Personal Integrity

The cruelest lies are often told in silence. ~Adlai Stevenson

The first obstacle to being happy is always yourself. Personal integrity is difficult to achieve, especially with the "blame everyone else" culture that is fostered in today's society. The hardest thing to do is to look in the mirror.

Honesty at it's base concept is the initial key to ensuring your well-being.

It all starts with two questions.
1. Am I truly happy?
2. Why not?

These questions seem simple, but they are not. People will do anything to lie to themselves about these two questions. They do this because of laziness, ignorance, guilt, or fear.

It is a proven fact that a person can talk themselves into anything. Suicide bombers have talked themselves into thinking that if they blow themselves up, they will be sent to Paradise to get their 72 virgins (why 72?) . Abused women have talked themselves into thinking that their marriage will eventually get better, or that there is no way out. Catholics talk themselves into thinking that their salvation is reclaimed through confession, regardless of their sins.

The path to bliss is started with honest answers to the two questions above.

The answer to the first should always be NO. I know that sounds negative, but no one has everything that they want in their lives. I am not talking about material things. Mother Teresa was probably more at peace than anyone in the world, but she had conflicts about her faith, and she always wanted to be able to do more than she was doing for the poor. So the first question is easy. If you say YES, you definitely have issues with your self-assessment and personal integrity.

The second question is the trick, because it has multiple layers.
1. Why am I not happy?
2. What is causing my unhappiness?
3. What can I do to change the cause of my unhappiness?

These are the questions that actually shape our society, because it is the reaction to these questions that drive people's behavior, and therefore their lives. It is the displacement of truth in these questions with excuses and lies to make life easier that causes sorrow and pain. The AGGRESSIVE pursuit of truth for these questions is the most difficult and profound change of behavior that any person can try to achieve. I will delve more into these questions in later posts.