39: Question #3 in the Byron Katie work

The consequences of believing the story our minds tell us ever so convincingly: Q#3: How do we react when we attach to the thought?

Okay, the whole drill is: Judge your Neighbor (ex-friend, parent, child ex-mate, anyone); Write it Down; Ask 4 Questions; Turn it Around.


Judge, since we do anyway, might as well admit it.


Write it down, to slow thinking and get clear.

Ask 4 questions. We’ve done the two “truth” questions. Now it’s “consequences” time. ( A friend of mine had his van break down in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and loves it there.)

The third question asks us to list our reactions when we believe the belief, when we attach to the thought, when we shallow the opinion and think that it is “the way things should be.”

We make a list, write it down.

How do we feel?

How do we behave?

How do we treat ourselves and others?

How do we live our lives?

Realizing that this stuff is NOT caused by the judged person, but from our reacting to them.

Write the list.

Be petty. Admit the hurt and outrage, though it’s okay to smile about how worked up we can get.

But get the list down, the “laundry list” of the consequences of our attaching to and believing a certain set of words.

That’s it today: the notice that beliefs when we feel bad. Write down the belief and ask the first three questions: True? Absolutely true? And, how do we react when we “fall for it?”


As always, the Work of Byron Katie can be easily accessed via the internet at thework.com. They even have a hotline for anyone to take advantage of.