honesty is...

I just started a new series in one of my educational groups at a local rehab. I had started down this road several years ago -- integrating action into the recovery process. It never ceases to amaze me how many people there are that look for wellness in passivity. Addicts, of course, looking for an easier, softer way are no exception.

Anyway, the jist of the series is to take recovery "tools" and give them legs and arms (specifically the clients legs and arms) to do something. This week I started with honesty. Not the honesty that is about telling the truth, but the honesty that makes you sweat - rigorous honesty. Honesty that demands action, and action that demands work and more work to even get a peak at what honesty really means.

I like to think of it this way -- honesty is ... the action of integrity. It is that part of us that works to maintain our values as we know them and want them to be. So many people's integrity is like a used coupon book - full of holes where all the most significant and important deals of a lifetime have been clipped. Short-term compromises lead to long term denials about who and what we are about. Many people spend the rest of their life trying to reconcile themselves with what they've become instead of just being honest.

I don't want to make it sound too easy. It's not -- and if done correctly it will cause you to sweat. That's the good part - sweating the compromise out and plugging those integrity holes with honest words and honest actions that support those words. You'll be surprised at how quickly priortizing your own integrity will move you to wellness.