Tag Archives: shame

Day 28: Do Just One Thing

Gum tree & footpath to Baldwin
 

Some days, from the moment I wake up until the time I go to sleep, are just plain bad.  No matter how much positive thinking I do, I can’t shake the negativity.  It’s like the 24-hr-cold of emotion.

Today was such a day.

I’m not telling you this to get sympathy.  I don’t expect you to care.  Honestly.  But I noticed that I deal with these kinds of days differently than I used to, and I hope that my transparency can be of some use. Continue reading

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Day 9: The 100% Honesty Project

Clay Chimenea

It has been a few days since my last Truth Experiment Update and I have oodles to share.   So far, the experience has been mostly positive, though at times, uncomfortable.  I’ll start with the positives.

Honesty and Family

Last Saturday was Cousin Night at Ben’s House.  Picture this: 5 cousins, 2 family friends and a black cat gathered around an outside patio table, lots of beer, a few cigarettes, grilled bratwurst and fire in a terracotta clay chimenea.

I am the first to arrive, followed by my cousin, Kamryn.  With a gleam in her eye, the first thing she says to me is  “Oooh! I have so many questions!!”  Naturally, my cousins  have been following the blog and find the Truth Experiment an opportune time to get me to “spill the dirt”.  I say okay. Continue reading

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Honesty in Action

As declared in my last post, I’ve decided to embark on a social experiment of 100% transparency, 100% self-acceptance and 0% shame.  Already it feels incredibly difficult.

As much as I hate to admit it, I am an approval whore.  I don’t necessarily care whether or not strangers approve of me–it’s the people I love and whose opinions I respect from whom I want acceptance.  It’s true I’d hate for something I post here to hurt or offend my loved ones.  But, if I dig really deep, I find the hardest part of being 100% transparent is that there’s some small part of me that feels unlovable in my entirety–exactly as I am.

You might not agree with me, but I think most people feel that way too.  Otherwise, why do we contruct social personas, personas that we become quite attached to?  And isn’t that what corporate advertising plays on–our fears that we’re not okay, that we’re not enough, exactly as we are? Continue reading

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The Start of Something Scary

After writing my last post, I thought “Oh god.  This blog has already become depressing”.  But that’s not what I want.

I don’t want my writing to be yet one more platform for people to feel bad about the world they live in.  Nor do I want this to become the narcissistic catharsis that so many other blogs become. So, I asked myself: “what do I want to come from this?”

These are the answers that came up:

I want to help people

I want people to feel better about their lives

I want them to feel more connected and less lost, confused, or lonely

I want people to know that it’s okay to be honest, real and open, and that their true selves are completely lovable

I want people to become more self-aware  so that they can make the kinds of choices that lead to richer and more joyful lives

I want to subject myself to a social experiment of 100% transparency, 100% self-acceptance and 0% shame, and document the entire thing on this blog.

Whew!  All of those statements feel incredibly true, and having put them down has somehow lifted a weight in my body that I hadn’t noticed was there.  That very last statement (the one about transparency) scares the bejeesus out of me (literally my arm hairs stood on end when I wrote it) which is a good sign that I absolutely should do it.

*sigh*

Here goes nothin’.

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