My Account

Search
Close this search box.

You Don’t Have to Take Notes When Doing The Work

table for two
Do you take notes when you’re having lunch with a friend?

It’s Natural to Want to Hold Onto Insights When They Come

You’re doing your work, and you get a big “Aha!” So what do you do?

If you’re like many of us, you may find yourself writing like crazy to get it down.

Does it remind you of your school days? The teacher says something, and you write like crazy to get it all down so you can study it to pass the exam.

But The Work Is A Little Different

There is no exam to pass. No teacher to please. There is only you.

And you may find that if you skip writing down every insight as it comes, that those insights may get in there anyway.

In fact, they may even land more deeply.

The Work Is Not Memorization

The Work is an experience.

Something happens in the heart when you discover an insight through The Work. And if your focus is on capturing it on paper, you may not be allowing yourself to fully have that experience.

You may get a record of it on paper, but the act of writing may also distract you from letting it really touch your heart.

But What If You’re Visual?

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with writing things down when doing The Work. I only have my own experience to share here.

You may be a visual person who prefers to see things in written form. If that’s you, by all means keep writing.

But for me, when I start writing, I notice that I become just a scribe. The words pass through me. I hear them, but they’re not directed to me. They come through me onto paper for a “me” of the future to review. Which of course I never do. So I end up missing the experience.

I Encourage You To Experiment

Try coming to a facilitation session the way you come to a restaurant with a friend. Without a paper and a pen.

And experiment with being a full participant with no tomorrow to study for.

I find that everything that is important for me to remember from a session gets remembered. And any insights that were “ahead of my own evolution” get forgotten. Which is just the way it should be. Only what is real for me sticks.

The rest was not mine anyways.

Have a great week,
Todd

“If you are mentally somewhere else, you miss real life.” Byron Katie, Question Your Thinking, Change The World

If you like this article, feel free to forward the link to friends, family or colleagues. Or share the link on Facebook or other social media. If you have thoughts you’d like to share about it, please leave your comments below.

Get two new articles about The Work of Byron Katie every week. Subscribe to the newsletter here.

Todd Smith has been doing The Work of Byron Katie on an almost daily basis since 2007. He is just as excited about this simple process of self-inquiry today as he was when he first came across it. He also enjoys writing about The Work, and training others in the subtleties of this meditative process. Join Todd for The Work 101 online course, private sessions, virtual retreats, and his ongoing Inquiry Circle group.