A Couple Weeks Ago Someone Asked a Great Question
This was during a Two-Hour Taste of The Work session with guest facilitator, Caitlin Frost. Caitlin has been doing The Work consistently for 15 years.
During the call, Caitlin shared a worksheet that she wrote about her niece. Line 1 was, “I’m angry at my niece because she is unreasonably angry.” This was regarding being three minutes late to pick her up at the ferry.
A participant asked Caitlin, “You said you’ve done it 15 years and you still get upset about your niece getting angry. And it just depresses me. I want to be freer in 15 years. Do you see a difference from how you were 15 years ago?”
Here Was Caitlin’s Response
“I see a massive difference in myself. The shift in the amount of things that stress me out, the degree to which they stress me out when they happen, the length of time I stay stressed about them, the amount that I get harsh with myself, is down astronomically, I’d say 90%. I used to beat myself up really harshly and there’s almost none of that. I wouldn’t say none, but almost none of that left.”
She continued, “What I’ve noticed from my experience is that our minds continue to have these kinds of thoughts. And it’s how we relate to them that, in my experience, is how The Work shifts. And I’ve heard Katie say that as well. She still has the thoughts coming through. It’s just how hooked by them do I get?”
“And because I’ve been doing The Work so much for such a long time, my worksheets have gotten longer, they’ve gotten more specific. I can more thoroughly see what’s going on in my mind. But the actual triggering is much reduced for me. So I can write a harsher, more direct worksheet now than I could then. And yet the effect on me is much less stressful.”
The participant followed up with another question:
“So You Spend Roughly The Same Amount of Time on Them Now?”
Caitlin responded, “I would say I do The Work more now than I did then. Because I just know to do it. It’s like I know to eat food because it keeps me alive. I know to do The Work because it keeps me alive.
“My mind will just start doing it on its own. And then stuff just keeps moving. So I find there’s very little that sticks and spins. I feel it, it moves through quite quickly. And if it doesn’t, I know what to do. I write it down. I work through it. I can find my way through it, and find what I need to learn and keep moving.
“And I’m grateful for that. When I see how beautiful it is to be in The Work, and how much I learn from it, I don’t anymore have an attachment to being at some point where I don’t do The Work. It would be like thinking, ‘Gosh, if I could just eat enough lunch, I would never need to eat again.'”
I invite you to listen to the recording, or join us in experiencing other guest facilitators during the Two-Hour Taste of The Work each week.
Have a great week,
Todd
“But thoughts aren’t a problem if they’re met with understanding. Why would you even want to empty your mind, unless you’re at war with reality? I love my thoughts. And if I were ever to have a stressful thought, I know how to question it and give myself peace.” — Byron Katie, A Thousand Names For Joy
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