Byron Kathleen Mitchell, better known as Byron Katie (born December 6, 1942), is an American speaker and author who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as “The Work of Byron Katie” or simply as “The Work”. She is the founder of Byron Katie International, an organization that includes the School for the Work and Turnaround House in Ojai, California. Time magazine describes her as “a spiritual innovator for the 21st century.”[1]
Katie was born in Breckenridge, Texas, in 1942,[citation needed] and grew up in Barstow, California.[2] Her father was a train engineer and her mother was a housewife.[2] She was married at age 19, had three children and started a career in real estate.[3][4]
In 1986, when she was forty-three with three children and unhappily married to her second husband, she reportedly suffered from depression, agoraphobia, overeating and self-medicating with codeine and alcohol.[2] She called her insurance company for help, and was referred to Hope House in Los Angeles, a women’s counseling center that has since closed. After two weeks of self-reflection in her home, she reportedly experienced an epiphany in her thinking which created a way for her to challenge and lessen the harmful effects of long-held beliefs.[2] She credited the epiphany, which became known as “The Work”, for a subsequent weight loss and other reductions in bad habits.[2]
She began holding informal meetings to discuss her philosophy, and in the early 1990s, began having more formal workshops. The workshops eventually led to the formation of Byron Katie International.[2]
“What you’re believing in the moment creates your suffering or your happiness.” – Byron Katie
“Life is simple. Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it… it’s just easier if you do.” – Byron Katie
“Until you can see everything in the world as your friend, your work is not done.” – Byron Katie
You can find more context to these quotes here: https://onemindonline.com/i-choose-expansion/
“I am a lover of what is, not because I’m a spiritual person, but because it hurts when I argue with reality. We can know that reality is good just as it is, because when we argue with it, we experience tension and frustration. We don’t feel natural or balanced. When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.” – Byron Katie
“The Work reveals that what you think shouldn’t have happened, should in fact have happened. It should have happened because it did, and no thinking in the world can change it. This doesn’t mean that you condone it or approve of it. It just means that you can see things without resistance and without the confusion of your inner struggle. No one wants their children to get sick, no one wants to be in a car accident; but when these things happen, how can it be helpful to mentally argue with them? We know better than to do that, yet we do it, because we don’t know how to stop.” – Byron Katie
You can find more context to these quotes here: https://onemindonline.com/when-we-stop-opposing-reality-action-becomes-simple/
“It’s not easy to find your own way when you believe that you need love, approval, appreciation, or anything from your family. It’s particularly hard when you want them to see things your way.” – Byron Katie
“When you say or do anything to please, get, keep, influence, or control anyone or anything, fear is the cause and pain is the result.” – Byron Katie
“If I had a prayer, it would be this: “God, spare me from the DESIRE for love, approval, or appreciation. Amen.” – Byron Katie
You can find more context to these quotes here: https://onemindonline.com/you-will-stand-in-front-of-anyone-as-an-equal-and-never-have-the-need-to-wear-a-mask-again/
“Every single human being is trying his best. We’re all doing the best we can. But when we believe what we are thinking, then we have to live out those thoughts. When there’s chaos in our heads, there’s chaos in our lives. When there’s hurt in our thinking, there’s hurt in our lives. Love thy neighbor as thyself? I always have. And when I hated me, I also hated you. That’s how it works. If I hate someone, I’m mistaking them for me, and solutions remain hidden.” – Byron Katie
“Our parents, our children, our spouses, and our friends will continue to press every button we have, until we realize what it is that we don’t want to know about ourselves, yet. They will point us to our freedom every time.” – Byron Katie
“No-one can disappoint you, only your thoughts about them can.” – Byron Katie
“No one has ever been angry at another human being-we’re only angry at our story of them.” – Byron Katie
“My experience is that the teachers we need most are the people we’re living with right now.” – Byron Katie
You can find more context to these quotes here: https://onemindonline.com/i-can-walk-through-the-world-always-at-the-mercy-of-people-around-me-or-i-can-walk-through-the-world-free/
“I see the goodness and beauty in everyone, and everything is a gift given for me and for all of us. If you don’t love it, question your mind until you do.” – Byron Katie
“I love the world, because I love the mind that created the world.” – Byron Katie
“We’re all looking for love, in our confusion, until we find our way back to the realization that love is what we already are.” – Byron Katie
“To exclude anything that appears in your universe is not love. Love joins with everything. It doesn’t exclude the monster. It doesn’t avoid the nightmare – it looks forward to it.” – Byron Katie
“When we love what is, it becomes so simple to live in the world. The world is exactly as it should be.” – Byron Katie
“A lover of what is looks forward to everything: life, death, disease, loss, earthquakes, bombs, anything the mind might be tempted to call ‘bad.’ Life will bring us everything we need, to show us what we haven’t undone yet. Nothing outside ourselves can make us suffer. Except for our unquestioned thoughts, every place is paradise.” – Byron Katie
“Our job is unconditional love. The job of everyone else in our life is to push our buttons.” – Byron Katie
“When they attack you and you notice that you love them with all your heart, your Work is done.” – Byron Katie
You can find more context to these quotes here: https://onemindonline.com/love-starts-right-now-by-loving-everything-that-is/
“I love what I think, and I’m never tempted to believe it. Thoughts are like the wind or the leaves on the trees or the raindrops falling. They’re not personal, they don’t belong to us, they just come and go. When they’re met with understanding, they’re friends.” – Byron Katie
“We are never really in control. We just think we are when things happen to be going our way.” – Byron Katie
“When you become a lover of what is, the war is over.” – Byron Katie
You can find more context to these quotes here: https://onemindonline.com/the-war-is-over/
“I can find only three kinds of business in the universe: mine, yours and God’s. Much of our stress comes from mentally living out of our business. When I think, “You need to get a job, I want you to be happy, you should be on time, you need to take better care of yourself,” I am in your business. When I’m worried about earthquakes, floods, war, or when I will die, I am in God’s business. If I am mentally in your business or in God’s business, the effect is separation.” – Byron Katie
“If your happiness depends on your children being happy, that makes them your hostages. So stay out of their business, stop using them for your happiness, and be your own happiness. And that way you are the teacher for your children: someone who knows how to live a happy life.” – Byron Katie
“To think that I know what’s best for anyone else is to be out of my business. Even in the name of love, it is pure arrogance, and the result is tension, anxiety, and fear. Do I know what’s right for me? That is my only business. Let me work with that before I try to solve problems for you.” – Byron Katie
“Just keep coming home to yourself, you are the one who you’ve been waiting for.” – Byron Katie
You can find more context to these quotes here: https://onemindonline.com/dont-be-up-in-nobodys-business/