It’s important to take time to take stock…to step back, take a few deep breaths and look at our lives and relationships and try to see them for what they are rather than what we imagine them to be.
Reality can become blurred by emotion; fact mistaken for fiction; lies confused with truth. What we want to believe is not always a true reflection of the actual situation. It’s a sad predicament when we are fooled by others but it’s far worse to fool ourselves.
We owe it to ourselves to guard our head and our heart. No-one else can experience our confusion. No-one else can feel our pain.
Anxiety, depression and so many other manifestations of mental ill-health can be traced back to a failure in self-protection.
And that is no reflection on the individual. Confronted by the need to appease, tortured by the desire to keep the peace and burdened by the expectations and insistence of others it can be an easy thing to drop our guard.
In attempting to be all things to all people we run the risk of being nothing to ourselves. We can give until there is nothing left.
There is strength and security in truth. The problem is that truth can also be painful and, for that reason, we find ways to avoid it.
Despite our best efforts, the truth remains.
Gary Bentley Counselling 