A few years back I was at a 2 day public speaking workshop in Campbell River. On the first day we had to think of someone that we admired and write a letter to them proclaiming all the wonderful things we felt for them. I thought of someone close to me and began to write a heartfelt letter of how I saw them and all the things I love and admired about them and how they operated in this world. We finished our letter, put them in an envelope and they were collected by our facilitator.
By the end of day 2, we had been through a powerful two day workshop where we practiced our public speaking, got to know the other participants and worked at pushing the edge of our comfort zone.
We were given our letters back and asked to participate in one last public speaking exercise. We were to take the letter, stand at the front of the room and read the letter out loud. Instead of speaking about the person we admired, we had to replace all the appropriate words in the letter so when we said it out loud, we were speaking about ourselves.
It's hard to explain how deeply profound this exercise was. Let's just say, there wasn't a dry eye in the room.
"The turn around" as Byron Katie calls it. It was in this moment I realized that all the things we love or hate about other people, is merely a reflection of what we love or hate about ourselves.
I've been reading her book "Loving What Is" and "the work" I've been doing has been profound. If you can spend some time alone with your thoughts and go deep into inquiry, I would say it's highly worth the effort.
