Jim Johnson
Before discovering The Work of Byron Katie, my experience of life was a struggle, extremely dense, and very hard. I was becoming less and less interested in waking up each morning. In my early 40’s, life was intolerable—for example, medical situations, financial struggles, family feuds, and family separations. My world was filled with self-hatred and despair. I lived trying to prove, defend, and justify while internally terrified and wanting to hide from it all.
I searched and read many “self-help” books and various religious teachings, trying to find something. It all seemed, to my mind, personal and confirmed my despair and aloneness.
One day my eye caught the title of a book called “I Need Your Love – Is That True” by Byron Katie. The title grabbed me and seemed shocking. For almost two years, it sat unread, yet the question kept arising and floored me each time; I need your love-Is that true?
At a moment of extreme self-hatred, I finally read the book “I Need Your Love – Is That True.” Since then, The Work has moved into my life as a daily practice. Interest and curiosity have replaced the extreme anger and hatred I believed were permanent and forever in my life.
Today, I live a curious interest in the book of me. I notice kindness, inclusion, action, and flexibility in my life, that genuinely trusts “Is that true?” and a technology for me to take care of me, and in that, a kindness that is inexplicable.