[Gmoney]

For me, honesty wasn't that big of a hurdle I had to learn how to overcome. I was taught to be honest at a very early age and saw pretty quickly that being honest had huge advantages. My problem was discerning between when to be honest and when to keep my mouth shut. What I mean is...I would often use honesty as a weapon. I knew nothing about compassion or empathy. My "brutal honesty" was equal to verbal abuse.

It was only after step work did I learn that honesty was merely a perception - a singular and personal point of view. Through the process of exposing and revealing what I believed to be "the truth," I found that honesty can very often have nothing to do with what is factual. As the literature tells us, "Everything we know about the truth is subject to revision." It's subject to revision because what we know about the truth can be very little - even though we may believe we're being totally truthful. For me, this is why open-mindedness and willingness go hand-in-hand with honesty. By exposing what it is that I think, believe, feel or concieve, I'm given an opportunity to learn, grow and accept reality.

We all don't come into recovery "brimming" with honesty, but through practice, we become better at telling on ourselves - whether I'm honest about a fear, an obsession, a resentment or pain - revealing my perceptions allows others to help me align my views with reality and my HP's will for me.