Speak your truth

A few years ago, while working at my hospital job one morning the technician working with me at the time had a panic attack. As her immediate supervisor, several questions and comments came about in regards to the way I treated her. People suspected that I was the reason for her panic attack.

As you can imagine, the power of speculation is powerful. One person says something, it only takes another person to agree and then it becomes the truth. This is the pitfall of our society and culture.

When this incidence happened I had already gone through my coaching training program. Seeing how our perception skews our reality through a first-hand experience was quite fascinating to me. At the point, work had divided into two types of people: those who believe the truth when they see the truth, and those who believe the truth when they hear other people say it is true.

Initially, I responded to these rumors and speculations with anger and disbelieve. As I calmed myself down and thought about the sequence of the event and the technician’s overall energetic makeup on a daily basis. It suddenly made sense to me why she would have a panic attack, and why would people spread rumors by sharing their personal opinion at the time.

I believe that having an opinion about anything and everything in this world is not negative at all. How we respond and react to a strong opinion is what makes the opinion negative or not. An opinion is just an opinion. What we define and give rise to the meaning behind an opinion drives the energy of opinion itself to be positive or negative.

An opinion is based on judgment. And judgments may or may not be based on facts. What if having an opinion is just having an opinion? We stop labeling it as good or bad, true or false? Whether it is a political opinion or a Super Bowl HalfTime show?

If we can teach someone to express themselves in such a way with respect, dignity, and integrity, then perhaps we can move forward towards embracing each other’s differences and live in a harmonious way with equanimity.

At the end of the investigation, the human resources department had concluded that it was an isolated incident on an individual’s part of how the situation was perceived. What was said and how it was said were entirely misinterpreted, misrepresented and miscommunicated. However, earlier this year, I remember sitting in the supervisor’s office listening to the year-end evaluation. I remember walking out of his office feeling disappointed, sadden, and relieved.

I was disappointed I was criticized, judged, evaluated by the person who was supposed to be leading based his comments on opinions rather than facts and evidence. A leader inspires others in such a way one has a true desire to grow, learn and exceed.

It saddens me to hear the ways we as a society deal with disagreements. Instead of speaking up and confronting in a more loving way, we hide away our feelings from another person and hoping that person would just “get it”.

I was relieved because I remember walking out of the office and I spoke my truth by expressing how I felt I was mistreated during this evaluation. “I disagree with all the comments you have made here,” I told him calmly. I was also relieved because I was able to meet his negativity without feeling hurt, resentful, and angry. Sometimes after expressing your truth and someone else refuse to listen and be respectful of what you have to say, you just have to get up and leave.

Whenever you were given a choice in life, always speak your truth.