The Best Policy

When you lie to someone, you are deceiving them into believing a version of reality that is not true. But the double-edged sword is the fact that you're blinding yourself a little each time you twist the truth.

Lying is almost always a power-play. You are twisting the nature of reality for the sake of your own conveniences, and like Karma, it will catch up to you, each lie another brick in the wall that is narcissism. And over time, your greatest virtue, whether you're cognizant of it or not, will be yourself. You have set your comfort as your own god, and you are willing to cheat someone else to help further that goal. And it's a skill you have honed -- perhaps you'd even consider yourself an adept.

And obviously this will make us neurotic. Imagine telling several lies throughout the day, to different people, and you're trying to spin a web so tight, that there's no way it could unravel. What mental effort! Perhaps telling the truth would be easier, and you'll be surprised at how forgiving people can be if you're honest and appropriately apologetic.

Oh, and the stress of moral dissonance! You know that lying is wrong, yet you do it anyway. perhaps you even tell yourself that it wasn't "all" wrong, or perhaps you think you had a "good" reason for lying. Perhaps... but you are a bit biased, aren't you? And over time we slowly we begin to believe our own lies, and the self-delusion continues.

Think about the compounded effect on your friends, family or even your significant other. All relationships built on a foundation of falsehood will one day it will all crash to the ground.



But what if you just broke the cycle right now? What if you pledged, to yourself, to be as authentic and honest as possible at all times? It will require mindfulness and an honest desire to be a better person, and it will change your entire life. I know because it was all true about me. Resolving to be as honest as possible has been one of the most life-changing things I've ever done. And I'm not perfect. Sometimes I catch myself lying (or about to lie) from sheer instinct, and sometimes, I need to reel in a statement with "But I'm not entirely sure, so don't quote me on it."

So yes, honesty really is the best policy.