Most people don’t struggle with action. They struggle with telling themselves the truth.
For a long time, that was me. I didn’t know how to speak or write about myself in a more authentic way. I realised that when that fog clears up (even a tiny bit), the road ahead becomes so much clearer.
If this resonates, next week inside Unthinking Space, my dear friend Dr. Adeola Enigbokan is running a free workshop on truth-telling. Adeola is a storyteller, cultural worker and coach who helps people shift their narratives of what is possible in their working lives.
I asked her to share a piece with you in this edition of the newsletter before the session.
Here’s Adeola:
A few months ago, sitting in a room in a brick apartment building built into the side of a mountain close to the clouds in an Andean city, I began to change my relationship to the truth. I decided that the truth would no longer be something to fear or avoid. Rather, making this change could become the foundation of my life and work, and not a peripheral, or surprising, or unwelcome interloper as get I on with the business of living.
It is a struggle to tell my whole truth. Sometimes this is because I don’t know what “my truth” is. Other times, it is because I am afraid of the consequences of knowing my truth. If I accept an emerging truth, I may have to make inconvenient changes in my life, my work or my relationships. Sometimes, it is because I am sure my truth will neither be heard nor believed. It can be deeply destabilizing to insist on more and more accurate representations of one’s own life.
What I have noticed is that by centering my uncertainty—the places in life and work where veracity fails and I can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is virtual, or what is a social or political fact and what is merely propaganda, or when I am unsure how I will be received—I am slowly finding another way of expressing myself, making decisions and relating more authentically to others. I get sustenance and guidance for truth-telling from people more fearless than I, especially writers who take on complex personal and political narratives.
In my upcoming free workshop with Unthinking Space on Tuesday March 31, I will share more about my experiments in truth telling and what I have learned from writers of contemporary classics about more authentic self-expression. You might voice a truth you too have struggled to tell. I hope you will be able to join me in this experiment!
If this resonated, join us live for How to Tell the Truth with Dr. Adeola Enigbokan.
Tuesday 31 March
5–6pm GMT
Free on Zoom
Here’s a reflection prompt for you this week:
What truth am I currently avoiding because it would require me to change?
Feel free to share your reflections with me by replying to this email or bring them to the workshop.
