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Hello hello this is Sabrina Amina and this is the feelings pod. Today's episode

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is about questioning our thoughts and doing the work with Byron Katie. Byron

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Katie's work is... I've come into my life recently at a moment, at exactly the

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moment it was meant to, and I've been learning a lot about how to navigate

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difficult emotions by questioning the thoughts that bring about those difficult

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emotions. And her methods are deceptively simple and

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usually these are practices that we do when we're having difficulty or

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challenges with the folks that we're in relationship with and it illuminates

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really the challenges we have with ourselves. So if we can imagine that

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every person who comes into our life is a mirror for ourselves,

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everyone becomes your teacher, everyone becomes someone that you can learn

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from, and what are we learning? We're learning a little bit more about

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ourselves through the mirror that is held up in these relationships

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reflecting ourselves back to us. Now I'm gonna just give a simple example. Today I

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had a challenging thought during a transition and I thought I was visiting

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my mom's home and getting ready to leave after a really nice afternoon

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spending time with my siblings and my parents and my niece and nephew and I

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had seen my brother who I hadn't seen for a really long time and I was so happy

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to see him and then it was time for him to leave. Goodbyes are so challenging for

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me. It's so hard for me to leave part ways with the people that I love and so

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I've always felt a little lost because whenever I've had to leave a loved one

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or a loved one left me, I'd experience it as a loss, as a loss of love really.

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But through this work of inquiry I'm understanding that this experience is

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is more about a loss of myself. I lose myself so much in these connections and

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these relationships because I have this false belief, this false thought that

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when the person I love is no longer present, physically present with me, the

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love is no longer there. And so the process of inquiry really gets you to

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question these thoughts and it might seem very obvious but just because you're

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not with the person that you love doesn't mean that the love is no longer

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there. Even when it seems as though a person leaves for good, that love doesn't

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go anywhere really. The love is still alive. Love is this mysterious phenomenon

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that is not bound by constraints like time and space. And so it still

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brings up challenge for me to say goodbye to someone but what helps is

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questioning the thought, he doesn't love me because he left. So you ask yourself,

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is that true? Is it true that he doesn't love me because he left? Well, no. And then

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the next question that she asks is, who would I be without the thought? He

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doesn't love me when he leaves. Well, without that thought, I get to return to

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love. I get to experience love. I get to know that love is here and love is

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present regardless of whose coming or going. And then I think one of the most

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profound parts of the work is turning these statements around, he doesn't love

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me and changing that statement to its opposite basically. So for example,

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instead of he doesn't love me, the statement becomes I don't love me. And we

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explore if the new statement is true and perhaps even truer than the initial

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statement. So yes, when I imagine that love is gone, I'm not really loving myself.

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Another way to turn it around is I don't love him. Is that true or even truer

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than the original statement? Well, of course. I'm doubting the love that exists

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and assuming that this person's love is so frail that it can only exist when

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we're standing right in front of each other. This process of inquiry is so

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amusing because it's it it illuminates the insanity of a lot of our thoughts of

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the way that we think. And I really find this work so profound and meaningful and

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so much so that I decided to jump back into recording my podcasts. I'm so

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grateful to Byron Katie for this body of work and I'm also grateful to another

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teacher of mine, Luis Mojica, who I think first put Byron Katie's work on my radar.

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You know, lately I've been in the past I think several years actually perhaps even

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all my life I've struggled with this fear of this loss of love and this this

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process of inquiry has really given me a beautiful gift and if you are feeling a

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bit unsettled or constantly find yourself agitated by troubling thoughts I

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really encourage you to look into Byron Katie's work and see if it resonates

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and give it a try for yourself. So yeah just a short little episode today I

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wanted to jump back into sharing on my podcast and thank you so much for

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listening. Let's get into a short breathing practice for today. Find a

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comfortable position if you can at the moment. If not you can simply pause and

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come back to this later. Close your eyes and start to tune into your breath.

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Notice the inhale. Notice the inhale as it fills your lungs and your belly and

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let it go. And perhaps as you take your next inhale you can visualize breathing

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in love breathing in the abundance of love that surrounds you all day every day.

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We can even imagine the abundance of air around us as love. What a loving and

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benevolent world that we live in where our needs are taken care of without

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having you without even having to think twice about it. So breathe in that love.

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Take it into your entire body, being, spirit, mind, soul and let it go.

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And knowing that as we breathe in the love and we let it go through the breath

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we can trust that that love always returns to us without having to grasp so

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desperately. Take a deep breath in and let it go.

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Breathe in love.

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Exhale love.

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Breathe in love. And exhale love.

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Feel free to continue this practice for the next several moments allowing love

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to freely flow in through your breath and flow out through your breath. Thank you

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so much for practicing with me.