People Often Want to Do The Work in General
By that, I mean it is very common for people to ask me if they can do The Work on a large, overarching belief, or if they can write a general worksheet encompassing a large piece of their life.
The answer, of course, is yes. You can do The Work on anything. You can work on the most broad reaching idea you can think of. And I invite you to do it. Sometimes it can be very powerful.
However, sometimes working a very general statement can be so broad that it remains a kind of intellectual exercise—an exercise in abstract thinking. Which can be amazing sometimes, but sometimes it can feel a little removed from everyday experience. Kind of like reading abstract spiritual wisdom.
That’s Why I Tend to Focus on Specifics
When I do The Work, I give myself permission to work broad, general topics, but most often I focus in on a specific incident. I trust that, by working my stressful thoughts about a specific incident, I also will be questioning my general theories about life.
The result is a much more experiential approach.
When I pick a situation that is charged for me, a real moment when I got triggered, then I’m dealing with something really experiential. I can go back to that incident and experience the emotions I was feeling. I can remember the sights, sounds, smells, and textures of that situation. I know where I was standing in that moment. It’s very real.
And When I Do The Work, It Feels Real Too
When I am present with the sensations and emotions of a specific incident, everything I find through my work touches me. It’s connected to me. It moves me.
As opposed to working my big theories about life which are more abstract. When I do The Work on abstractions, my experience of The Work tends to feel more intellectual. It doesn’t always touch me and shift me in the same way as when I’m dealing with a specific incident.
There Are Two More Advantages to Specifics
1. Working specific situations is easier. After all, I’m just looking at one little situation.
2. It avoids me getting caught up in fixing myself.
Let’s admit it, it can be tempting to question big theories in an attempt to shift everything in life in one stroke. But it rarely works that way. In fact, When my motive is to shift my life, I put a lot of pressure on myself. And I soon grow frustrated when I don’t know how to do it.
Working small, isolated incidents keeps me from thinking about fixing my life. Instead, I’m just focused on getting clear about this one little situation. It’s no big deal. I can relax and just have fun exploring it.
Have a great weekend,
Todd
“If you do The Work with some kind of motive—of getting your wife back or getting sober—forget it! Do The Work for the love of truth, for the love of freedom. Isn’t that what you want your wife for anyway? So that you can be happy and free? Well, skip the middleman and be happy and free now! You’re it. You’re the one. There’s nothing else to do.” Byron Katie, Question Your Thinking, Change The World
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