How honest are you to yourself and others?

Today I’ve been thinking about the second Yama – Satya or truthfulness.

Truth and honesty have always been very important to me. I was very passionate about being straightforward and honest to others. I hurt a lot of people on my quest for truth, I thought honesty is above all, and didn’t consider other people’s feelings.

I saw my straightforwardness as a virtue and considered lying and hypocrisy to be the worst possible characteristics one could have… until the day I realized I was being the biggest hypocrite and liar. I thought I was being honest to everyone, but I was actually lying to myself – big time!

Not that I did that intentionally, I wasn’t even aware of it. I was doing things I didn’t even like just because I told myself they were »normal«, I was so proud of my love for animals – but at the same time I was eating them and supporting their killing and torture. I talked a lot, but my actions didn’t reflect my words. I put a mask on, I told myself that’s who I was, and I completely denied and suppressed my true nature. I told myself so many lies about who I was that I didn’t know myself at all. The process of admitting all the lies, removing the masks, and getting to know my real self was extremely hard and painful in the beginning.

We all tell ourselves stories about who we are, we believe we are living our truth, but many times it’s a life others chose for us. When we start questioning everything we believed was true, it can be overwhelming, hard and scary, because we are letting go of everything familiar, and going into the unknown. Being honest to ourselves and others, and living our truth, is not easy, it takes a lot of courage and compassion. Ahimsa, non-violence, always comes before Satya, truthfulness. Yes, we should be honest, but we should also try not to be cruel or hurt others (our ourselves). Being kind and compassionate is the key.

Satya is not only about telling the truth, but also living our truth. Living my truth means I do my best to treat others the way I want to be treated, and to not do to others what I don’t want them to do to me. Living my truth means to be the change I want to see in the world, to speak up every time I see an injustice happening, instead of just turning away. My purpose in this life is to educate, spread awareness, to change lives, and telling the truth even if sometimes it’s unpleasant. It also means I need a creative and supportive working environment, I can’t do a job just for money, I need to do something that is not against my ethical and moral beliefs, something that allows me (and others) to grow.

Asato Maa Mantra leads us towards the truth:

Om Asato Maa Sad-Gamaya
Tamaso Maa Jyotir-Gamaya
Mrtyor-Maa Amrtam Gamaya

“Lead me from the unreal to the real
From darkness (ignorance) to light(knowledge)
From death to immortality”

 

What does living your truth mean to you? I’m really interested! Let me know in the comments below⬇️

 

Namaste,

Nush