While moving furniture this weekend we discovered a patch of damp hiding behind the sofa in the living room. It wasn’t their a few weeks ago, but even in a short time it seems to have had a big impact. So briefly my free time has been taken up with learning all I can about damp and currently I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s condensation and just pulling out the sofa will clear it. I’m aware that I’m probably wrong and I really need to get a professional in, but this week I’m allowing myself to believe the beautiful lie, ‘it’ll be fine’.
I always used to tell my children that it was important they were honest because I could only help if I knew what the problem was, the difficulty with this is that we have to be honest with ourselves in order to speak our truth to someone else. How often do we know, deep down that things are not right, but we ignore the warning signs because we don’t want to deal with the consequences of acknowledging them. In my experience the longer we try and ignore them in favour of the beautiful lie, the bigger the consequences when we are honest.
Sometimes the hardest and most important part of therapy is being able to acknowledge the difficult feelings and knowledge, learning to be honest with ourselves about what is going on (or has gone on) in our lives. Sometimes just being able to sit with the discomfort of this knowledge is enough to begin the process of change. Just acknowledging our own experience of reality allows us to take back some control and to begin to make different choices.
Facing these difficult truths and sitting with the discomfort is not always easy, which is why counselling can help by creating a safe space to explore what our truth really is. If you would benefit from time and space to explore your truth, I have space for new clients from January. Get in touch to arrange a free telephone consultation and see if I am the right therapist for you.
I’d love to know what changes you would make if you could let go of the beautiful lie and speak your truth. I’m off to find someone who can tell me about damp.
