Truth About You

When you contact the truth about you, you recognize that a great deal that you have come to accept about you is false. You are not better or worse than others. You are not stupid or brilliant, or handsome, or ugly. Those are just judgments someone made that you accepted. None of them are true.
~ Paul Ferrini, I am the Door

Many times other peoples’ behavior toward us can give us the wrong impression of who we are. It begins from birth. Parents start to see certain signs of a personality in a baby and assign the child an attribute. Some parents may even tell a child what that attribute is (and other quirks they notice) as s/he grows. For example, stubborn, smart, sensitive, shy, outgoing, etc.

Then when we go to school, kids perceive each other from what they’ve learned in their home lives. They may tease, or form exclusive group friendships. Teachers evaluate each child’s performance, behavior, and learning ability. By the time we get to college age, we’ve been pretty much formed by the environment around us.

In addition, television and movie entertainment influence who we are, including television news and social media. We’re told we should “evolve” with the culture, believe and behave in certain ways that the latest trends and/or culture is moving toward.

Like I wrote in my post, Perception, some of us are also shaped by authorities in our churches.

In 2015, I wrote in my post, Just Think, how in my thirties I did a deep questioning of who I was and everything I’d ever been taught. From my personality, to religion, to culture, to world history, and beyond.

Except, I was still believing everything I was told by those in authority. You know, leadership. I trusted what they were doing and the things they told us. After all, a lot of people would have to be in on a deception if leaders were lying to us.

“If you aren’t asking, ‘What if it’s true?’ by now, you probably should.” ~ Anonymous

When a tragedy took place in October 2017, what authorities and media were telling us didn’t make sense to me. That’s when I finally did a deep questioning of everything we’d ever been told by leadership. Boy, did that ever take me down a rabbit hole. It was difficult to decipher and discern what was true and what wasn’t true. Personally, I think the confusion was purposely created.I learned things that were difficult to accept. I realized that those things I believed for so long also helped shape who I am, and I had to take a look at myself once again.

I’m still reevaluating everything. Have we been living in a matrix? Who am I really if not a part of some matrix? Where do I fit in? Do I have to fit in? Shouldn’t I love myself no matter if I’m accepted or not? Am I okay with this feeling of isolation, and if not, what can I do to help myself?

Though some of the things I learned were ugly, the truth really did set me free. Going back to the quote at the top, we’ve accepted things about ourselves that are not true. But I’d also add that we’ve accepted things about others that are not true as well.

Could you step out of your comfort zone and question everything you’ve ever known to be true as if you were starting from scratch? Even if it was scary? Because, what if it’s true?

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