John Park is a Korean American resident of New York with a B.A. in Comparative Religious Studies from Harvard University.

Recently, I experimented with a form of self-therapy called \"The Work,\" which I would like to share with you. The Work was developed by Byron Katie, author of Loving What Is. In the course of living an outwardly normal life, Katie found herself spiraling downward into rage and despair until she could barely get out of bed. Finally, she checked in to a halfway house where she continued to suffer depression. Then one morning in 1986, at the age of 43, she woke up to find that her crippling self-concepts--in fact, all concepts of the world--had vanished. She was filled instead with an intense sense of joy and clarity. She claimed that she had become \"enlightened\" through The Work, a method of self-inquiry described in her book.
The Work consists of taking a belief--it can be about another person or situation or even something about yourself--and applying four questions. You must provide written answers to these questions and then enact what she calls a \"turnaround.\" Let\'s say you feel that X is mistreating you. You take the statement, \"X is mistreating me,\" and apply the following questions:
1. IS IT TRUE? (Is X really mistreating me?)
2. CAN I ABSOLUTELY KNOW THAT IT\'S TRUE? (Am I absolutely certain that X is mistreating me?)
3. HOW DO I REACT WHEN I BELIEVE THAT THOUGHT? (How do I feel when I think X is mistreating me? What are my thoughts like? My emotions? How does my body respond? Be specific.)
4. WHO WOULD I BE WITHOUT THAT THOUGHT? CAN I THINK OF A REASON TO DROP THIS THOUGHT? (What would I be like if I never thought, \"X is mistreating me.\" What would my life be like? Is there a good reason to let go of this thought?)
After you provide detailed answers to these questions, you perform the \"TURNAROUND.\" Here, you first negate the statement and see whether that can be just as true. \"X is NOT mistreating me.\" Then, you reverse the statement and see if that can be true. \"Actually, I am mistreating X.\" Finally, you turn the statement on yourself, \"I am mistreating myself,\" and see how that feels.
Katie insists that all of this be done in writing because the act of writing forces you to be more thorough and sincere. She also insists that you be as mean and petty as possible so that you can deal with the issue as honestly as possible. So, for example, don\'t write \"Y can be unfair.\" Write what you really think. \"Y\'s a jerk.\"
According to Katie, this inquiry forces you to understand that people are never dealing directly with reality. We\'re always responding to our own thoughts and assumptions about reality. We are deeply attached to our own distorted and limited views of the world and it\'s this attachment, not what anyone else does or says, that causes our suffering. Her pointed questions force us to recognize that almost everything we think we know is actually just an unfounded assumption that can, and should, be discarded. She categorically states that we create all--not just \"some\" or \"most,\" but ALL--of our own suffering. By mastering what she calls \"internal cause and effect,\" we can learn to let go of the false ideas and misinterpretations that cause us pain.
Katie insists that continued use of The Work will lead to enlightenment. I don\'t know whether that\'s true, but in my experience I found The Work very helpful. I found that writing the answers, rather than doing them in my head, forced me to see quite graphically how absurd and unfounded some of my thoughts really were. More importantly, however, when I applied the questions to statements about myself, I found that I was carrying what are called \"self-limiting beliefs,\" that is, negative assumptions about one\'s ability and worth that haven\'t been proven. For example, I found that I carried thoughts, such as \"I\'m not aggressive enough\" or \"I haven\'t achieved enough for someone my age,\" that I actually didn\'t agree with. I don\'t know whether I absorbed such ideas from the media, our society, or from something that happened in childhood. Once I consciously let go of such thoughts, however, I felt a sense of relief that I could feel physically in my chest and shoulders as unconscious tension suddenly released itself. As I said, I don\'t know whether this will resolve all suffering as Katie claims. But I have found it\'s worth a try. To find out more, you can visit: www.thework.org.

(NOTE: The author has no personal or professional affiliation with Katie Byron or her organization and has received no compensation from her.)