If you want to try something a little bit different, here is a process to help you get clear about who you are, what you want and how to proceed, by first judging others. 😉 After you’ve figured out what bugs you so much about other people (you can see others’ foibles more clearly than you can see your own), you write down what you would advise them they ‘should’ do. Then you essentially take your own advice. But there’s more to it than what this quick summary covers: the process is simple but the effects are, well, life-changing.
That being said, words teach nothing — only experience teaches. So, I suggest you check out The Work and let me know what you think. I find it a useful and insightful process for seeing what is and proceeding clearly from a deeply calm, aligned perspective: The Little Book.
What is The Work?
“The Work is a simple yet powerful process of inquiry that teaches you to identify and question thoughts that cause all the suffering in the world. It’s a way to understand what’s hurting you, and to address your problems with clarity.”
People who do The Work as an ongoing practice report life-changing results:
Alleviation of depression: Find resolution, and even happiness, in situations that were once debilitating.
Decreased stress: Learn how to live with less anxiety or fear.
Improved relationships: Experience deeper connection and intimacy with your partner, your parents, your children, your friends, and yourself.
Reduced anger: Understand what makes you angry and resentful, and become less reactive, less often, with less intensity.
Increased mental clarity: Live and work more intelligently and effectively, with integrity.
More energy: Experience a new sense of ongoing vigor and well-being.
More peace: Discover how to become “a lover of what is.”
How the Work Began
[from about ]
“Byron Katie became severely depressed in her early thirties. For almost a decade she spiraled down into depression, rage, self-loathing, and constant thoughts of suicide; for the last two years she was often unable to leave her bedroom.
“Then one morning in February 1986, she experienced a life-changing realization. There are various names for an experience like this. Katie calls it ‘waking up to reality.’
“In that instant of no-time, she says,
I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment. That joy is in everyone, always.
“She realized that what had been causing her depression was not the world around her, but the beliefs she’d had about the world. Instead of hopelessly trying to change the world to match her thoughts about how it should be, she could question these thoughts and, by meeting reality as it is, experience unimaginable freedom and joy. As a result, a bedridden, suicidal woman was instantly filled with love for everything life brings.”