Why does The Work work? … When doing The Work with a facilitator, you work! I could stop right there:) The Work requires a certain type of focus that is like a focused meditation. So, I’ll be redundant. You work!
But it also requires that you go right into the fire of the situation, with its myriad of thoughts and feelings, which is creating stress. You actually spend the entire session looking at this stuff. The process is direct. In helping a friend with a health issue, he said that he was surprised at how much energy doing The Work required.
The Work also brings up memories and images from the past that play into the stress of the current situation. Memories from childhood, but also more recent images, will emerge. You can begin to see how your mind creates stress by bringing up things from the past, whether recent or distant, that are triggered by the current situation. I am guessing this is for survival reasons, but it’s not very fun, and we don’t realize that all that stress is optional!
The Work brings future images into the mix, too. These images sneakily create anxiety and fear. The mind is very clever in its attempts to keep us safe (and miserable:).
The mix of past and future images creates a lot of stress in the present moment. It’s like the thought is the tip of the iceberg, and all of this stuff is below the surface that you aren’t even aware of. The Work lays it out for you to see.
Recently, I was looking at photos of extended family, and I began feeling anger. I could hear the old thought, that old Story, “They didn’t go through what I went through and will never understand me.” It was compelling. I spent many years entertaining it. This time, I did The Work for about 20 minutes and saw it. With that thought, I am miserable and thrown into my private well of hell. Without it, I am peaceful, confident, and calm. My life is good. There’s always a choice. 🙂
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