Every concept that has ever existed is inside of you.
– Byron Katie
I assume she doesn’t talk about concepts like E=MC2.
She is talking about universal and potentially stressful thoughts. I am not good enough. I am unlovable. She doesn’t like me. Something terrible will happen. And so on.
As thoughts, they are neutral and more a question. When we take them on as beliefs, they become stressful for us.
These thoughts and beliefs have been passed on through generations. We learned them from parents, friends, teachers, media, art, entertainment, religion, and mythology.
And we can examine them, find what’s more true for us, and find freedom from them. We can turn a stressful and limiting belief back into a more neutral thought and an innocent question.
There is a gift in the universality of these thoughts and beliefs. It means others remind us of our own, so we can take them to inquiry. And it means that when we turn beliefs into neutral thoughts, we become an example to others that it’s possible. It may be the start of them questioning their own beliefs and recognizing them as innocent questions.