Can the truth set you free?

“There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.”― Maya Angelou

     How many lies do we tell ourselves?  Really think about it.  That voice that is constantly chattering away has a way of spinning things around.  It comes up with some incredible lies.  It tells us things like, we aren’t good enough, someone else is better than we are, that there isn’t enough of something, that we will fail at what we are working on, that we caused something bad to happen, and on and on.  Sometimes the thought train of lies carries us off and before we know it we are starting to believe that those thoughts are true.  So how do we get off the train?
     Over the past few weeks I discussed the image of our ego being a cage and the authentic self as being within the cage.  There is a big question that can open the door of the cage and help us stop the train of lies.  When we ask ourselves if those thoughts are actually true we begin to crack the door open.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  Sometimes we get thoughts stuck in our head and we have all the evidence to prove that the thought is correct, so we don’t even question it.  There are facts that tell us that we don’t have enough money, the time isn’t right, we don’t have the education or we just aren’t able to do it.  Our brains pull up all kinds of evidence to prove that it is right.  It will remind you of the time in second grade when you tried something new and then everyone laughed when you failed.  It will bring up every time that someone was better.  It will tell you to look at your bank account to prove that you will never be able to have or do what you dream of.  But here is the big question.  Just because those facts are there, does it mean that what you are envisioning can’t happen?  Just because you failed in the past does it mean that you are destined to always fail?  Instead of allowing the past experiences to become the cage that keeps us stuck, asking ‘what have I learned from these experiences?’ pushes us to the truth that we can have and do something different in the future.  When we feel as if we have failed and the thought that ‘I can’t do this’ comes up, continuing to ask the question, ‘is that true’ digs down deeper and deeper into the actual truth.  The actual truth is that we are limitless.  The actual truth is that we are more then we realize.  As Marianne Williamson says in her book, A Return to Love, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”

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