Being honest with yourself is not always easy. In the modern-day world, you find everyone struggling psychologically in their everyday life. One very apparent reason is the fact that you are not honest with yourself. It can lead to emotional frustration and other psychological issues.
Why are you not honest with yourself?
You all want to be accepted by your parents, peers, colleagues, friends, employers, life partners, society, etc. In the journey of accomplishing this task, you do many things that are expected from you. But you ignore what you truly want and what you originally feel. You learn to create barriers within yourself and mask your true identities by the blend of borrowed identities from others.
William Shakespeare said:
“God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.”
You lie to yourself. You deceive your instincts. So, as a result, you find yourself struggling with the very people you have worked so hard to earn acknowledgment from. This badly affects your psychological health and consequently, your day-to-day life becomes hell. So, you need to learn who you are, what you want, and accept that to satisfy your repressed selves. But the question is:
How do you find out you are being dishonest to yourself?
It is easy to find out when you are being dishonest to yourself but hard to accept. All you have to do is consciously notice your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors and analyze them from a third-person perspective. Ask yourself, “the kind of emotions I am having toward a certain situation are they even justified, or I am trying to evade any related traumas from the past”. Ask yourself, “Is it really what I want or am I just doing it out of social pressure?” “Am I avoiding my issues and Problems?” “Am I compromising my true self to be accepted by others?” Asking these questions frequently, you will realize how often you deceive yourself and do not respect who you are. The next step is
Being Honest to yourself:
Once you realize that on what issues you are not being honest to yourself, you will be able to catch yourself every time you repeat the same behavior. Next, you have to accept that you are doing wrong and give yourself a chance by expressing yourself. It may be hard to decide to follow your heart. You may end up leaving someone, switching to a less promising career, changing your lifestyle. But it will save you from psychological repression and unnecessary drama. After that, you may be able to accept yourself and instead of seeking escape, you will prepare yourself accordingly.
But such changes demand time. It’s a continuous life-long process. You would have to keep a record of your emotions and behaviors. You would have to remind yourself, again and again, to be true to yourself. You would have to design affirmations and say them to yourself again and again. As a consequence, you will be able to relish both long-term and short-term advantages. As Ralph Waldo Emerson says:
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
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