Byron Katie, the author of ‘A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are’ says, an honest inquiry into the source of stress in your life will yield some surprising results. Meditate: Work takes one into a meditative state; it is also a form of basic inquiry. When you are stressed about something you become very still and try to identify what you were pondering upon believing in that situation. For instance, when you suddenly have a thought at work that this job is stressing you out, you should readily write that down in a piece of paper and by that it becomes solid, real and stabilized from mind to reality. Then you have a mental conversation with yourself where you assure yourself again that yes the job is too much for you or people have been commenting on your work saying this and that and so you think this is more than you can handle. This is not an inquiry anymore, it’s a discussion. Now what you do is you slow down and look at your paper again which says ‘this job is stressing me out’. In an inquiry you will find a one syllable answer to this question which is ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Any defense or justification of the story is not inquiry; it is rather getting still and letting the answer show you. So you keep meditating until you reach to this point which is why it could take some time for some of us. Reaction: And then you ask yourself ‘can I absolutely know that it’s my job that’s stressing me out?’ so again you get completely still because you cannot fool yourself imagining an answer, it has to be authentic. A few people say ultimately every answer is ‘no’. So a ‘yes’ to me is as valid as a ‘no’ to someone else. It varies person to person. Let’s assume I am thinking ‘yes, it s my job that is stressing me out’. When you believe in this thought how do you react? You close your eyes and think it through, how you take this anxiety of work with you and going home you get angry with your family; so you immediately want to quit. Then come to your mind the aspects of money, security and the fear of letting your family down. So how do most people react when they identify the problem? They go for the chocolate cakes or the cigarettes they said they would never smoke again or the alcohol.
Transcripted By Benazir Elahee Munni