
How honesty gets rid of anxiety. That is the reflection of the day. Anxiety is something that all of us experience throughout a lifetime. Some of us more years than others, some of us more days, more weeks, more months than others. I remember. I’ve shared this with many of you that for 15 years of my life, I lived with anxiety. I’ve done everything in my power to make sure that I learn to live a life anxiety-free. That is my goal to live a life that is free of the horrible feeling of anxiety where you feel that you are being shocked, you feel that you cannot see clearly, that hope is minimized by anxiety. I’m reflecting on this today because I have been, as you know I shared last week, if you listen to some of the podcasts from last week, listening to the audible book called “Radical Honesty” by Brad Blanton. This book I found to be quite interesting. I don’t agree with everything that he says but definitely agree with many of the points that he makes. But one of the biggest points, as a psychotherapist, he talks about is how many of the patients that see him are patients that have been lying or living a lie. Lying as a routine in their lives. By the way, we all lie. If you think that you don’t lie, I hate to tell you that is a lie. I’ve said this before. We all lie. We can strive to be less of a liar but many times “Little White Lies” are lies. He correlates the fact that when you are living more of a lie, you’re more of an anxious person. You’re going to have more anxiety. I was reflecting on this today because, as I mentioned last week, I am starting to date and I’ve been seeing one person in particular. I happen to connect with this person but one of the things that I was thinking is that I was feeling anxiety. I’m so in tune with that feeling because it’s a feeling that I don’t want to feel. I lived too many years with that feeling. So whenever I have a sign of anxiety and I am completely and very aware of that, I start questioning why. Why am I feeling this way? What is it now? I’m asking what lie am I saying that is leading me to this. I started being very, very open with this person about pretty much everything. Just being fully myself and I realized how that anxiety started getting less and less and it opened the opportunity of connection, especially being able to let the other person know that I am struggling because I don’t know how I can fit them into my crazy schedule. Being able to see somebody on a consistent basis because I haven’t been doing that for so long, that for me, is what was creating anxiety. Not sharing that with this person was even making the anxiety worse. So I started to open up and just say, “I want you to know that I am struggling with the fact that I have to fit you in right now. Like I’m talking to you and I couldn’t be doing what I normally do which is working on the many projects that I have but I really want to change that because I need to create more of a balance when it comes to that area of my life. The fact that I was able to open up and just say it, opened up more of a connection. So I’m inviting you, today, to really reflect on how your anxiety level is. If it is high, what are you hiding? What are you lying about? Could be to yourself. You can be lying to yourself or God is telling you and speaking with you about what is really happening now but you don’t want to see it. You lie to yourself or you’re lying to others because you are afraid to be judged. So let’s reflect, reset and reconnect.