As humans, we learn to not tell the truth all the time.

That absolute honesty often gets us in trouble.

So we learn how to hold back.

We learn how to get along by not truly speaking our minds.

And it works.

It does help us to smooth over social interactions and have an easier time.

We do this without any bad intent or to mislead anyone.

It just makes casual conversations more pleasant.

That is how we all learn to be with each other and not be triggered all the time.

Yet there is a consequence to this that we usually don't see.

One that has severe implications.

For when we get used to not telling the truth to others, we learn not to tell it to ourselves as well.

We start to gloss over little things that we feel are not a big deal.

And it is not that far a distance to go to just not want to admit the truth to ourselves on a deeper level.

That truth might have nothing to do with anyone else.

It could be the simple truth about how we feel about ourselves.

About how we feel to someone close to us.

Or even about how happy or unhappy we are in a given situation.

There are other implications as well.

By getting used to smoothing over situations by avoiding the truth, we can do the same thing with ourselves.

So we stop looking into the depths of our feelings and start living more on the surface.

Not daring to step into the deep waters of our inner word to see what is really going on.

And we can come to the place where admitted the truth to ourselves is the hardest thing to do.

In the long run, that can have disastrous effects on our life.

For when we stop admitting the truth to ourselves, then how can we ever admit the truth to someone ese?

We may not be able to notice the difference in us, but other people will.

They can feel that we are being inauthentic.

Without us ever having to say a word, they can feel that we are not aligned with our truth.

Things stop working for us in our lives.

It can be confusing for us because we don't see why things aren't working.

The more we lie to ourselves the harder it is to see that we are not living in our truth.

Until one day it all comes crashing down.

It could be from losing a marriage, a business, or a career.

Perhaps we have to deal with a disease or some other major loss.

Yet that crash is actually a good thing.

For it wakes us up to how we have not been admitting the truth to ourselves, and shakes us up.

And in that shake up we learn what our real truth is.

We find a way to get back to ourselves.

It can be a very painful awakening.

Though that pain might be exactly what we need to realize what we have been doing.

Being honest with ourselves is now no longer optional.

We have to face our truth to go on living.

So we do.

And we start to walk that painful path back to our center and to who we really are.

Better for the experience, though sadness often accompanies the journey.

As long as we can now be honest with ourselves, we can live a new life.

Be the person we have always been underneath it all.

And live in our truth, regardless of what other people may think.

So is there some painful truth you are not admitting to yourself?

~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant

Host of The Conscious Consultant Hour

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