Fighting with Reality.
I have been wondering what to write about this week, so much so it is Saturday afternoon and I have only just sat down with an idea. I have felt out of sorts all week, difficult to write about keeping the bigger picture when I haven’t even noticed that there is one all week!
Nothing awful has been happening except that I have been in a situation where I have felt challenged by the people around me. I have felt that my time has been invaded, my priorities not honoured and I’ve generally been rather pissed off and definitely not very nice to live with. All the while this has been happening I have been justifying my bad mood all week, "it’s them not me, I’m perfectly reasonable!" However if I am really honest they have been nothing but nice and friendly. It was simply a matter of perspective.
This afternoon I pick up the Cygnus review and in there was an article about Byron Katie and her book Loving What Is - available from www.cygnus-books.co.uk. In it she presents what she calls The Work - just four questions that can change your world. They question our perception of reality and they help us to stop fighting it too. They are:
1 Is it true?
2 Can you absolutely know that it is true?
3 How do you react when you think that thought?
4 Who would you be without that thought?
These four questions when related to any negative experience that we are grappling with can shift our awareness immediately. They help us see that it is our thoughts about what is happening that create our experience
I was thinking “they shouldn’t be here doing that”, “they should understand that it annoys me and stop”. However when I applied the questions I could see that it was my fighting with the reality of the situation that was causing such upset within me. No-one else was having such a strong reaction, it was just within me. At the same time all this was playing out I knew that I did not want to be having this reaction, I knew I wanted to be more loving and accepting but I simply could not turn it around. The reminder of The Work is what shifted it. Asking these questions doesn’t create a right or a wrong. It simply shows us that if we are fighting with reality then we are going to lose. Loving acceptance is the key to understanding and loving our mind, and therein lies inner peace.
What reality are you fighting with right now? Who would you be without that thought?
I have been wondering what to write about this week, so much so it is Saturday afternoon and I have only just sat down with an idea. I have felt out of sorts all week, difficult to write about keeping the bigger picture when I haven’t even noticed that there is one all week!
Nothing awful has been happening except that I have been in a situation where I have felt challenged by the people around me. I have felt that my time has been invaded, my priorities not honoured and I’ve generally been rather pissed off and definitely not very nice to live with. All the while this has been happening I have been justifying my bad mood all week, "it’s them not me, I’m perfectly reasonable!" However if I am really honest they have been nothing but nice and friendly. It was simply a matter of perspective.
This afternoon I pick up the Cygnus review and in there was an article about Byron Katie and her book Loving What Is - available from www.cygnus-books.co.uk. In it she presents what she calls The Work - just four questions that can change your world. They question our perception of reality and they help us to stop fighting it too. They are:
1 Is it true?
2 Can you absolutely know that it is true?
3 How do you react when you think that thought?
4 Who would you be without that thought?
These four questions when related to any negative experience that we are grappling with can shift our awareness immediately. They help us see that it is our thoughts about what is happening that create our experience
I was thinking “they shouldn’t be here doing that”, “they should understand that it annoys me and stop”. However when I applied the questions I could see that it was my fighting with the reality of the situation that was causing such upset within me. No-one else was having such a strong reaction, it was just within me. At the same time all this was playing out I knew that I did not want to be having this reaction, I knew I wanted to be more loving and accepting but I simply could not turn it around. The reminder of The Work is what shifted it. Asking these questions doesn’t create a right or a wrong. It simply shows us that if we are fighting with reality then we are going to lose. Loving acceptance is the key to understanding and loving our mind, and therein lies inner peace.
What reality are you fighting with right now? Who would you be without that thought?
Labels: Fighting Reality
posted by Jessica McGregor Johnson at 8:21 AM
1 Comments:
"loving what is" as opposed to "what you resist persists" - what a magnificient insight. it's amazing what happens when we truly remember these things and manage to apply them.
thanks for reminding me of this.
lots of love and many more insights
beatrice
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