Guiding Principle: The truth is just the truth

“The truth is just the truth.”

This Guiding Principle reminds me that no matter how I interpret a situation, it remains exactly the same. It is the way it is, no matter what I make of it. There is no right and no wrong about it; it just is.

Because of the nature of our brain and mind, we are designed to judge and interpret everything, and to attach meaning and significance to those judgments and interpretations. I’ve learned that judgments like “good” and “bad,” questions like “What if this?” “What if that?” and expectations like “It should be like this” or “It should be like that” are just activities of my mind, which will take me out of the present and create problems for me.

When I interrupt my machinery and remind myself of the Guiding Principle that the truth is just the truth, it helps me to dissolve these past-based judgments and interpretations, to stop evaluating and predicting, and to recognize that what is, is just what is. It isn’t good or bad; it’s just the truth.

When I remind myself that the truth is just the truth, I interrupt my machinery, stop my brain from functioning top-down, and, through mindfulness, bring my brain into functioning bottom-up, which receives incoming data from the present. I experience what is happening in the moment, and I can respond based on what is actually occurring and, therefore, respond more authentically and appropriately.

Remembering that the truth is just the truth helps me in situations every day. For example, if a business deal doesn’t go the way I want it to, or if a problem comes up in a personal relationship, when I remember that what is, is just what is, instead of complaining about it, blaming others or myself, I can mindfully reflect on how I want to respond and I can respond in the most constructive way I can.

The Guiding Principle the truth is just the truth keeps me in the present and reminds me that what is, is just what is. When we simply state what the truth is, whatever bind our judgments and interpretations create will vanish.

An excerpt from my recent book, Your Mind Is What Your Brain Does for a Living, now available at Amazon.

photo credit: William Hook via photopin cc