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Truth or Dare: Take a good look at yourself

 
Published Dec. 26, 2014

Remember when you were around 13 or 14 and you played the game Truth or Dare? The premise was to either tell the truth about a question you were asked or accept a dare. Many times the uncertainty of the dare was still a better choice than the truth.

Fearing the truth can paralyze us. Maybe we're afraid to face the truth, or we fear telling someone the truth because it could mean a never-the-same-again change. So what if we play the game a little differently? What if we face a truth and then dare to face ourselves?

As the end of the year turns the corner, it almost always symbolizes a new start, a clean slate. So instead of making one more resolution, examine who you are at this moment, and choose intentions designed to live your life with authenticity.

Truth: I want to be bad sometimes.

Dare: I want to call in sick, play hooky, hang out in the kitchen and eat frosting, whatever. We, as social beings, do the right thing. Or, at the very least, we aspire to. Dare to indulge in a little "bad" behavior. As long as your choices won't hurt anyone else, feel free to loosen up, eat that cookie or …

Truth: I say "yes" when I want to say "no."

Dare: Honor yourself. Dare to decline an invitation, or another commitment, in order to free your spirit. We can trap ourselves in endless cycles of pleasing others, neglecting the needs of our soul in favor of another's. And while selfish choices will stifle our growth, knowing who we are and what we need are the anchors for a spirit allowed to soar.

Truth: I sometimes crave drama.

Dare: It can make us feel alive, worth the effort, the subject of conversations. But this is ego talking, telling us silence is too heavy a load to carry. It is easier to participate in the drama, even if it may harm another, than it is to have another opinion, state another point of view or stop the madness. Dare to always do the right thing.

Truth: The things I loved yesterday I don't love today.

Dare: Change. Quite often it is unbelievably difficult to bear. We think the choices we made yesterday will never evolve, never ebb and flow into something else. We think we're supposed to always need this relationship, want this job, have the very same passions we did a decade ago. But we don't stay the same, not if we're really living. We find new experiences, expand our knowledge, compassion, love. Sam, the computer in the film Her, said it best: "The heart is not like a box that gets filled up; it expands in size the more you love."

Truth: I think I'm not enough.

Dare to think you are.

Truth: I am all there is.

Dare: You are. I am. All of us. Every being on this earth has a purpose, a role in keeping the balance, the status quo. Not one of us is without a part to play, love to give, a lesson to learn. When we come to understand that we all live together on this astoundingly beautiful Earth, we learn the value of working together for our one shared home. We learn that to seek and find support doesn't mean we've been weakened, it means we've been changed. We learn that to hurt each other means to say there is no value, not in your life or in mine.

We learn that giving ourselves to each other is not only the greatest love, and not only the biggest lesson, but also the part we are designed to play: that of the best person we can be. Dare to be that.

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Diana Reed is a yoga teacher, writer and co-owner of House of Light Yoga in Hernando County. Contact her at houseoflightyoga.net or (352) 610-1083.