The Work is a simple and powerful method of self-inquiry that bring up, that it is not people or situations that cause pain to us, but how we think about them.
The happiness of your life depends
upon the quality of your thoughts.
Marc Aurel
In everyday life this fact is being shown to us again and again quite clearly when we consider, that the same situation is often experienced completely differently by different people.
The process of The Work questions the stressful, distressing or stressing thoughts (about a situation or person) in a specific way and in a contemplative attitude. Contemplative means that we become quiet, go inward, give ourselves time, and thus allow our answers to appear from the bottom up.
We can apply The work to:
inner strife, agitation, thought circles, unbalance
anger, anger, rejection, prejudice
shame, timidity, retreat
guilt, self-incrimination, self-ratings
material or non-material addictions, "bad" habits
and everything else that incriminates and stresses us.
The process of The Work consists of identifying and writing down the stressful thoughts and inquire those thoughts with the four questions of work and the so-called turn-arounds. These questions and inversions are designed to give our minds completely new perspectives and points of view. The person or situation remains the same, but we no longer have any stress with it.
Anyone who is open-minded and honestly willing to watch whatever shows up in the now can practice The Work. It does not require any further requirements beyond this willingness.
The process of The Work gives us clarity, lightness and connection with life.
The Work can basically be practiced alone. Yet experience shows, however, that the mind often effortlessly (and unnoticed) draws us back into our story, in which we are right and feel victim to the circumstances. Here a professional accompaniment is valuable and helpful.
O-Sense