How many times a day do you tell yourself a lie? No matter how big or small, do you speak a non-truth inside the confines of your own head? MAYBE it doesn’t seem like an issue to you because come on, who doesn’t say a white lie every now and then? And what’s the big deal if it doesn’t hurt someone in some way? But it does…it hurts YOU. By creating a false image of, let’s say what truly makes you happy, you are forcing out reality and instead scripting a fairy tale that does not truly exist.  For example, if you hate your job but tell yourself every day that you love it, then you are piling on so many layers of added stress and anxiety to your existence by that very lie. You are holding yourself back from your true potential because you are not allowing yourself to break free and create a reality that is an actual truth.

My words may seem confusing because this isn’t a simple problem we can fix. When we lie to ourselves we think we are somehow protecting ourselves from the truth, as if the truth is something we cannot handle. We CAN handle the truth, but we may NOT want to hear it. By lying we further submerge ourselves into our own issues and problems. If you are in a bad relationship but keep telling yourself it will get better, you aren’t helping yourself at all. Instead, you’re making things worse. You have to value yourself enough to tell yourself the truth. If you are living an unhealthy lifestyle but continue to tell yourself that you’ll change yet you never take the steps to change, then you’re lying to yourself and you will continue to spiral out of control.

We lie to ourselves in order to somehow “protect” ourselves. The fear of what may be on the other side of the lie paralyzes us and we stand frozen in the quicksand of our lies. Don’t we teach kids not to lie? Don’t we tell them that the truth, no matter how bad, is always better than a lie? So why as adults do we not follow that same moral guidance? Why do we allow ourselves to hurt ourselves and others by continuing to lie? Simply put – it’s easier to lie. We are creatures of habit and once we realize how simple it is to lie to ourselves, how simple it is to bury the truth, how simple it is to repeat the lie, we will continue down that path.

I challenge you to tell yourself a truth that you need to hear. I challenge you to take a chance on yourself and repeat a truth instead of a lie. It may seem like a small thing to you now, but once you get in the habit of being honest with yourself you will be less likely to spin future lies about who you are and what you are about. Stand in your truth. Bask in its iridescent glow. And live your truth so that others will see it and be amazed.