Truth and beauty concerns everyone. If you ask someone if you want to be beautiful or if you want the truth they will usually tell you “I want the truth” People may tell you that they want to hear the truth, but when they hear the truth, they often become upset. A wise man said years ago “to thine own self be true, and you cannot be false to anyone.” 

Oftentimes people see this as “Put yourself first.” The statement means, if you do not to lie to yourself, you will not be able to lie to others, and implying put when you are honest with yourself, you will be able to see the world clearer. 

There is nothing wrong with putting our own interests first. You may find more power when you are aware of the needs of others. This is not the needs of others though. What we are talking about the power of honesty and truth in our lives. 

The brain contains different sections for doing different functions. By having specific areas of the brain for a specific function, the brain becomes more efficient. This is another reason that we do not multitask very well. If one part lights up to do a task, the other part quiets down until that task is done. 

One part of your brain is a confabulator or story teller.  It is constantly making up a fantasy story of how the world works or what is going on. There is also component of your brain that works like a fact checker. When most of these parts of the brain are working in conjunction, they will help you make sense of the world, and keep you on track. If one these sections becomes damaged by accident, disease or a stroke, you viewpoint of the world becomes distorted. People who have become paralyzed from a stroke and are unable to walk, will come up with a fantasy of why they are not walking. When they are asked to walk they will come up with an excuse that they are cold, hot, or that they do not feel like walking. 

If the fantasy creator goes down and is not working, the person starts to see the world as a cold, dangerous, and frightening place, and becomes severely depressed. Your life is much happier and fulfilling when both the fact checker and the fantasy creator are working in conjunction with each other. 

A vision of the world is never 100% correct according to reality. This could be like a news show that spouts off facts, is incredibly boring, and no one wants to watch. This could also be like a news show that makes up stories that has nothing to do with reality. What news writers take facts and put them in an entertaining setting, the show will get many more viewers. When comedy is used in the news shows, they become #1. Having our own story is ok as long as we understand that our viewpoint of the world comes from having a storyteller and fact checker to create our world.

An example of this is when we tell our children that the tooth fairy will pay money for lost teeth. This makes it less painful and frightening for them to lose parts of their body while they are growing up. It also makes them wait in eager anticipation for that loss. As adults, we do the same thing for ourselves. We tell others that “we’ve earned these wrinkles.” or that we need to “die gracefully.” Because there is no other solution, we make up stories and confabulations to make it less painful for us to deal with our bodies falling apart. 

When we invest too much into our stories this can cause difficulties in our lives and stress, anguish and anxiety. These stories are things that we created, learned from our parents, or picked up at school as we were growing up. Some of the stories could be: 

1. I am too tall.
2. I am too small. 
3. I am too short.
4. No one loves me.
5. I am not that smart. 
6. I cannot read very well.
7. I don’t know how to do math.
8. I need to become a slave for a wealthy man, so that he can become wealthier. 
9. If I don’t get a job, I will become lazy.
10. Only successful people have lots money

Get out your sticky notes. Write ten stories and beliefs that you have created in life, and write each of them on a sticky note. Answer for each of these stories “

1. How important is the story to me?
2. How important is this story to my tribe?
3. Is this story of benefit/hindrance  to me?
4. Is this story a benefit/hindrance to my life?
5. What fact checking have I done to see if the story is really correct? 

A group of women came to a convention center for a makeover. One door said normal people, and the other door said beautiful people. Nine out of ten women that were entering through the doors chose the door that said normal. Only one out of ten people felt that they were beautiful. All of these people were beautiful, but their fantasy creator had told them that they were not. In the convention their friends and relatives had shown up to tell them how wonderful, amazing and beautiful each of them were. They all left out the door telling them that they were amazing.

Lies are stories we make up (or use our Fantasy Creator), to keep us out of trouble.. If you want to get the Truth then do not include punishment with the answer. "Who took the cookies out of the cookie jar?" When a punishment is expected.."Johnny took them." When no punishment is expected. " Jonny and I were hungry and could not wait for dinner."  Therefore if you wish to hear the truth then do not punish. If you wish to hear a lie (story) then threaten a punishment. If you are saying you wish to hear the truth, yet include a punishment, then you are lying to yourself.