Each week in The Wisdom of Change blog series, I share the original artwork and unpack the insights and meaning behind one of the 44 cards in The Wisdom of Change oracle deck.
This week’s card is 20: Personal Truth
The Personal Truthcard holds so much power for me. The first sentence on the card wording continues to resonate so strongly in my life;
You cannot hide from yourself when you are looking for yourself.
It still amazes me how honest I need to get before I can create meaningful change in my behaviours and deep transformation in my life. Nothing less than a squirm inducingly eyeball to eyeball conversation with myself will suffice. I can tell myself comforting stories and administer myself a hundred great excuses to feel temporarily better, but sooner or later I have to admit to that I’m not getting the outcomes that I truly desire by not telling myself the truth.
It may have begun in earnest when I was encouraged to take 100% responsibility for my side of a less than optimal predicament I had found myself in. Previously I had thought that taking 50% responsibility for the situations I experienced was fair; that shouldering half the blame would be a reasonable expectation for me to carry. Just who I thought might take the other half, I’m not sure!
If I’m honest, I still find it comforting to try and place blame elsewhere when something in my life doesn’t go according to plan; an approach my dear husband reminds me is most unedifying… isn’t it great to have people in our lives who remind us to laugh at ourselves 😉
Recently I admitted to my health coach that I was seeking to blame someone or something for my stubborn weight loss. Owning the fact that I have a sneaky habit of seeking to blame is not something I am proud of, but it is liberating and illuminating. When I admit this penchant to myself without making other people wrong, I get to see that it’s not their fault after all. It’s irritating at first to have no thing or no one else to blame for a problem that I’ve not yet overcome, but it leads me to seek alternative ways of fixing the situation; a far more rewarding and successful approach.
On this occasion my health coach rewarded me with this beauty of an insight:
Blame = victim mentality.
Ah yes, of course! And in the spirit of knowing that ‘the way we do one thing is the way we do everything’ I set about scanning for other places in my life where I have been unwittingly behaving like a victim. It’s bittersweet to accept a series of honest truths, but as the insights landed I realised what I had been doing. It felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and as it turned out, the feeling was not metaphorical. The following morning, I woke up feeling amazing and my reward? I registered 2lbs lighter on the scales!
Inspired by this reminder of how personal change actually works, I have committed to digging deeper this week to find where else I might be trying to hide the truth from myself and make someone or something else wrong in the process.
I wonder where shining the light of personal truth might help you too?
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s connection to your inner wisdom.
As always, I’d love to hear your comments below.
If you’d like to learn more about The Wisdom of Change oracle deck you can find out more here.
If you'd like to find out more about a Wisdom of Change reading with Wendy please click here.