“Self-honesty is not putting yourself down or feeling sorry for yourself. Self-honesty is looking at things as they are and being compelled to make changes.” – Frederick Lenz
By Daniel Paul
Doesn’t life sometimes feel like a merry-go-round that you just want to get off, to stop the spin, and take advantage of life’s natural pauses? This moment, as brief as it is, can be used for personal introspective thought—the hard, honest type.
Being honest with yourself can be extremely challenging and difficult, because we have been skewed about our own honesty over an extended period of time. However, this may pose a major opportunity for change.
Change occurs when one must analyze and break the learned barriers that have been built up and hamper one’s ability for an honest self-reflection. The reason for these barriers could be deflection (not accepting responsibility and placing it on someone else’s shoulder), denial (that there is a concern with honesty) or diminishing (minimizing whatever was said or occurred towards others or things).
Some avenues to improve your skills of self-reflection are as follows:
- Pray – Ask the Lord for guidance and to rid you of the self-made chains that have affected your life and others around you.
- Journal – Write down and embrace your emotions truthfully about various encounters, events, or mistakes.
- Limits – Acknowledge and understand your limitations and try not to cover them up.
- Selective Friends – Determine trustworthy, close friends that will truly be honest with you. These individuals can give you great feedback.
By viewing oneself through honest self-reflection, one can embark on adopting a positive change. This could not only affect one’s mental and physical well-being, but also impact others who surround them. May God be with you.
“The truth may hurt, but fooling yourself will enslave you.”
– Author unknown
