How to Tell The Truth Without Beating Yourself Up
One of the blogs I read regularly is Lisa Merlo-Booth’s Straight Talk on Relationships. She offers much wisdom and practical advice that I find valuable and intriguing. Today I clicked on the Authenticity category to find a post she’d titled “Me and My Shadow”. “Shadows” being our alter egos or the parts that we tend to not want to own as part of our whole self. I’m DEFINITELY on board with owning the whole truth about ourselves, and I think it’s incredibly important how we own it.
For instance, saying “I’m a perfectionist,” “I’m irresponsible,” or, “I’m a control freak” communicates to us that these are fundamental truths about us. If instead we say, “I can be perfection-obsessed,” “I can be irresponsible,” or, “I sometimes really would love to be in charge of everything,” we own our shadow and emphasize that it is simply one facet of our whole self.
I make this distinction because I believe in the tremendous power of words on how we perceive the world. If we want to strengthen ourselves, especially while owning those less glowing qualities within, how we talk to ourselves matters. As author Pat Love writes in her book, The Truth About Love, “When you hold a negative belief and have no facts to offset this perception, subsequent thoughts tend to follow that point of view.” I know that I don’t want my mind easily ambling down the path of “I am a perfectionist control freak” more often than it already does (Nope, I don’t have my mind house-broken yet!).
So, by all means, do as Lisa and I suggest–own all of your qualities and love yourself exactly as you are. Simply do so being both truthful and accurate so that you know that even amongst a fair amount of darkness, there exists plenty of light.
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
