Day 12 Tips and Tricks for Sofa Heroes: Loving What Is

30 days of Tips and Tricks to raise money for The Optimum Health Clinic Foundation
Hi Everyone!
Welcome to Day 12 - I want to introduce you to a transformational practice called The Work of Byron Katie as described in her book, Loving What Is.

Being sick sucks, and these tips I'm giving over 30 days are meant to ease both physical and emotional suffering that comes from being a spoonie/warrior/sloth/pwme/patient with a debilitating chronic illness that is poorly understood.

I got sick in 2006 when I was finishing my bachelor's degree, and it wasn't until 2 years later when I was half-way through my master's degree that I got a diagnosis. This meant that when I got too sick to carry on into the world of career and adulthood I had some very dark nights of the soul trying to understand my worth, purpose, and trajectory in life.

At this time I read a lot of books on finding happiness just trying to be OK with what was happening to me.

The most active and transformational practice I found (other than sessions with amazing therapists) was The Work.  The Work is a worksheet where you start with a statement (that is causing you considerable emotional distress) and go through a series of questions and turnarounds to find the ultimate reality of your statement without any story.

1. Is it true?
2. Can you know for sure that it's true?
3. How does believing this thought make you feel?
4. Who would you be without this thought?
5. Turn the thought around.

I had to do this with my anxiety attacks over crushing student debt, the ongoing mourning and confusion over a difficult family situation, and of course, what the heck my life purpose was now that I was only functioning a few hours a day.

I'm going to share these videos with you to give you an idea of how The Work goes, and you can pick up the book Loving What Is to see how Byron Katie became free of her stories and developed The Work to make sense of her experiences.





The end result of this is a lightness, a detachment to the story, a realization of the structures that we build up around ourselves in our minds, and there is a sweet sweet loving gentle humour to truth. And then we can heal.

Feel better and I'll talk to you tomorrow :)




If you feel so moved to help The OHC bring an integrated approach to more ME/CFS patients, Click Here to Donate to the Optimum Health Clinic Foundation

Go to Day 1: What ME Feels Like and About This Challenge!
Go to Day 2: Gentle Movement
Go to Day 3: Meditation
Go to Day 4: Protein and Plant Power!
Go to Day 5: Sleep

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