🔼: [[Organizing Principles]] ###### 🔑 Tell the truth (when you can) Being [[💡 Authenticity|authentic]], telling and acting the truth, is one of the simplest ways to come into alignment and harmonize our lives. - When we tell the truth, we become more integrated and strong, when we can't be honest we become fragmented and brittle. - When we are [[💡 Authenticity|authentic]], when we tell the truth to the best of our ability, life tends to self-organize. Our people will find us, and we’ll filter the ones who aren’t right for us. - [[🔑 Don't stay where you don't want to be]]. If we have to lie to stay where we are, it may not be the place for us and it could be hurting us to be there. Tell the truth and allow the consequences, life will start to organize itself. [[🔑 The bad news is you're in free fall, the good news is there is no ground]]. - Telling the truth is an act of [[☀️ Vulnerability]]. When we tell the truth to the people we care about, we’re more open to getting hurt. But [[🔑 pain and difficulty cannot be avoided]], and it also hurts to never be authentically seen, heard, or known. If we can speak the truth, even when it's likely we be hurt, if we can say yes to discomfort and pain, we become extremely [[💡 Resilience|resilient]] and *extremely* difficult to control. Our agency increases enormously. - [[🔑 The early stage of a relationship cements a precedent]]. Telling the truth is our best chance at seeing them change. - Telling someone how you feel, reaching out first, is never going to ruin a real connection. > [!important] > Sometimes *not* telling the truth is exactly the right thing to do. > Lying and [[🛡️ Fawn|🛡️ Fawning]] are sometimes perfectly appropriate when people aren't safe or our truth isn't safe with them. If we listen to ourselves talk and we feel some level of shame, *sometimes* it's because we're not being authentic or we're reciting someone else’s ideas, we aren’t speaking our even hearing our own voice. If you feel nervous, say it. If you want help and are afraid to admit it, say that. %% Do not [[💡 Mind-Reading|Mind-Read]], do not interpret, [[🔑 Trust your experience and intuition]], know its limitations. We give [[Mirroring]]. Telling the truth is a skill. Many people lie to control others and avoid pain. But many of us lie because we don't know how to tell the truth, especially when it's hard. %% ###### Related - [[💡 Conflict|Conflict]] - [[💡 Self-Intimacy|Self-Intimacy]] - [[🕯️ Journaling]] - [[💡 The Shadow]] [^1]: