Thursday, 28 August 2014

The Elephant in the Room

Note: This is part 4 of a series; please follow the links to the previous articles here:  Loved and Lost? So What?Emotions and Logic: The Eternal War and Habits and Ego: The Ultimate recipe for Disaster

I have read so many articles about relationships. How to get her/him, What to do/say on the first date, How to dress, How to speak, Where you should take her, The car, The dress code, The movie choice….. The list goes on and on, you don’t need me to list them, you've read them, I've read them, enough. What do all these suggestions make us? What is the Elephant in the room? We lie, to us to them, to win. Behave a certain way, make the right choice and you win basically. That is fine, if you are looking to manipulate someone, or if you are looking for a one night thing, be my guest that’s probably the way to go. What is bad though is that this behavior is acceptable when dating in general.

Let me get this straight. We are supposedly dating someone right? We do all those things, we lie, we make ourselves interesting etc etc we get into a relationship with them, and that’s winning? That sounds more like someone sold us still water and turns out its piss. Every lie we tell to ourselves and every move we make to win someone over that is not us, is cheating, and at some point in the relationship it's going to show.

Let me ask you this. How many times have you heard the “he/she wasn’t like this” or “he/she didn’t used to act like that”? That is not because people change (which they do), that is because people lie and when they show their true colors their partners don’t like what they see. They do not like that they don’t dress beautiful anymore, because they did it to win, they do not get how suddenly they don’t have things in common because they acted like it to win, they do not like how they don’t go anywhere anymore because they did it to win. People do a lot of crazy stuff to feel loved. The first thing they do is lie. Why?

Honesty exposes us:

When someone speaks the truth, they are exposed. Exposed to ridicule, anger and doubt. They are exposed to losing the game of acceptance by someone. Relationships are all about whether the other person accepts us, not as we are but as we show. If we show our true colors from the beginning we might be rejected, that’s why we have developed all those techniques of covering up our faults or our real self. The moment we are dishonest with ourselves, our beliefs, our actions, is the moment we create a domino effect on our relationships with people. Not only when dating but with our friends and family as well. We lie because it’s easy, no one will ridicule us if we agree with something, and we feel accepted.  Our date will not reject us because we are doing everything right; we say and do as taught, to win. The sad part is when we are exposed, we lie even more, because we don’t want to be exposed but accepted, so deny, deny, deny right? It's rare for someone to admit, "I was wrong and I am sorry"; especially when they break up or if they were lying about something. Instead they try to rationalize their actions.

Honesty hurts:

The main reason we hide the truth is because we might make someone feel bad and we just back off. It doesn’t make us bad people, but at the same time we are not helping anyone either. Shock and Awe is something vital, because after that effect and if the person really wants to change and grow they will eventually get it, even if it takes years. The moment we say the truth we planted a seed of doubt to that brain that will be triggered down the line. We might not be there when it does, but it will.

The point of love is to be exposed and accept that it might be hurtful. At least if honesty is a virtue we possess and strive towards, love can be honest as well. Honesty can ease the pain of the whys of break ups; it can grow the individual rather than destroy him/her; it can make us empathize more with our friends and family; it builds relationships rather than breaking them down. First though we need to be true; to us first, to the people around us, and to accept that we are going to fuck up but at least we stood up for what we believed and our time was not wasted. The only way to grow is to stop lying; stop lying about who we are. At the end of the day we all want people to love us for who we are, not for who we pretend to be.

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