Episode 085: Acknowledging Reality

Recently, as I've tried to acknowledge my own reality, I've been surprised by the variety of responses I've received. Whether it's friends, family, people in recovery, people out of recovery, as I've acknowledged the reality around me, I've been told to not think about it, ignore it, stop blaming, stop playing the victim. Society really teaches us not to acknowledge the difficult things in our lives. We're told not to dwell on the negative and not to focus on the difficult things. Dr. Bessel A. van der Kolk tells us: "As long as you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself... The critical issues is allowing yourself to know what you know. That takes an enormous amount of courage." (Found in the Book: The Body Keeps The Score) Until we acknowledge our own reality - the past and the present, we can't heal or change it. In this episode I share four reasons why we don't acknowledgement things in our lives and the power acknowledgement gives us.

Homework: Identify two things in your life that you need to acknowledge that you have been avoiding. Write them down and share them with at least one person.