Four Questions That Can Change Your Life - Loving What Is

This book is incredible. Rather than dictating spiritual principles, this book provides the reader with the tools to discover his or her own unique spiritual realizations. Would recommend it to anyone.

My therapist recommended this book because I need to figure out how to love myself. This book didn't show me that, BUT did show me a lot of other good ways to use it's four questions in daily living and to change your way of thinking about things. I will need my therapist to help me use the four questions in my own life. The book gives lots and lots of examples and I completely understood all the examples, but turning that around and then using that in my own life is hard for me. I do recommend this book, it will change your life. It does take work, but changing your life isn't easy.

Ms. Katie's work is powerful beyond belief! Some say it is too simple, but the simplest things are frequently the most effective. It is no accident that anyone can do this work with themselves and become free of the mental patterns of self-destruction. Start now, today and begin your own epic journey to disarming the enemy within.

I have long known that my own worst enemy was the critic in my mind. I have done a lot of personal work over the years to end self-sabotage and become my own true friend, instead of my own worst enemy. Until reading this book, what had been missing in my work was the reality that I do not have to believe my own thoughts. Each time I catch myself thinking a self-destructive thought I am now able to disarm it and render it harmless. I feel more peaceful and now understand how to love what is.

What can I say to recommend this book? ...there is nothing out there that surpasses what Katie is doing and the power of the Work..There are PLENTY of teachings and techniques out there more complex than this method of inquiry but there is nothing more profound and direct...It's not a philosophy or a religion but philosophies and religions you've studied in the past will become far more accessible and comprehensible..more simple and more clear as a result of doing The Work...Too often we try to access Reality through the "medium" of the profundities and Wisdoms we've read or heard discussed...It's akin to trying to appreciate the Grand Canyon by merely reading about it's beauty, agreeing that it's wonderful and spending lots of our time discussing how great it is with other people..we do that so much we start to think we've actually been there..until we DO go there...when that happens, words fail us..That was my experience anyway...Don't be fooled by The Works simplicity...E=MC2 is simple too...

Honestly got bored halfway through. Not sure if its me or if its just not resonating with me currently. I will pick it up another time and see but for now I will just say that while it offers some good advice, it wasn't something i could sink my teeth into. I love self-help books that feel like you want to devour them because you know they will change your life. This isn't one of them. That is not to say that it won't change yours. I do love her way of thinking and how she gets to what's true and I can see how that could help you see things more effectively, not be so offended or hurt, and possibly save you a whole lot of grief if you are someone who consistently jumps the gun, sees things in a negative light or are subject to taking offense due to assumptions. But since I have read and re-read the 4 agreements and have incorporated them into my life, I feel like maybe this book is a pre-cursor to a book like that and as such might be unnecessary if you are already beyond that point in your self-discovery.

I have purchased this book as gifts for several people. It really made me think and take a deeper look at why I respond in certain ways, issues and to certain people. The only person we can change is ourselves. Sometimes we carry baggage and don't know it. I think its a very helpful book.

A member of my coaching Mastermind group recommended the title a few months ago, almost as an afterthought as the call was ending. I picked up something in her tone, and ended up buying the book. VERY POWERFUL stuff for coaching, whether you are a coach or are dealing with your own issues. Byron Katie (Katie is her last name) presents a very simple yet powerful process for helping us work through our assessments and negative thinking about others... and ourselves. She calls it The Work, and in its simplest form is four questions and a reversal. She begins the book with the premise that "all suffering is a result of arguing with what is." Hmm... Interesting. She lays out a case that it is our thinking - which, by the way, we cannot control - that determines good/bad, suffering or not, etc. Of course, this makes total sense to me; as a coach, I'm often working with a client's language, assessment, and the stories they tell themselves. So The Work snuggled into my coaching toolkit beautifully. I've use the approach in many conversations this year.

Just to give you a simple preview, here's how The Work addresses a negative assessment:
* Is it true? (very juicy conversation about the "shoulds" we carry in our thoughts!)
* Can you absolutely know that it's true?
* How do you react when you have that thought? (examine your "programmed" responses)
* Who would you be without that thought? (discovering new options)
* Turn it around. (this is where the real coaching magic can happen!)

To 'get' that last piece - the turnaround - you have to read the book - there are dozens of ways to turnaround and examine one's thinking and the truth in it. I also encourage you to go to [...] and search for "Byron Katie." You'll find dozens of video demonstrations of her applying The Work to issues of prejudice, relationships, self-esteem, value systems, parenting, and so on.

IF in the descriptive information, it was described as a book to FOLLOW "..Your Inner Awakening: The Work of Byron Katie: Four Questions That Will Transform Your Life ...", I'd give it all 5 stars.

Having not read "...Four Questions...", and having been giving this book as a gift, I plowed through it, but found it rather difficult to understand and utilize.

Only by ordering and reading "..Your Inner Awakening: The Work of Byron Katie: Four Questions That Will Transform Your Life ..." FIRST, then I found this book, "Loving what Is", far more intelligent and useful. Content is really A+ -- It just needs to be read AFTER "Your Inner Awakening: The Work of Byron Katie: Four Questions That Will Transform Your Life"

I just finished the Landmark Educational Forum which had a huge impact on me. "Loving what is" came to be at the right time following that as it repeats some of the lessons except a bit differently. It has given me so much comfort and joy. Knowing that i don't have to fix anything and to stay in my business has been a burden lifted off my shoulders. Today i will order Katie's latest book "A thousand names for Joy". I loved the CDs but this time i want to take my time and read it. My relationships have changed dramatically especially with my children. I thought i was being a perfect parent when in reality i was a big pain in their behind. Also, my anxiety level has decreased tremendously. Yes, I still have bad days but i'm able to work through things quicker. I may stew for 30 minutes now rather than days. I'd definitely recommend it.

I just finished the Landmark Educational Forum which had a huge impact on me. "Loving what is" came to be at the right time following that as it repeats some of the lessons except a bit differently. It has given me so much comfort and joy. Knowing that i don't have to fix anything and to stay in my business has been a burden lifted off my shoulders. Today i will order Katie's latest book "A thousand names for Joy". I loved the CDs but this time i want to take my time and read it. My relationships have changed dramatically especially with my children. I thought i was being a perfect parent when in reality i was a big pain in their behind. Also, my anxiety level has decreased tremendously. Yes, I still have bad days but i'm able to work through things quicker. I may stew for 30 minutes now rather than days. I'd definitely recommend it.

I say screw sitting around talking to a psychologist and talking about what bothers you. Sit down, go through the questions and process it with "the work." This book is unreal. Very simple. It has and is still helping me reframe negative relationships, thoughts, situations, etc. I started using the questions with little things that bugged me...and then the negative feeling went away. Not that I liked the situation or person any more, but it doesn't effect me anymore. I use this on a daily basis. I don't know how I ever lived without it. I would love to take this work to the next level and attend one of her seminars, but they are a gripload of money.

I loved everything about the book with the exception about childhood abuse. Victims are manipulated by predators to believe they caused or provoked attacks so the child will remain silent. The generalization that children are conspirators with the abuser is the wrong "story". It justifies the criminal behavior and shifts the blame onto innocent children. Isn't it wiser to write, that criminals have their "own sick story" agenda just waiting for an opportunity? The best way for any victim to heal is to know that an attack is not personal. ANY child, at that moment, would have been victimized because the opportunity presented itself, Not the child. There is a huge difference!

Katie has successfully and compassionately operationalized a way to explore inner truths and personal responsibility. "The Work" is a remarkably generous system. It is simple to follow and lets one go very deeply into resolving inner conflicts and conflicts with others.

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life
The concept is so simple the practice does take commitment. I love Katie's sense of humor, great compassion and authenticity as she shares the stories from her own life as well as how she has helped others. She demonstrates the value of letting go of stories that no longer serve us, that in fact get in our way of engaging with our own life! She shows us how this can be done with ease.

This book was a great recomendation from a lady who was treating me with "Body Talk" therapy, I had started the process out of my depression and one thing linked into another. I guess I got it in the perfect moment to do the click in my mind. Receiving this knowledge, being open to it made a great change in my life. It helped to see the things as they are not as I wanted them to be. Life is simple and easy and we make it complicated. But in order to get full benefit of it you have to be really honest as far as taking responsibility for your own acts, and do the exercises as indicated. The author is a very special lady I met her in person when I had the chance to go to one of her seminars.

for those of you who feel you are emotionally healthy, you should read this book.

for those of you whose brain is in overdrive, you definitely need to read this book

Byron Katie, is genuine and can teach all of us how to stay in the now, enjoy life, and live in Reality, not live in the fake stuff that goes on in our head.

The statement she said in the book that God is Reality, blew my mind, but the more i thought about it the more it made sense.

Most people are scared to deal with Reality, it is easier for us to live in our fictitious dream world.

Byron says when you have pain, you are bumping up against Reality. So look at the pain, it is not Reality that is wrong, it is something in you.

The other thing i love and really learned from this book, is that you don't have to worry about decisions in the future, most of those decisions you will never have to make anyway. All you have to do is to make the decision that is in front of you.

May seem like simple stuff, but sometimes it is just a few tweaks of the dial to get you closer to a Divine thought process