Your Truth

We have all heard the sentence: ”I will speak the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God”

Tremendous in a courtroom, stunning in a movie, but what does that mean to you in your life?

These days a lot of verbiage is being used by people who we do not agree with, to let us know we have certain shortcomings….We get told we have cognitive dissonance, that we have been brain washed, even that we are conspiracy theorists, and more things I can not repeat on this platform.

This has given me a lot of amusement and it shows many people are not even willing to listen to others, to entertain a different view, to sometimes admit…to themselves, that they might just be mistaken.

I am not interested about who is right, that’s not the point. It is so much more about human behaviour and often the need to be right.

This is what has divided us, or more correctly, how we have separated ourselves from each other, since time began. This is what has split families and friends, this is what has even been the cause of major wars around the world…?

If only we could have more meaningful discussions without ‘knowing’ we are right, regardless of what the other person brings to the table.

The difference between a discussion and an argument is very simply: motive!

Does that not sometimes lead to winning the battle but losing the war?

All that being said, we all believe we are speaking the truth. We all think that we have gathered sufficient information from a variety of sources to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are telling the truth….and we are not willing to move an inch on those beliefs.

I personally do not care about being right, about who is right. I am more interested in having interesting fruitful discussions with friends and strangers alike and, at the very least, learn where they come from and why they believe what they believe.?

That does not mean I agree or feel the need to agree with them but, as long as we can walk away, having listened to each other, without name calling and ridicule, that’s all that matters to me.

So, having got that of my chest, what is your truth? I already know that some people will put me straight and tell me there is only one truth, which I am fully aware of.

I am talking about what you believe, your perceptions, nothing to do with religious or spiritual orientations.

When we believe something to be the truth, many of us have been proven wrong before. We can go back to a time when people?just knew?the earth was flat, no question about it. Were they telling the truth, absolutely; They had no awareness of any other way.

Galileo was found guilty of a ludicrous suggestion that the earth moved around the sun, and was kept under house arrest until his death, 11 years later…who told the truth?

These older examples merely show that telling the truth is not just a simple black and white matter. When there is only one way being told and no awareness of anything else, that is seen as the truth by the masses…how appropriate is that in these times, when we are dividing ourselves because we just will not agree or accept that there is even another side with some truth in it.

Then there is a very different question? How truthful are you to yourself?

How often have you dummed yourself down because you just wanted to fit in, or you felt your opinion didn’t matter? How often have you let things, or people happen in your life because you did not speak up and felt you did not even have a voice? How many people just blend in, those we sometimes call wall flowers, when they also matter, their truth also counts?

There is a lot more to this ‘truth thing’ and, if we could all become more compassionate, more understanding and show each other more respect, how much better would our lives be?

The late Stephen Covey talked about the need to first understand, before being understood. How much better a world we would live in? Fewer anxious moments, less bullying, fewer fights, fewer wars….

How much better will that be for our own health and wellbeing? Whatever your truth, it might not be the only one. Let us accept that and learn from each other.

Here is also the link to my video about this article: https://youtu.be/SDl6TIdVrlk

Jan Robberts