And you see,
Even as I do the work that I do,
To show up here and speak so honestly with you,
There's a part of me that's terrified.
Every day,
Every week,
To show up and do this work,
I recognize that there is a part of me that is absolutely terrified,
For all the same imaginary reasons that we all have.
But what I've discovered in my own inquiry is that there's no other option.
Because I've seen the alternative.
I've seen the dark holes I can go down.
And it's like,
Which heart do I want?
Do I want the hard,
Dark hole of avoidance?
Or do I want the hard path of shining my light?
It's hard in both directions.
It's like the analogy with health.
Which hard do I want?
Do I want the hard that comes with being unhealthy?
Or do I want the hard that comes with being healthy?
And when you really take a moment to realize that this life is a canvas,
And you are in a constant creation process,
What do you want to create?
Nobody would consciously say,
I want to create an unhealthy life.
We create that because it's hard.
And we don't want to do the hard thing.
The first step is getting radically honest.
You know,
And I can't say that enough.
In one way,
We might hear that and be like,
Oh,
Okay,
Yeah,
I'll just be honest.
But in another way,
It's so much more deep than that.
Like there's a surface level,
Be honest with yourself.
And then there's a holy shit level of being honest with yourself.
Which flips your world upside down.
And it flips your world upside down to a degree of there's no other choice.
Where I have to be honest and let the outcome be the outcome.
You ever notice this in like relationships?
Where it gets to a point where it's like,
If I don't be honest,
I'm just going to lose my shit.
So I have to be honest.
It's kind of like that.
Yeah,
The radical self-honesty is similar to radical self-acceptance.
But radical self-acceptance I think can be twisted a little bit.
Where it's an avoidance of self-honesty.
Like I'm just going to accept myself as I am.
Which means I don't need to look at anything,
Everything's fine.
When real acceptance of yourself is to accept the deepest honesty within yourself.
Which a lot of people aren't even in touch with.
A lot of people spend so much time and energy distracting themselves.
Which is also why it's so scary to even go down that path.
Because they don't know what's there.
And there's so much that has been avoided for so long.
Which is so interesting because that's where your power is.
The things we bury have so much power and courage in them.
To catapult us through fear and limitation.
And we think they're ugly.
Because we think well if I brought that up people will think I'm not spiritual.
Let's not let that see the light of day.
That's not spiritual.
And then tactically speaking.
Like how to go about it.
This is something you have to find out on your own.
Or find somebody else who has done the thing that you want to do.
And get guidance.
I can't really say,
You know,
Take a leap.
In what direction and for what purpose.
Like for me,
Somebody says.
You know,
I want to start a business.
Do I just take a leap in trust?
What does that even mean?
But if you talk to someone who's been down that road.
Then they can say,
Oh well here are some things to consider.
Based on my experience.
And you know the thing about self-honesty.
And this might be an important thing to just end on.
Look at the nature of why we don't be honest.
Because this is what it all comes down to.
It all comes back to letting the truth be the truth.
Which is the nature of spirituality.
And there is the truth of the truth.
Which is what is honest inside of us.
The reason we don't want to let the truth be the truth.
Is because we don't know what's going to happen.
Do you see this?
In order to let the truth be the truth.
You have to let go of outcome.
The truth has to be so important.
That you're willing to let everything go.
And people are holding on to so much in this world.
Even other people.
That they can't imagine letting all of that go.
Therefore they can't be honest.
That is such a powerful illustration.
It's so on point.
It's so in your face.
And so the radical self-honesty.
Is essentially saying.
I'm going to be honest with myself no matter what.
I'm going to let go of everything else.
Because this is the most important thing.
And this is something you come to see.
Through your life.
If you're walking through your life.
With a ounce of curiosity.
About what's real and true.
Because as you pull on that thread.
You start to see what's real and true.
Is the only thing that matters.
And it's actually the only thing that you want.
It's the only thing you're here to connect with.
Everything else is just an illusion.
All the things we're holding on to.
Are all just illusions.
And there's lots of spiritual ways to say this.
Which are just words put together.
Pointing to something beyond the words.
And one way of saying that.
Is that this is just between you and God.
In our human lives.
We think there are all these other things.
All these other people.
No,
It's just you and God.
And that's where the spiritual inquiry takes you.
Where effectively you see the one thing that actually matters.
And it's the one thing that you want.
More than anything.
So you're willing to let go of everything else.
And again,
This can be expressed in so many ways.
And on so many different levels.
It's like you can't speak about it in a finite way.
But it all hinges on sincerity.
On what's deeply true inside of your human.
Which is so fascinating.
Because it's endless.
There's so much to explore about it.
