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I am surrounded by friends and associates who are doing the work of Byron Katie.  I’m sure you’ve heard of it.  When you are experiencing stressful thoughts, you ask the four simple questions:  1) Is it true?  2) Can you absolutely know it’s true?  3) How do you react when you believe that thought?  4) Who would you be without the thought?  Anyway, the whole point of the exercise is to bring awareness to the fact that our thoughts are not reality.  Katie’s realization came like this: when she believed her thoughts, she suffered.  When she didn’t believe her thoughts, she did not suffer.  In other words, our judgements and perceptions cloud everything.  Reality just is as it is (not good or bad).  What it all boils down to is that each of us has this story we’ve created about ourselves and our lives, and we live day to day acting out these stories to uphold our so-called truths.  It just so happens that we are trapped in these stories, and they are what is holding us back from living the lives we imagine living.  I’ve come to the conclusion that the stories I have been holding onto are that 1) I’m a nice person and 2) I’m a good person.  Not such bad roles to cling to you say?  Perhaps not.  However, who would I be without these self-inflicted personas?  Hmmm, that brings us into new territory…so what’s your story?  What set of truths are you upholding today through your beliefs, actions, comments, thoughts?