8 Truths about Truth

I AM WHO I AM

I'd like to get to the point that I don't care what people think about me. Right now, a more accurate statement for me is that I've accepted that I can't control what people think about me. That's improvement. :) We spend so much time trying to show people this representative idea how we think we should be that we lose sight of who we really are. It is not our responsibility to prove to people who we are. Our actions are manifestations of who we are, and that includes the pretty things and the not so pretty things.

Our only responsibility is to simply "be". Keep the following thoughts in mind to stay true to yourself and true to your best life.

1. When you don’t reveal your true thoughts, feelings and beliefs, you are sabotaging your efforts to have sincere and loving relationships. While you think you are protecting yourself, you are really only preserving how you want to appear, not who you really are. You want to be loved for yourself, not for your representative.

2. Although you can’t make others be honest with you, when you are honest you create the energy for others to be honest in return. Honesty is a vehicle of love. You speak the truth because you want to build your relationships up, not tear them down. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable ironically makes you and your relationships stronger.

3. You can get so used to living on the edge of truth that you don’t even realize that you do it. You can see dishonesty in other people without seeing it in yourself because of your desire for self-protection. (Ouch. I really feel this one.)

4. Truth-telling is habit forming just like lie-telling. The more you tell the truth, the better you feel. To be authentic is liberating, psychologically and relationally. You don't have to think to yourself, what did I tell the last person?

5. The courage to confess indicates a desire to walk a different path in the future. This is the process of putting off the false self and putting on the true self. Accept responsibility for your behavior and you will grow in leaps and bounds.

6. Standing for truth also means speaking the truth to yourself. Use your own unique filter to weed out the messages you receive from the world. Trust your own experience and know what is true for you.

When you start to feel a lie or misrepresentation coming out, no matter how trivial, remind yourself "I am who I am."