Avoiding the Truth

8. AVOIDING THE TRUTH

The purity of happiness we experience will always be relative to how freely we can embrace truth. The truth is the truth, regardless of whether we see it, acknowledge it, or act on it. While one’s truth may differ from another, avoiding truth will keep true happiness at bay.

I used to think the saying, “the truth will set you free,” meant you’ll feel less guilty if you don’t lie. Today, I realized that the phrase really means that only when we live in truth, can we live freely as our true selves.

Oftentimes we think acknowledging the truth will make us unhappy, so we avoid it. When we acknowledge some truths, we may be unhappy in the short term, but we can heal and accept this outcome. If we avoid the truth, it will impact the purity of the happiness we experience. When we know we are delaying the consequences of truth, whether buried in our subconscious or ignored by our conscious thoughts, our denial continues to steal our potential for true happiness.

When we accept the temporary and surface happiness we achieve by avoiding uncomfortable truths as “good enough,” two things occur:

1) we inherently accept that we are not worthy of being truly happy;

2) we perpetuate the idea that we are not strong enough to be “okay” facing the truth.

Both are our own doing and keep us in a fear-based life with a low ceiling of happiness. Every moment we choose to bury a truth, our true self knows. We have a constant sub-conscious reminder that we don’t believe in ourselves enough. If we are in a fear-based place, then we are not in the present. And if we aren’t experiencing life in the present, we aren’t inspired!

So let’s reverse this flow of thinking to produce a different outcome. The more we practice being inspired, the more we practice being in the present and connecting with ourselves. Hopefully, we gain some confidence through discovering and honoring our true self, which helps us to know we are “okay” with truth.

Once we are okay with truth and have practiced being present, we won’t settle for less because we know we de-serve to lift our ceiling of happiness, which culminates in greater confidence, greater enjoyment of life, and greater happiness.

Pure happiness starts in the core of our true selves as a constant, a guidepost, a default, and a strength that shines from the inside out. Because the core of our true selves doesn’t change or waver with every challenge life presents, neither does our root happiness.

What we practice, we repeat. If we practice making decisions that don’t honor ourselves, we forget the potential we have to do so. If we practice ignoring truths and dishonoring ourselves, we get farther away from living a happy life. It might feel like we are just living life as usual, but we are actually getting more and more disconnected.

If we practice being empowered, strong and authentic, it becomes easier to be empowered, strong and authentic. Starting now, make decisions that honor your truth and yourself, and prepare to experience the really good stuff—pure happiness!