit of time, and it intrigued me. I bought a cassette tape. It was Byron Katie. I have an insatiable appetite for personal growth, and even back twenty-two years ago; it wasn’t any less. I made phone calls. This method of self-inquiry was something I needed to know more about.
I was already familiar with self-inquiry and Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now. This seemed to be the missing puzzle piece, the how. How to do self-inquiry more quickly.
Byron Katie – The Work
That began my journey into deeper inquiry. I was hooked. After finding people involved with The Work of Byron Katie, I started really loving it. Two years later, I went to New York for the School of Work. It was ten days of a deep dive into The Work.
I came back a different person. I won’t say that suddenly I was Eckhart Tolle, but I certainly had a firm grasp on how to unravel my thoughts and see life from a place of more profound curiosity.
All my friends noticed the difference in me. The stillness was there.
For those of you who don’t know who Byron Katie is, she is a speaker and author and teaches the method she developed called The Work. The Work is a method of self-inquiry where you take your stressful thoughts and put them on paper, and investigate them.
So, I’ve used Byron Katie – The Work on my own personal journey and in my work as a coach and mentor. It’s been a beautiful journey into myself. There were times when I opened up so deeply to myself that there was nothing possible but self-love.
Other books by Byron Katie – I Need Your Love – for example, deal specifically with our need to find approval and love from others and how we can be much more loving if we love ourselves first.
Life shows up for us with our stressful thoughts and feelings. I’ve learned throughout my 20 years with self-inquiry many different methods of understanding what life is offering us at any given moment. The Work was the beginning of my journey to having the skills and tools to help others.
Without that walk down the cobblestone street that night, I would have continued to do my inner work, but finding The Work made that journey simpler and kinder. The Work will always be a part of me.
If this journey into the self is intriguing to you, contact me, and let’s chat. Let’s begin.
Photo by Laurenz Kleinheider