Secrets

Do you have secrets? Those of you reading this can likely say yes. From childhood we've always had those close friends that swore us to secrecy, and a wrath upon your soul if you told their secret! Thinking of these times brings a comfortable, warm and close feeling with the friendships we built and trusted in enough to share our secrets. We reminisce about these friendships with our fun secrets that we spent hours giggling about with positive, fond memories.

There are some secrets however, that do not bring such positive, fond memories. These secrets can (and usually do) create chaos in our lives. These secrets tend to be damaging and breeds distrust over the course of our lives. Those that have these kinds of secrets and who may be reading this post may be getting that uneasy heaviness in their stomachs all the way to their core through every fiber of their beings. As the years pass, the chaos increases, and likely it isn't always evident that there is a correlation between these secrets and increased chaos.

I had a beautiful moment in my first counseling session today. I have a client and we will call her, The Traveler. I have worked with The Traveler for about three months. Today, The Traveler told me she had disclosed her biggest and darkest secret to her significant other over the last week. When we talk about her biggest and darkest secret, it is the type that nightmares can be built on. The distrust this client has built over the years has been overreaching into all of her relationships. The Traveler felt it was necessary for her significant other to know everything so that she could understand The Traveler better with the mood shifts and the guarded behaviors. This would also lead to more empathy from The Traveler's significant other. The Traveler came away from this experience with another benefit; she was able to shrink the chaos that this burden was causing her.

The realization of this session is another way to help shrink the chaos. I implore anyone who is holding any damaging secrets inside to go to someone you trust, or seek counseling/therapy and release this cancer of the soul. Find a way through sharing these secrets to...shrink the chaos.