There is So Much Magic in Honesty
I've been giving a lot of thought to honesty lately. I learned about a concept (and book) called "radical honesty" in a Duncan Trussell podcast with Chris Ryan a year or two back and realized it was exactly what I had been practicing. Radical, unwavering, sometimes incredibly painful honesty with myself and others. Then I heard Dayna Martin speaking about this in the context of her own shadow work and realized that we cannot connect without honesty—to ourselves, to each other, or to the world.
And we can never truly be masters of ourselves without this connection, this truth, without looking at the hardest parts of ourselves honestly, healing and loving them. I find that many personal development trends lately focus on "positive thinking." This is only a fraction of the work, and the way I often find it presented is usually bullshit. The real work comes from actually looking at yourself, being honest about what you see and feel, and learning how to love yourself in your darkness. This is the magic of alchemy. This is the path of the shadow warrior. This is the path to self-mastery.
Stay in your magic, stay in your truth.
Did you know that lying is actually bad for your health, too? A 2012 study featured in the U.S. News article, How Lying Affects Your Health found that: " When [participants] told more lies, their health went down. And when they told the truth, it improved.' In fact, telling three fewer minor lies a week translated to four fewer mental health complaints, and three fewer physical complaints. [The lead investigator] speculates that's because telling the truth improves relationships, as the study participants reported."
This was originally featured in a April 3, 2019 post on Instagram.
