In our Autumn 2021 issue, our regular columnist Judith McAdam offered some words of wisdom on how to access and live our personal truths. Enjoy her feature below.
Find Your Own Truth
What is your perspective on life?
by Judith McAdam
I often think our own personal truths are generously intermingled with intuition and perspective. Here, I’m defining perspective as a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something: a point of view, perhaps, or learned behavioural patterns. Truth defines itself as that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality. But what is fact or reality as seen through your own eyes? Subjective truth refers to the way you as an individual see or experience the world around you. You might see things very differently from someone else.
Sometimes, when you look into the mirror, you only see yourself through generations of conditioning. For example, the way your mother reared children now becomes the way you rear yours. How you love and have sex could be based on religious beliefs, gender, or how many times you’ve had your heart broken in the past. Sometimes, more often than we think, life is filtered through generations of conditioning, old wounds and fears. For the most part, you are in unawareness of this and you create your reality based on this distorted reflection. You’re not the only one doing this, by the way – we all are, in varying degrees.
Often, we feel we have to justify ourselves and our actions to others. How we think and feel become a topic of conversation and sometimes judgement. Lack of self-worth and self-esteem lead us to living our lives the way others think we should. Suddenly what is our own personal ‘truth’ becomes irrelevant and unimportant in comparison to what’s ‘true’ to everyone else around you. Take for example staying in an unhappy relationship for the sake of others, or trying to suppress your sexual orientation. Perhaps you work for a family business that you feel bound to, or you come from a long line of doctors and are expected to follow suit.
Your intuition or your gut feelings will always lead you to your own personal truth. Your intuition is like your internal navigation system: when you listen to the directions, you will get to your destination every time. But I’m afraid that when you go against it you will end up in the rough. Becoming too fearful to listen to – let alone trust – your own inner guidance system is detrimental. It can lead to you relying entirely on what other people feel is best for you. Following someone else’s route can lead you to concentrate on their journey, not yours.
So, take this opportunity to reinvent yourself the way you want to. Ask yourself what is your particular take on life. How do you see it from your perspective? What is your own personal truth?
And in the words of Mary Oliver, ‘what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’
Enjoy,
J x
If you would like some help with deliberately creating the life of your dreams, take a look at my monthly workshops on my events page at judithmcadam.com
