The four questions that can help your mind heal | Byron Katie

“I saw that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, and when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer.”

Author and public speaker Byron Katie shares how she transformed her life after discovering ‘The Work’, a method for identifying the thoughts that cause pain and suffering. By asking herself four simple yet profound questions, she found a way to recover from her agoraphobia, reunite with her family, and begin teaching others how to heal.

Katie’s strategy for ending suffering lies in asking yourself four questions about the thoughts you’re having: Is it true? Can you absolutely know it’s true? How do you react when you believe it? Who are you without the thought?

By asking yourself these questions, Katie explains how you can begin to escape the mentalities that hold you back. Her method shows us that peace doesn’t come from changing the world—it comes from changing how we see it.

We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

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About Byron Katie: Byron Katie is an author and teacher who helps people find peace by questioning their stressful thoughts. In 1986, after years of depression, she experienced a life-changing realization that led her to create The Work, a simple process of self-inquiry. Her books, like Loving What Is and A Thousand Names for Joy, have touched millions. Through workshops and talks, Katie shares a path to clarity and freedom, helping people live with more acceptance and ease.

[anthonychicoine]

I attended one of Byron Katie’s three day workshops in Seattle over 20 years ago. The four questions she raises still resonate with me today. One of the biggest things I took from this was when she said “no one can cause you pain. No one can “inject” pain into you. It’s your response, it doesn’t come from them, it comes from within yourself. If someone says something unkind or potentially hurtful, YOU have a choice as to whether or not you’re going to believe them. That alone made the three days I spent there worth it.

[bestmotivationalspeech-sm]

The team that worked on the animation and visualization of this story deserves praise. They created something wonderful. Well done.

[collef]

I pray that this video finds everyone who is suffering and needs to find the way out of the maze of the mind. 🙌🙌🙌

[RainFall-wzyp]

I don’t want to be friends with people who are nasty to me.
I want to be friends with people who are kind and loving and respectful towards me.
It’s amazing how easily this line/boundary can seem to blur
when you’ve been conditioned and programmed
not to be in touch with your own preferences, needs, wants, hopes, wishes, desires etc.

Ever cleaned out a closet?
As soon as you start pulling everything out,
the mess spreads out into the room and even into the whole house...
It gets worse before it gets better,
but it’s the only way to get that space clean and clear...

[RobarGeggus]

A few weeks ago, I was chatting with a friend about how stuck I felt. I’d tried so many mindfulness and self-help techniques but nothing really clicked. Someone in a podcast mentioned Shift Your Mind by Alexander Brooks, and honestly I didn’t expect much but gave it a try anyway. The mindfulness meditation exercises in there hit so differently! It wasn’t about forcing positivity, it was about learning to sit with my thoughts and slowly shift how I responded to them. Since then, I’ve felt way less anxious and more in control. If you're mentally exhausted like I was, you should definitely give it a shott! helped me way more than I thought it would ❤

[starkrazi]

The four 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 are you without that thought?  
Hope this helps someone ❤

[suzannecarter]

Byron Katie has been asking her 4 simple questions for many years - I didn't think much of it until many years later I learned how many people she has helped recover and have much better lives. You can't deny or argue with success

[billbucktube]

This is powerful in challenging active and obsessive thoughts. There is another level of dysfunction where an attitude has been baked in. In my case the attitude was, “I’m unworthy of…” This was not thought, it was felt as an underlying modifier in my actions. If I had been asked about worthiness, intellectually I’d answer yes. This attitude showed up as a, “Glad that worked for you. Don’t think it will for me.” It was a background color through which I saw life and it came from childhood.

[MrNick]

She has books and workshops all over the internet, changing people’s lives. Including mine. Judge and don’t understand as much as you want, and if you open up your mind just a bit - you might be surprised how much she has helped the humanity by doing her Work. Loving that for you.

[Sailormoonoceanlight]

The purpose of human life is to suffer SO much that we have no other choice than to seek another way to survive: research philosophy, knowledge, physics, everything and choose to transcend your past perceptions of suffering to being grateful that it was a gift for the moment of today ❤

[homero_vc]

The moment I started doing self-inquiry my whole world changed. These questions saved my life, I love The Work. Thank you Katie.

[TrueSelfWalkAway]

Katie changed my life. I started to watch her with idea she would change. I haven't seen her change much. She's my lighthouse. I have her tools anytime I want to use them. Basically they are free for everyone.

[shashoo]

Pain can be involuntary but suffering is optional. You can take morphine for a broken leg, you can eat for the pain of hunger, you can use the bathroom for the pain of feeling full. But when you are suffering, the only remedy is to questions your thinking. Period. If you slap me, kick me or even rape me, I can feel the pain for 1 minutes or a week, but once the pain is gone, I can suffer for 1 minute or for the rest of my life depend on the thoughts i choose to belive or not questions. I strongly believe that is what Jesus, Buddha, and Byron Katie has been trying to teach the world....all I can say is thank you thank you thank you Byron katie. I spent 45 years of my life being a slave of my thinking, i am finally free, so free, i feel my job is perfect, my wife is perfect, my kids are perfect, my skin color is perfect, the guy with the different skin color is perfect, all my enemies are perfect...such freedom is so beautiful. I wish that everyone would have a chance to taste such freedom.

[cjhr]

This video is so beautiful and the attention to detail is really loving. Katie did have big bushy hair back in those days, so I hear. The ethereal sky and desert bring me to closer to the non-dual state and to myself.

I have read almost every Katie book, even those now out of publication. And now when I read, I notice that the mind just says the words, and I don't need to read anything, it reads itself. I have listened to countless hours of tape recordings of people doing The Work with Katie, and witnessed people move beyond the most unthinkable traumas: incest, rape, war, all of it. I have learnt through the Work that freedom from suffering is off limits to nobody. Nobody. Including me. Xx

[roselaura-gracesing]

Byron Katie's work literally changed my life. I was experiencing a life of hell before and now I feel so free. Thank-you so much Katie and team!

[RoseAllDay]

I do not always feel happy when I question my thoughts but I feel held and safe enough to explore, go deeper and release whats bothering me slowly. Thank you.

[philosophyroots]

Many of us will eventually need to listen to this, even when we know. Our mind is powerful in both directions. It can make us feel like there is no way out, but it can also take us out of any situation if we have the tools. These questions are perfect tools. Thank you!

[Urban]

After 1000 days of depression, I was saved by another person telling openly about their depression. And Slipknot's Nero Forte perfectly reveals the lies depression tells us. Stay strong ❤

[syepha_alhabshee]

Everyone is suffering but not everyone would experience spiritual awakening. I guess all those pains make us become softer and more connected to the universe. Softer at heart because we refuse to hurt people who hurt us and stronger in life because we are now helping others get through it. 💖💖💖

[EskeAndersen]

This woman changed my perspective on everything. She offers a gateway to spirituality that easy to digest even for the most hardened materialist. You won't regret reading her books.