The Way To A Simple Life
How to be honest with yourself is a difficult yet very important question of our lives.
Most people consider life to be a difficult journey.
Some say it’s the constant flow of life that keeps bringing challenges after challenges that make it hard.
Others say it’s the speed with which life keeps happening that makes it full of pressure and thus too hard to handle.
Well, life is challenging and there is no doubt about it.
But it is quite simple too.
If you learn to keep it simple, neither the flow nor the speed of life will trouble you.
Things would come and pass like a cool breeze which would both enrich you and give you a feeling of calm and fulfilment.
So, how can we keep life simple?
It’s the ability to see life as it is.
In other words, you can keep life simple by being honest with yourself.
When you are honest, you just have to learn to deal with what lies in front of you.
But when you are dishonest with yourself, life keeps going in circles which has no end to your problems.
Thus, whether it’s your interpersonal, personal, or professional life, you need to be honest with yourself.
If you have anger issues, you need to accept it before you can work on it.
Similarly, if you are being a bad partner or your work performance is dipping, you need to be honest enough to accept it.
And when you are, life would become much simpler and thus much clearer which would make things easy to handle.
When you are honest with yourself, life starts moving forward smoothly and without any stress or fear.
Thus, honesty is the best policy when you deal with others but when you are dealing with yourself, it is the only policy you have.
So, let’s find out how you can be honest with yourself.
How To Be Honest With Yourself?
How can you be honest with yourself?
Stop Being Scared Of Truth
The first step in learning to be honest with yourself is to stop being scared of the truth.
It’s one of the biggest hurdles in your way to becoming honest with yourself.
Knowing the truth is a big responsibility.
Once, you know it, you do not have the option of looking the other way.
And this is what scares people.
They are scared that life won’t be as easy as it used to be once they know the truth.
Also, it would give them a lot of stress and they would have to work more than before.
None of it is wrong.
But if you want your life to be better, you must own the responsibility of your life.
It is scary and stressful only in the beginning just like the beginning of anything else in life.
As you move on and get used to living honestly with yourself, it becomes your greatest strength.
And there is no bigger strength than truth itself.
The rewards are unimaginable too.
The truth may make you work hard but all this hard work will more than pay off going forward.
You cannot imagine the heights, that being truthful to yourself, can take you in life.
It has the power to change you and your life forever.
A life that would not only give you every luxury that exists but also the inner peace and freedom that everybody longs for.
It would make you very proud of yourself.
Thus, stop being scared of the truth and prepare yourself to embrace it.
When you are no longer scared of the truth, you get closer to learning how to be honest with yourself.
Stop Being Ignorant
The second step in learning to be honest with yourself is to stop being ignorant.
You are not scared of truth anymore but you now have to overcome your ignorance.
Ignorance is the habit of bypassing all truths of life very conveniently and naturally as if they don’t exist.
It may feel light and really good but it proves to be very dangerous and painful later in life.
The quote “ignorance is bliss” isn’t wrong but the problem with it is that finding bliss in ignorance makes you stagnant in life.
It keeps diminishing you with time because truth starts getting farther and farther away from you and life keeps getting harder and harder for you.
Thus, you cannot afford to stay ignorant if you want to become honest with yourself.
Thus, you have to start observing the subtle truths of life about everything around and within you.
To give you an easy example, you need to realize that you are an individual and you have to navigate through life alone.
No matter how many people surround you or love you, you still are alone in the journey of life.
You may feel you have many people when you are happy, but when you go through pain, you would have to bear it yourself.
It may sound a little negative but every truth has a positive side to it too.
Being alone also means that no one is like you and that you are unique.
Also, no one else can invade the space that is meant exclusively for you.
Thus, you have to be aware of all the truths like these that relate to life.
You have to develop an all-round knowledge of truth so that you are no more ignorant.
You have to turn into someone who is a natural truth-seeker.
Coming out of your ignorance would be easier as you are no longer scared of the truth.
Thus, when you are no longer ignorant, you get closer to learning how to be honest with yourself.
Develop The Necessary Knowledge
The next step in learning to be honest with yourself is to develop the necessary knowledge.
When you are no longer ignorant about the subtle truths of life, this is when you are ready to attain knowledge about yourself.
You being an individual was a universal truth that was common to everybody else.
But now is the time to know the truth about your current situation in life.
Who are you at your core and why are you the way you are?
What is the status of your physical and mental health?
Do you have any real friends and well-wishers, if yes, then who are they?
How good are you with your partner, friends, family, or people in general?
Do they like you or not or are they good to you only when you are in front of them?
You need to ask yourself questions like these that help you see what’s going on in your life right now.
This knowledge will be vital in becoming honest with yourself.
It will assist you in knowing the truth regarding anything else in your life in the future.
It’s okay if you are not able to gather this knowledge completely at this point.
When you have learned to be honest with yourself, you can then have complete or remaining knowledge of yourself.
So, gather as much knowledge as you can about your current situation in life.
When you have the necessary knowledge about yourself, you get closer to learning how to be honest with yourself.
Develop The Necessary Inner Strength
The next step in learning to be honest with yourself is to develop the necessary inner strength.
When you have to see many truths of your life at once, it’s much easier.
It’s because your attention gets shared in that moment and you won’t get shocked too much by any one of them.
This is to help you get prepared for the future where you have to
see single exclusive truths about yourself at a given time.
This would happen when you would have learned to be honest with yourself.
But to reach there, you need to develop the necessary inner strength for it.
Witnessing and focusing on one truth of your life at a time may be quite challenging.
This mental strength needs confidence in your abilities to withstand the harsh truths of your life.
When you have the necessary inner strength, you get closer to learning how to be honest with yourself.
Stop Ignoring Possibilities
The first step in learning to be honest with yourself is to stop ignoring possibilities.
When you are trying to be honest with yourself or find out the truth regarding a particular situation, you sometimes by habit overlook the options that are difficult for you to digest.
If this option comes out as true, it would give you a lot of pain and thus a difficult time.
Thus, you conveniently bypass this option.
Doing this may give you some respite but it won’t take you any closer to the truth.
It would keep you in darkness for which you may have to pay dearly in the coming time.
It’s important to take all possible outcomes or reasons for a situation into consideration.
What you can do is to be unbiased while choosing the possible options.
Do not think which option is easy or difficult for you to bear.
Rather, just look at these options as a possible reason for the situation in focus and pick all of them.
Thus, it would be a much simpler situation for you.
Doing this would ensure that you do not get distracted from the path of finding out the truth and hence becoming honest with yourself.
When you no longer ignore any possibility, you get closer to learning how to be honest with yourself.
Explore Possibilities And Reach The Truth
The next step in learning to be honest with yourself is to explore each possibility and reach the truth.
When you have all the possibilities regarding a particular situation, explore them and weigh them against each other to get closer to the truth.
It may be a thorough mental analysis or a practical research that you carry out.
Get to the bottom of each possibility and find which one is the closest to the truth.
The possibility that is the closest to the truth is the truth.
When you learn to explore possibilities and extract the truth, you get closer to learning how to be honest with yourself.
Accept The Truth
The next step in learning to be honest with yourself is to accept the truth.
You may feel that finding the truth is what it means to be honest with yourself.
But there is one more thing that is needed to become honest with yourself and that is acceptance of the truth.
Finding the truth is one thing but accepting it is quite another.
It may seem to be bitter but accept it anyway.
Truth has a natural acceptance for itself within everybody.
So, when you know the truth it’s likely that you are in a position or the mental space to accept it.
But if it feels difficult to do so, just remember that it’s in your best interest and that things will improve going forward.
Be proud of yourself for going after the truth and not giving up mid-way.
So, by accepting the truth, you have learned to be honest with yourself.
When you can accept the truth, you are very close to learning how to be honest with yourself.
Learn To Benefit From Truth
The last step in learning to be honest with yourself is to learn to benefit from truth.
The last step that ensures you stick to being honest with yourself forever is to learn to use the found truth to your benefit.
The truth you found out and accepted might be bitter and difficult for you to handle.
It may be even more difficult to hold onto the policy of being honest with yourself if the truth hurts you.
Fear may make it difficult for you to be honest with yourself in the future.
Thus, you must learn to work with the truth to ensure that it turns out in your favor eventually.
This means that if the truth is a bitter or negative thing, you have to turn it into a positive thing, at least in your mind, before letting it go.
So, if the truth was that your partner broke up with you because you were insensitive, you have to find ways to be more sensitive and loving in the future.
This way you would be able to use your truth positively, hence making you accept it wholeheartedly.
It would also ensure that you are not scared of any other truth in the future.
Thus, use the truth in your favor before letting it go.
When you learn to benefit from truth, you have also learned to be honest with yourself.
Unlock The Divine Doors
Being honest with yourself is the very important first step in developing your character and yourself as a person.
Unless you learn to be honest with yourself, you cannot see your shortcomings and hence you cannot work on them and remove them.
This keeps you stagnant in life irrespective of how hard you try.
Thus, honesty with self is like the key that opens the doors of possibility in your life.
Also, just like trust is the backbone of your relationship with your partner, similarly, honesty with self is the backbone of self love.
When you are honest with yourself, it’s a great self love booster for you.
When you are honest with yourself, your inner higher self allows you to have everything you want in life.
But this honesty with self cannot be built in isolation.
That is to say, you cannot be honest with yourself in the present moment unless you are honest in life in general.
Thus, honesty with self has to be built layer by layer and step by step.
First, you have to free yourself of your ignorance after which you have to gain the basic knowledge of yourself.
Then finally, you unlock the possibility of becoming honest with yourself and find a particular truth you have been looking for lately.
So, be honest with yourself, and unlock the doors of opportunity, progress, and a higher path of self love in your life.