There will come a day when it’s time to tell the truth. Not necessarily to the whole world, but to yourself in the least, and probably to those you have lied. Failing to tell the truth in the present moment puts secrets into your past that will inevitably affect you. Whether you realize it or not, dishonesty impacts your mental, emotional, physical, social, professional, and personal development and wellbeing. Dishonesty invites darkness into every cell of your mind and body. This darkness manifests into emotional and physical pain. If you knew your depression, anxiety, injury, illness, or pain was the result of all the dishonest times you’ve compiled over the years, what would you do? The fact is, and you’ve heard it before, the truth will set you free. The truth will cleanse you of darkness, suffering, and pain. The truth does not always need to be revealed to everyone, or even anyone, but the truth must be acknowledged by you.
A major part of healing, growth, and development is opening up and being completely honest and authentic with yourself. Being honest is not easy in the beginning. But it is only the fear of what might happen that scares you. In reality, the truth will set you free of the illusion these fears create. Yes there may be an initial and unpleasant reaction to your sudden honesty; but through honesty you are freeing your mind, body, and life of darkness. As darkness is shed new light can come into your life. You fear the consequences of telling the truth, but what are the consequences of not telling the truth? How will your health, happiness, and life be sacrificed under your lies? How will the experience of others around you be comprised?
In order to grow and evolve you must acknowledge every aspect of who you are and what you’ve done. You may not be ready to tell others, but you must start by acknowledging the truth within yourself. You must understand that any form of dishonesty: secrets, exaggerations, lies, and fibs, etc. must come out to experience higher levels of growth, happiness, and success. Also, dishonesty attracts dishonesty. So if you expect to develop honest and authentic relationships you will have to become an honest and authentic person.
If you are not being 100% open and honest this is a good indication that you are doing something outside of your value system. We lie because we fear we will not be accepted; in most cases we fear we will not be accepted when we are doing something we know isn’t right or good. Look at the secrets, lies, or exaggerations in your life and ask yourself why you are protecting this information. What are you afraid of? What will you have to do to find congruence between your actions and your beliefs so you can be honest? The theory of cognitive dissonance shows that people change their beliefs and values to fit their actions to avoid inner conflict. So you are cautioned here to clarify your beliefs and values first and then to change your behaviors to fit your values. Rationalizing your behaviors is still lying to yourself.
If you are someone who is still in the midst of lying and secretiveness you are encouraged to think about what you are doing, feeling, and saying because all of this will come out someday. You may think, “I’ll just never tell; or better yet I’ll just forget about it and it will be gone forever.” But it doesn’t work this way. Dishonesty will manifest into bigger problems; and unfortunately by the time it happens you will not realize that the dark secrets and lies in which you buried are the cause of your pain and suffering.
There is no hierarchy in terms of dishonesty. Dishonesty at any level is simply dishonesty. The crazy thing about truth and lies is that people can sense which type of person you are anyway. Think of the dishonest people in your life; you know they are dishonest but they think they have you fooled. Dishonest people are not fooling anyone but themselves.
The message here today is: tell the truth faster as it will haunt you until it comes out. The truth will set you free of suffering when you choose to bring it out on your own good will.