It is easy to be swept away by some overwhelming feeling, so it's helpful to remember that any stressful feeling is like a compassionate alarm clock that says, "You're caught in the dream."
Interpretation
Stressful feelings can serve as reminders to awaken from an emotional trance.
Byron Katie suggests that intense emotions may overwhelm us, but they also provide an essential signal that we are not fully present and are lost in our thoughts, likening these feelings to an alarm clock urging us to wake up from a mental dream state. Recognizing this can help us regain clarity and perspective, allowing us to respond to challenges more thoughtfully.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a mindfulness workshop to illustrate the importance of recognizing emotional signals.
When you stay present with your children, that’s where abundance is. And when you stay out of their business, that’s where everything you deserve in life is. When you’re in presence, there’s no story, and you are abundance. And you come to trust that space so often that you just eventually hang out as that, because there is nothing that can move you out of it, not even a perceived child or a perceived anything.
We don't attach to people or to things; we attach to uninvestigated concepts that we believe to be true in the moment.
An unquestioned mind is the world of suffering.
Hurt feelings or discomfort of any kind cannot be cause by another person. No one outside me can hurt me. That’s not a possibility. It’s only when I believe a stressful thought that I get hurt. And I’m the one who’s hurting me by believing what I think. This is very good news, because it means that I don’t have to get someone else to stop hurting me. I’m the one who can stop hurting me. It’s within my power.
I am a lover of what is, not because I'm a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality.
So, how do you get back to heaven? _x000D_ To begin with, just notice the thoughts that take you away from it. _x000D_ You don't have to believe everything your thoughts tell you. _x000D_ Just become familiar with the particular thoughts you use _x000D_ to deprive yourself of happiness. _x000D_ It may seem strange at first to get to know yourself in this way, _x000D_ but becoming familiar with your stressful thoughts _x000D_ will show you the way home to everything you need.
Stupidity, outrage, vanity, cruelty, iniquity, bad faith, falsehood - we fail to see the whole array when it is facing in the same direction as we.
Two kinds of people are good at foreseeing danger: those who have learned at their own expense, and the clever people who learn a great deal at the expense of others.
You're betraying your whole life if you don't say what you think - and you don't say it honestly and bluntly.
But if a mirror ever makes _x000D_ you sad_x000D_ you should know_x000D_ that it does _x000D_ not know_x000D_ you.
Rely on the ordinary virtues that intelligent, balanced human beings have relied on for centuries: common sense, thrift, realistic expectations, patience, and perseverance.
It is one of the oldest maxims of moral prudence: Do not, by aspiring to what is impracticable, lose the opportunity of doing the good you can effect!
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