Can Honesty Reduce Your Stress?

I used to get sick all the time in my earlier years.  Some of that was due to the climate and unclean environment around me that I could not control. The rest to be truly honest, it was due to stress.  What kind of stress that caused me to get sick so often? It was the stress of not being able to deal with confrontations, the stress of withholding, the stress of keeping my feelings inside and not able to express them, especially when those feelings were not so pleasant. And the most damaging of my health was the stress of not being  honest with myself … all because of the fear of letting others down and looking bad. Imagine how trapped and emotionally heavy I felt during that period. It took me inner awareness, an open mind, professional help, and a whole lot of prayers, meditations, and open communication to change that. (smiles)

I have so many examples and stories to share with you about how honesty has contributed to improving my health, my business, my relationships with my family, friends, and clients, but let’s save that for another time. Today is National Honesty Day and I am asking you to join me in celebrating it. Let’s spread the message to those around us and encourage them to use honesty as a tool to help build strong trusting relationships, with anyone, anywhere, and anytime. Most importantly, let’s be honest with ourselves about what we want, who we want, and where we want to go.

Here are some questions to help guide you. What is the current level of honesty in all of your relationships both professionally and personally? What about with yourself? Are you able to speak your truth and express yourself freely without any fear or emotional constraints?  When you are able to do so, you will be able to connect with others and earn their trust and respect because they are not left wondering. How about share those answers with 3 people today?

International communication expert, best-selling author, client and mentor of mine, STEVEN GAFFNEY invites us all to partake in this day below.

“The number one reason why people withhold the truth is because of fear. We are all liars! We all get scared in those moments. As soon as we realize that we have lied and how damaging that lie is to our relationships, we can begin to address the problem and correct it. Imagine the freedom we can experience by living an open and authentic life full of self-expression. How great would our professional and personal life be? Today, I challenge you to open yourself up to that opportunity! Reach out to someone that you have been dishonest with and tell them the truth and explain why.  You will be surprised on the transformation of that relationship.

~Steven Gaffney

So once again, happy National Honesty Day! Please share this post with as many people around you as you can. You can always visit Steven Gaffney’s website for more info on his products and services or come by and see me at our sanctuary. We have all of his honest communication books there since I do use the content to coach my clients as well as my team.  Until next time….Love, tu-anh