If stress is getting out of control in your life, you’ve come to the right place. In this course, you’ll learn an effective means of dealing with stress. You’ll also learn how to prevent stress from building up in the first place using the same process.
Think about it. When were you the happiest in your life? When were you the least happy?
Notice the absence of stress during your best times, and look how much stress was there during your worst times. It’s not the stressors themselves that were the problem though. Stressors are usually there in both good times and bad. It’s your ability to deal with those stressors that makes the difference between happy and unhappy.
When you can’t deal with stress, you get tired, depressed, angry, sad, or afraid. Stress robs your happiness and joy and can make any experience become dark, heavy, and unpleasant. This is the trap that all human beings fall into as stress takes over and gains momentum. If you don’t learn how to break the vicious cycle of stress, it will only get worse with time as stress accumulates.
Life shouldn’t have to be a struggle. When you learn how to deal with stress effectively, you’ll have the energy and freedom to pursue your dreams again. You’ll get to show up for yourself and for the ones you love again. This is what this course can open up for you.
Learn how to banish stress to the far corners of the universe and gain:
I understand how frustrating it can be to want enlightenment, freedom, an open heart, and not be able to experience it. I’ve wanted that more than anything since I was very young. Moving towards inner freedom is a process, and I’ve learned to be patient with it. Stress does not fall away all at once but gradually and steadily, one layer at a time.
I have been practicing meditation daily since I was six years old. I lived in a meditation ashram for years. Today, I use a simple, reliable way to remove stress and all its symptoms by questioning my thinking. The result has been a steady growth of peace and fulfillment in my life. I’ve been using this process myself and sharing it with thousands of clients since 2007.
Coping with stress is not enough, managing it isn’t enough either. To be effective, you have to get to the root of stress and eliminate it there. When this happens, you literally become immune to similar stressful situations in the future. A powerful way to deal with stress in this way is called The Work of Byron Katie and it will be the entire focus of this course.
You will learn to:
1. Identify a particular stress.
2. Learn how to work through it.
3. Sidestep the same trap next time.
With practice, you will be sidestepping more and more stress traps in your life. The process is cumulative and soon you may find enough confidence in navigating stressful situations that you may lose your fear of stress completely. That happened to me around 2013 when I realized that I could handle any stress that showed up for me by applying this process.
Learning this process, or deepening your practice of it if you’re already familiar with it, can change your experience of stress completely.
If you do nothing, stress will continue to accumulate leading to a vicious cycle of debilitation:
Go from being overwhelmed by stress to seeing your way through.
The Work 101 is a 9-week, 45-lesson course in an online community setting. You will have the full support of my kind and supportive Inquiry Circle community. This group has been dedicated to the ongoing practice of The Work of Byron Katie since 2013. You will also have a personal trainer and access to myself throughout the course.
I estimate it will take you an hour to complete each lesson, which will include:
This course is for you if you would like a supportive community, enjoy sharing in a safe environment, want encouragement and support from others to keep you on track. Having the support of a group, as well as a dedicated personal trainer, has been proven to help participants get the most out of this course.
You will be a full participant in Inquiry Circle during your 9 weeks with us. This is where I do my work every day. Taking The Work 101 as a part of our community is a prerequisite for continuing in Inquiry Circle long-term after the course. Some of us have been participating in Inquiry Circle steadily since 2013.
If you prefer to work through the lessons privately without the support of a community, you can take the do-it-yourself version of this course.
With the community version, you will get:
This program is the best I have experienced. Todd is such an excellent, kind, thorough, present and loving teacher, and you really get to learn and experience all nuances of The Work.
I am new to the work. When I first read Bryon Katie’s book (I need your love – is that true?) recommended by a friend, in all honesty, I find it hard to stomach what she was advocating and find it even more fascinating that so many people around the world are following her method. When I finished reading the book, I thought okay, sort of makes sense in principle, but I wonder how it works in practice. The very same friend who recommended the book told me about Todd’s creation of the work for busy people and so I joined. Seriously, one of the best courses I have done in my entire life. Of course, what you get out of the course is based on the effort you put in. So, if you are prepared to do the work, to do The Work facilitated by Todd, I assure you, it will be one of the best decisions you make in your life. His delivery of the course material is soothing, detailed and clear. The workload for each assignment is achievable and you feel supported throughout this course. I strongly recommend this course!
Even after almost 10 years of doing The Work and 3 times attending and staffing the 9 Day School for The Work of Byron Katie, I was sincerely amazed with Todd’s thorough and well thought-out approach in his very own, lived-through way. I highly recommend this course if you want to find your truth and inevitably more inner peace and freedom!
If you have never done The Work in written form, this will add a new dimension to your practice. The advantages of written work are:
Each day, you’ll come to the forum to do another lesson at your own pace. You will be working closely with your trainer who will read all of your work and leave comments each day.
Other members of Inquiry Circle will also be reading your work and leaving supportive comments. Your trainer will be doing his or her own work regularly as a member of Inquiry Circle and you’ll be reading their work as a reference for doing your own.
Your trainer will read all of your homework, give feedback, and mark complete each assignment you do.
The course was designed to be completed in 9 weeks. The exercises build on each other and the pacing was designed for one assignment per day. This helps build a daily habit of doing The Work.
If you need to take longer to complete the course, you can purchase additional time at $140 per week after the 9 weeks are up.
Pausing the course is not an option. Please look closely at your schedule before committing.
This is a tough course. There is a steep learning curve: learning the technology of the forum and learning The Work itself. Please be prepared to work hard for about an hour on each assignment (45 assignments), sometimes longer if you need it. The community version of the course must be completed in 9 weeks to avoid further charges.
There is no need to worry about time zones. I have designed the course so that you can do it in any time zone. We normally have as many people from Europe as from North America, as well some from Australia and New Zealand and other countries.
To deal with this issue, all assignments come in this format: a PDF to read, a video to watch, a piece of The Work to do in written form. The written work is completed on a password-protected online forum. That means that you can do your work at any time of day or night. And others, including myself, other participants, or your personal trainer, will read your work when we log on. This allows us to work together even with very different time zones.
You can also have optional spoken work partners from around the world. We have set-time Drop-in Sessions or you can coordinate with other Inquiry Circle members to meet for an hour whenever works for both of you. I will show you how to use a time zone conversion tool for this.
The Monday Zoom Calls with me on Zoom are purely optional and will be recorded for anyone who can’t attend.
Typically, each assignment consists of 10 min video, 10 min reading, 10 min technical exercise, 30 min doing The Work. It all depends on how you work. If I were taking the course, I would probably need about 50 min each day, but some people say they need two hours. Maybe they work more methodically, or are perfectionistic, or very meditative. I say this so that you understand the range. There is value in going slowly too. If your English is not strong, you may need more time. Most people take about 1 hour per assignment.
There is one exception: you’ll have the option to do The Work in spoken form with a partner as often as once every five assignments. This can replace one of your written pieces of work (so subtract about 30 min writing time). The spoken work will take about an hour (30 min each for you and your partner). In total this will add about 30 min to your week (-30 writing time + 60 min spoken time = +30). You will also post a one or two sentence synopsis of your spoken work session on the forum (so + 5 min).
I offer an ongoing program for doing The Work called Inquiry Circle. I created this course to give all the basics of doing The Work for new people, as well as to give some extra depth to those who are experienced in The Work. The Work 101 is a way for us all to start on the same page. It was also designed to be a way to begin an ongoing practice of The Work.
The School for The Work, a nine-day in-residence workshop with Byron Katie, is a great way to gain in-depth training in The Work of Bryon Katie. It is run by Byron Katie’s own organization, Byron Katie International, Inc., a completely separate company. The Work 101 offered here is an online course for learning and practicing The Work with Todd. It can be a great compliment to The School.
The course is available anytime you want to start.
No, I don’t offer credit for the course in Byron Katie’s Institute for The Work at this time.
A key feature of the forum does not work so well on the iPad or iPhone, or other touch devices. I recommend that you use a computer for forum homework (doing written work), not an iPad. You can work around this limitation using a phone, but it will be MUCH easier if you use a computer rather than a tablet. NOTE: This issue should be resolved by August 2023.
The Do-It-Yourself Version of the course works fine on any device.
There is a momentum to the community version of the course and if you lose it it can be hard to pick up again. I suggest waiting to do this course until you can dedicate the time to complete it.
The do-it-yourself version is infinitely flexible.
Participants often report that the anonymity gives them complete freedom to be honest. We use first names only or pseudonyms, and your email is protected. Partner meetings are on Zoom which does not require exchanging contact info. Any contact info that you exchange is up to you. We also use a profile photo (avatar). Most people upload a head shot photo, but some choose to upload an illustration instead.
We all agree to a confidentiality handshake. The respect for privacy among those who participate is very high. We are all here for one reason, to do The Work. I think you will find it a very safe environment for doing your personal work. In addition, when you leave Inquiry Circle, your account is deleted including all posts and messages that you wrote.
Yes, the community version of The Work 101 is not for everyone. If you’re not self-motivated to keep up with the work over the weeks, then it’s not for you. If you are handicapped with computer technology, this course is not for you (unless you’re really motivated to learn). If you prefer in-person events, this course is not for you. If you are to shy to share your inner work in our community, then the course is not for you. If any of these are the case for you, I encourage you to get the do-it-yourself version of the course instead.
Full attendance and completion of all homework is required to get credit for taking the course, which is required before you can continue in Inquiry Circle longterm. Completion of The Work 101 is also required before taking The Work 102.
You must stay up to date with assignments to finish in 9 weeks. This course is for people who have the desire and the time to participate. If you cannot commit to this, please sign up for the do-it-yourself version instead.
If you have taken The Work 101 before, please contact us for a special repeater price of $560 for the community version of the course.
If you are not satisfied with the course, you can easily get your money back. If you have even a little interest in trying this approach to stress management, or in starting a deeper practice of it, I encourage you to give this course a try. If you cannot afford the course fee, please contact us about a possible scholarship or special payment plan.
Purchase the The Work 101 and start moving from overwhelmed to stress-free today.
Or take advantage of my convenient payment plan and access the course for only $250 per month for three months.
This website represents Todd Smith’s personal understanding of The Work of Byron Katie. You may also want to visit the official website of The Work at thework.com.
